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Finally! I have a new chapter up! I am SO sorry that it has been so long. It has been beyond crazy, but I have missed updating and I've missing writing Natalie and Giovanni's story. Again, SO sorry that it took so long, but here you go. This is a short chapter but I will update again soon and it will be longer. This has some adult themes or whatever you call them, so don't let any minds be corrupted by me! Love you guys! Thanks so much. Love, Hannah. XX:)
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CHAPTER 25: Natalie lay in Giovanni's arms, a sated smile on her face, and her body sheened with the layer of wet sweat of passion. Her head was on Giovanni's chest and their legs tangled together as he traced small patterns up and down her spine, enjoying the feel of her soft and silky smooth under his fingertips. Natalie's eyes were heavy and were staring to droop when Giovanni began to speak, his words low and his lips brushing her hair as he spoke.
"My father was the boss originally. He was not a good man and he did a lot of bad things. He was ruthless. I am sure a lot of people who have experienced me think of me that way but they would eat their words if they had met my father. I cannot remember a time when he didn't beat me or my mother." He said softly, his voice laced with old and painful memories.
Natalie's heart squeezed painfully as she imagined the terrified little boy with dark hair and beautiful blue eyes filled with pain and fear.
She closed her eyes against the burn of tears that stung her eyes and instead listened to the steady thump of Giovanni's heart, assuring herself that he was here and he was fine.
"I loved my mother. Mia mamma," he whispered and Natalie hummed as she rubbed small patterns on the skin of his chest. "She always tried to protect me which sometimes meant taking my beatings for me or...worse." He muttered darkly.
"Some days after my beatings I would just wish to die. Just wish to give up, but even though with everything my madre was so positive. Always happy and always smiling. I could see the pain in her eyes though. She always tried to make me smile and happy even as my father was training me so that I could take his position as the boss when he became too old." He said and Natalie's jaw tightened as she knew that something bad was going to be coming. She wasn't sure she was ready, because Giovanni's pain was her pain.
"I had lived with the beatings but it was that one night that changed everything for me." Giovanni said as the black wave of memories rushed up at him.
This time, he let himself be lost in the wave of memories...
I bolted into a seating position as a scream sliced through the dark empty silence of midnight. That was mamma's scream. Oh, no. Papa must be mad. I knew I shouldn't get up, but worry was a dark heavy weight in my chest with the memory of the terror that sounded in mamma's scream. She always told me never to come out of my room. I remember the words like they are a prayer because of how often I am told. Mamma's words play in my mind. "My little Giovanni, I know you are a big strong boy that always wants to do good, but sometimes you have to let things go. No matter what you hear at nighttime-I want you to always stay in your room. Be quiet and never ever leave your room. Promise your madre." My mamma had always said to me.
Not always in those exact words, but close. I knew that I should stay in bed, but before I even realized what was happening my train blankets were thrown off of me as I stepped down from the tall height of my bed and tip toed to the bedroom door, my ears straining for any sound of my mamma. Fear and worry was a battle in my stomach that had bile burning the back of my throat. Mamma would do this for me, I told myself as I creaked open my bedroom door.
You are one of the strongest boys I have ever know of Giovanni and no matter what you will only continue to be strong. It was almost as if mamma was whispering the words she had spoken to me on my 8th birthday all over again. It gave me a little bit more incentive to slowly make my way down the seemingly never ending hallways to my parent's bedroom.
I hadn't been in my parent's bedroom in a long time because papa had always told me to never go in and I didn't want to defy his orders because if I did I knew that I would get a beating and I already got enough of those and didn't need any more of them.
As I approached, the shouting voices, though muffled, became clearer as I came to a stop outside of their slightly opened bedroom door.
"I promise you, Giancarlo! The baby is yours!" My madre shouted helplessly as papa backhanded her again.
I could already see welts and bruises forming on her skin due to the sleeveless silk nightgown she wore, her long raven hair flowing down her back in large beautiful curls.
"You whore! Who did you sleep with? Vito? Mario? I do not want a bastard in this home! I married a slut! I will be a laughing stock because you couldn't keep your legs shut!" he screamed as he kicked mamma in the ribs, spittle spraying from his lips.
Mamma gasped and wheezed on the floor as papa walked over to the fireplace and grabbed an iron poker.
Mamma's eyes met mine as he walked over to her and they widened in horror as she saw that I was watching even as acceptance brightened them.
I was frozen.
Still.
Fear stealing every bit of oxygen from my lungs as my father, my papa walked over to her and bent down to grip her long locks in his bruised fist so that he could raise her face to his own.
"I will not be humiliated because of my whore wife and I certainly will not let you birth that fucking child. You are a fucking whore and you are not worth the trouble." He spat.
I wanted to move. So badly, I wanted to run in and scream at him to stop, to don't, but it was as if weights of horror and petrification had bolted me to the floor.
My mouth dried as papa lifted the iron fireplace poker above his head.
Mamma's eyes met mine, her eyes sad and filled with tears in her beautiful bruised and bloody face.
'I love you' she mouthed just as my papa brought the poker down onto her head and began bashing her face in.
Blood splattered the walls with the kiss of cruelty and malice, spraying over papa's face and white cotton dress shirt as he brought down the poker over and over again. I didn't scream as he did it.
He did it over and over and over again...
Giovanni shuddered as the memories assailed him and then dimmed to a low hum in the back of his mind. Natalie's tears, warm, and her cheek soft against his chest grounded him even as anger gripped him at the evil that had been his father.
Giovanni continued numbly, holding Natalie close to him.
She grounded him, kept him in the here and now and he was afraid the memories would take him away if he didn't.
"My father had a paternity test done before he hid the body. My mother had been telling the truth the entire time. When he learned of the results his face didn't show an ounce of remorse or guilt. He just shrugged and said 'How would I have known? I didn't want another shit child anyways.' I just shut down after that even as my father taught me what I would do once I took his place. I figured that if something that bad could happen to my mom that there was nothing good out there and I might as well be bad." He said and looked down towards Natalie.
He only then realized how tight he was gripping her and saw that she was holding back a wince of pain.
His eyes widened with horror and he moved away from her as if she had a contagious deadly disease.
He jumped out of the bed and began pacing, completely, wonderfully naked.
Natalie resisted the urge to rub at her arms and hips where he had gripped her. He ran his hand through his hair and gripped in tight fists as he paced back and forth muttering curse words in Italian.
Natalie sighed and tried not to let her eyes stray to other parts of him that had her breathless as she got onto her knees on the bed and held the sheet to cover her naked chest.
The next time he was passing her she shot out her hand and grabbed it within her own and pulled him to her. He came easily, his eyes hazy with guilt.
Natalie rubbed her hands up his arms until her face was cupping his strong jaw. His stubble tickled her palm just as the tingles did as their skin touched.
She wondered at how he could make her feel with one simple touch, then made her gaze meet his own.
She rubbed her thumbs along his cheekbones and felt him calm with her touch.
"We have just made love and I already hurt you. I am just like my father." He growled and Natalie shook her head as she continued to smooth the frown lines from his handsome face.
"You are nothing like your father. That, I can promise you. That, I know with the deepest parts of my heart. You are good, Giovanni Amaro. You may have done bad things, but I know that you are good." She said and he closed his eyes as a wave of emotion rushed him with Natalie's words.
She smoothed back his hair from the sharp lines of his face and smiled slowly, a beautiful smile that had Giovanni's breath catching in his chest.
"I love you and I promise you that you are good. You are a good, crazy, passionate, possessive, amazing man." She said and began to pepper kisses along his face.
Giovani felt his lips twitch even as Natalie's caressed his nose, cheeks, forehead, eyelids, and finally his lips.
He suddenly gripped her hips causing her to let out a yelp of shock. He opened his eyes to look into her beautiful green gaze, sparkling with love, mischief, and lust.
He slowly gripped the sheet she held to her chest so that it fell down from in between them so they were touching skin to skin. He inhaled deeply and she moaned softly.
He pulled her hard and fast against him and she gasped, then giggled.
"You forgot one thing, mi amour..." he said as he kissed a path down her cheeks to her lips.
"And what is that?" she murmured breathlessly.
"Horny." He grinned and threw her onto the bed to cover her in kisses, feeling as if the weight of the world was from his shoulders.
For now, at least...
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Okay! All done. I hope you liked it. I enjoyed this chapter because you get to know Giovanni a little better and why he is the way he is. Anyways, again I am sorry it took so long for me to update but it was kind of crazy! I will post soon. Thanks so much for reading and keep tuned! Follow. Share. Comment. Vote. XX, love, Hannah. <3