<h4>Chapter 176: Chapter 176 : Cohesion</h4>


    Ba.


    “F*ck,” Alessandro said over breakfast while munching apple slices in his highchair.


    I kept bottle-feeding Dahlia, mentally counting backwards from twenty and trying not to panic over Alessandro’s new obsession. I wished my father was there to help. He’d know how to take care of the swearing.


    James came into the nursery, then. Alessandro’s face lit up and he held out chubby little arms. “F*ck!” he insisted.


    “I think he wants you to pick him up,” I muttered.


    “Of course that’s what it means,” James sighed. He lifted the sticky little boy into his arms and looked around. “Where’s La?”


    “Allegra invited her to stay at a hotelst night. I know she said she won’t leave us until after the trial, but if Allegra has to leave, and La wants to go with her...” I said.


    James groaned and went to the Pack ’n y to get wet wipes. He started cleaning Alessandro off.


    “F*ck,” Alessandro grumped with a pout when James went to clean his face.


    “I think he doesn’t want you wiping his face,” I tranted.


    “Well, that’s too bad,” James said and gently patted Alessandro’s mouth and cheeks. “As for La... f-God, I don’t even know where we’d start trying to rece her.”


    “You don’t have to think about that,” La said softly, entering the room.


    James and I both jumped. “La!”


    La went over and plucked Alessandro from James, stripping off the toddler’s food-slopped clothing and plugging him into another set. “I’m staying,” La exined. “Even after the trial.”


    “Are you... are you sure?” I asked her, surprised.


    “Yes,” La said. “Yes, I’m sure.”


    “And... where... what about... Allegra?” I almost forgot I was feeding Dahlia until she gave a displeased grunt. I got the nipple of the bottle back into her mouth.


    “Allegra’s gone,” La whispered. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she wiped it away.


    “Gone?” James echoed. “Gone where?”


    La shook her head and kept caring for Alessandro, getting him down on the floor nket so he could y with some of his toys.


    James opened his mouth to say something else, but I shook my head.


    “You two should probably go talk about the trial,” La said,ing over to me and taking Dahlia.


    I realized she just needed some time alone with the kids. “We’ll go do that.” I patted her back in what I hoped she would see as a gesture of support.


    La’s shoulders drooped, but she nodded. “Thank you.”


    I walked over and took James’s hand, leading him from the nursery.


    “I don’t understand. What’s going on?” James asked.


    “La is heartbroken. We need to give her some time,” I said, tugging James down the hall and into the bedroom we’d been sharing.


    “You don’t suppose they broke up?” James gaped.


    I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. I just know La is hurting, and will need our support, when she’s ready.”


    James rubbed the back of his neck and sat down on the bed. “This, too?”


    “Life doesn’t stop just because we want it to, James,” I informed him.


    “I know. I know.” Jamesid back on the bed, his jeans-d legs hanging over the side.


    Iid down next to him, staring up at the ceiling.


    “I’m tired of making promises to you I can’t deliver on,” James said softly, taking my hand.


    “Then don’t,” I whispered, thinking exactly the same thing he was. How on earth were we going to keep Alessandro?


    “The witness...” James began, then stopped with a swallow.


    “Yes?” I asked.


    James sighed. “The witness is in the wind. The PI can’t find her. She thinks someone scared her off.”


    “Allegra,” I groaned.


    “Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone from the other side of the table,” James muttered. “Allegra would have scared her INTO testifying.”


    “Who could be scarier than Allegra that this witness would just disappear?” I asked.


    James shook his head. “Money talks.”


    “And lots of money sings and dances. Yes, I know.” I mmed my fist down on the mattress in frustration.


    James took the hand he was holding and brought it to his lips. “Baby, we can’t lose hope. We have to be together on this, to the end.”


    I nodded, but tears were leaking out of my eyes. “I just can’t... I can’t... I can’t anymore. I can’t deal with all that keeps getting thrown my way—our way.”


    James swallowed. “There’s nothing I can tell you right now to make this better that wouldn’t be a lie.”


    “I know. I just... I want things to get better, James. I want things to BE better,” I said.


    “We’re going to make it better. You, and me,” James reassured me.


    Or tried to, at least. I wasn’t so convinced. With all the outside forces working against us, it all just seemed so impossible.


    James sat up and tugged me into hisp. “I love you, Ba, that’s the truth.” He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me until I could almost forget all my worries. Almost.


    “Ba...” James put a hand over my breast. “Let’s get in a little stress relief. We can discuss thister. But I think right now, we need to take a little timeout.”


    Desire curled in my belly. “Well...”


    James thumbed my nipple through my shirt. “Pretty please?”


    I groaned and gave in. “Fine, fine, Mr. Eager Pants...”


    “Don’t you mean ‘Italian Stallion’?” James smirked.


    I was never going to live that down. “Yes, that, too.”


    James chuckled. “That’s still the hottest thing that’s evere out of your mouth. And you say everyone calls me that?”


    “Yes. All those bitches who will be testifying against us at the trial,” I muttered bitterly.


    James kissed me and caressed my cheek. “Hey, we’re not thinking about that right now. It’s just you and me.”


    I ground my hips against his. I could feel his thick, hard length through his jeans.


    James groaned. “I think it’s you who don’t y fair.”


    “But this is the best kind of game. Even when you lose, you win,” I purred, pushing all thoughts of the trial out of my head.


    “Mmm,” James said. He pushed his hands underneath the back of my shirt and undid my bra.


    I whipped both shirt and bra over my head, letting James feast on my breasts to his heart’s content.


    I opened his button-down shirt and slid it down his arms, kissing along his corbone as I did so. I didn’t let up, rolling my hips against his.


    “F*ck, Ba, I’m not a young man. You trying to kill me?” James teased, panting.


    I grinned and undid his pants, sticking my hand inside and stroking his big, thick c*ck. Not that he needed any help. He was already leaking prec*m.


    James rolled so I was underneath him, but that didn’t stop me from stroking his d*ck. I had on yoga pants andce panties.


    Had.


    James ripped them off me and tossed them to the other end of the bed.


    “Mmm... baby, I want you so bad,” James murmured against my lips. He reached down and began fingering me hard, thumbing my cl*t.


    “Have me,” I moaned, gripping his shoulders. “God, James, take me now!”


    James didn’t have to be told twice. With one sure thrust, my Italian Stallion sheathed himself in my body.


    I arched my back, my fingernails digging into his shoulders. “F*ck yes. God, f*ck me, James, f*ck me hard!”


    James growled and rammed his c*ck into me, thumbing my cl*t as he did so.


    It hurt, but it was a good hurt, and I yowled with pleasure as James kept mming into me, his balls pping against my skin.


    “F*ck, Ba, how are you always so F*CKING tight!” James groaned.


    My nails dug deeper into his back, piercing the skin. “I’m not tight. You’re HUGE!”


    James chuckled. “Italian Stallion, huh?”


    I swatted him. “You’re never going to forget that, are you.”


    “Hard thing... to forget,” James grunted, ramming impossibly harder and faster.


    I raked my nails down his upper arms as my orgasm overtook me. “God... f*ck... JAMES!”


    James shouted my name back to me, then came inside me, his whole body shuddering.


    When he slopped out of me, there was a little bit of pink that came out with other fluids.


    “A, my poor baby...” James crooned, rubbing the edge of the top sheet between my legs.


    “Your fault,” I teased tiredly.


    “Not sorry,” James winked.


    “I’d be disappointed if you were,” Iughed.


    James snuggled into me, pulling me into his arms. “I suppose we should have a bath.”


    “Is that code for ‘I’d like to have bath sex’?” I asked with a smile.


    “You know me so well,” James said.


    “I do,” I responded, nuzzling the lightly-bleeding marks I’d made on his arm.


    James looked up at the ceiling with me in post-coital bliss.


    “I love you, James,” I said softly. “No matter what happens.”


    “I love you, too. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to make it okay,” James whispered.


    “Remember about promises you can’t keep?” I admonished him.


    James sighed. “I want it to be a promise I CAN keep.”


    I ced a kiss on his chest. “I know.”


    James stroked my back, then ran his fingers through my hair. “Legally or illegally, I will get him back.”


    “You can’t live life on the run. You’re the head of a Mafia Family,” I said, shaking my head.


    James frowned. “I’d really rather not be.”


    “Toote. Your uncle made you the head.” I poked him in the chest. “You said Ronaldo was going to run the whole operation into the ground. I guess... there are people who depend on you besides us. I think of Tony and The Boys... I mean... they have families, too.”


    “I don’t like the idea of sacrificing my family for theirs,” James grunted.


    “It’s the right thing to do,” I sighed. “If... if it’s always going to be like this—if I have to be some kind of ‘moll’—”


    James chuckled. “‘Moll’ is mob speak, baby. You’re not going to be a ‘moll.’”


    “You know what I mean. If I’m always going to be with you and you’re always going to be a Mafia Don, then... well...promises will have to be made,” I pointed out.


    “Compromises, sure. Sacrifices? Like Alessandro? Never,” James said tly.


    I shook my head. “I would never even think of sacrificing the kids. But promise me you’re not going to make Alessandro into the next Don? I want him to have a normal life.”


    James was quiet for a long time. “I... don’t want to make promises I don’t know if I can keep.”


    “James!” I protested, shocked.


    “I don’t know what life has in store for any of us, Ba. That’s too far down the line for me to promise or not,” James exined.


    I pulled the nket off him and got off the bed in a huff, stomping towards the bathroom.


    “No sex in the bath, I’m assuming?” James called after me.


    I gave him a look over my shoulder that spoke murder. “Not if you value your favorite parts.”