FEDERICO

I wait for a moment until I know Elenora is not in hearing range before I turn on Gabriel.

"Don't fuck with me, Gabriel, why are you really here?"

He shakes his head, rubbing his chin before he responds. "I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"And how the hell did you know where to find me?"

"Rosetta."

My blood begins to boil and growl out in frustration.

"She's still keeping tabs on the Borelli's and with how often they come to visit, it isn't hard to figure out who or why they are visiting," Gabriel sighs, sitting back down.

"She's bent out of shape since you won't let her see the baby. But I don't blame you after all the truth that came out—none of us could believe it. The fact that she did what she did to her own sister, her family."

I scoff. "Are you fucking serious?"

He stands to face me. "Look, I fucked up when I was a kid, Rico. We all know that, but I love Angela. I never thought Rosetta would turn on me the way she did and I didn't know about the blackmail on Angela until after the fucking video at the wedding. I never would have let her be used the way she was."

He shoves his hands in his pockets and walks towards the large bay window in the living room.

"Rosetta assured me pictures of you with a stripper would be used to get back at you for going against her plan, which would humiliate the Borelli's as well. But after Serafina's birthday when everyone heard us arguing over Angela, Rosetta knew it would be an easy sell if she dubbed over Angela calling out your name instead of mine."

He shakes his head. "I had a sick feeling when I awoke and she wasn't next to me, the morning after your bachelor party. She played it off knowing Rosetta was listening when you woke up the next day, too."

"Well, it worked didn't it? Elenora was convinced it was me in the video," I state bitterly but then I exhale. "I'm sorry."

I run a hand through my hair. "I still have a hard time knowing Rosetta turned out to be the reason for everything from the beginning and how Angela could turn on me the way she did."

"The guilt of betraying you is destroying her, Rico. She...she hasn't been herself and I'm worried she will never forgive herself. But you know Rosetta is cunning and ruthless."

"I appreciate it, Gabriel," I look at him. "I hope you and Angela find the happiness you deserve with each other."

I notice the emotion on his face as his eyes shine, looking back at me. "So do I, and honestly that's the other reason why I'm here."

"What is it?"

He looks at me before he begins pacing. "Angela went into a treatment center a couple of months ago, after we...we lost another baby..."

I had no idea.

"Like I said she hasn't been herself, she's spiraling, drinking excessively...dealing with the guilt of what she did to you and then the grief of losing another baby. But she...she left and no one knows where she is or where she might have gone. I need your help, Rico. Please." He pleads with me.

"What treatment center was she in?" I grab my phone and begin texting Mickey while Gabriel gives me the name of the facility.

"I'll have a few men work on it and see what we can find," I tell him.

"Thank you, Rico. And again, I'm sorry for everything." He gives me his hand to shake. I take it and pull him into a hug.

"This goes without saying, Gabriel, but..." I lean away and grip onto his shoulder and look him in the eyes. "You turn against me again—family or not, I will not let it go."

He nods. "I didn't do it just for revenge, although it was the main reason, honestly. But, Renzo showed me the documents, pictures she has on some of our businesses. She's got leverage on everyone; I can't imagine what she has on you. Think about it, she's sat back for years, having everyone do everything; her hands are clean, cuz."

"She's fucking smart, no doubt, but I lived with her Gabriel. I know how she operates." My mind starts running with things I need to set in order. "Listen, I'll keep you posted on what we find with Angela. Steer clear of Rosetta if you can. I gotta go, I've kept Elenora waiting long enough."

After I walk him out, I find Mateo sleeping in our room. I head to my office and find Elenora in there, pumping with her mom and sister, she smiles when she sees me.

"Hurry go get changed, Federico," She scolds me, but I only focus on how beautiful she looks. The black velvet-like dress she's wearing is hanging down under her ribcage with her breasts inside the pumps. "Rico..." She smiles as she gestures with her eyes reminding me her mom and sister are in the room with us.

"Right, well, based on how you're dressed, should I dress in a suit?" I ask, trying to save face at the fact that I was ogling her chest in front of her family.

"Or just one of your sports jackets would be fine," She grins and I nod making my way back to the room, but I hear her laughing with her mom and sister.

"Men, they are simple creatures, figlias," Teresa comments and I can't disagree as I walk down the hallway. (daughters)

When I walk back in she stands and I take in the dress now that she's fixed it over herself. The back is open and dips low. She faces me and smiles. "You look so handsome, mio polpetta." (my meatball)

"And you are breath-taking, mia patatina." I bring her close to me and kiss her glossed lips. (my little potato)

She grins and wraps her arms around my shoulders. "Are you ready for your surprise, birthday boy?" .

"It doesn't seem like I have much of a choice," I mutter.

"There's the sour-pus, and ornery, Federico I know and love," Elenora chuckles as she holds my face and kisses me and I smile against her delicious lips.

"We don't even have to go out; I didn't think you'd want to be away from Mateo too long." I brush her curls back on the side of her face.

"I had it all planned out, that's why I've been pumping so much to get a good supply going for tonight." She turns and picks up her purse.

"The car is out front. Everyone was just waiting on you, Cinderella," She teases and I give her a look. She grins at me before she hugs and kisses her mom and sister goodbye.

I thank Teresa and Jackie for taking care of Mateo for us. They both wish me a happy birthday before I rush out after Elenora. I can see she's already near the front door but I catch up to her and shut the door as she opens it.

She laughs breathlessly as she turns in my arms. "I nearly twisted my ankle in these heels to beat you out the door." She pants as she looks at me.

"You should know better than to tease me, Elenora." I brush my lips against her throat and she angles away giving me more access and her rapid pulse beats against my lips.

"There will be time for this later," She tells me, even though she holds me against her body. "We need to go to make our dinner reservation."

"If that's the case then you need to loosen your grip on me, baby," I nip at her neck and she falls forward when I move away. I laugh as I catch her.

"Rude!" She hits my chest.

I straighten her up in my arms still laughing and walk out the door. "Ciccio, Mostro, I thought you guys were off tonight?"

"Nora asked us to come along tonight, not real romantic to have us tag along if you ask me," Mostro shrugs. "But she insisted."

She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses my cheek. "They're family."

"I don't mind staying behind and helping watch little Matty, though, it's been a while since I've seen him," Ciccio tells us as I climb in the car after Elenora.

She chuckles. "Ciccio, you spent most of the day with him yesterday when you came with me to run some errands."

Mostro snorts from the driver's seat and eyes Ciccio. "You're such a bitch, giving me shit for coming to see him last night, idiota." (idiot)

I shake my head at both of them, a small smile pulls at my lips.

Although, a part of me wonders if Mateo will confuse one of them for being his dad since they're both constantly asking to hold him. Ciccio turns the car radio on and soft music begins playing.

"Who are you murdering in that gorgeous dark mind of yours, love?" Elenora slides over and snuggles up next to me; she lays her head on my shoulder.

"What makes you say that?" I caress her thigh.

"The sinister gleam in your eye." She sighs as she moves closer. I smile at the fact that she's practically on my lap now and begins kissing my neck.

"Mmm, you smell so yummy, Federico." She purrs my name and the blood rushes down.

"I have a sinister gleam?" I try to focus on something else, but her tongue is leisurely licking my throat and she begins nipping at my ear; my pants begin to grow tight. I struggle to control my breathing that's beginning to accelerate.

"Baby?"

She hums in response and the vibrations on my throat seem to resonate straight to my dick. I know she felt the twitch it made against her leg when a throaty sexy laugh passes through her lips. She pecks my lips three times and starts to move off of me but I hold on to her.

"I like you right here, Elenora."

"Okay, but I won't be able to control myself." She leans in to kiss me and I cup her face pulling her closer.

Some time later, we hear a tapping at the window. I hadn't even realized we had stopped.

Elenora's eyes are hooded and seem unfocused as she looks around, looking incredibly sexy.

"Oh, we're here," She says giddily and moves off of me, adjusting her dress and then pulls out a mirror to reapply her lipstick. She looks over at me and pulls my face towards her and wipes at my mouth, chuckling. "Don't want people to know what we were up to now, do we?"

"Who gives a fuck?"

"I love that dirty mouth of yours."

"Let's skip dinner and I'll remind you just how dirty my mouth can get." I watch as her lips part.

"You always play dirty."

"It's more fun that way, mia patatina." I grab her hand kissing it before I open the door.

"Damn it!" Elenora mutters, shielding her face from the camera shutterings all around us. "Someone must have leaked that we were coming tonight."

"It's okay, amore, come on," I pull her next to my side and Mostro comes up on her other side shielding her while Ciccio makes room for us to move forward.

In our hurry, I didn't notice where we had pulled up but recognize the interior decor as soon as we walk in. It's the same restaurant I brought her to over a year ago.

The room erupts. "Surprise!"

I can't help laughing at Elenora who's bouncing on her toes. "Are you surprised?" She hugs me tight.

I scan the restaurant and several of my family are here, including Luca, Gabriel, Renzo, Serafina, Domani, my aunts with the exception of Rosetta, and my Uncles. Elenora's family is here as well and little Maya squeals in delight when she sees us.

"Very, but I feel bad that your mom and Jackie are home with Mateo instead of being here." I kiss her head. "Thank you, this is awesome. Great memories here." I wink at her.

"Believe it or not, my family fought over who stayed with Matty," She informs me.

"Oh, I see, so no one in your family wants to be here, awesome," I say dryly and she laughs, shoving me in a playful manner.

"Stop! You know what I mean, they all wanted to be here too, but if you had a choice between a handsome moody grown man or an adorable three week old baby, who would you choose?" She holds her hands out to her sides, gesturing that she's weighing her options.

"I rented the entire restaurant for the whole night with a live band to celebrate the wonderful day you graced the world with your greatness, Federico." She gestures to the room.

"You do too much, amore mio." (my love)

"For you? Never!" She pulls me in for a kiss.

"Okay, okay enough of that now; you have the rest of your lives to suck face, let me hug my favorite, not real cousin and wish him a happy birthday," Serafina tells us. "It's a damn good thing you never stopped looking for her, Rico otherwise, I would have found her and married her myself!" She jokes and pulls me into a hug.

I spend the next several minutes hugging, kissing faces and shaking hands with my family, friends and several of the men, who Elenora also invited.

It's obvious they feel out of place since we've never done anything like this before, but of course being who she is, Elenora makes it a point to talk to every single one of them and encourages them to mingle and dance.

"I'm glad you can look past what happened and offer me an invitation to your birthday, man." Luca hands me a drink and I set it down on the table next to me, hoping it's obvious why I won't drink anything he hands me again. His eyes linger on the drink before he sighs.

"I didn't invite you, Elenora did. She's more forgiving than I am."

"I saw you talking to Gabriel; you seemed to have forgiven him already," Luca counters.

"He sought me out, he came to me and offered his apologies," I spit out. "You've done shit!"

"I apologized that same night, Rico!" He argues just as angry. "I don't expect you to remember everything that happened that night, but I did apologize, and I told you Rosetta forced my hand. She was coming after my family."

"What about my family? Elenora is my family!" I shout and some of the guests look over at us including Elenora.

"Look, I didn't come to hinder your party. I will never forgive myself for betraying your trust and our friendship, Federico. I'm happy for you and for Elenora, truly I am. You deserve to be happy after...everything you've been through. Happy Birthday, cousin."

He holds the shot glass up and drinks it before setting it upside down next to my untouched drink and then proceeds to walk out of the restaurant.

I flinch before I relax against Elenora's hand on my face and bury my face in her neck and hair, breathing her in deeply. "I'm sorry I didn't mean for him to upset you. He seemed genuinely remorseful, so I thought your birthday would be a good ice breaker between you two."

"It's too soon, amore," I explain. "Gabriel and I, we were always more like frenemies than cousins, always competing against each other. But Luca...other than Domani, he was like a brother to me, always looked out for me until..."

She tightens her arms around me. "Come on, let's dance."

She leads us to the dance floor and we begin dancing to the soft music playing. Soon other people start joining in.

I bring her in closer. "I don't deserve you, mia patatina," I tell her quietly as everything that's happened since our wedding comes back to me.

"Of course you do," She tells me. "Our hearts are one, Federico. It's not you and me anymore, it's us, including our cute polpetino at home; who looks and already acts a lot like you. I only hope our other kids will have some of my personality." (Little meatball)

I smile at the thought of a little girl who will be the spitting image of her, one day.

"Scusi, may I have this dance?" Maya tugs on my jacket. (excuse me)

"Okay, missy, but remember he's coming home with me." Elenora pinches her nose.

"You know what they say, big sis, finders keepers!" Maya moves in and starts swaying along with me. Elenora feigns an offended scoff before she turns away, her long hair flying behind her.

After a couple of dances, I lead Maya back to her father. Tiziano smiles at his youngest daughter and then greets me. "Buon Compleanno, Federico." (Happy Birthday)

"Grazie." I shake his hand and he pulls me into a man hug. (Thank you)

"How's my little nipote?" (grandson)

"Good, growing every day. He's a strong eater," I report proudly.

Elenora wraps her arm around my waist. She smiles at her father before she turns to me. "Let's sit down, they're about to bring out the food."

The staff serves us the same meal we ate the night we came here, but I notice we're toward the back of the restaurant whereas everyone is in front or on the sides. "Why are we so far away from everyone?"

She shrugs, taking a sip of her water. "I have no idea."

She looks around as well. "This is really the best steak I've ever had." She closes her eyes as she eats a piece of my steak."

"Then why didn't you get your own?" I tease.

"Because," She smiles as she stabs another piece with her fork and brings it to her mouth. "What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours." Her lips move over it even slower and she smiles, chewing it.

"Fuck, that was hot." I reach over and grip the seat of her chair and pull, bringing her closer to me.

"This seems familiar..." She drags her nails over my thigh. Her fingers trail up and then over my growing erection but I grab her hand with lightning speed and shake my head at her. She pouts and pulls her hand away. She places her elbow on the table in a huff and knocks her phone and fork to the floor.

My phone chimes, grabbing my attention, especially when the message contains Angela's name in a text. I read over the information, along with some photos that were sent. But I jump when I feel hands spreading my thighs and look over and Elenora's not in her seat.

"Elenora!" I hiss and look around, but I'm thankful, no one's looking at me and when they do happen to catch my eye, they smile and raise their drinks in my direction. I do so in return but am focusing on the fact that she's undoing my belt followed by my zipper. "Elenora, this isn't a good idea."

"Just let it happen, Rico. I'm just returning the favor, amore mio," She chuckles. Her warm breath fans over my dick as she grabs me in her hands. (my love)

I created a monster.

A very sexy and seductive monster but still. I pull at my collar starting to sweat at the possibility someone will see or catch us. I grip my phone when her tongue slides down and back over me and then she flicks the tip. I can't help the groan that I make as she continues her torturous, pleasure inducing movements with her skilled tongue.

"Rico." I jump at the sound of my name followed by two hands falling on my shoulders. Gabriel and Renzo sit on either side of me. Elenora pauses and I breathe a sigh of relief thinking she'll stop, but it doesn't last long as she takes me fully in her mouth now.

I gasp. "Oh God."

"Oh, come on now, cuz, don't be like that. Gabriel told me, you two finally had a heart to heart," Renzo says.

"We did, didn't we cuz?" Gabriel nudges me. "It was a good talk."

"So good," I grit out, nodding as the vibrations from Elenora's chuckle on my dick make me hold my breath. I fight to keep my composure as she keeps going, sucking harder.

"Anyway, Renzo has some information you might find useful on Rosetta." I vaguely hear Gabriel state, but my mind is focused on the sinful things Elenora is doing under the table. Her hand cradles and massages my balls as I start seeing fucking stars.

"Holy shit!" I exclaim, hoping they think I'm enthusiastic about whatever the hell they are talking about.

"See, I told you that'd make him happy, Renzo," Gabriel looks over at his brother. "Great birthday present."

"The best!" I grunt as I pound the table with my fist and explode in her mouth. A few people look over at us, but I notice Gabriel and Renzo are also observing me as I'm breathing heavily.

"Fuck," I pant and smooth out my hair. She tucks me back in and pulls up my zipper and then cinches my belt. I flinch when she pats me afterward.

I know Renzo and Gabriel hear her chuckle.

"Damn, that was pretty entertaining, wasn't it bro?" Renzo states and Gabriel bursts out laughing. "We saw Nora sneak under the table and waited to come over to see how you'd handle it. Pretty impressive, cuz."

I glare at both of them. "Motherfuckers," I state irritatedly before I gulp down my water.

"You can come out now, Nora," Gabriel says. "I'll stand so people can't see you do the crawl of shame..."

"Who's ashamed?" She says, exhaling as she stands up and plops herself on my lap, making me groan. "I for one am not ashamed." She grabs my glass of water and finishes it off.

"Looks like you're going to have to work on him later, he seems more irritated than before," Renzo jokes.

"That's exactly what I plan on doing," She smiles before she leans in to kiss me.

"You're so crazy." I nuzzle against her neck.

"You love me."

"More than life."

She shakes her head. "Don't love me more than life, Rico. Love me as much as life." She rubs her nose against mine.

"We'll, leave you to it." Gabriel states, but I stop him, telling him I have information on Angela.

"Damn that was fast."

"It's not a lot but it's something, and it looks like she's still here in New York so that's good," I tell him as I forward the information to his phone.

"Thanks cuz, mind if we cut out early?"

"Not at all," I tell him. "If I hear anything else, I'll let you know."

"Thanks Rico. And Happy Birthday again." Gabriel claps my shoulder as does Renzo.

"Great party Nora, thanks for inviting us."

"Thanks for coming." She smiles at them and we watch them say a few goodbye's to some of the family.

"You're a good man, Federico."

"You make me want to be better," I tell her as I nuzzle her, feeling content.

"Are you sure you don't want to go home to Matty?" I ask her.

"Matty?" She raises an eyebrow at me, knowing I don't use the nickname.

"It fits him and I miss him," I tell her truthfully and she smiles.

"Well, I had this whole night planned out to stay at a hotel, but if you want to go home we can. We can still have sexy time at home."

"Sexy time?" I grin at her.

She nods.

"But you still have a few weeks before your check up."

"There are other things you can do to me..." She stands, pulling me up. "But first, let's dance some more, birthday boy."

I pull her flush against me and she gasps at the abrupt contact, but her eyes are on my lips, as she licks hers. "I'm going to make you mine all over again, Elenora," I tell her before I whisk her away onto the dance floor.

***