The Promise (The 'Burg #5)(198)
She kept talking.
“When you see the waiter, can you order me a virgin Bellini, baby?”
Benny didn’t answer.
“Benny?” she called.
He didn’t move or speak. He just sat frozen in his chair, staring at his Frankie.
“Honey,” she whispered.
“Get over here right now,” he growled.
For once, his wife didn’t give him lip. She got up, rounded the table, he pushed back, and she sat right in his lap and tipped her face to his so he could take her mouth.
When he was done, he held her eyes but moved a hand to her flat belly where she was nurturing their baby.
Fuck.
Frankie.
“Happy?” she whispered.
“Absolutely.”
She skimmed her nose against the tip of his before she said quietly, “Love you, Benny Bianchi.”
Jesus, so f**king sweet.
“Love you too, Frankie Bianchi.”
He watched her eyes smile, felt her touch her lips to his, then she slid off his lap.
He was wiping her lip gloss from his mouth when he caught sight of Elena at the hostess station, smiling at them.
Having his own place, a place where people went to have good times, he knew that feeling. He knew it was why, generation after generation, you kept that close, worked your ass off to make it thrive—so you could give it to your family.
But she got the better parts and they came often. People coming to her restaurant for reasons just like this—to share the most important moments of their lives.
He lifted his chin to her, then looked back at his pregnant wife.
Ten minutes ago, she was crazy-beautiful.
Right then, right there, sitting across from him, carrying his baby, Benny knew without a doubt there was nothing in his life he could see or feel that would be more beautiful.
He would be wrong.
* * * * *
Ben slid his hand down Frankie’s side, in, and cupped her bare ass. He pulled her up so she could take his c**k deeper, and when she did, he felt her breath go heavy at his ear.
“Like that, baby?” he whispered in hers, thrusting slow, but firm and deep.
“Yes, Benny.”
“You want more, all you gotta do is tell me.”
She squeezed the leg she had wrapped around his thigh tighter, trailed her fingers up his spine, and glided her other hand through his hair as she took his c**k again and said on a soft breath, “I know, honey.”
Benny smelled his wife, felt her hair on his cheek, her wet pu**y clutch his cock, and listened to the noises she was making, even as he heard through the opened window the sounds of the surf pounding against the shore and his son and daughter shouting and giggling as they played in the sand with their grandparents.
And he had it again.
A moment in his life where he was in no doubt there would ever be another more beautiful.
This time, though, even as he experienced it and had no doubts about it, he still knew he would be proved wrong.
* * * * *
Ben walked into the huge-ass kitchen of the huge-ass house he’d bought for his family six years ago when Frankie popped out his second son and his third baby.
When he did, he stopped dead when he saw Frankie in her business suit and heels, standing with a pen in one hand, cell to her ear in the other, writing something on the calendar, saying into the phone, “Yeah. We can do that. We’re free.” She was silent a moment before she said, “Cool. What do you need us to bring?”
He heard her laugh and even a sound he liked hearing no matter how much he heard it, and he heard it a lot, didn’t take him out of his freeze.
“We can do that. Totally. See you then.” A pause before, “Yeah. You too. Later, Vi.”
She disconnected, looked to him, and smiled.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey, cara,” he said quietly, her smile and greeting finally pulling him out of the freeze.
“Vi and Cal are havin’ a barbeque. We’re goin’ down. Two weeks.”
“She pregnant again?” he asked, and that got him another smile.
“No.”
He went to the coffeepot asking, “You pregnant again?”
“Not that I know of.”
He poured himself a cup, muttering, “Just checking.”
“I have a meeting so you have to pick Alessandra up from dance. And there are birthday cards on the counter.” She tipped her head that way. “The kids have signed them and they’re stamped and addressed. Could you sign them and get them in the mail today?”
He turned, leaned h*ps against the counter, and replied, “Got it covered,” before taking a sip of coffee.
Her eyes went to the ceiling. “Are they tearin’ shit up?”
“Probably.”
“They gotta get ready for school.”
“Seein’ as that happens every day and I take them there, I know that, Frankie.”
She tilted her head to the side. “You’re standin’ there enjoyin’ a cup of coffee, Benny.”
“It looks like I’m enjoyin’ a cup of coffee. What I’m really doin’ is a favor to the teachers, lettin’ our hellions get some of their energy out before I drop ’em at school. That means they’ll wreak havoc here and only ’cause mayhem there.”
“Oh, that’s what you’re doin’,” she muttered, her lips curving.