Page 123 of I Would Beg For You

Seeing her and feeling her take her pleasure from me so unabashedly is always a one-way express ticket to tip me over the edge of the wave I crest every time I’m with her, and I let myself fall, knowing she’s here to catch me, knowing she’ll always be there. Just like I will be for her.

Our breaths are coming in hot and heavy, rapid pants as we return to earth, certain this moment of respite won’t last. Not that long, anyway. We take what we can when we can get it now, all because of…

As in on cue, the wailing starts. It sounds like an angry little animal who has it in for the world.

Naomi laughs against my shoulder, triggering my chuckle, too.

“Gabriela,” I mutter, still smiling.

“Gabriela,” she confirms.

The sound from the baby monitor grows crescendo, and we extricate ourselves from our embrace to throw on a pair of boxers for me and a nightgown for her. We pad barefoot to the room next door, where the sound is louder.

“Okay, little princess,” Naomi says as she reaches into a cot to retrieve our crying daughter. “Let’s feed you.”

On the dot, every three hours, this little one needs to be fed. I shake my head as I approach the other cot. Serafina, on the other hand, is a quiet, gentle, almost placid baby. I swear she’s smiling at me every time we come check on her like this at night, as if shrugging at her sister’s antics and going,What can you do?

I take her out of the cot and cradle her in my arms, tucking her softly against me. I head to the recliner next to Naomi’s and lie down, opening Serafina’s onesie and placing her on me, chest to chest.

This bonding contact, it’s the only thing I’ve loved from the three weeks the girls spent in the NICU. Well, aside from the fact there was a whole dedicated team looking after them to make sure they were in the best of health at all stages.

That day when I woke up in the hospital, it dawned on us Naomi was expecting twins. A scan the next day confirmed it. Both babies were doing fine, albeit a bit cramped in there. It was a miracle they hadn’t been otherwise affected by all their mother had been through during their gestation.

My beautiful, strong wife held on until thirty-two weeks, when her waters broke, and the girls decided to make their appearance. They spent a little over three weeks in the NICU. They’ve been home for four days now, and we’re only now figuring out their wake and sleep patterns and getting used to taking care of two babies when we didn’t even know we’d be parents when the summer started.

Thankfully, we have just one little diva to contend with. Gabriela. I still remember clear as day when I saw her beforeshe was born. It sounds crazy, so it’s a story I shared only with Naomi, who had her own visit by Serafina. They tell me I coded on the operating table—I was clinically dead for two minutes. In that span of time, my daughter reached out to me and told me her mother needed me, that I should go back, it wasn’t my time yet. I remember being stunned, then like I was being sucked by a vortex behind me.

That’s not the only time I’d felt at death’s doorstep. Back in that townhouse, as I handed Naomi over to Victor, I’d almost felt the presence of the Grim Reaper near me. I really thought I was a goner. Waking up to a choking sensation, something blocking my throat, I thought that was my time, until the tube was removed, and I could breathe again, even if it hurt. Then the people around me moved aside, and I saw her. Naomi. My angel of life, not of death.

I came out of that hospital two weeks later. A few days after, I was meeting with the Albanian mob council. Not much was said, but there is peace between our factions, which is what we all wanted.

And Joel Smith… My brothers told me what Naomi has done, how she went all avenging goddess on his ass after what he did to me and the children.

I never underestimated Naomi, but now, I see with every day that passes what an exceptional woman I’ve been lucky enough to marry.

As if she can feel my gaze on her, she looks up and turns to me, Gabriela still suckling greedily on her breast.

“What?” she asks with a small smile.

I smile back. “I love you.”

I’ll never tire of telling her that.

She giggles softly. “I love you, too.”

We both let one hand reach out so our fingers can interlace, not afraid anymore we’ll break one of the babies if we’re notholding on to them for dear life with both our hands and all ten fingers engaged.

Serafina has fallen asleep on my chest, and I relish the small puffs of air she’s breathing out onto my skin. She takes the equivalent of a full bottle in one go, and her schedule is already every five to six hours, unlike her sister who takes half that in one feeding. Gabriela is finally sated, the nipple falling from her still-open mouth. Naomi turns her on her belly and pats her back, eliciting a juicy burp out of our sweet faced baby. Then we both get up and place the babies in their cots.

We’ll have another run like this in three hours—no, actually, two hours and thirty-four minutes, as Gabriela wakes up exactly three hours after she last awoke, not after her last feed. Serafina will take her next feeding then, too.

I open my arm to Naomi, and she burrows into my side as I pull her close. We watch our daughters sleeping for a moment, then of a silent accord, we walk back into our bedroom and get into bed. My wife tucks her back and delectable backside against my front, and we both fall asleep with a soft sigh.

It’s six in the morning when we next hear the babies crying. I throw on a T-shirt and head to the adjoining nursery, relieved to find Marlena, Marco’s sister who’s helping us with the babies, already here and changing Serafina’s diaper.

“Good morning, Don Valentino,” she says quietly in her sing-song voice.

“It’s just Valentino,” I start, then reckon I’m fighting a losing battle and it’s best I cut my losses. This title, I earned it, yes, but most of all, no one will ever let me forget I carry it. I’m still getting used to that, though.

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