La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours (22 page)

"I'm sorry, but what was a good idea?" I ask, confused. 

"First, I want you to know I don't usually do this." She looks down at her feet then back up.
Oh fuck, she is coming onto me
. "I just heard what E said to you about Harper, and well, I thought maybe you would want some company tonight." She bites her bottom lip looking at me through her lashes. 

"I'm flattered
, and you are a gorgeous girl, but I've long from given up on my girl." I just lay it out there so there is no confusion.

"Do you know why Harper didn't date much in school?" She crosses her arms in front of her. 

"I'm sure you are going to tell me it had something to do with her brothers, but–"

"You don't understand, they are good boys, but when it comes to thei
r sister they don't mess around," she interrupts me, I'm not sure if she is just warning me or trying to get me to give up. 

"She's a grown woman now, and I have to say that I am very glad that they protected her when she was teenager."
I raise one eyebrow, picturing a younger Harper, and all the boys drooling at what they can't have. I have to admit that I like the fact that only one snuck by their radar. 

"I'm around if you change your mind, my name is Amanda." She sticks o
ut her hand for me to shake it. I do respectfully, before saying goodnight and turning around to walk to my hotel. 

I sit on the bed
and look around at the small outdated room. It's only 9:00 p.m. and I am still wide awake. I need to get some sleep so I can figure out how I'm going to get my girl back. I take a hot shower and lie down. Tossing and turning all night, I finally get up at 5:00 a.m. My mind has been a whirlwind all night thinking of how I can just get her alone for a second. I know if I can do that, I can get her to hear me out. 

Chapter 25

I'm driving very slowly on the gravel ro
ad that leads to Harper's home. I don't have a plan. I just knew that I couldn't stay in the little hotel room another second. Driving slowly, I'm looking around when I see a woman on a horse, straight ahead. 

I
'd know that hair anywhere. It's Harper. She is not going fast, but as she moves with ease on the large animal my heart aches to see her. I stop the car, not wanting her to see me. I think if she sees my car she will take off. I leave it on the side of the road and take off at a slow jog after her. She is probably a good quarter of a mile ahead of me when she turns onto a dirt road and is out of my sight. 

I pick up my pace
, reaching the dirt road just in time to see her go over a small hill. This is not a road for cars. It looks like there are a lot of four-wheeler tracks, horse tracks, and what seems like trails in the very timbered area. Sweat is pouring down my face. I have tennis shoes on at least, but am wearing jeans. I pull my t-shirt over my head and use it to wipe the sweat from my eyes as I continue to follow her. What must have been close to five miles later, I come up over a hill and don't see her. Frantic, I take off again in a fast run.  I'm exhausted from lack of sleep, and realize that I have not eaten a single thing since I left Chicago. 

I run for another half mile still seeing no sign of her, my heart is beating out of my chest with panic that I lost her
. Just when I think I cannot run for even another second, I reach a clearing with a grassy circle in the middle of the timber. I drop to my knees in the tall grass feeling light headed. My vision blurry, I see Harper's horse grazing in the middle of the opening. 

"Harper," I try to
yell, but all that comes out is a soft scratchy cry. A tunnel forms, and at the end of the dark tunnel is my girl running toward me before everything goes black. 

Disoriented and feeling like I'm in a dream
, I hear her sweet voice. "Liam, wake up." It is like an angel speaking to me. My eyes flutter open to see that beautiful face with concern in those big brown eyes. Her fingers are stroking my hair as my head lies in her lap. If it wasn't for the pounding headache, I would have thought I was in heaven. 

"You need to drink."
She is holding a bottle of water and is lifting my head. She pours some cold water in my mouth. It feels so good going down my throat. "You are very dehydrated, Liam." Her voice is distant, like she is trying not to care. "What are you doing? Why are you here?" She avoids my eyes at all cost, but I sit up and grab her face in my hands making her look at me. She fights me, but even in my weakened state I am not going to give up. 

"Harper, she is not my wife. She is not anything to me." I am able to get out before she
gets to her feet. My voice still hoarse, I grab the water bottle she drops and take a long drink. Harper is walking back to her horse. I take off after her, my legs burning. 

"Please, Petal, please just listen to me
, please."  This makes her stop abruptly. She turns on her heels to face me. She is wearing short, shorts and a camisole tank top. I just want to grab her and kiss her all over, make her feel what I know she still feels. 

"I don't want to hear about your shower time with your ex-girlfriend or whoever the fuck she is."  Tears are streaming down her face
, and every single one is like a stab in my heart. 

"No, nothing ha
ppened, never touched the bitch!" I yell to get my point across. 

"Why was she in your bathroom?
You know what, I don't want to know. It's not like you will tell me anything anyway." She turns away, putting one foot in the stirrup, and with ease, she mounts her horse. Desperate and not able to help it, I drop to my knees in the grass and sob like a baby thinking she is about to take off. There is no way I could keep up with her this time. 

Her horse stops beside me and I se
e her hand in front of my face; wiping the tears away, I look up.  She is still on her horse and is offering me a hand.

"I'm
not going to leave you here like this," she says, her tear stained cheeks are rosy and I can see the pain in her eyes. Her eyes are tired and swollen, like she has been crying a lot. I take her hand that is cool to the touch as I get to my feet.  She scoots up on the saddle making room for me.  Mounting the horse behind her, I instantly wrap my arms around her tiny waist. 

"Liam, do
n't mistake this for anything. I will take you to your car and then that is it." She places her hands on mine and pulls them away from her. I feel the spark I always feel when she touches me.  Her back is up against my chest, and there is no escaping the contact of her bare shoulders touching me. Her hair smells so sweet as it blows around me. She makes a soft clicking noise with her tongue and nudges the horse gently with her heels summoning it to move. 

"Harper, I
am going to tell you everything," I whisper, my mouth is close to her ear. She doesn't say a word as she guides the horse with ease onto the trail. 

"My m
other left us when I was a baby," I start with my story and hope and pray that she doesn't stop me from telling it. "All I ever knew was that she was gone, I didn't know if she was alive or not.   He would never talk about her, he would never even tell me about her."

"Liam, why are you telling me this now?"
Harper interrupts me abruptly. I can hear the sorrow in her voice as it cracks. "You fucking broke my heart, and now you are going to tell me your life story when it doesn't matter anymore." Her voice is choked, and I can tell she is crying. I want to wrap my arms around her, kiss her, make her feel better, but first I need to tell her everything.

"Chelsea was
a girlfriend, a few years ago. She was only after money though. She was, I mean, she
is
a con artist. She sold a horrible story about me to a national tabloid. My father freaked and paid her to go away. She came back to blackmail my family."

"What?"
She pulls on the reins making the horse stop, and turns her whole body so she can see my face. Tears are still rolling down her cheeks, but it is mixed with confusion. "Blackmail your family with what?"

"My grandparents moved to the Uni
ted States when my father was seventeen. They moved here because of my father. His childhood friend and love of his life Teresa Morani was to marry another man." I start to tell the story I just learned two days ago. 

"He was devastated by the news. H
e would have done something to get himself killed. You see, the man she was to marry was Giovanni Esposito."  Harper's eyes are as big as quarters when I say the name most have heard of. 

She hops of
f the horse before I can say another word. I jump down and continue now that I have her attention.

"She was forced to marry him. A
s you seem to understand by the look on your face, what Giovanni wants, he gets. My mother was a very beautiful girl, and even though Giovanni was much older than her, he wanted a trophy wife."

"Your mother is married to the head of the Italian mafia?" Harper holds up her hand, shaking her head like she can't believe what I am telling her. 

"Yes." I nod. It is still unbelievable to me also. "He is a horrible man, and my mother had no choice.  She had to marry him, he threatened her family.  She only had her mother left five years later after their marriage, when her mother died she took off in the middle of the night. Having nothing to lose, she tried to escape Giovanni. She made it to Chicago and reunited with my father. She was here two years before Giovanni's brother found her. From what my father knew, Leo Esposito took her in the middle of the night. At least that is what he thought. Leo would have been the only one of the Espositos to leave us alive. She left a small note saying that now that she had something to lose, meaning me, she had to go back to protect me. Giovanni would have had her bastard son killed without a second thought." Harper gasps, putting her hand over her mouth. 

"How did Chelsea find all this out?"
she asks.

"I don't know, I don't care.
All I could think about after I found out she answered my phone was getting to you." I rub my hands through my hair, to keep from touching her. I'm not sure she is ready and I don't want to push her.

"How
come she was in your apartment while you were in the shower?" Her eyes well up with tears again. The mix of emotions she is going through right now is killing me.

"She's a con
artist, she talked her way in. I swear..." I stop frustration.

"Yo
u said her name, I heard you." Now the tears are falling again. 

"
I know, I heard her voice..." My hands go to my sides, slapping my thighs. I know it sounds bad, I don't know how to get her to believe me.

She turns back to her horse
which is now nuzzling her arm. Petting its long sleek neck she is silent, but I can hear her mind whirring. 

"Please say something,
" I plead.

"I love you, Liam.
I love you so much that I can't imagine my life without you," she admits, her voice cracked from emotion. 

"Oh
God, Harper." I know I have hurt her badly, and I don't know what to say, I don't know how to express what I am feeling right now. As if she doesn't know what else to do, she turns to me and rests her forehead on my chest. My heart feels like it is beating a mile a minute from this slight contact. My lips go instantly to the top of her head. 

"When I saw you in the clearing and then you went down, my heart stopped." She is crying again. "I ran to you, and as you were laying there unconscious, your head in my lap
, I knew that I was going to forgive you. But it just hurt so bad, I can't even explain how much those words that Chelsea spoke hurt." She moves her head to my shoulder, my shirt getting wet instantly from her tears. She fists the material of my t-shirt keeping her head buried in my neck. 

"They were not true, none of them
." I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight against me.  "It's okay, Petal, please stop crying," I whisper into her ear, kissing the shell over and over. 

"I was going to forgive you even if it was t
rue." She sobs harder into me. "What's wrong with that, what does that say about me? I'm weak, I have no pride..."

"I think you knew it wasn't true
, deep down I think you knew." I pull her away from me so I can see her face. Even all red and swollen from the crying, she is still amazingly breathtaking. I cup her face in my hands so she is forced to look me in the eyes.  "You're the strongest person I know, I also know that if it had been true you would not have forgiven me." I can't wait another second, I have to taste her, have to feel her lips on mine. I brush my lips against hers and she doesn't pull away.  She moans, and that moan is what does me in. I am instantly hard as her lips collide with mine.  She is frantic and so am I. Her lips open and my tongue slides in her mouth. Oh, she tastes so fucking good. I've never craved anything like I've craved her. 

My hands brush down her shoulders, taking with them the thi
n straps of her camisole tank. She is not wearing a bra, she doesn't need to. Her perfect breasts are firm and just the right size for my hands. She arches into me as my lips travel down her throat to her breasts, taking one erect nipple into my mouth. Lightly biting, I feel her body tremble under my hands. 

"Liam, please," s
he whispers, as my hand goes to her ass. I fall to my knees in front of her. I feel my erection pulsing against my jeans aching to be free, aching to be inside her. But first I have to taste her. Kissing my way down her flat stomach, I lick and suck on her soft skin as I go. I will never get tired of this woman. Everything about her makes me want her more. I unbutton her shorts and pull them down. 

She is wearing lacy boy short panties.
She holds onto my shoulders as I help her out of her shorts.  Next I pull down on her panties. She puts one hand on the saddle of her horse, steadying herself as I lift one leg and drape it over my shoulder, exposing her pussy to me. I can smell her arousal and I quickly insert my middle finger inside her.  She is warm and oh so wet, making my cock throb even more.  

"Petal
, you are so fucking wet for me." I blow gently on her clit, making the leg she is standing on buckle. I grab her waist to steady her before I dive in. I run my tongue around her clit, before moving down to taste her sweetness. Nothing will ever taste sweeter to me than this. Her hips move grinding herself into my face, I hear small moans coming from her lips. I look up at her and she is staring down at me, her free hand in my hair pushing me against her more. 

I feel like I'm about to come in my jean
s, between the lust in her eyes and the way she is desperate for me, and well, just because it is her. 

"Come for me
, Petal, I want your orgasm." The words do her in because she arches her back and screams out my name. What I don't plan is for the scream to scare the horse. The horse moves, making her lose what little balance she has. At least she falls forward and not backwards. Now she is straddling my lap on a dirt trail in the middle of the timber. Her naked body is pressed to mine as I hold her against me for dear life. 

"I need you baby,
I need you inside me now." She fists my hair and says the words before her lips slam into mine. I reach between us undoing my button and pulling down the zipper then grab my t-shirt from the back and pull it over my head tossing it to the side. I don't have a condom, and I don't care. I hope she doesn't remember it either.  I don't care if I get her pregnant. In fact, I would love it. These are thoughts that have never crossed my mind ever, until Harper. I have never stuck my dick in a girl without protection. Not even for a second. 

I'm free and in her bef
ore she has a chance to object. It won't be taking me long anyway, because there is no way I'm stopping.