Dangerous Redemption: A Single Parent Forbidden Romance Novel (Paths To Love Book 4)

by Grahame Claire

  “She'll be twenty . . .” He looked up at me, his head tilted to the side. “How old will you be, Mama?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “I’m starving. Can we eat now?” Gabriel didn’t wait for a response, already at home in Muriella and Stone’s apartment and making a beeline for the kitchen.

  I touched the exposed flesh of Carlos's forearm, masking my immediate reaction as tingles shot up my fingers. He froze, his eyes locking on mine. “The difference in our ages doesn't bother me,” I said, tightening my grip around his arm for emphasis. “I'd say my initial reaction to you should make that pretty clear.”

  “First impressions are important.” Carlos trailed a finger from my temple down to my collarbone. “But I'm more interested in how you react to me now.”

  Goose bumps pebbled my skin under the silk blouse, and my breath caught in my throat.

  “What will you do when I slip my fingers inside you?” My nails dug into his arm, and I swayed on my heels. He steadied me. “How wet will you be for me?” His breath was warm on my ear, yet I shivered when his teeth grazed my lobe.

  “It’s easy enough to find out,” I breathed, pulse racing as I thought about being caught in this position and immediately deciding I didn't care.

  “There's one more question for you.” Subtly, he pulled me flush against him, leaving no room to doubt exactly how much he desired me when I felt his hard length straining against his jeans. Carlos barely grazed my lips. “When?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Carlos

  “We should discuss tomorrow.”

  Holly glanced toward Gabriel’s room, though we’d just tucked him in. She propped a hip against the island in the kitchen. Apparently, I wasn’t going to be invited to stay long enough to have a seat.

  “I’ll figure something out.” She spun her phone around on the stone countertop, staring at the device as if it held the solution to her problem instead of me.

  “What time is Gabriel required to be at school?”

  “Eight.”

  “And when do you need to be at the office?”

  When she met my gaze, she appeared exhausted. “Eight thirty.”

  “With the traffic, we might have a narrow window, but we’ll drop Gabriel off, and then I’ll take you to work.” I yearned to pull her into my arms, promise there was no reason to be stressed, but instead, I shoved my hand in my pocket and gripped Mama’s rosary.

  “We can take the subway,” she said halfheartedly.

  “Nonsense. Muriella gave me full use of all the vehicles in the garage, including Daniel’s.” Holly was more than capable, but I preferred to see she and Gabriel made it anywhere they needed to go personally. She didn’t want a bodyguard. I didn’t care.

  “It’s not fair to ask this of you.”

  “You don’t have to. I want to do it. Besides, with everyone gone, I’ll be bored. This will keep me out of trouble.” I winked. My God, when was the last time I winked at a woman? When was the last time I’d desired to go out of my way for someone else? I honestly couldn’t remember. But these two angels made me feel when I hadn’t in a very long time. This was the least I could do.

  “I’ll check with Miss Jacobs and see if I can work from home in the afternoon.” Round and round her phone went.

  I reached out and stopped it. Her attention came back to me, exactly where I wanted it. “It’s only a couple of hours. Gabriel and I can hang out after school.”

  “No,” she said quickly, then cleared her throat. “That’s-that’s not a great idea.”

  “Why?” As much as I wanted to push the issue, this was her decision. I was more than happy to help her see me looking after her and Gabriel was the best one, but preferred she came to the conclusion on her own.

  “For all the reasons I’ve mentioned before. And you have other things to do. We aren’t your responsibility.” Her protest could barely be called as such.

  I took her fingers in mine. “You think I’m the one doing you a favor but quite the opposite is true.” When I gently squeezed, she leaned toward me. “I need to do something good. Something worthwhile. This is where I need to start.”

  She wanted to say no. It was in the way her nose wrinkled and her mouth flattened.

  “Okay.” She squeezed my fingers back.

  Unable to stand the island between us, I strode around it until we were inches apart. With our hands still linked, I lifted hers to my lips and kissed her knuckles.

  A sharp gasp escaped her, and those green eyes darkened.

  “Do I need to tuck you in?” I ran my thumb over the pulse point in her wrist, excited when I felt the throb beneath her skin pick up pace.

  Her phone chimed, and she jumped, the spell between us temporarily broken.

  Jason is back in jail.

  She snatched her phone up, but I’d already seen the text. Who was Jason? And why was my Beauty associated with anyone in jail?

  She tapped furiously on the touch screen, paused, and tapped again. But there was never an indication she sent a message in response. She laid the phone back on the counter as if it were offensive.

  “Problem?” I asked casually, though I felt anything but.

  “You saw.” She looked down and rubbed the back of her head. “It’s for the best. He’s safer there, but it doesn’t get any easier no matter how many times it happens.”

  “Gabriel’s father?” The words were more difficult to speak than they should’ve been. I wasn’t sure what it was that coursed through my veins, but it was something more acute than the rage I was used to.

  Holly recoiled as if I’d struck her. “No. My brother.”

  The relief I expected to follow didn’t come. While I didn’t want Gabriel’s father to be in prison, if he were, that meant he was out of my way, which was completely and utterly selfish.

  “Do we need to bail him out?’ I asked carefully.

  She yanked on her hair before she dropped her arm to her side. “At least in jail those people can’t get to him. And maybe he’ll sober up some.”

  A deep-set frown line marred her forehead. Her stress was palpable, and I wanted to strike some sense into her brother for putting her in this position.

  “What people?” The control I had on my temper was quickly unraveling. I had the distinct feeling I was all too familiar with the kind she was referring.

  She darted her gaze back toward Gabriel’s room and lowered her voice. “Just before Christmas, some men came by my house looking for Jason. They told me he had until Friday to pay or Gabriel and I would . . .” She swallowed hard. “Miss Jacobs came by a couple of days later with the news about the move to New York. I don’t know what I’d have done . . .”

  She clutched the cross around her neck. I resisted the urge to go to Houston, find these motherfuckers who threatened her, and make certain they never so much as thought of her or Gabriel again.

  “It’s awful when it’s a relief your own brother is back in jail,” she said before I could respond. “It means he’s not dead. That’s the call I know is yet to come.”

  I collected her in an embrace and pressed her head to my chest. She wound her arms around my waist and clung to me like she desperately needed an anchor.

  “I’d pay for rehab, but he has to want to do it on his own,” she said into my chest. “How did he ever have a chance when we’ve been around drugs our whole lives?”

  Dread descended fast and furious. When she’d said sober, I’d hoped she meant alcohol. Of course it was drugs that had a noose around his neck.

  What had me really nervous was how she would react when she found out what I was. Because of men like me, her brother was addicted to a substance that wouldn't let him go and caused her undeserved heartache and stress. The business that sustained my family had destroyed hers. Though I hadn't personally sold her brother whatever he was hooked on, I felt responsible for the position Holly was in now because of him.

  I clutched Holly more tightly. When she discovered the truth
about me—and she would because the truth always had a way of coming to light—she would hate me. She'd distanced herself from her own brother because he was a danger to her son. I was the leader of the largest cartel in Central America, and though I'd taken it down to nothing, most of my rivals didn't know that. Whether I wanted that position or not, it was the one I'd inherited. Until today, I'd shunned it, but I realized I might need to use the power that came along with the title.

  “Beauty, sometimes the right thing is the most difficult to do.”

  “It feels horrible,” she choked out. “He's my brother. His choices are his own, but somehow, I feel like whether he lives or dies is in my hands. That's why I always leave him in jail. I thought he'd be safer there. Maybe stay clean long enough for it to stick this time.”

  “What happens to your brother is up to him. I don't doubt for one second you've done all you can to help him. We're taught blood means everything, that because of it we have a responsibility to stick by our family no matter what they do, even if it costs us everything. But that's not true. You're putting Gabriel first, and that’s no reason for you to feel one ounce of guilt. Do you understand me?”

  She nodded, her emerald eyes sad. “That could have so easily been me,” she whispered, lowering her chin in defeat.

  “Choices, Holly. At the end of the day, we're responsible for our own.”

  Her face contorted in pain, and she shook her head as if I didn't understand what I was saying. “Our parents are addicts. My mother says she only smoked weed when she was pregnant with me, but I know she did harder stuff while she was carrying my brother. I might have only been four, but I remember.” Her eyes were haunted. “I tried to keep my brother away from drugs. We even lived with people from a church for a while. But I failed. He was ten the first time I caught him smoking a joint. I was hardly in a position to scold him when he was doing it with our parents.”

  Fuck me. The hatred I felt toward myself grew exponentially closer to what I felt for my father. I knew better than anyone what the clutches of addiction felt and looked like. My family had preyed on that very thing. And what kind of people let their children around that stuff at such a young age?

  “It's not your fault,” I soothed, though she didn't believe me. “I'm so sorry. So very sorry.”

  “Why? You didn't make my family the way they are,” she mumbled.

  A sick feeling of dread washed over me. Maybe not her family, but others. I rubbed her back and kissed her hair until her breathing evened out, and I still didn't want to let her go. Her body against mine felt too right, and as much as I was holding Holly to comfort her, it was for me too. I had done nothing to help her with her problems, yet she made me feel needed. As if my support was keeping her grounded.

  The answer as to the best way to handle her brother wasn't a simple one. Shipping him off to rehab would do no good if it wasn't what he wanted, and even if I somehow got him out of that environment and set him on the path to being clean, it was no guarantee he’d stay straight. If I left him in Houston and he died, she'd never forgive herself. Why should I help a man I didn't know? Insert myself into problems that were best left alone, especially when I had enough of my own? It didn’t make sense at all. But when I thought back to Stone’s face earlier today when he’d fought to make sure his wife would be safe, I felt the same determination. Need. The woman in my arms had become so important to me. She is mine. So I would enter the fight on her behalf.

  Because I would do anything to make my Beauty's world as perfect as I could. Maybe I felt her brother deserved a second chance—or a third or fourth. If he could be redeemed, there was hope I could be.

  Chapter Twenty

  Holly

  “Have a good day, baby.”

  Gabriel waved and smiled as he trotted down the sidewalk toward the new school. He was fine. I was the nervous wreck.

  A strong arm slipped around my shoulders and pulled me in for a side hug. “He’ll do great.”

  I looked up at Carlos, who was still laser focused on the door of Saint Pius where Gabriel had just disappeared inside of. Did he sound . . . nervous?

  “I know.” And I did. The protective side of me wanted to make sure my son had me within arm’s reach if he needed me.

  As a little girl, I'd always imagined being a stay-at-home mom who baked cookies and had supper on the table at six every evening. Those notions hadn't come from a real-life example. I wanted the exact opposite of what I'd had. Also tangled up in that fantasy was an all-consuming romance with a man I couldn't function without, someone who thought of me as the center of his world. Things hadn't played out like that at all. Not even close.

  I wanted more time with Gabriel, but I also loved my job. It was difficult to picture not working for Miss Jacobs, and I'd been close to finding out exactly what that would be like. She'd taken care of Gabriel's schooling and afforded me a position that made sure I wouldn't have to worry about where our next meal was coming from or how I would put a roof over our heads.

  Carlos gave my shoulders a squeeze, those dark eyes penetrating when he met mine. “Shall we get you to the office?”

  He opened the back door to the Town Car. I slid inside, and he confirmed the address of my office building with the driver. As we waited to pull out into traffic, he raised the privacy glass.

  With the barrier, the interior of the car seemed smaller. My heart rate sped up at being in the enclosed space with Carlos.

  “You didn’t have to do this.” I waved around the car.

  “Gabriel enjoyed the ride.” His long legs were stretched out in front of him, the dark slacks accentuating them as if they’d been custom tailored. The white button-down shirt popped against his cinnamon skin, and I swallowed hard at the hint of his chest, taunting me. “No more trouble?”

  “No. I haven't heard anything else.” I averted my eyes. Just because Jason was back in jail didn’t mean everything was okay. His parole officer kept me as informed as she could, but there had been no communication with her beyond her text.

  “Nothing exists outside this car while I get you to work.”

  He left me no room to argue. The only thing in my world right here and now was him.

  “Okay,” I said shakily, my nerves getting the best of me.

  “You are simply magnificent.” His index finger ran down my sternum between the V of my blouse, and I held my breath. “This is still what you want?” His thumb brushed my bottom lip, and he might as well have touched me between my thighs.

  “Yes,” I answered without hesitation.

  He grasped my chin and locked eyes with me. “Take off your panties.” Here? Now? I glanced at the partition separating us from the driver and wondered how private we really were. “I won't repeat myself. Do it or this ends.”

  I sucked in a lungful of air and stuck my hands under my skirt, attempting to keep myself as covered as possible in the process. I shimmied my panties off my hips and down my legs until I had the red lace in my hands, uncertain what to do with them now that they were off.

  “Give them to me.” I dropped them in his palm. “Did you wear these for me, Beauty?”

  Heat crept up my neck in a blistering pace to my cheeks, undoubtedly giving away my embarrassment. “Yes,” I whispered. I'd most definitely had Carlos in mind when I'd skipped over my white cotton underwear this morning.

  “Very good.” He tucked them into the front pocket of his shirt, the red looking pink as it showed through the white fabric. His large hand cupped my thigh. I inched down the seat, itching for him to go higher. What the hell? I'd propositioned him for sex. The ride to work wasn't infinite. If the man was willing to give me orgasms, I was ready to receive them.

  His fingers moved against the skin of my leg, so lightly it might not have registered had I not been so focused on his touch. Then, as if a cord holding him back had been cut, his lips found mine. They were every bit as penetrating as the look he'd given me seconds before. He was forbidden, and not because I wouldn't l
et myself get close to him. Carlos was the grown version of a bad boy. Something about him was dangerous, yet there was just enough good that made him utterly enticing. He kissed me like it was his right to do so. Like he had to do it. There was no chance to think about resisting—not that I would have.

  The hand on my thigh flexed, and I closed them together, all the stimulation congregating at my throbbing clit. I leaned toward him, the small distance between us suddenly too much. I grazed the pocket stuffed with my underwear and blushed, but it wasn't from shame. It turned me on. I was already squirming in my seat, seeking friction.

  His mouth skated across my jaw, nipping on the flesh between my ear and neck. I shivered, my head falling back. “We don't have much time,” he murmured regretfully. I'd forgotten I had anywhere to be at all. “How many, Beauty?”

  His finger trailed from my shoulder down to my breast, circling my nipple over the fabric of my blouse. “One?” That felt optimistic, seeing as we were probably less than ten minutes away from the office.

  Carlos looked disappointed. “Is that all you want?” Round and round his finger went in an almost hypnotic fashion. He pinched my nipple hard, and I yelped in surprise. He soothed the sting with his thumb.

  “No,” I confessed.

  “I didn't think so.”

  His knuckles skimmed down my stomach, and if he touched my skin, I doubted I'd be able to take it. My hips lifted off the seat. Carlos slid down until his knees hit the carpeted floor in front of me, his lids heavy as he looked up. His hands splayed on my thighs, spreading me wide. I tried to snap them closed, uncomfortable with the close-up view he had.

  “Lift your skirt up around your waist. Slowly.” His hands followed my skirt upward, pressing enough to remind me where he was. “Spread your legs wider. I want to see that pretty cunt.” I gasped. No man had ever said that word to me. Carlos was completely unapologetic. I let my thighs fall wide. I was out of my comfort zone, but I was already more turned on than I'd ever been. No risk, no reward, and the way Carlos devoured the sight of my most intimate place, I anticipated a great reward.