Yours (Beautiful Sinner Series Book 4)

by Elena M. Reyes

  “I love you,” he whispers, and my world stops. This can’t be fucking happening.

  “Look at me,” I yell out as footsteps approach and then surround us. They’re barking out orders and closing the garage down, and while I’m somewhat aware of Malcolm’s voice through a phone’s speaker, I don’t react. My sole focus is on the man gritting his teeth as the stain grows. “Javier, baby...focus on me.”

  “I love you.” He slumps back and I help him against my car, cradling his head as paramedics arrive with the police close behind. They load him on a stretcher and I try to follow, but with me being the shooter, one of the officers arrested me without questioning or watching the video recording.

  Javier is taken to the closest hospital.

  I’m being taken to the nearest precinct.

  God, please let him be okay. Please don’t take him from me.

  26

  I HAVEN’T FULLY stepped inside the precinct when I catch sight of a man I know and well. His eyes meet mine and they widen, then narrow on the man beside me walking as if he’s made the bust of the century.

  “What’s the meaning of this!” Captain Hall bellows and all movement inside ceases; the man he’s talking to also turns to look and grimaces at the image of my tears and the handcuffs on my wrists. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Captain, we answered a call for help at the garage for Asher Holdings,” Officer Millstone answers, his chest puffing out with pride. He’s young. Too eager. Moron. I’m seething in these cuffs, but I keep my composure. The faster we get things cleared up, the faster I can get to Javi. “Shots were fired as reported, and we discovered a deceased female upon arrival. There was also a wounded man nearby who’s been taken to Northwestern Medical. She—”

  “Is the fucking victim.”

  “What?” The hand on the small of my back shakes. “She’s our suspect.”

  “No, she isn’t.” Hall flicks his eyes to me, and the look in them is apologetic. Embarrassed. Scared. “Had you done your job properly, you would’ve asked for video footage and known that the deceased shot first and accosted the couple. Ms. Asher acted in self-defense and if you don’t get those handcuffs off within the next fifteen seconds, the only job you’ll have in my department is in clerical.”

  Millstone jumps into action and the restraints come off; his face is ashen when I turn to raise a brow. “Ms. Asher, I apologize. This was a huge mistake and I—”

  “Drive me to the hospital and we’ll be even. No stopping for shit.”

  “Captain, can I—”

  “Go.” Hall is exasperated, embarrassed, and I’ll talk Malcolm into not retaliating. But later. Much later. “Get her there and back quickly. Head straight to my office. I’ll be waiting.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You’ll be arresting me again if we don’t get to that damn hospital, Officer. And that is not an empty threat.” He gulps, then nods. Hall turns, and I catch a hint of a blush on his cheeks and it takes everything in me not to snap.

  Lord, now is not the time to test my patience. Please get me to Javi.

  I breathe a little calmer once we are on our way.

  “What the hell happened?” Malcolm hisses beside me the second I walk through the emergency rooms doors. He’s been waiting outside, knowing I was close after Officer Millstone was kind enough to return my belongings that he confiscated from the ground near my car. “Who the fuck arrested you?”

  “Not now.”

  “Mariah, I need—”

  “To give me a moment to see if the man I love is okay.” The tears come then, and I’m pulled into his chest, his lips at the crown of my head, but I don’t understand what he’s mumbling. “What?”

  “I said, he’s—”

  “Malcolm, I swear to God if you tell me he’s anything but fine, I’ll shoot you.”

  The man chuckles and gives me another quick squeeze before stepping back. He looks amused, mostly angry, but there’s a hint of mirth there too. “So this is why he finds your threats so amusing. I get it.”

  “You are skating on very thin ice.”

  “You have anger issues, dear cousin.”

  “It’s hereditary.” I close my eyes and breathe in and out. And in and out. Until you know everything is okay, you keep your composure. Rip him a new one later. “Now… Where. Is. He?”

  “Getting the wound cleaned and stitched up.”

  “So, he’s okay?”

  “Yes.” Malcolm entwines our fingers and pulls me along behind him. I’m not paying attention to the where or if we turn right or left and how many doorways we cross; I feel lost until his eyes meet mine and his lips stretch into a soft grin. “Go on. I’ll be in the waiting room while you two talk. And don’t worry, Carmelo has Chulo.”

  My feet are rooted to the ground, though, and Javi gives me a concerned look. “Come here, Muñeca. I’m okay.” A sob catches in my throat, and the nurse tending to what I now see is a large shoulder wound gives me a sympathetic look. It’s just all too much. So much could’ve gone wrong. “Stop for a second.”

  “Sir, I just need to close the last two stitches. It’ll be…never mind.”

  With his warm brown eyes on my seafoam ones, Javier rips off the medical tape and the dirty gauze used to clean up the wound. There’s a green nylon string with a small pair of scissors clamped in place for her to administer the next suture, but he lets it dangle while walking closer.

  Another step, and tears drip down my eyes in relief.

  His scent infiltrates my senses, and I shake with this profound need to grab him and never let go.

  And then he’s the one touching me.

  Javi’s hands cup my face while ignoring what I’m sure is searing pain. He doesn’t care. He only rubs his thumbs across my cheeks and collects my tears with soft brushes before his lips meet mine and soothe the ache that’s making it hard to breathe.

  “I can’t live without you, Javier. I’m sorry I didn’t see—”

  “Shut up and kiss me.” And just like a few hours ago, I give in to my need and kiss him with everything I am and what I’ll be by his side. Each swipe of my tongue is an apology for not being careful. Each nip of his bottom lip is a promise to never leave his side. “Fuck, I love you.”

  Pulling back, I rest my forehead against his chin. “More than my own life.”

  We stay that way for a few minutes, his presence helping me calm down, and then I take his hand and walk him back toward the bed. I peck his lips and instruct him to lie down. I lay my head beside his ear while the woman works, and it’s while his hand plays with my fingers that I get the courage to ask the one question that’s been plaguing me since coming back from Colombia.

  It’s what I need. How I want to spend the rest of my life.

  “Javier Lucas,” I breathe out slowly against his cheek, and his head tilts in my direction. “Will you marry me?”

  “Yes.” No hesitation. No doubts.

  “Today?”

  “This very minute if we can find someone to officiate.”

  “Thank you.”

  Plump lips curl up into the happiest little grin. “Shouldn’t it be me who thanks you?”

  “No.” The shake of my head is minute, and I use the movement to nip his jaw. “Because I feel like the luckiest woman in the world right now. You’ve given me you, and that’s all I’ll ever need to be happy. To feel complete.”

  “I’ll never stop loving you, Muñeca.”

  “And I’ll be more than thankful to have a good shot.” His boisterous laughter fills the room and I smirk. No more of the heavy for today. Not when I’ll move heaven and earth to marry him today. “Scare me like this again, and I’ll shoot you. That’s a promise.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, dear.” Javier rolls his eyes but in them, I see nothing but love and devotion. The same emotions I’m drowning in. “I’ll just have to find other ways to annoy you.”

  “Good boy.”

  Epilogue 1

  A sinful sixt
een months later…

  “WHERE DID YOU go?” Mariah asks, her voice thick with sleep as I kick off my boxer briefs. She’s naked and warm, much like I’ll be in a minute, and cuddled up on my side of the bed. I find the action amusing—sexy. “What could he have possibly needed at this time of night?”

  “I visited the Foster residence to extend a formal invitation to his house tomorrow.”

  Mariah lifts her head and arches a brow. “At this time of night?” Why would he—”

  “Because he’s interested in one London Foster.”

  “Say what, now? He’s interested in the sister?” My wife turns in my arms, her lips spread into this megawatt smile that means nothing but trouble. “When did they meet? Is she as pretty as the picture in her file?”

  “What file?”

  Her grin is sheepish and her eyes wide with mock innocence. “I might’ve made one after they moved to town cataloging the terms of their agreement. The men in that family are shady, low-end criminals, but the girl is not involved. If anything, she’s too sweet and afraid of them.”

  “Does Malcolm know this?”

  She scoffs, squirming a little closer, and my dick perks up at her nearness. At the way her ass jiggles while she plays the I’m only trying to get comfortable card. Brat. “Of course not. That man is too stubborn for his own good.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” My hand falls to her hip and then lower to her thigh; I lift it, and she moans when my cock slips between her bare lips. When the head kisses the wetness that is only for me and settles at her entrance. The tiny hole clenches in anticipation, but I don’t enter. Just touch it. Savor the feel of her sweet juices coating my tip. “What are you planning, Muñeca?”

  “Nothing.”

  Lying is a mortal sin for me, and yet she pushes. So bad. So mine. “Liar.”

  “It was just in case they meet, or something goes wrong.”

  “Like what?” I slam in to the hilt and she clenches, her breath caught in her throat from the force of the punishing stroke. “Tell me.” No response. Not so much as a breath escapes her, and I take that as a challenge. “This one is on you.”

  Pulling out, I push Mariah’s hip forward and pin her there. Her back arches while she tries to fight my hold, wanting to be fucked for being bad, but unwilling to give in.

  Good thing for her she has a husband who doesn’t mind dominating, bringing her to tears with his cock.

  “Javi, I—”

  “I what?” Short little jabs slip the engorged head just past her opening a few times, but I don’t penetrate. I want to hear this explanation. Why is she keeping tabs on that family when I’m doing the same for our family’s sake? “Tell me.”

  “Please fuck me.”

  “Answer the question, Mariah.” Fuck, she looks so good like this. Needy and hungry and her entrance clenching in search of me. “Tell me why you’ve been—”

  “Because Earl asked me to make sure she doesn’t get mixed up in their drama. He’s a family friend on her mother’s side and is worried. Christ…” She’s struggling against me. Her eyes over her shoulder meet mine and they’re angry and desperate “…keep denying me, and I’ll take care of this myself.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “Yes.” My smirk is dark and my intentions dirty; she knows this. Lives for it. “You can’t stop…oh fuck!”

  “Louder, baby. Scream for me.” My thrusts don’t allow her time to adjust or take a breath; I’m fucking her fast and hard and holding her down with my weight after spreading that thigh higher. I hold it to the bed, fingers digging in, and yet, my precious doll only whimpers out a “More.”

  Always more.

  “Javi, I’m…” she trails off, lips going slack when I slip a hand between us and touch her throbbing clit in time with my thrust. No lead in or gentle circles. I press two fingers down and use every punch of my hips to massage—bring her closer to the orgasm I denied her earlier in the night.

  She’s hiding something from me, and I don’t like it.

  “You close, Mamita?” Her response is a whiny, keening sound. She loves it when I speak Spanish and I’m not above using it when necessary. “Tan bonita mi muneca. Tan rica.”

  “Oh God…” another delicious clench and I feel her clit swell the second goose bumps erupt all over her heated flesh “…just need—”

  “What?”

  “Tell me.”

  I smile against her sweaty neck, closing my eyes as the power I hold over her slams into me and rocks me to the core. I’ll never deny how heady it is to own her love. To experience her greed for me every single moment of the day.

  “I love you more than my own life.” No sooner has the last word slipped past my lips than Mariah comes and hard—her pussy tightens around my cock like a vice and I find myself holding still—letting her fuck herself back on me with short strokes.

  She’s massaging me. Her heat enveloping me.

  And when her small hand slips beneath her hips and holds me to her, I come.

  Spurt after spurt rushes out and deep into her core. I fill her and still, it’s not enough.

  I want her round with my child. I want to have everything she’s not ready for…yet.

  “Javi, I’m dead,” my girl whimpers a while later and I laugh, pulling out and falling beside her on the bed. She’s insane and a little mental at times, but I wouldn’t change a single hair on her head. “I needed that.”

  “You ready to tell me what you’re hiding now?” Secrets and lies are the one thing I’ll never allow between us. Not with how far we’ve come. “Are you still—”

  “I found my mom.”

  That’s the last thing I expected and I sit up, pulling her into my lap in the middle of the bed with the sheets strewn around us. Her mother’s disappearance has been bugging her since the last time she spoke with her father.

  A man whose body, sans head, was found in a lake by the police a week after we said I do. No motive or suspects have been found, but that’s because Malcolm is nothing but an irate perfectionist. Especially, after finding out the black roses were coming from him and his whore as a scare tactic.

  The flower shop owner was a friend of her father.

  Moreover, I took pleasure in hanging the widowed-shop owner and watering the sunflowers with his blood.

  “Where is she?”

  “In Indiana.” She buries her face in my neck; I feel the few tears fall and begin to think the worst. “She’s living under an alias and working as a caretaker in a women’s shelter. The kids love her, and she seems happy. Happier than I’ve ever seen her.”

  “I can have the car ready in ten minutes, linda.”

  “That won’t be necessary, Papi. I’m not going to see her.”

  “Why?” I’m surprised by this. I’d give anything to see my mother again.

  “Because she’s at peace, and I never want to take that away from her. I’m okay as long as she’s safe.”

  I’ve had people look into her whereabouts for the last few years. I’ve dug and dug and searched high and low, but the truth is she’s hiding and doesn’t want to be found after my father forced her into a mental institution in London. For seven months under the guise of her being schizophrenic, Mom was forced medications and endured treatments not meant for someone with a clean bill of health.

  A lie he told after slipping those in charge a few bills, and it wasn’t until the owner went to trial for a wrongful death case that my mother escaped.

  Tipping her face up to mine, I kiss her nose and then peck her lips. “Are you sure?”

  “I am.”

  “You’re amazing, sweetheart. She’s lucky to have you as a daughter.”

  “And I am blessed to have you as my husband. So lucky that I want to start trying for that baby?”

  “Yeah?” My grin matches her. It’s dopey and happy and I’m fucking hard again. “Right now?”

  “Why not?” Mariah laughs, turning her in my lap to straddle my legs. “I want a
little mini Javi throwing tantrums and harassing kids on the playground.”

  “What about a mini Mariah threatening to shoot everyone she meets?”

  “The possibilities are endless.” It leaves her on a moan, her hips gyrating against the bulbous, angry tip. “But as long as I have you—”

  “I want them all,” I finish for her and then take those soft lips with my own, sending a silent vow to God above to never let me lose her. Our connection. She’s my life, and I plan to spend my life showing her each day that I live and breathe for her love.

  Epilogue 2

  Two years later…

  “Ready to come clean, little cousin?”

  My head whirls back, a gasp slipping from my lips at the sight of Malcolm. He’s the one I’ve been worried about the most, disappointing him by not confiding a secret we’ve kept long enough.

  That I’ve made Javi keep.

  You hurt him, too.

  Christ, my eyes well with tears and my lips open to speak, but no words come out. How do I explain my selfishness? How do I explain that I kept them away from the happiest day in my life?

  “Malcolm.”

  “Stop,” we say in unison, but the annoying jerk just wipes off my eyes with a soft expression. “I’m not mad.”

  “You’re not? And what exactly are you not mad about?”

  “I was there the night you said your I do’s in the hospital room.”

  What the? “But we never saw you.” It’s the only thing my brain can muster. That, and a contrite expression.

  He’s always been there for me.

  More like a brother than a cousin.

  “It’s a lucky coincidence that I was.” He’s smiling and relaxed. No anger or reproach in his tone. “After dealing with a phone call from the DA’s office over the incident with Mildred, I stopped to check in on Javier. To thank him for saving someone I love.”

  “London’s made you a softie with emotions,” I tease, not used to seeing this side of him often. Malcolm shows his affection with actions and not words, unless you’re his wife. The way he fawns over her is quite adorable to watch.