by Jen Doyle
She almost snorted when she looked up to see him mouth the words, Cock blocked by my grandmother.
Abuela, Maggie silently corrected. Because it gave her the chance to purse her lips together almost as if she were kissing him, something she definitely would not be doing while his grandmother was here.
His gaze dropped to her mouth, then came up to meet her eyes, and she felt her cheeks flush at the heat of it.
Since his grandmother soon started in on stories about Alejandro as a boy—even more adorable than before—and then moved into a not very subtle listing of his accomplishments and how he’d become the most sought-after mosaics designer in the Valley, Maggie wasn’t even able to so much as brush her hand against his. Giving up on anything physical, she decided there was no time like the present for her to let his grandmother know that Maggie also knew a thing or two about what the man had achieved in the last fifteen years, and although it may have made her sound a tiny bit obsessed, she wasn’t going to for one minute let this woman think that Maggie thought she was too good for him. If anything, she was on his grandmother’s side—she herself didn’t think she was good enough.
By the time his grandmother left, though—much later in the evening than Alejandro would have liked as was clear from the way he jumped to his feet when she mentioned maybe it was time for her to go—it was clear it hadn’t freaked Alejandro out. Instead, the second he came back outside after walking his grandmother out, he came right up to where Maggie was sitting, tunneled his hands in her hair, and pulled her into a kiss so intense it took Maggie a full minute to catch her breath.
“What was that for?” she finally managed, pulling him down on the lounge chair next to her because she didn’t want him to move so much as even an inch away.
He stared at her for a few moments, then looked out over the valley below them as he settled back against the seat. “I’d been planning to break this off.”
“This?” Maggie asked, belatedly figuring it out a split second before he nodded and said, “Us. This thing we’ve been doing for all these years.”
Maggie’s entire body went cold. She only realized she’d begun to pull away when his arm came around her shoulder and he pulled her back down to him. Sprawled over him, actually, which was about to get really awkward if he was going to follow through with that statement.
Except then he looked back down into her eyes, and his hands went to her hips, and he pulled her down hard against him—hard being the operative word. “If I’d thought for a second you might be interested in more, I would have—”
Tears sprang to her eyes.
Bending down, she silenced him with a kiss. “Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t say what we should have done.” She ran her finger down his chest. Just so he knew he wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines… “I’ve had a crush on you since ninth grade.” She hooked the hem of his shirt. “And that was before you came into the library for that first session senior year and you picked up all my books.” Whispering, she added, “You acted like it was normal. Like I wasn’t a freak.”
His hands fell down to her knees, his thumbs inching up to the insides of her thighs. Voice rough, he said, “I liked that I made you nervous. I liked that you cared so much.”
She stole a peek at him, still afraid of scaring him off. Of letting on how deeply she felt about him, especially now that she knew it wasn’t just her. “You still make me nervous.” She had to force the words out because, yes, she still cared that much. “I just hide it better.”
At least she hoped. She’d spent all day with him and hadn’t yet knocked one thing over or had to straighten anything out.
His reaction was almost instantaneous, his arms wrapping around her and then pulling her back down. His hands were unbuttoning her jeans at the same time his mouth came to her throat and even just that had her crying out. He groaned when she returned the favor, unbuttoning his jeans and pulling his zipper down. He grabbed her by the shoulders, hauled her up the length of his body and barely waited the three seconds it took for her to push her jeans and panties off before impaling her with so much heat that her entire being nearly went up in flames. She tried to raise herself up—with every intention of slamming herself back down, of course—but he pulled her down instead. He dragged her against him, making sure there was enough pressure to bring tears to her eyes and driving her this close to insane. Then he cupped the back of her head, put his mouth to the base of her throat and sucked at the same exact moment he dragged her against him again.
“Mine,” he murmured, his hands tightening in her hair as he pulled back just enough to be able to look into her eyes. “You’re mine.”
Her climax was sudden and intense and never in her life had she felt so right as she did in that moment. She was trembling—nearly sobbing—as the waves crashed over her and then over again. A whimper rose up through her when he pulled out. His hand came down between them, brushing up against her clit and sending her soaring all over again, her brain only barely registering that he’d somehow remembered the condom, gotten it, and was putting it on. Then he was back inside her, and looking so deep into her eyes that all those sparks jumping around inside her erupted into flames all over again.
Everything she’d been missing for all of her life was suddenly right here, surrounding her and permeating the air.
His arms went so tight around her that, for the first time in her life, it was as if someone had her and would never let her go. She felt the groan rumble up through him as he came, never until this moment understanding what it meant to be so connected to someone. When his head fell back, she melted into him, feeling every beat as his heart thudded against her cheek.
She held on tight as they both came back to earth, clutching him even closer when he whispered, “Magdalena,” and ran his hand through her hair.
So overwhelmed with emotion Maggie was afraid she might start crying and never stop. She hadn’t quite planned on things being so intense. Her world was shifting and she had no idea what it meant.
The jumble of emotions must have shown on her face, because Alejandro smiled and then tucked her head against his chest. “Stop thinking, mi amor. Just let me hold you.”
The not thinking part was a physical impossibility, as far as Maggie was concerned. But since he insisted, she let herself snuggle into his warmth for a little while.
10
She fell asleep in his arms, and sitting here overlooking the valley that meant so much to him, both good and bad, Alejandro was pretty sure this was what it felt like to be sitting on top of the world.
He shifted her over, righted their clothes so they were both respectable, and went to take care of the condom, grabbing a couple of blankets on his way back outside and taking his boots off before he settled back in. Never in a million years would he have expected a day like this to happen and he wasn’t quite ready for it to end. So he stretched out next to Maggie, pulled her up against him and then the blankets over them, and closed his eyes.
He didn’t plan on spending the whole night outside—he figured at some point they would wake up and he’d take Maggie back to her hotel—but the sun was already up when he woke. His mind had been working during the night, though, and he’d apparently spent some REM time ruminating over why Maggie had had no plans yesterday, and why she’d been at her uncle’s bookstore all by herself. By the time she began to stir, he’d come up with an explanation, one he didn’t like very much. When she shifted in his arms and looked up at him, murmuring, “What are you thinking so hard about?” he almost didn’t answer. He figured they weren’t going to get anywhere if they kept on keeping things in the dark, however, so he went ahead and said, “You don’t come home during Crush to help out, do you? Or to see your friends?”
She stared up at him, biting her lip and then turning her head away.
He didn’t want her hiding. Placing his hand against her cheek, he tipped her head up. It nearly broke his heart to see the tears in her eyes. “Magdalena…�
��
“My family’s not like yours,” she answered after a much-too-long pause and skipping over the friend part entirely. “We’re just…different. It’s okay, though,” she said, even though it obviously wasn’t. “It’s always been that way.” Then she placed her hand over his and laced their fingers together; stared down at their hands. “It’s so crazy during Crush that it makes it…easier.”
“Easier.” he stated. “To not spend time together.”
She shrugged. And it seemed as though she was ready to move on to the next thing, except then her phone buzzed from somewhere in her bag, and right as she started to reach down, she froze and let her head fall to his chest. “Except my mom really wants me to come to breakfast today. She’s never done that before—I haven’t been home in years.”
Which was incomprehensible to Alejandro, given that his own mother would kill him if he didn’t come home for dinner at least one night a week. But he supposed it did help answer the question about Maggie knowing her mother’s housekeeping staff.
Or not.
“And I meant to tell her no,” Maggie was saying, “but then….” She blushed a little as she moved to sit up. Smoothing out her hair with her hands, she shrugged again, although this time she also smiled. “Yesterday wasn’t what I expected.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “No,” he said. “It wasn’t.” Not at all. He wasn’t sure where to go with that yet, though, nor did he want to think about it right now. He sat up straight as well. “Do you want me to bring you back to the hotel?”
“Magdalena,” he said when she didn’t answer after a few moments, looking out at the mountains instead.
She glanced over at him, then back at the view. Then she did that throwing back of her shoulders thing she did when she was about to say something she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. He tried not to grin.
“Would you come with me?” she asked. “To my mother’s?” She smiled grimly. “I can promise you excellent food and stilted, highly uncomfortable conversation.”
Uncomfortable? If this weren’t a Sunday, which his mother always had off, then uncomfortable wouldn’t even begin to describe it. It would be strange even without his mother there, as Mrs. Barnes definitely knew he was her housekeeper’s son even if Maggie had no clue. Plus there was the not-so-little matter of what Maggie’s father had said to him all those years back and whether Mrs. Barnes felt the same way. Given the uncertainty creeping into Maggie’s eyes, however, he knew she’d read more into his refusal than was there. Plus, if Mrs. Barnes had a problem with this…
Well, if they were really going to do something about this…thing…between them, it was better to know now rather than sweeping yet another thing under the rug.
He stood up and took her hand. “How about a shower first?”
He had no idea what was going to happen from here. Couldn’t quite picture what it would look like. But watching her climb the stairs to his bedroom settled him in a way he hadn’t expected. When she turned to him in the doorway to his bedroom and bent down to take off her boots… When she walked backwards toward the bathroom, shedding first her jeans, then her shirt, and then her bra, he felt that primal thing rise up again.
She was his. She belonged to him. And he to her, with everything he had in him.
When she reached in to turn on the shower and then pushed her panties down her legs slowly, he barely had the presence of mind to grab a condom before shedding his own clothes. He backed her up into the shower, turned her to face the tile. He was already beyond primed when she looked at him over her shoulder and said, “Don’t go slow.”
Two seconds later he had the condom on. Her fingers splayed against the tiles as he thrust into her. He grabbed onto her hands as he dropped his head down and nearly detonated at the feel of her against his chest. He had wanted to go slow; he’d wanted to show her something had changed deep inside of him. Something he wasn’t quite able—or willing, maybe—to name, but that he felt down to his very core. But all too soon her muscles were tightening around him and her hands were clenching his and she was calling out his name. He couldn’t have kept himself from coming if he tried.
Except, well, he didn’t try. After all, the woman had said not to go slow.
Since he seemed to be completely unable to control himself around her, he didn’t go inside the hotel with her once they finally got there, instead waiting for her in his truck outside as she ran inside to change her clothes. No fewer than three Romanos and one Duval—the other founding family—walked by in the five minutes he sat there, eyebrows raised and grins wide as they no doubt came to the correct conclusion of how he’d spent his night. He hoped Maggie had meant what she said about being okay with this being out in the open. Because between the motorcycle ride and him sitting here now, any possibility of secrecy was blown.
11
Half an hour later they were at Maggie’s mother’s front door. The woman herself answered, shock evident on her face. So apparently the news hadn’t traveled quite as quickly as he had expected.
“Alejandro,” she said, her smile coming a few seconds late.
“Mrs. Barnes,” he answered, taking off his baseball cap and nodding, just waiting for the door to slam in his face.
“Does, um, your mother know you’re here?” Mrs. Barnes asked, her eyes never leaving his face.
Hell, no. As far as his mother was concerned, he was a perfect Catholic boy and saving himself for marriage. She’d have been horrified to know he and Maggie had slept together before leaving for college, much less that Maggie hadn’t been his first. When she found out their relationship—if that’s what you could call it—had been going on for years, even if it had begun long before his mother started working for Mrs. Barnes… That was not a conversation he was looking forward to.
But he had to get through this one first.
Ignoring the puzzled look on Maggie’s face as she glanced between the two of them, Alejandro just shook his head and hoped with everything he had that Mrs. Barnes would agree with him this was not the time to share his mother’s employment status.
Thankfully, Mrs. Barnes was fine moving on, the brightness of her smile intensifying as she stepped back to usher them inside. “Come, come.” And she was perfectly welcoming as she led the way to the kitchen. If she shared her husband’s feelings she wasn’t letting it show.
The house hadn’t changed much since Alejandro had been here the first time: the summer after his senior year of college when he’d been helping out his father and uncles by laying out the new kitchen floor. Since Mrs. Barnes didn’t mention it, however, he didn’t either. Instead he stood back as Maggie’s mother laid an extra place at the table, assuring Maggie that, no, it wasn’t a problem at all and she was glad Maggie had brought a friend.
“Lover,” Maggie corrected, reaching for the coffee and seeming surprised when Alejandro choked on the sip of water he’d just taken.
Okay, then. She’d meant what she’d said about it being out in the open. He’d known she was direct, but not quite to that extent.
“I’m sorry,” she said, glaring at him. “Were we trying to keep that a secret?” The implication being, I thought we were done with that.
Which of course was the moment his mother walked into the dining room, carrying the tray that held their breakfast. She stopped short when she saw him sitting there.
Sitting there with Maggie.
Alejandro actually did a doubletake. Jumping to his feet, he went to take the tray from her, only belatedly realizing that probably wasn’t done. But if she’d been in his house carrying a tray he wouldn’t have let her so she wasn’t going to do that here.
“Alejandro,” she said, her face going pale. “Is your father…?”
Realizing she had no clue why her son would be here right now, he assured her that, yes, his father was okay, as were his siblings, his aunts, uncles, and cousins, and everyone else they were related to as far as he knew.
“Why are you working today?�
�� he asked.
Why this Sunday of all days?
She crossed herself in thanks before answering. “Julia’s daughter has a new friend.” She blushed a little as she said the word, knowing full well what that meant. “I wanted to meet him, too.”
Right. Because although she was the housekeeper, she insisted she and Mrs. Barnes were friends. It felt entirely wrong to Alejandro, but his mother seemed happy with it. And his father was happy she was happy, so who was Alejandro to question her?
Except then his mother’s eyes widened and she went still again. “Alejandro.” She shook her head as she realized he was that friend. “Oh, Alejandro…”
He put the tray on the sideboard, took one look at Maggie and knew there was far too much damage control for him to manage while also keeping his mother from going a little crazy on him, and took her by the elbow. “Will you excuse us for a moment?”
Both Maggie and her mother—still somewhat in shock—nodded as he led his mother back into the kitchen, where she proceeded to lay into him in a string of Spanish so fast even he could barely keep up, ending with, “The damage you could do. Alejo,” she added almost mournfully. “You need to—”
“No,” he said in a tone he’d never used to speak to his mother before, not wanting to hear the doubt in her voice.
Because for whatever concerns he still might have, he’d spent too many years thinking Maggie had hidden him away when what she’d really been doing was protecting herself from a truth she was so certain of, and yet was 100% inaccurate. So although he hadn’t specifically told Maggie why he’d thought that, he absolutely needed to acknowledge he’d also come to some wrong conclusions. As much as it pained him to say anything sounding disrespectful, he said, “You’re the one who insists Mrs. Barnes is more your friend than employer.” Talking right on past the sudden flush in his mother’s cheeks, he added, “If that’s truly the case, why would it even matter? All that matters is that she’s the woman I lo—”
