Her neck twisted and her back arched as her cunt tightened around his c**k and she cried out when she came.

He took his finger from her clit, wrapped his arm around her belly, held her steady, and drove in deeper.

She whimpered through it, clutching him tight with her pu**y until she took him there. He shoved his face deeper into her neck and exploded on a grunt against her skin.

He kept taking her, gliding his hand back down her belly and in, cupping her, feeling his c**k slide in and out slowly, how wet she was, how deep she was breathing. Fuck, he couldn’t even see her face and everything he had from her was crazy-beautiful.

She slid a hand down his forearm, his wrist, then covered his hand between her legs, holding there lightly but shifting her index finger so she could run it along his c**k as he pulled it out and glided it back in.

He buried his face deeper into her neck.

Finally, he twisted his hand, taking hers from between her legs, and slid out. He straightened, put his hands to her hips, and turned her to face him. He pulled up her panties and pulled down the stretchy skirt to her sexy-as-fuck, threw-it-on-like-it-was-nothing, straight-from-the-pages-of-a-magazine tight black dress.

He righted himself while brushing his lips against hers, her hands curling into the waistband of his jeans as he did.

Finally, he lifted his head and said, “You can finish your donut now.”

Her eyes were still hooded and sated from her cl**ax.

But still, pure Frankie, she whispered, “Annoying.”

* * * * *

“Don’t court that either, Frankie.”

Lying on top of him on her couch, she lifted her head from his chest and looked down at him.

They had been winding down after dinner, about to watch a movie, discussing which one to watch as Benny shuffled through Netflix, and somehow they got to the fact that Frankie had not heard from Cat since before the shooting.

“Ben, she can disappear, but she’s never disappeared. I’m worried.”

“Francesca, the last time I saw Cat and Art was at Vinnie’s wake. Before that, every time I saw them, they were half a step away from bein’ functional alcoholics. They were hammered at Vinnie’s wake, and watchin’ them, I figured they took that half a step but took out the functional part. They tried to leave with Art havin’ the keys to the car. Pop intervened. Art lost his mind and Manny and I had to step in, get ’em into a taxi.”

Her eyes had grown wide while he talked, and when he was done, she asked, “Really?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“How’d I miss that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was because your man had a hit carried out on him. He was dead at thirty-two. You were understandably beside yourself, grieving. And your sister, who should have been at your side holdin’ your hand, was downing vodka tonics like they were gonna outlaw vodka the next day.”

“Oh, yeah,” she whispered. “That’s probably how I missed it.”

He shook his head and muttered, “Unbelievable.”

“What?” she asked.

“You nearly imploded us, thinkin’ you were gonna bail on me, and you hold tight to anything you got, no matter that it’s not good for you.”

“She’s my sister, Benny, and Dad’s havin’ a baby any day now. Enzo’s already had two. Enzo says she’s not answering his calls either. And Nat says she hasn’t heard from her in longer than I haven’t heard from her.”

He felt his brows snap together. “You’re talkin’ to Nat?”

Her head tipped to the side. “Not exactly. I’m keepin’ tabs on her through Enzo.”

“Thought she was dead to you,” Ben noted.

Frankie bit her lip for a moment before she said, “She’s dead to me, but she isn’t actually dead.”

Jesus.

Frankie.

“Leave it at that,” he ordered.

“I can’t,” she returned, her voice rising.

He tightened his arms around her and pulled her up his chest so they were face-to-face.

“I get it,” he said quietly. “You didn’t have a lot to hold on to growin’ up. It would stand to reason you not growin’ up with anything solid, that you’d hold on to anything you can get. But you gotta learn when to cut shit that is not healthy for you loose.”

Her face softened and her tone lightened as she slid a hand up to curl it around his jaw and said, “Ben, I’m seein’ things clearer now, but I am who I am. And I need you to see that’s how I am. I also need you to see that how I am is okay now. It’s better. Because now I do have something solid, so when the unhealthy part comes, I can deal.”

She dug her fingers in on her emphasized “do,” but Benny felt her words in his gut in a way he liked.

So he let it go.

Mostly.

“So, let me guess, you’ve talked to Chrissy,” he noted.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“How many times?”

Her eyes got squinty. “Twelve thousand seventy-three.”

He fought a grin, gave her a squeeze, and repeated, “How many times?”

Her eyes slid to the side before coming back to his. “Seven.”

“She doin’ okay?” he asked.

“Things are not great with Dad because she’s a little freaked he wasn’t there for me and she’s giving him another daughter, so it would stand to reason he won’t be there for my baby sister. But pregnancy-wise, she’s good.”

“Holdin’ on to anything you can in a way that you even grab on to new shit that’s gonna do your head in.”

She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Whatever.”

When they rolled back, he held her gaze and made his point even clearer when he asked, “How’s Sal?”

She pressed her lips together.

“He still in touch?” Ben pushed.

She unpressed her lips to answer, “Actually, he phoned a while back, but it was the day Dad came calling, so I got lost in that and my newfound ability to give amazing blowjobs, so I forgot to mention it to you.”

Ben felt his body shake under hers at her comment about blowjobs, but it didn’t deter him from their conversation.

“And?” he prompted.

“And, well…the last time I was up there, I called so I could chat with Gina, maybe set up lunch with her. Gina answered, but she answered from Tuscany. They were in Italy on vacation.”

Ben did not like that.

“You hidin’ that shit from me?”