I apologize for the long wait, but my life has been in transition you could say. I can proudly say I've graduated from college since you last heard from me and am currently looking for work. I own nothing. Please read and review.

Chapter 11

Oswald's POV…

The night was late when I got back to my apartment the door creaking as I closed then locked it. The day had been eventful to say the least. I was playing my part and doing it rather well in my opinion, but still time wasn't moving fast enough. I had gotten Falcone what he wanted today. Indian Hill in exchange for my life. Now, Maroni thought he had won even though he had merely played into Falcone's plan as well as my own. Everything was falling into place and I hoped soon, Mary would be the next thing I'd take from him, but not today. She had been on my mind today, as she always was and the thought of spending another night alone without her wasn't ideal, but I told myself the time to have her by my side would be here soon. I had left Maroni at a whorehouse with all his men. It was a combination celebration and wake. On one hand, they were celebrating their win over Falcone, and on the other, they were mourning their friend Frankie. I had been allowed to sustain from the event, maybe because they didn't think me man enough or because I wasn't wanted there, I didn't know, and for once I didn't care. I knew I was more then man enough, I didn't want some whore that had been used a million times over; all I wanted was Mary and before this was over, I made a promise to us both that I would have her. I couldn't find interest in any of those women.

"He has the greatest woman in the world sharing his bed every night and he doesn't even appreciate how lucky he is" I thought in that same moment hearing a click then a thin rustle as a key slipped into the lock of the door and looking at it, I watched it open only a tiny bit, so Mary could step inside. It felt like a revelation. Just as I was thinking of her, letting her take over my mind, she walked through the door, and letting my eyes scan her in appreciation, I just let myself look at her. She closed the door and I heard the doors lock click. Mary leaned against the door then, like a vision merely standing there to tease me, her body clad in a black dress suit that tried to hide her luscious curves but didn't do a very good job. My eyes ran up her smooth bare legs then up her torso to her graceful swans' neck until I saw her face. Our eyes met and something inside me stirred just watching her. She pressed her hands against the door, her bottom lips suddenly sucked into her mouth and the longer I looked into her eyes the more I saw it. A look within them that spoke of some unuttered emotion that was foreign to me. I wanted to know the meaning of that look the longer I saw it in her eyes.

"Where is Don Maroni tonight?" said Mary her voice low even as if rang in my ears. As she asked, I rose to remove my jacket, gently draping over the chair. Looking at her then, I longed to go to her, to press her into the wood of that door, and kiss her. To do much more then that, but something kept me where I was. Maybe it was that look or the tone of her voice, I don't know.

"I left him in a brothel somewhere" I whispered stopping in the middle of the room when she smiled in response.

Mary pushed away from the door then, her steps slow as she approached me. Everything seemed to ease then when I finally had her in my arms again. Her arms went around my neck and my own went around her in response. With her in my arms, everything suddenly felt right with the world, and before I could dwell on anything else, she kissed me. Her lips were strong and powerful as they moved with mine, her hands came to cradle my face, and when we parted, she released a heavy sigh. I could feel as she leaned close to me all her strength seeming to fade right out of her.

"Did you do it?" whispered Mary looking me dead in the eyes as her hands held my face.

"What do you mean, my love? What is it you think I've done?" I said it with caution suddenly afraid I'd done something to displease her. That worry faded though when her hands moved to lock at the back of my neck our foreheads meeting so her eyes could look more fiercely into mine. The look within them had become even more desperate and I could see the beginnings of tears waiting to fall. She smiled as she started to speak again her voice cracked as she struggled to say whatever she had to say.

"Did you kill Frankie?" whispered Mary her smile staying there as she waited for my answer.

"Yes, I did. I sliced into him with my blade until he was dead" I whispered feeling a roiling mix of emotions as tears started down her face her smile remaining.

"Just when I think I can't love you more you find a way to give me everything I want. I love you, so much, Oswald, so very much" whispered Mary her voice a rushed whisper before she closed the distance between us to kiss me with a sweet fierceness that only deepened as she pulled me closer until she was drawing me back until our bodies hit the bed. I barely had time to comprehend as her fingers grazed my sides as our lips moved together. The buttons of my shirt opened with a silent pop and as she was peeling it from my body our lips parted. I watched her throw it away from us before she held my face in her hands again to bring my lips back to hers if only for a moment.

"Do I get to know what this is all about?" I whispered as our lips parted a second time my breath catching as she went for my pants next opening them with an urgency that I'd never quite seen from her before, but found I liked. I let her straddle my body and holding her close, I made her look at me.

"Mary, what's happening? Not that I'm complaining in any way, but something seems off" I said it with my eyes peering into hers. As I did, her eyes shed the tears they'd been holding back, and drying them just as quickly, I was surprised when she smiled. Something told me these were tears of happiness, but I had no idea what I'd done to make her so happy she cried.

"Everything's fine…because you killed him. You did the one thing I've always wanted to do, but never could. You killed Frankie. You killed that monster…it doesn't matter why you did it, but you did it. You have no idea how happy that makes me" whispered Mary her voice a mere gasp almost as she let her happy tears fall. When she looked at me again, that smile was there again, but I didn't see it for long. Soon, she was kissing me again, and I didn't pull away or ask anymore questions. I let her do as she pleased choosing simply to hold her as she grasped my shoulders to lay us both back across the bed.

"I love you, Oswald" gasped Mary then her hands moving to remove what remained of my clothes as I indulged in her touch her words an echo in the back of my mind. Mary hovered above me then and I watched her begin to remove her own clothes next. She started with her jacket then her thin dress shirt. As I watched her, I let a smile play on my own lips, watching as more of her was revealed to me. First, simply her white as cream skin then the beautiful swells of her breasts. I yearned to touch them, to draw her down onto the bed, and make love to her. I held back though, wanting to see what she would do next.

"Mary" I breathed her name as she leaned closer until her breasts were pressed firm against my bare chest as we shared another kiss, only then did I let myself touch her, my hands sliding up her skirt to grip her ass, a growl leaving me as I found nothing covering it.

"I want this off too" I growled as our lips parted pulling the zipper at the back of her skirt down only for her to drag me into another deep kiss our tongues clashing as I ripped the skirt off when the zipper would go no lower.

"Oswald" exclaimed Mary her eyes searching mine as I threw the skirt away not caring where it went.

"Sorry" I whispered running my hands over her back.

"Why? I'm not" said Mary on a breath as we shared a smile in that moment. Still straddling me then, she loomed over me, her hair hanging over her face as her hands found my chest to balance herself, and scooting lower, she began to grind against me in her subtle way. When she began, my hands instinctively went to her waist as if to guide her, my eyes wide open as I watched her. Her eyes closed for just a moment as a moan slipped loose and just at the sight of her, I felt myself harden. When her eyes opened again, they beckoned to me, and sliding her hand over my shoulder, she helped me sit up. Her arms wrapped around me to help hold me to her and as our eyes met, I kissed the skin just between her breasts. Next, I kissed the tops of each breast then her shoulders until burying my face in her neck, I kissed her there too. I heard her moan in response her fingers in my hair as she held me to her.

"Make love to me" gasped Mary making me look at her seconds before I kissed her once more a sound like a kitten's purr leaving her. Nuzzling her neck still, I felt as she aligned our bodies as I took her ass in my hands to help move her. As I slid inside her warmth, our eyes met, and our connection was there. A connection forged with love and trust and a deep understanding that only we shared. Tenderly, her fingers moved the hair our of my eyes as her hand cupped my cheek. Her touch was warm against my skin as we shared a breath as I settled fully inside her. Mary kissed me deeply then as my hands splayed out across the skin of her back.

"Mary" I growled almost immediately as she began to move, not going slowly as she rode me, but with a type of frantic rhythm as her hands found my shoulders holding me down while also putting me at her will.

After a moment of this frantic movement, her hands ran over my chest on a path of my chest. She balanced herself there as she moved, never losing her rhythm even as I held her hips. After a moment, I helped guide her movements earning a smile, and a moan from her in response. I let my hands graze her thighs then as I let myself watch her as she moved above me.

"Oh, my love, yes, yes, yes" gasped Mary an outstanding beauty to me in that moment as her hair moved over her face more until it hung like a curtain over her breasts her eyes boring into mine as our pleasure mounted.

"Oswald" exclaimed Mary finally drawing me nearly to the edge.

"Yes" exclaimed Mary next her voice nearly a scream now as she moved harder against me at the word the bed beginning to slam into the wall my eyes suddenly watching her breasts as they bounced above me until suddenly, they slowed until she was lowering her body to mine until we were chest to chest.

I simply held her in my arms then, my eyes never leaving hers. Our foreheads touched and we shared a breath as our bodies met over and over again in the rhythm we'd created. I memorized the happy dreamy sort of look that was in her eyes and as we shared a smile, and looking at her, I had a thought. She was mine, she would always be mine no matter what anyone said, and I knew that was what made everything I was doing worthwhile. I loved her, I had never stopped loving her, and looking at her, I knew I never would.

"I love you, my Oswald…you have my heart" said Mary in that moment as if reading my mind, her nails a tickle across my shoulders as she held me all the closer.

"As you have mine, my Mary…I love you. I always loved you, I never stopped, and never will. I love you" I said it with a clear voice even as our pleasure continued to build. I brought a hand to her face then feeling as she nuzzled all the closer into my arms. I drew her into a kiss then as my body thrusted up into hers. She was all I wanted in this world and holding close, I never wanted to let her go as I held her more possessively. She was mine. I was hers. We didn't need words, only each other. As we continued, our lips never parting, I could feel myself on the edge ready to burst, and as Mary's body moved with mine, I knew she was just as close. We both felt the fluttering of pleasure as if yearned to explode from within us and caressing her back, I heard her moan as I encouraged her to fall over the edge with me. Her hold on me tightened then and I knew she was close too.

"Oswald…I'm so close" gasped Mary her eyes opening to peer into mine. I felt her body tighten around mine then I heard as a mewl like squeal was leaving her. She crumbled in my arms her hands laying flat against my chest as she came. It was like her body melted in my arms and holding her all the closer, I managed to thrust up into her still until I came right after her. I melted too then only feeling as her hand touched my face as if to make sure I was still with her. All I could do was hold her all the closer feeling as her head fell to my chest.

"I missed you" I whispered as we came down from our high both of us trying to catch our breath as we both struggled to make another move.

After a moment, I rolled Mary onto her side, my body leaving hers, and as I held her in my arms, my eyes searched hers.

"Mary, are you alright?" I whispered something inside me telling me she was, and she wasn't. At first, Mary wouldn't look at me, but when she did, she nodded telling me yes. I knew that wasn't true though, the look in her eyes was almost hollow in a way I'd never seen before. She tried to smile, but once again, it didn't reach her eyes. There was something she wasn't telling me.

"You killed Frankie…you killed that monster" whispered Mary as if needing to make sure that it wasn't a lie.

"He's dead, Mary, I made sure of it. I watch him die. I don't know what he did…I hope you trust me enough to tell me, but I promise you, he's dead. He's not coming back, and he can't hurt you anymore" I exclaimed holding her all the closer as I spoke. I heard her take a deep breath, a relieved breath before I heard her begin to cry. For a long time then, she laid in my arms, and she cried. I held her until her tears stopped and shushing her, I was suddenly happier about killing that man then I had been before.

"Thank you, Oswald, thank you so much" exclaimed Mary through her tears burying her head in my chest as her sobs increased.

"Shhhhhh, my love, there is nothing to thank me for" I whispered gathering her closer into my arms briefly kissing the top of her head. As I held her, I somehow knew without really knowing that something terrible lay behind those tears. I knew that Frankie had done something, something terrible to hurt my Mary while we had been apart. Part of me didn't want to know the story behind it even as I knew I had to know. The man deserved his death even more now. As I held her, I wanted to know what it was even as I didn't.

Mary's POV…

"What did he do?" asked Oswald, my head still on his chest long after my tears had disappeared. As he held me, I felt so safe as his hands soothed themselves over the skin of my back. I felt him kiss my head and looking at him then, he moved my hair out of my face. The look in his eyes told me I could tell him anything. That was why I told him what I'd never told anyone, not even my mother.

"Oswald, do you know how I came to be married to Salvatore Maroni?" I whispered receiving an instant no.

"I was working as a waitress at this restaurant, Maroni wasn't a regular, but Frankie was. Him and his guys were regulars and once I started working there, he wouldn't leave me alone" I whispered beginning to tremble just at the memory.

"It started before I even knew who he was. First, flowers were being delivered to my home then he started sitting outside my apartment in his car, and then I actually came home to find him talking to my mother. He wouldn't stop no matter how many times I said no to going out with him. I kept refusing, but then he threatened my job. My boss threatened to fire me if I didn't stop denying Frankie, he was a very good customer, and he didn't want to lose him. I had no choice, I had to go out with him. We didn't date long before Don Maroni got sight of me, but it was long enough for him to do his damage" I whispered my tears suddenly returning in full force. I remembered everything then as the tears streamed freely from my eyes and clinging to Oswald more, I didn't want to ever leave him.

"It seemed simple. I thought I could go out with him once and that he'd get bored and leave me alone. That didn't happen. He took me to dinner that one time and afterward, he wouldn't take me home. I got into his car and suddenly we were driving by the docks with all the doors locked. I didn't know what was happening until his hands were on me and his body was smothering me and he…he ripped my dress…and he" I whispered it all to him in a rush then as I struggled to say the words. Oswald didn't make me finish though and looking up into his eyes, I knew he knew what I was going to say. He held me so tight and he let me cry and it only made me love him more. I didn't need to tell him anymore, Oswald knew what that man had done to me. He held me as I cried then and when I could breath again, I found I couldn't look at him, but Oswald took my face in his hands.

"I'm glad I killed him slowly" whispered Oswald kissing me soundly.