“And why would you think to give it to me?” She scowled. “I wasn’t the one in the line of fire. I was cowering.”
“Don’t say that! You helped me a lot, Ari, by staying calm.” He frowned. “Although we need to be on the same page on some things.”
Ariana barely heard him. Her eyes filled with tears, the fear exponentially rising. Black and blue color shaded his entire front. “Oh, Miguel.”
She started to trace his chest, but he gripped her wrist. “Don’t. Let’s get you cleaned up before I end up taking you down to the floor.”
He was horny?
“Adrenaline, Ari.”
Something in his voice made her glance up and, indeed, his eyes were smoldering. Sex had been the furthest thing from her mind, but just one look from her husband and it awakened an answering need in her. All her soreness was forgotten.
Seeing her response, he gathered her close. “After the heat of battle,” he murmured. “It makes me want to fuck.”
Her breath hissed.
“Let me fuck you in the shower.” His mouth was very close to hers, but he didn’t kiss her. He was vibrating with controlled aggression and this time it was focused on her.
“Okay.”
He didn’t wait a second longer but backed her into the en suite. Her mind briefly registered that it was as luxurious as the bedroom—white and gold Italian tiles. Migs stripped her naked, eyes darkening at the bruises on her skin where Bennett had drawn blood.
“They don’t hurt.”
“Doesn’t lessen the urge to kill someone.”
“Not Charly, please. I think she’s good.”
His hands came up and cupped her breasts. “You’ve lost weight.”
“I haven’t.”
A palm cupped the back of her head, tilting it to receive his kiss. It was gentle at first, then demanding. They were swaying from side to side in the wide bathroom, and before Ariana knew it, water rained down on them from the center of the shower.
Migs turned her around to face the tiles and soaped her back, spun her around again and kissed her, before soaping her front, taking the time to wash her secret places, slowly and gently. He shampooed her hair, massaged it. She tried to return the favor, but the water stung his bruises.
No words were said. None were needed. He boosted her up against the tiles and thrust into her. The shower drowned her moans as she came, and he roared as he reached his climax. Temporarily sated, they came down from their high, only to stare at each other, water sluicing in between them, washing away the brutal events of the past few days, at least for a moment.
27
“I was so fucking scared, Ari.” Migs’ arms wrapped securely around his wife. They were lying in bed after cleaning up. If they stayed cocooned like this for the next few days, he wouldn’t mind at all. He’d missed Ariana so damned much.
“Don’t blame yourself—”
He tipped her chin up so he could stare into her eyes. “But the worst thing in all this was I thought I would never see you again.” He exhaled heavily and strengthened his resolve. There was no time to waste. He was going to tell her how he felt. He didn’t care if it was too soon. “And I was frustrated along the drive from Venustiano, I wanted a moment—the right damned moment—for a chance to tell you I love you.”
Her eyes widened, and for a fleeting second, he thought she was going to pull away, but then a watery smile curved her lips, her face visibly brightening. Encouraged, he angled toward the nightstand and opened its drawer where he’d stashed the ring when she wasn’t looking. Thank God, he’d kept it on him this whole time.
He slid it on her finger. “I’m fucking in love with you, Ariana Walker.”
Lips parting, her eyes went to the ring, then to his eyes then back to the ring again. He loved how her breath caught. “How? When?”
“That belonged to abuelita,” he said softly. “I was going to give it to you after the party, but you were kidnapped.” He bent over and kissed her long and sweet. Pulling back, he continued, “I lost my damned mind when we lost your trail. We thought we’d cornered Benito only to realize he’d changed vehicles.
“I vowed to raze the earth to find you. I knew I might find you broken, but I was prepared to be with you every step of the way and nurse you back to health. I’ll never leave you. Ever.”
He brushed a stray tendril from her face. “There is so much to tell you.”
She was still staring at her ring. “What?”
He laughed. “Hey, have I become chopped liver now? Did you even hear my undying vow of devotion?”
“Of course.” A tear streamed down her cheek. “I’m just so overwhelmed.”
He brushed that tear away and with apprehension, he asked, “Do you like it?”
“Like it?” she gushed. “I’m mesmerized. The jeweler took special care carving the band.” She glanced at him. “It’s beautiful, Miguel. Thank you. You must know I—”
A voice from the outside cut off what she was about to say, and Migs couldn’t hide his irritation when the majordomo called out, “Do you need anything Señor Walker? El Señor Alcantara was wondering if you want to join him for lunch in an hour.”
He didn’t want to leave this bedroom, but knew he had to face his cousin who, after all, saved their necks.
“We have to show up, Migs,” his wife said.
“We can just sleep,” he offered. “We haven’t slept a wink since last night.”
“There’ll be time for a siesta.”
“Señor?”
“Yes!” Migs called in a slightly irritated voice so that his wife pinched his side. It actually stung. He grunted.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” Ariana gasped. “I forgot you were hurt all over.”
He fell back on the bed, folding his arms under his head.
“I know how you can make me feel better.”
“Oh?” His devilish siren shifted to her knees and was on all fours. A delectable view, and his cock approved, but he wanted desperately to hear something else.
“Tell me what you were going to say before we got interrupted.”
Her naughty expression morphed into a tenderness that nearly dislodged the organ in his chest.
She crawled closer. “I’m in love with you, Miguel Alcantara Walker.”
And just like that, all the hits and bruises he’d sustained today became a worthy price for this moment.
He reached for her and sealed their declarations with a kiss.
“This is a lovely meal, my compliments to your staff, Elena, Joaquín,” Andrade said.
“May I suggest a stroll in our avocado grove before la siesta?” The lady of the hacienda suggested before turning to Ariana. “Oh, I’m sorry. Can you walk?”
She forced a smile. “I’d rather not.”
“I’ve advised her to stay off her feet,” Charly said sharply, causing Ariana to glance her way, but she was scowling at Elena and for some weird reason, Antonio was smirking.
Migs patted her hand. “And there’s something we need to discuss with Joaquín.”
Startled, she met her husband’s gaze. “You want me in that discussion?”
“What discussion?” Elena frowned.
“I don’t think our wives need to concern themselves with our issues,” Joaquín said.
“I don’t want to hide anything from Ari. If anything, this concerns her too.”
“Well …” Elena started, but glanced at Antonio who stood from the table and offered his hand to Joaquín’s wife. She preened and stood up. “Why don’t you show me around your avocado plantation.”
Ariana glanced at Joaquín who had his usual expressionless face on.
“We can talk some other time, cuz,” Migs said. “I’d just as well retire with Ari. It has been a long night. You can show Andrade around if you want.”
“Nonsense,” his cousin replied. “We can talk at the veranda. Mi amor,” he addressed Elena. “Before you show Mr. Andrade around, can you tell Consuelo to serve dessert
and coffee on the veranda?”
Elena’s eyes flashed with what looked like defiance, before accepting the Brazilian’s proffered arm. But Andrade wasn’t finished with whatever he had in mind.
“Doctor?” Andrade said. “Care to join us? It looks like a family matter and you’ll only be in the way.”
Ariana was offended for Charly, but she needn’t have worried, because the cool doctor apparently had her own comeback.
“Are you sure I won’t be in your way, Mr. Andrade?” Charly yawned. “I’d rather take a nap after that lovely lunch. Dessert will have to wait anyway.” She stood and thanked their hosts and headed the opposite direction from where Antonio and Elena were going.
Apparently, the billionaire wasn’t the type of man to be thwarted. She watched Antonio let go of Elena and stalk after Charly. When he caught up with her, he gripped her upper arm, stopping her in her tracks. “Oh, but I insist, Doctor Bennett.” He lowered his head and whispered something in her ear.
Charly reeled back and glared at him but allowed herself to be led out the door for their avocado grove tour.
The three of them were left at the table and she didn’t know what to say.
“Something strange is going on between those two,” Migs observed, but Ariana wasn’t sure which two he meant.
“Yes,” Joaquín clipped. “It’s surprising my wife is intent on making a fool of herself. I’ll meet you both at the veranda. I have some calls to make.”
“What just happened?” Ariana asked.
“Long story short? Joaquín married Elena for her connections in society. I can’t speak for their marriage, but you can see for yourself.”
Ariana felt sad for the couple. They weren’t happy. When Migs helped her get up from her seat, she stared at him. “I couldn’t bear it if you looked at me with such coldness.”
“I didn’t marry you for your connections.”
“You married me to protect me.”
His face was pained. “I lied about that.”
“You knew differently then.” She put a hand to his cheek. “We’re past that now, don’t you think?”
He looked at her, his expression grave. “Repeat that to me after my talk with Joaquín.”
A feeling of trepidation gripped her heart. “Is it bad?”
“It’s in the past. It’s something I had to do, but it might make you think twice about spending the rest of your life with a man like me.”
“Cigarette?”
Migs declined the offer for a smoke and Ariana shook her head as well when Joaquín held the golden case out to her.
Shrugging, he leaned back against a chair, gaze in the distance, studying the endless rows of avocado trees. “This is the Alcantara legacy. The land. We grew limes before, and now we cater to America’s love of avocado. And no one can grow it better than the people of Michoacán. As the eldest son, it fell to me to take care of this, but many didn’t agree, did they, Miguel?”
“I had nothing to do with it.”
“No. The people loved Don Amado’s eldest daughter—Delia. Today is Leon’s funeral, by the way.”
That caught Migs off-guard and he admitted to himself that he didn’t think of his old friend because of the speed at which events unfolded, but he had hoped to attend the funeral.
“You knew he always loved your mother?” Joaquín looked at the end of his cigarette.
“Of course he loved her. They were childhood friends.” Migs tensed. He’d heard malicious rumors all his life, but they were absurd. He was witness to their friendship and that was all there was to it. He didn’t see unrequited love at all. “But if you’re implying that he was in love with her, I’m shutting that shit down right now.”
“Why would a man stay single and devote himself to the security of the Alcantara-Walker family?”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” Migs said. “He said he was not the family type.” And he didn’t want to add that Leon was quite the womanizer in the day.
“Because he already has family.”
That was it. Migs rose slowly from his seat. “If you’re implying my mother cheated with Leon, I’m outta here and to hell with the truth about Tio Pepito.”
Joaquín surged from his seat as well and rounded the table and met him nose to nose. “No. I’m not implying that Tia Delia cheated or that any of you are bastards—”
“Migs!” Ariana pushed back from her chair and touched his arm when he’d gripped his cousin by the neck.
“But it was Leon”—Joaquín choked—“That the people of Cayetano looked up to. When he rose in the ranks with the Mexican police, everyone was proud of their Cayetano son. Then he quit to be the Alcantara-Walker head of security. When Abbi Mena wanted to live with the Walkers, it cemented the myth that Delia’s children deserved to be head of the Alcantara holdings. Not us.”
For fuck’s sake. His cousin was a smart businessman but Migs wondered how he managed his people. “Because you don’t care for the workers or the town the way el abuelo and abuelita did. It has nothing to do with my mother, Leon, or Abbi Mena. You need to show them that you care. Relax some of that stiff upper lip.”
Ariana gasped, but when Migs looked at her she had a hand over her mouth as if stifling a laugh, but the crinkle at the corners of her eyes was a dead giveaway that she found it funny.
Migs had to fight back his own smile.
“I’m trying.” The corner of Joaquín’s mouth tried to lift, but his cousin really needed to work on that stick in his ass. “Their perception is changing,” he reasoned hesitantly. “But it’s not enough. It’s an uphill battle. Elena is not helping either, preferring to socialize with her high society friends than to see to the well-being of our workers. And Hector—”
“Yes, let’s talk about Hector,” Migs jumped in.
“You wanted to have my brother arrested!”
“Wait, you don’t know?” Migs blew out a breath. “Shit. I didn’t tell anyone, did I?” He was so focused on getting Ariana back and trying to come to terms that he needed to come clean about his uncle’s death that he subconsciously tried to spare his family the truth about Hector’s betrayal.
“Tell anyone what?” his cousin asked.
“Hector was the one who turned me over to Carillo,” Ariana said.
“That’s a lie!”
“It was his men who killed Leon,” she said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
“We don’t know if they worked for Benito,” Migs corrected.
“But why would he do …?” Joaquín closed his eyes. “It was Hector who was using our trucks for cocaine.”
“Yes. Do you know where Hector is now?”
Joaquín’s face lost its composure, cracking with disbelief. “He left a message for me the other day, but I was busy trying to find out who tipped off the DEA from our office. I never returned his call.”
“Did he say where he was?”
“No. Just that the police were after him and he was lying low. I think he wants to come here.”
“Shit.”
“I wonder if he’s in Mexico,” Migs muttered, then he backtracked to his cousin’s statements. “Did you find the man who called the DEA?”
“Woman,” Joaquín corrected. “One of my temp-assistants didn’t show up for work after the warehouse incident. I have since hired an investigator to go through all my personnel files. At least the ones who have access to my office and computers.”
“It could be Hector who sent you those pictures.”
“What pictures?” Ariana asked.
Joaquín looked at her. “You didn’t know?”
“I haven’t had the opportunity to tell her anything.” Migs eyed his cousin steadily and decided to rip off the Band-Aid. “I work for the government, but you probably already know that based on our latest escapade into Carillo territory.”
His cousin’s face slackened as he turned eyes on an unsurprised Ariana, and, in true Joaquín fashion, he was able to regain his composure, that stoic
mask. “I guess I can believe it. I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve turned this over and over in my head.” He pointed between them. “Are you two married because of the job too? Did you recruit Ariana as an informant? Is that why Carillo wanted her?”
Migs puffed a laugh. “No. Ariana and I are married because I thought the Alcantara name would protect her. And unfortunately, I can’t tell you why Carillo wants her.”
His cousin gave him a look. “Classified, huh? You’re CIA, aren’t you?”
He shrugged, and when Joaquín turned to Ariana, she lifted her shoulders in the same gesture.
Joaquín turned away and stared off at the avocado grove once again. He was quiet for a while and then gave a shake of his head. Still not looking at them, he asked, voice hoarse. “What did my father do? Why was he in those pictures?”
Migs repeated what he’d told his mother—about the gambling debts, about how he’d laundered money for the cartel. That it was Migs who recruited Tio Pepito as an asset, told him that the CIA was aware of his money laundering scheme and there was only so much Miguel could do before the agency would make it difficult for the Alcantaras to do business.
“You blackmailed him,” Joaquín accused.
“I offered him a way to make things right,” Migs replied evenly. “I was the only one standing in between the agency and them shutting down the Alcantara business for drug trafficking.”
“You were not doing this for us—the Alcantaras, but your own family.”
“Tell me, cuz, what’s the difference? How am I different from you? You protect the entire Alacantara legacy by running the business side of things, and I choose to get into the nitty gritty of its security because that’s how I want to operate.”
“You got my father killed!”
“Did Migs pull the trigger?” Ariana challenged.
“Stay out of it.” Joaquín jabbed a finger at his wife which Migs knocked away. Ariana had stepped between him and his cousin and Migs was trying to keep her from getting into his face.
Protector Of Convenience (Rogue Protectors Book 2) Page 26
