She had pouted at how much time I spent in the club without her. At first I thought it would annoy me, cutting back on work to make her happy, but fuck, she wasn’t just happy she was absolutely stunning in her joy. Staring at her, I forgot all the reasons I thought I would be annoyed and just enjoyed Regina being happy. After she thanked me by going down on my cock almost twice a day for a week, not wearing panties the way she knew I liked, I figured out that whole happy wife, happy life thing.
I approve the loan of one man but not on another, it’s time for him to cut his losses and go home. “One minute.” Picking up the internal phone, I call down to Richie and let him know to escort the losing man out, politely. Richie assures me the man is already ready to go, no problems.
Luca shakes his head. “There won’t be any. They’re pissed off at him too. I’ll make it look like suicide though, his balcony is very high up.”
“That works.” I study Luca. He has tells, not many and they’re practically micro. I’ve sat down with him at the tables once and nearly lost twenty grand—it’s the closest I came to losing money in more years than I can count. “What?”
He shakes his head, swirling the last of the amber liquid.
/> “Pop?”
A nod and he throws the last of it back. “I don’t want to bum you out with your birthday and all tomorrow.”
“You’re going to bum me out by what you have to tell me?” I don’t like the sound of that.
Restless, he gets up and paces, running a hand through his hair. “He wants me to change my name. Do the whole adoption thing, have the birth certificate changed, all of it.”
“He told me. You don’t want to?”
“I don’t know what I want. It’s been three months. I’m still...” He runs a hand over his face. “Some days I think it’s a dream. Then I look at him and I see myself and I—I don’t know. I hated Al growing up. You know he never wanted me to call him dad?”
His jaw works, it’s clear he’s debating telling me. “It was sir, then when I was around fifteen I started calling him Al. He beat the shit out of me the first time I did it. I kept doing it and he gave up. When he died he went all wailing and crying how he tried to be a good father, he wanted me to know that. He loved me. He always loved me.”
Fuck. Thank god he hasn’t told Pop any of that.
“I must have wished a thousand times he wasn’t my father. Tony, he couldn’t be more of a dream father if I made him up. At the same time...” He sighs. “It’s changing everything I knew and was up until three months ago. I’m not saying I don’t want to. I’m saying I need more time. You think you could talk to him and make him understand that?”
I want to argue with him. I don’t. I’ve never had a little brother, but I’ve heard Che talk about it more times than I can count. It’s not for me to tell him what’s right or wrong; it’s for me to support him the best I can and make sure he knows I’m here for him whatever happens. Even though it won’t make Pop happy, in the end Pop cares more about his kids than himself any day of the week.
So I nod. “If what you need is more time, I’ll talk to Pop. It might help if you stopped calling him Tony. A little something, give and take and all that.”
A soft chuckle. “It slipped out when I was telling my girl I was coming out here for your party tomorrow. Felt good.”
“He’d love it.”
“You really don’t have a problem with any of this?” It’s clear he’s not sure he believes it.
“None. Pop wanted a dozen kids, family is important to him, the most important thing in his world before all else, even himself. He’s not just there for the good, he’s right there when it gets dirty and hard. Losing Anthony nearly destroyed him. If I hadn’t been here, needing him, it probably would have. As you might have noticed, Che, Enzo, Dante, and their wives have him as a father too, whether they want it or not.”
He chuckles. He’d been surprised at how close we were with my cousins, how unconcerned they were with what we were. How whether he was ready or not, he was now an uncle to a bunch of rowdy kids who never met a person they didn’t like or want to be held by.
“The only problem I have is how much it hurts him when he thinks about all the things he missed out on with you. It’s not fair to you, but I’m going to ask anyway: please don’t ever be honest about Al. I had a feeling you were holding stuff back, Pop too. It messed with him. If he knew, though, I don’t want to see him try and deal with the pain of it.”
“I figured that out the first day. No worries.” He glances at his watch. “I have some calls I need to make. I’m going to head over to Pop’s place.”
It’s obvious the word doesn’t slide off his tongue easily. “It gets easier. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The door has barely closed behind him when my phone rings. I glance up at my camera in the corner. “You watching me again?”
Regina giggles and fuck me, it has me smiling to hear it. “I love watching you. I thought he was never going to leave. Dominic”—Goddamn, her moan of my name goes straight to my cock—“You turn forty in twenty minutes. I have a present for you to unwrap now. You have to hurry though, because it’s kind of melting all over the place.”
I don’t have to even check my cameras. “Princess, is it you melting down your leg like a dirty bad girl?” She moans. “You’re touching yourself already? I think that calls for a spanking.”
“Yes please.” She sighs.
I’m out of my office and up the stairs in two minutes flat. I find her in our bedroom in the center of the bed. She has a tie around her neck and nothing else on.
“Nice tie.” Goddamn, my mouth is watering as she opens her legs wide to me. I need to taste her. It’s been since yesterday, which has been too damn long.