Free Antony by Bethany-Kris Page A

time loving her and letting her learn her own body and the things she liked. Every slap of skin on skin sent him spinning higher. All of her little noises and sounds took him straight to a peak. As she came undone around him for a second time, he was already gone, too, emptying his come as deep as he could manage into her depths.
    “More,” he heard her order through the ringing in his ears.
    Yeah, a monster.
    She was his, though.

PART THREE: LA COSA NOSTRA

Chapter Nine
     
    May, 1986
     
    Antony dropped Cecelia to her feet on the floor. The large foyer was empty, much like the rest of the home.
    Well, a mansion was more like it.
    Cecelia did a little dance, throwing her arms up into the air as she shouted her joy. The sound bounced off the walls and echoed back. Antony just laughed.
    “Marcello big,” Cecelia said, turning to face her husband.
    “Yeah, Marcello big.”
    It’d taken two years for him to build their home. It damn near broke his bank to do it, but Antony found there was no house that did Cecelia justice. And God knew he fucking looked. Nothing fit her. Nothing was good enough for his little queen.
    So yeah, he built her the palace she wanted.
    They lived in a smaller home closer to her parents for the better part of two years while earth was broke, foundation was poured, and wings were built. Cecelia made three trips a week to Tuxedo Park just to check on the progress.
    She wanted big, so she had to wait for it.
    “You’ve got a lot of work to do, yet,” Antony warned.
    Cecelia spun a circle, beaming with happiness. “Don’t care.”
    “Cecelia …”
    “Don’t care, Antony.”
    “ Bella , the house is empty. We don’t even have a bed, yet.”
    “The walls are up and painted. The heating works. The lights are on. I don’t care, Antony.”
    Antony smiled, shaking his head. “You’re crazy.”
    “You are, too.”
    “Crazy in love with you.”
    “Precisely,” Cecelia agreed.
    She turned to face him again, lifting her brow in a suggestive manner that promised he was going to like what came next. Crooking a single finger at him, Cecelia’s grin grew wide.
    “Come here,” she demanded.
    Antony did as she wanted, bending down to capture her mouth with his.
    Pulling away from the kiss just before it could really get good, Cecelia cocked a brow. “There’s a pool, right?”
    “You know there is. You picked the goddamn tiles for it. Indoor and heated.”
    “You built me a house,” she whispered.
    “I did. Happy birthday, Tesoro .”
    Cecelia leaned up and bit his jaw teasingly. “Time to work on filling it, Antony.”
     
    • • •
     
    July, 1986
     
    Antony kept Cecelia’s hand tucked into his elbow as they walked their guests through the home. They’d yet to have a housewarming party, but Cecelia demanded on inviting a couple they considered to be mutual friends over for a dinner.
    He didn’t know Jean and Lissa all that well, but Cecelia apparently did. Lissa was a friend from the private high school Antony’s wife attended while Jean was the woman’s husband. They seemed nice enough at first, but that didn’t last long.
    He’d decided over that dinner the two in question weren’t really friends at all. The snarky comments and the constant need to compete with the things Cecelia and Antony had was annoying and petty.
    Who needed fucking friends when you had enemies like that?
    Cecelia brushed it all off, but Antony was taking inventory. The more comments that were made, the more hurt his wife seemed to be. Antony couldn’t stand to see Cecelia hurting over anything and certainly not a bunch of trivial, jealous friends .
    This was why Antony didn’t have friends, honestly. The ones he did have were connected to Cosa Nostra and had been in his life for longer than he cared to remember. Cecelia wanted normal friends. That, or she was somehow trying to disconnect a part of their life from la famiglia . Antony didn’t know how to break it to his sweet little wife, but that