“I did. I want to get some advice from your man, Camilla.” She takes a long drink of her beer, while she waits to see if Cami will approve her request.
Without looking at me to see what I have to say about it, she gives her older sister a nod of approval and I feel prickles of heat run down my spine. What has she gotten me into?
Catarina looks at me as she lowers the tall brown bottle off her full lips. “Am I pretty to you, Cyprian?”
Oh, shit!
“That’s not a loaded question at all, is it?” I ask with a chuckle.
Cami nudges me. “It’s okay to answer truthfully.”
I weigh my answer, carefully before I speak, “You are very pretty, as is your mother and your sister. In fact, the whole family looks like something out of a movie.”
Cami smiles and leans in close to me as we sit on a large swing that’s hanging from an ancient oak tree. “Good way to say it, babe.”
Her sister eyes me. “You are good with your words. I knew a man like that once.”
Cami cautions her, “He isn’t Peter, Rina. Don’t go hostile on him.”
“If you had me, would you want anyone else?” Catarina asks me.
“Another loaded question,” I say. “I don’t know you. If you’re asking me, by your looks alone, would I ever want anyone other than you, I have to say I have been with many beautiful women and did want more. It wasn’t until I met this little beauty beside me that I found myself only wanting her.”
Cami looks at me with a frown on her face. “That’s not exactly true.”
“Okay, at first, it wasn’t. But then it became true. You know that,” I say then kiss the side of her head.
“Have you hurt my sister?” Catarina asks me then takes another drink.
“I have,” I admit. “I have hurt her deeply and I have to tell you that I am ashamed of the pain I’ve caused her and have made a vow to her and myself never to do that again.”
“Huh,” she says as she puts the bottle on the ground next to her chair. “How have you hurt her, Cyprian?”
“Never mind about that,” Cami tells her as she takes my hand. “That’s our business and that’s behind us. It’s taken a lot of work to get that behind us and I won’t be bringing it back out to banter about with anyone. Okay?”
The conviction in Cami’s voice makes my heart swell. It’s the first time I’ve heard her say anything like that. I kind of feared what I did would haunt us forever. But it sounds like she really means it’s behind us.
I give her hand a squeeze. “I love you, Cami.”
She smiles and bats her long lashes at me. “I love you too.”
Her sister, clearing her throat, has us turning our attention back to her. “I assume my little sister has let you in on my predicament.”
I nod. “She has.”
“Any advice on how to handle sharing my husband with another woman?” Her eyes glisten in the moonlight as she holds back her tears.
“You knew who he was and what he was capable of doing when you married him. Cami told me you two dated for two years, were engaged for one year then married and immediately started your family. Tell me, has he spoken to you about the number of children he wants?”
“As many as he can have,” she says then picks up her beer and drinks the rest of it.
“And you were okay with that?” I ask her as she doesn’t look to be fine with it.
The way her head shakes tells me she jumped into something without thinking it through. “No, I wasn’t. You see, I have committed what he called a crime against our marriage. While visiting my parents, when Sax was two months old, I went to a doctor here and got a birth control shot that lasts three months. I’ve visited them every three months to keep the shots up. I did this without telling him about doing it.”
“Oh, shit!” Cami says. “Why did you do that?”
“Obviously, I wanted a break between babies. I did the same thing after I had Sadie. Only now that I haven’t gotten pregnant again, Peter’s found me out,” Catarina says as she looks up at the sky. “I just wanted a small break between having babies, that’s all.”
“His religion doesn’t allow that,” I tell her. “I know you’re aware of that. I know me saying it doesn’t help a damn thing. But you made a commitment, knowing these things. Is the woman he’s thinking about adding as a wife in the same religion he is?”
She nods and Cami mumbles, “You’re fucked.”
I give her a look that tells her to have a bit more compassion. “Look, Catarina, there’s not much you can do but to accept this. Unless you want to give up any life with your kids in it.”
“I’ll never do that,” she says as I see her tears glistening in the moonlight.
“Then accept your fate. You went into that marriage with your head on straight. You looked at the odds and thought you could handle them. But I would offer you this bit of advice. Consider getting off that birth control and giving your husband what you promised him you would. Before making such a drastic commitment, though. I’d ask him if he’d consider not taking another wife if you’d do that for him and your marriage.”
“I don’t want to do that. I want to stay on birth control and when my children are grown, I’ll leave him then.” She looks at me as if to ask me if that’s even possible.
“He can divorce you and keep the kids anyway if you go with that plan. You must realize that,” I tell her and watch her melt into a puddle of tears.
Cami gets up and goes to hug her sister, shushing her and telling her things will be okay. It doesn’t sound as if they’ll be okay but who am I to point that out at this moment?
Cami looks at me and her eyes go bright as she does. “Catarina, let me talk to Cyprian in private. If he agrees then I’ll tell you my plan in the morning.”
Her sister nods and sniffles as she tries to pull herself together and I give Cami a look that says, I have nothing I can do about the man or their marriage.
Cami comes and takes me by the hand, leading me back into the house and all the way into her old bedroom. “Cami, there’s not a thing I can do.”
“What if I told you there is something you can do?” she asks as she begins to change into her night clothes.
I start ditching my clothes and make it into the bed first. She eyes me as I do. “I’m not going to even attempt to sleep in pajamas, baby. It’s humid as hell here.”
She nods in agreement and finds a thin nightgown out of a dresser where she has left some of her clothes. I sigh as she pulls it over her head. How I wish the one month mark was here already.
I pull the blanket back and she slips into the little bed with me and leans up on her elbow, looking down at me. “Okay, hear me out before you say a thing, please.”
I nod but know there’s no plan that could possibly work out for her sister. I wish there was but there just isn’t a thing anyone can do. Her sister made her bed, now she has to lie in it.
And maybe with another woman too…?
Chapter 5
CAMILLA
“So, you see it might work. Peter’s not a bad man. I think what my sister pulled, left him thinking he had no other choice but to take another wife. If he was around us more, I think he’d find it in his heart to allow her a few years between children. I think it’s being in his home country that has him wanting to save face.”
Cyprian looks away then back at me. “He’ll only be allowed a work visa. That means he’ll have to leave the country at least once a year.”
“And that’s when you’ll have him take a month in France to give that manager a vacation. He can take Catarina and the kids with him for that month. It will work, I know it will!” I am over the top excited that I came up with such a great plan.
“You do realize this requires me buying two hotels. Plus, hiring another manager for the France hotel. And I’m not even in that business. I’m in investments,” he says as he looks doubtful.
“So, you buy two hotels and hire managers to do the rest. Y
ou are rich and you did tell me whatever I wanted, you’d give me. Well, I want two hotels to help my sister keep her family.” I look him square in the eyes and ask him for the first thing ever and wait to see if he will give it to me.
“Might I have a meeting with this man first, before I go getting into the hotel business, baby?” he asks me then pulls me to him and kisses the top of my head. “I will do it for you. I just want to see if I have to hire a real manager to oversee him or if he knows what he’s doing.”
I clap and giggle and kiss his face all over. “Thank you, thank you!”
He laughs as I kiss him then holds me back. “I suppose you want the American hotel to be in Clemson, so they spend more time with us, correct?”
I nod and he smiles at me. “I’m beginning to be able to read you like a book.”
“You are,” I say and cuddle into his side. “Man, this bed is little.” I have to readjust and end up lying on his left side or I’ll fall off the bed.
“I’m happy to have your attitude being more positive. It makes my heart go all bumpy.” He pulls me up even more on top of him and I hug him tight.
So, I’ve asked him for something huge and he’s agreed to it. Maybe this thing between us really is going places.
But should I really be incorporating my family into it, so soon…?
Chapter 6
CYPRIAN
“That’s a grand gesture,” Cami’s father says after we’ve told everyone our plan for keeping Catarina’s family together. “Peter is a smart man. I can assure you he’ll work hard for you, Cyprian.”
I find the whole family is all smiles and then I go and do a bit more. “I’m not a man who knows a thing about the running of hotels. I can make the investment but that’s about all I can do.” I turn to Carlyle. “Can I count on you to assist Peter with this endeavor? That can be your internship and if you like that kind of work, I can make you a permanent part of the business structure.”
He nods and I see his father looking at him with a ton of pride in his expression. “I sure would love that opportunity. Thank you!”
Catarina looks a little worried as she says, “But he’ll ask about where we’ll live.”
“In the hotel,” Cami says. “We’ll have the top floor, renovated to accommodate your whole family.”
Catarina nods then looks at me. “Are you some kind of an angel, Cyprian?”
I laugh. “Far from it.”
Cami looks at me as she laughs too and I know she knows I’m no angel. “Well, we’re off to go on a swamp tour. Does anyone care to join us?”
No one comes forward, so she and I leave her family behind to go see some alligators. We hold hands as we go out to borrow her father’s car and I open the passenger door for her. “My lady.”
She kisses my cheek then gets inside the car. When I get into the driver’s side, I find her gazing at me. “I love you more than you can imagine.”
“Baby, you’ve given me more in my life than anyone ever has. I feel like a part of a real family, for the first time ever. And it feels awesome.” I take her hand and kiss it then run the back of it over my cheek. “Thank you.”
“Thank you, Cyprian. Thank you for everything. The hard times and the good times. I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
Watching her smile like she is, has my heart doing flips. “This really is the best feeling. Do you think we can really get your family around us in Clemson?”
Then her head falls and she looks down. “My mother and father will never leave my grandparents, alone. And they’ll never leave.”
“I’m sorry,” I say as I lift her hand back up to my lips. “But we can always visit a lot. I love them, Cami. They’re great. Next to visit is your grandparents. We can go see them after our swamp tour.”
She gets happy again as the smile returns to her pretty face. “Maybe things will go this well when I meet your parents.”
I nod and drive away but I have a feeling things won’t go as well as they’ve gone with her family. My parents are nothing like hers. She has a real family and I have a couple of people who never fully developed as grown-ups. That’s painfully obvious to me now that I’ve been around a real family.
“Can you be brutally honest with me, Cami?”
She nods. “Sure.”
“Do you think I’ll make a good father?”
She looks at me with a smile and sighs. “I do. I really do.”
“Can I ask you another question then?”
“Sure.”
“When do you think you can let me become one?”
She laughs and I find it a lighthearted sound. One that tells me she’s not that far off from the idea. “We’ll just have to see about that, Romeo.”
I shut my mouth and bide my time. She’s coming along much faster than I anticipated. Becoming a father might not be years and years away like she said it would be. Especially if we have aunts and uncles around to help care for our brood.
I look over at her and picture her with a swollen stomach, full of my baby and my cock stirs. I look away as that’s still a no, no. Damn this recuperation is taking forever!
Can I really wait that long…?
Chapter 7
CAMILLA
Our stay has extended to two more days, so Peter can fly in and meet with Cyprian. He’s having him flown over by private jet and Peter sounded impressed when I overheard him talking to Catharina on her cell.
Cyprian, Catarina, and I are using Papa’s car to pick up Peter from the small airport we flew into a few days ago. My family has taken to Cyprian better than I imagined they would.
“Is it odd that I’m so excited to see my husband?” Catharina asks us. “I mean, I know he’s had sex with another woman while I’ve been gone.”
“Let it go, Rina,” I tell her. “Trust me, you can get over it.” I look at Cyprian who goes pink with embarrassment.
My sister leans up from the back seat and pats him on the shoulder. “I could tell you were a bad boy. But you seem to have grown out of it.”
“Great,” he says as he seems at a loss for words.
We laugh a little as he pulls up to the airport and we see the black jet pulling in too. “Just in time,” I say as we stop.
We all get out and in moments my sister is hugging her husband as Cyprian and I watch them. “What a married couple can get through, huh, baby,” Cyprian says as he pulls me close.
“All I know is, you better never put my ass through that.” I pinch his butt a little and he smacks mine, lightly.
“Nor you.”
“Agreed,” I say as my sister and brother-in-law stop hugging and kissing and come toward us.
Cyprian lets me go as he steps forward, extending his hand. “Hello, Peter. I’m Cyprian Girard, CEO of Libertine Investments. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Peter says then stops shaking his hand to give me a hug. “How’s my gorgeous sister-in-law?”
“I’m fine.” I pat him on the back as we end our hug.
“Shall we?” Cyprian asks as he gestures to the car. “I’ve made lunch reservations at someplace called, The Grill Room that Cami has assured me is excellent food and a great place to discuss our business.”
Peter gives him a nod as he opens the door for my sister who gets inside, all the while gazing at her attractive husband. It’s no wonder she doesn’t want to share him. He’s an exotic beauty, that man!
I scoot across the seat to sit right next to Cyprian as my sister and her husband begin to make-out in the back seat. “Sorry about this,” I whisper to Cyprian as I turn up the music, so we don’t have to hear the heavy breathing coming from them both.
He leans over and whispers. “Get out your cell and make them reservations somewhere crazily expensive in the French Quarter for the next two nights. I think they need to rekindle their romance.”
I do as he says and find myself smiling all the while. Cyprian is surprising me more and more with each passing day. He’s insightful and he
lpful, and just plain wonderful!
“I love you,” I tell him after I’ve received confirmation of the reservations at Ritz-Carlton.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of cash. “Slip this to your sister when you get a chance. I don’t want to leave them downtown without any money.”
When I count the money, I shake my head. “Baby, this is too much.”
He shakes his head right back at me. “No, it’s not. Just give it to her.”
I place the cash in my purse and think he’s nuts but he has more money than I have an imagination of just how much it really is. If he wants to splurge on my sister and her husband, who am I to stop him?
As we pull to a stop in front of the restaurant to let the valet take the car, my sister has to pull herself off her husband and we get out and go inside. I find them both glowing and think I was dead on right with my idea of bringing him to her.
Once we’re seated, Cyprian begins to let Peter know what he has planned. We don’t want Peter to think this is just something to get him to do what my sister wants him to do. Cyprian tells him the plan and asks for his help.
Peter thinks he’s negotiating but he has no idea Cyprian will give him more than what he’s asking for. Just as Peter looks as if he’s trying to make a decision about what to do, I open my mouth, “He left out the most important part, Peter. You will be getting a share of the profits each quarter and that will go all the way down to your children when they turn eighteen. Fifty percent of the profits, to be exact.”
His dark brown eyes narrow as he looks at me. “You are kidding, aren’t you?”
Cyprian chimes in, “She isn’t. I wanted her to tell you. You see, I’m an investor, not a person who knows how to run a hotel. That’s why I’m willing to give you not only a salary but a percentage as well. Plus, I like your kids and want to give them something they can reap from what you sow.”
“This is much too nice of you. I can’t let you do this,” Peter says, making us all stop and look at him.
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