Bound By Blood: Anthology by Cora Reilly

 

Gianna

Iwatched Matteo stalk away.

“Luca?” Aria asked hesitantly. “Don’t you want to feel the baby?”

Luca tore his eyes away from the spot where Matteo had been not too long ago and walked up to her, touching her cheek. “Not now, Love. Let me have a word with Matteo to straighten things out.”

“No fighting,” she warned.

He kissed her mouth and left.

Lily joined us on the terrace, wrapped in a thick bathrobe which couldn’t cover up her huge belly anymore. Hers was even bigger than mine and I already felt like a wrecking ball. “What a way to wake up.”

“Yeah, it’s a miracle that they don’t fight more often considering all the alpha male dominance they have going on,” I muttered.

Aria laughed but it was strained.

Lily touched my shoulder but I took her hand and rested it against my stomach. She smiled brightly. “Oh! That’s wonderful. You’re baking a little hothead.” She caught herself and glanced between Aria and me.

I gave her a small smile.

“You know that Matteo wants to raise this baby as his own, right?” Aria said suddenly.

Lily gave her a look but I could tell that they had talked about it before. The thought that they had discussed Matteo and me before didn’t sit well with me.

I stared down at my belly that I was still cradling. Ignoring a painful truth was something I was surprisingly good at.

“I know,” I admitted. “I can see it when he looks at my belly.” When he’d felt Peanut kick for the very first time, the wistful look in his eyes had almost killed me.

“Oh,” Aria said. She searched my face. “But you never talked about it?”

I shook my head. I’d always considered myself brave but this time I was a despicable coward. Too scared of what Matteo would say.

She frowned. I could see a hint of disapproval on Aria’s face but she didn’t say anything. Sometimes I wished she’d rage and scream at me. Maybe I needed it.

“Why?” Lily asked gently.

“I don’t know…” It wasn’t the truth but I was a coward. I was terrified that Matteo’s longing would mirror a feeling deep inside of me I didn’t want to allow.

“Is it because you don’t want the baby?” Lily prodded.

Aria was oddly quiet and she wasn’t looking at me. She and Luca had always wanted a third kid and they had stopped trying because they were supposed to adopt my kid. Hell, she’d been happier about my pregnancy than me in these last few months. If I wanted to keep the child now, how would she feel? They’d prepared a nursery for my child. She’d hidden from the public for months to keep up our charade. All for me and Matteo and Peanut. Could I take that from her?

This was a mess, one I wasn’t sure I could get out of.

Aria met my gaze. “You want the child as well, Gianna.”

I stared at her. “No… I mean… I don’t know.”

She touched my chest over my heart. “You have four weeks, maybe less, decide if you really still want to be nothing but an aunt for this child. Listen to your heart, Gianna, and then make your decision, be sure of it. Please, if you know deep down that you want this child, then say it before it’s born. Don’t let me and Luca act like its parents, only to take that from us. Because, of course, we would always give you your baby back but it would rip our hearts out.” She stepped back, turned and left.

As I watched her, I started crying. Lily wrapped her arms around me sideways because our bellies didn’t allow anything else, kissing my cheek. “You already made up your mind, didn’t you?”

I closed my eyes and nodded, my hand touching my belly. “I’m always making such a mess of things. That’s the only thing I’m good at.”

“Shhh. Aria and Luca will understand. They will be happy for you and Matteo.”

“But they want another kid. They stopped trying because of me. And now they don’t get my baby. They wasted almost a year because of me.”

“They will understand, Gianna. Aria is a mother. She knows what it does to a woman to feel your baby move inside you. This is your baby. It always was.” I buried my face in Lily’s neck and she stroked my hair. “And Aria will be pregnant in no time, I’m sure. The last two she got pregnant without really trying and when you got pregnant, she’d only stopped taking the pill two months before. Next year she’ll have her own baby.”

She pulled back with a soft smile. “Now go talk to Matteo.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Lily.”

My pulse sped up as I walked through the house. It took me a while to find Matteo and only because I heard his voice in passing. I knocked at the office door then stepped in. Luca and Matteo were talking. “I need to talk to you.”

Luca set down his glass and moved toward me. I thought he’d leave but he stopped close to me, his eyes hard. “Don’t mess this up.”

I didn’t get a chance for a comeback because he left. I finally faced Matteo and my heart constricted at the look in his eyes. I walked toward him and grabbed his hand, pressing it to my belly. “I want this baby,” he said before I could say anything.

I smiled. “I know.”

Matteo frowned. “Okay.” He hesitated. “I can take most of the responsibility but…”

“Don’t be stupid,” I muttered. “We will raise this baby together. I want it too…”

Open shock reflected on his face. “You do?”

I pursed my lips. “Am I that much of a heartless bitch that it seems impossible that I would want our baby?”

Matteo smiled teasingly and the knot in my stomach loosened. “I wouldn’t put it quite like that.”

I punched his abs. He groaned then grinned and moved his palm over my belly. His cheek was starting to swell, making his smile look grotesque. “It’s kicking again.”

“Peanut.”

Matteo’s brows snapped together.

“That’s what I’ve been calling it for a few weeks now because I didn’t want to think of the baby as “it” anymore.”

“Peanut,” Matteo said with a small smile. “So we’re doing this? Becoming parents?”

I leaned against him, for once not minding that my belly got in the way. “It seems so.”

“Good.”

“Good,” I whispered, then I sighed. “I’m scared.”

Matteo cupped my face. “I’m at your side. I’ll protect you and the baby.”

“I know but what if I’m a horrible mother? I never wanted kids, and at first, I didn’t even want this baby. Hell, I still don’t want most of the things expected of a mother. I don’t want to lose myself completely, or stop caring about how I look. What if I can’t be a good mother? What if I don’t love it enough? Or what if it knows somehow that I didn’t want it at first?”

“We will both love the baby. And we will be good parents. Maybe we won’t ever win a parents of the year award but we’ll do our best and that’s all that matters.”

“We cuss too much and we’re both too temperamental.”

“We are. And the kid will know the best cuss words in kindergarten, so who gives a fuck?”

“The teachers might,” I said with a laugh.

“Then they can come to me and talk to me about their concerns,” Matteo said with his shark-grin.

“Intimidating teachers… we definitely won’t be voted parents of the year.”

“I knew being in the mob would be useful one day.”

I rolled my eyes. “In addition to the assload of money you make, and the sick thrill you get when people shit their pants because of who you are.”

“In addition to that, yes,” Matteo said with a wink. “Not to mention all the fun torture I get to take part in.”

I sighed deeply. “You are a crazy fucker.” I kissed him softly. “But you are my crazy fucker and I love you.”

“And I love you, my bitchy redhead.”

I narrowed my eyes slightly but then I decided that he had every right to call me bitch. I was a bitch. He was a crazy fucker. So what?

Matteo

A heavy weight had lifted off my chest since we decided to keep the baby. Of course, our last minute change of mind meant a lot of organizing. We hadn’t bought anything for the kid yet, and hadn’t read up on anything about raising a newborn.

Gianna knew enough about the birth process, due to necessity, but that was it. The only thing I knew was that these little creatures produced more poo, pee, and snot than a body of that size should.

“You can have all of the things we bought. We won’t need them anytime soon,” Aria said when she led me into the nursery in their mansion in New York. Everything was ready for a child. The walls were decorated with images of giraffes and lions, and a plush lion head carpet spread out under the crib.

Gianna had run off to the bathroom to pee again so it was only me and Aria. Her bladder was pretty much only a funnel. What entered her mouth wanted out not long after.

Aria motioned at the baby crib. “You’ll need all these things.”

I moved to her side. “Are you sure? You and Luca want a third poo machine.”

Aria set the crib mobile, also featuring jungle animals, in motion. “We do, but we can buy new stuff then, or just take whatever you won’t need by then.” The wistfulness in her voice sent an unpleasant twinge through my chest.

“Aria,” I said quietly, causing her to look up at me. “I never said it to you, but I’ll forever be grateful for what you and Luca would have done for us, what you did for us. We had difficult times but you are the best sister-in-law I can imagine, and the best wife my brother could ever dream of.”

Aria touched my forearm with a small smile. “We’re family. We’ll stick together till the bitter end. Luca and I will always be there for you. If you need help with the little one, you can call us any time.”

I nodded, because I had no doubt about it. “Luca’s been pissy lately, and I just want to make sure you know Gianna and I are sorry for taking so long to make up our minds.”

Aria shook her head. “Don’t be. I’m glad you chose to keep your baby. It won’t always be easy and there might be moments of regret, but ultimately you’ll see it’s the right decision.”

Gianna chose that moment to waddle into the room. She had only three weeks until her due date and we really needed to hurry up getting stuff done. The last few days we’d spent coming to terms with our decision. “I hope Peanut is as annoyed by our current co-living situation as I am and decides to vacate her room a few days early.”

“You still have plenty to buy and get done before you can welcome her into your life. Have you made the apartment child safe?”

Gianna sighed. “No. We haven’t even decided which guest room to turn into her nursery.”

“The one closer to your bedroom, trust me.”

“All right,” Gianna said with a shrug, then scanned the furniture. “Are you really sure—”

“Yes, Matteo and I discussed the matter and you’ll take everything with you. So maybe you should start organizing transport and helping hands.”

“Who knew she could be such a dictator,” I said with a grin.

Aria rolled her eyes in a very Gianna-like fashion.

“She’s married to your brother and has him wrapped around her finger…”

“True.”

Aria shook her head. “Do I need to organize everything?”

“No,” I said and picked up my cell phone, calling a few soldiers who were strong enough to help us carry.

Since our decision to keep the baby, Gianna and I hadn’t bothered hiding anymore and had walked out in the open in New York. Of course, word about her pregnancy had spread like wildfire and by now every man in the Famiglia knew, their wives and children as well, of course. It was the gossip of the year.

Later that day, every piece of baby furniture had found its way into the guest bedroom on the second floor of our penthouse. The room had been Gianna’s workout room but we’d carried all the equipment downstairs into the other guestroom. My soldiers had refrained from asking questions, only congratulated Gianna and me on our first child, as if there were more to come. Everyone had waited with bated breath for us to create offspring. In our circles, a married couple had to have kids as a sort of rite of passage.

“Put the crib there,” Gianna instructed. I did as she asked with Romero’s help. I’d sent the other men home because it could take hours until Gianna had made up her mind about where to put the furniture.

“Are you sure Liliana can spare you this long?” I asked.

Romero smiled, wiping sweat off his face. “Don’t worry. She urged me to help you. She’s so excited that she and Gianna will have babies at the same time.”

Gianna sent me a panicked look. I knew her worst nightmare was sinking into the mom-life swamp and never getting out.

Eventually, Gianna was happy with the room and Romero left.

Gianna cradled her belly, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe we’ll really welcome one of these monsters into our home.”

“It’ll be our monster.”

Gianna laughed. “That only means it’ll be even more monstrous judging by our character traits.”

I wrapped an arm around her. “And you’ll have Liliana and Aria for help.”

“I’m worried Lily expects me to only do mom stuff. I still want to work out, and I want to teach again eventually. I don’t want to be surrounded only by moms who expect me to do only mom things, and worst, talk about poo.”

“I trust in your sunny personality to drive most of them away quickly.”

Gianna narrowed her eyes at me. “Oh shut up.”

“That’s what I mean, babe.” I rubbed her waist and kissed her neck. “How about a little one-on-one gymnastics?”

Gianna shrugged. “All right, but you’ll have to do all the work. I’m feeling like a beached whale today.”

I chuckled. “You know just what to say to make me horny.”

Gianna grabbed me through my pants and rubbed. My cock reacted as it always did.

She smiled smugly. “Doesn’t take much to make you horny.”

I lifted her into my arms, causing her to let out a startled shriek. I would never say it aloud but carrying Gianna had become more difficult these last few weeks, but if it meant I’d get to bury myself in her pussy, I’d even take a broken back.

That night, Gianna twisted and turned until I was sure she was troubled by labor pains already. “Gianna, are you okay?”

She sighed. “I can’t sleep.”

She rolled around to me and I moved closer to her in the dark. “What is it? Do you regret our decision?” It was a thought that troubled me a lot.

“No,” she said firmly. “I want to raise Peanut with our values. No offense to your brother but he can be an old-fashioned, protective brute. I want to be the one to determine its future. I want to give it the best life it can have in our world.”

“We want to give it the best life.”

“We, of course,” Gianna whispered. “We never discussed what kind of values we’d want to teach a kid because we never planned on becoming parents but soon the life of a little human is in our hands… and I’m just wondering if we’re even on the same page.”

“And what page is that?” I asked.

Gianna hesitated. I could tell how much this meant to her just by how long it took her to find the right words. “If it’s a girl I want her to be free to choose what she wants to do with her life. I want her to go to college, to get a job she loves. I want her to find the love of her life and not be forced into an arranged marriage. I want her to have sex before her wedding night, and the choice not to marry at all…”

I put a finger against her mouth, silencing her. “I get what you mean. And I agree with you, even if I’d prefer if she’d never date any guys at all.”

I could practically hear Gianna roll her eyes at me. I kissed her. “I’ll do everything in my power to give our child every possible freedom if it’s a girl. I swear it. You’ll get your wish.”

“But?” Gianna asked quietly.

I cupped her neck. “If it’s a boy, he needs to follow in my footsteps. He must become a Made Man and part of the Famiglia, not just because our men wouldn’t understand it if I spared my own son and not theirs, but also because I want him to be part of the business.”

Gianna swallowed. “So a girl gets freedom and a boy will be bound to the Famiglia.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Okay.”

“You sure you won’t fight me every step of the way the moment you find out it’s a boy?”

Gianna sighed. “I’ll hate it, hate it so much, but I’ll figure out a way to accept it, as long as you accept it if our girl has a normal teenage life with boys and parties.”

“Deal.”

I’d never cared much about gender, but right this moment I hoped Peanut was a girl because for me to accept a girl having her freedom would be far easier than Gianna accepting a boy becoming a murderous mobster.