Bound By Blood Anthology

I drew in her comforting flowery scent, ran my fingers through her silky hair then down the soft skin of her arm.

“Not anymore,” I said quietly. “Now sleep.”

She did, and eventually I fell asleep as well.I woke covered in sweat. Blinking against the early morning light, it took me a moment to figure out the heat source.

I was stretched out on my back and Marcella was sprawled out across my chest, her hair sticking to my throat and chin. It was incredible how much heat her little body gave off. The second heat source was Aria, pressed against my side, her head on my shoulder and one arm thrown over Marcella and me.

Before Aria, I couldn’t even fall asleep with another person in the room. Now I didn’t even wake when my daughter snuck into our bedroom and used me as her mattress.

It must have been a deeply buried instinct that allowed me to differentiate because the few times I’d had to sleep somewhere else, I’d woken the second someone had as much as moved in the next room. It was as if my body knew I could trust Aria and Marcella and didn’t have to wake when they were around.

While I loved having my two girls as close as possible, I was going to have a heat stroke soon if they didn’t give me some space. Shifting, I tried to move Marcella off my chest without waking her. Tough luck.

Marcella opened her blue eyes, blinked at me then yawned.

“Shouldn’t you be in your bed?” For a while she’d crept into our bed almost every night but I wanted some privacy for Aria and myself, so we’d put a stop to it… mostly.

She gave me a sheepish smile and batted those long lashes. “I had a nightmare.”

“Did you really?” I asked sternly, or as sternly as I was capable of when Marcella was concerned. I was getting better the older she got because I knew she’d have to learn the rules of our world and couldn’t act like a spoiled princess.

She bit her lip, grinning cheekily. “No.”

“What did I tell you about lies?”

“They are bad,” she said, pushing into a sitting position on top of me. A few strands of her black hair stood off to the side.

I touched her chin. “No lying.”

She gave a nod then she slid off me and dashed away.

I chuckled.

“She’s got you wrapped around her little finger,” Aria said with a laugh then kissed my collarbone and chest.

“Like her mother.”

Aria raised her eyebrows and I kissed her mouth before I touched her belly. “How is he?”

Her expression softened further. “Amo’s kicking up a storm. He’s more active than Marcella was. He’ll be a little daredevil.”

I nodded as I stroked Aria’s belly, wondering how difficult he’d be. If he were like Matteo, we’d have our hands full. I still worried about the way I’d handle him. With Marcella I felt such a strong sense of protectiveness, I’d never be able to punish her harshly, but a boy? A boy who pushed my buttons and needed to be strong for the Famiglia.

“Stop worrying,” Aria said gently.

I sighed. “You know me too well. I’m not sure I like it.”

Aria propped herself up on my chest. “You love it.”

She was fucking right. I loved that Aria knew me better than anyone else, but I still tried to keep certain things from her—like the extent of my concerns about having a boy.

“I like Amo better every day,” I said to distract her.

Aria beamed. When she’d first suggested the name, I had hesitated because it wasn’t a very common name in our circles but then I’d figured that it was for the best. I wanted Amo to be special, wanted him to be better than Matteo and I, than everyone else. A better Capo and man than any Vitiello before him.AriaThe pressure in my lower belly had gotten increasingly worse through the night. My due date was in three days. Staring up to the dark ceiling, I wondered if I should wake Luca but I worried that this was only a false alarm. He’d had a hard day and needed sleep. A strong contraction made me flinch and I cradled my baby bump, pressing my lips together.

Luca stirred beside me. “What’s wrong, love?”

“It’s probably nothing. I didn’t want to wake you. But I’m having contractions.”

Luca turned on the lights at once then rolled around to me with worried eyes. He touched my belly lightly as if he thought it would explode if he put too much pressure on it. “Should we drive to the hospital?”

If this wasn’t the real deal, we would spend hours in the hospital for nothing and Luca would lose a whole night of sleep. “I don’t think—”

Another, a stronger contraction cut me off and I panted, my fingers digging into the bedsheets.