I would kill anyone who dared to touch what was mine.
“Diego.”
My father’s voice brought me up short, and I spun around to see him sitting up in his bed. He motioned for me to come over and sit in the chair beside him. “Only one thing puts that look on a man’s face.”
My eyebrows rose in surprise, and he chuckled. “Give me some credit, son. I’ve been married to your mamá for forty-one years. I’ve seen it in the mirror from time to time.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I insisted, not wanting my father to stress over anything.
“Stop treating me like an invalid,” he grouched. “I get enough of that from your mother and sisters. Now, tell me about her.”
I hesitated, but my father was always the one I’d gone to for anything, so the story just spilled out. When I got to the part about hacking into her life, I cringed, worried he would tell me I was crazy and to get some professional help. But he’d laughed and glanced over at my mother.
“If they’d had that kind of technology available when I met your mother, I doubt I’d have done any different. Unfortunately, when she went away with her family, I had no way to watch over her.” He gestured to my face. “And now you see why I recognize your predicament.”
I nodded but tried to steer things away so he would rest. “We can talk about this later, Papá.”
“Do you remember when I took you for that drink after your mother made you so mad bugging you about grandchildren?”
“Of course,” I replied. It had always stuck with me.
I used to look to my father for help when my mother was on my last nerve about kids. He had never stepped in, and I just assumed he was as scared of my mother as the rest of us. Until one day, he took me out for that drink and explained.
“There is no one on this earth that I love more than your mamá. And when you love someone like that, you’ll do whatever it takes to make them happy.”
We’d always known our parents were deeply in love, and their relationship had set a high bar for us. None of us would settle for less. “So you keep quiet so she won’t be mad?” I’d asked.
My father had snorted a laugh and rolled his eyes, then taken a swallow of his drink before replying. “I didn’t say avoid making her upset, boy. I said make her happy. I strive to do that every day.”
I’d scratched my goatee and studied him as I tried to understand. “I fail to see the difference in this situation.”
“Grandchildren will make her happy, Diego. So no, I don’t stop her from pestering you.” Then he’d shocked the fuck out of me with his next statement. “I encourage it.”
I honestly hadn't known what to say.
The funny thing was, the one thing that stuck with me from that conversation wasn’t that he’d perpetuated my misery. It was the depth with which he loved my mother. It was one of the reasons I’d quit looking for a relationship. How could their love ever be replicated? I wouldn't settle for less, and it was unlikely I’d ever find it. So, I gave up before I could really even try.
Allison changed all of that in an instant.
“Do you spend every day plotting to make her dreams come true, Diego?” my father asked, pulling me from my memories.
“Yes.”
“Do you love her?”
“To the depths of my soul,” I answered without hesitation.
“Then stop worrying about me and go get your girl.”
“But—”
“Is she going to be the reason you finally give your mamá nietos?”
I grinned, but then it fell into a deep frown when I remembered why I’d been so agitated in the first place. “Soon,” I grunted.
“What did I say about actually making your mamá happy, son? Get a move on. And don’t come back until she’s pregnant.”
I looked around dubiously. We were still at the hospital for crying out loud. I couldn’t just leave. Who would take care of everything?
“I’m proud of the man you’ve become, Diego. And I know it’s second nature for you to step in and take charge, being so much older than your brother and sisters.”
My parents had conceived me shortly after their wedding and then hadn’t been able to get pregnant again. After ten years, they quit trying. Then a year later, my mother was pregnant. Two years later, my next sister came along, then one more after that. Each time, they’d chalked it up to a miracle and assumed it was their last. After four kids, three of whom were unplanned, they were happy with our family and had decided it was time to stop leaving it up to fate, so my father got a vasectomy. Four years later, my mother was pregnant with the twins.
I remembered that day vividly. My father had strutted around, puffed up like a peacock with a dopey grin on his face for days. “Can’t keep a good man down,” he’d told their friends, earning a laugh from me and a smack on the arm from my horrified mother.
As the oldest, it was natural for me to lead, to set an example, and be the one everyone could depend on.
My father continued, “It’s time to let them sink or swim. We’ll be there for them no matter what happens, but they need to figure life out on their own. Be the focus of your own life for a change.” He glanced at my mother and smiled with such love, it snapped things into perspective. I needed to get to Allison. When he looked back at me, he winked. “Go, go. What are you waiting for?”
9
Diego
Money may not be able to buy you love, but it sure as fuck could get you to the one you love fast. I’d called my pilot on the way back to my condo and told him to have my private jet ready. Both my home in the Dominican Republic and New York were fully outfitted with anything I needed, so it didn’t take me long to gather up the small number of possessions I’d brought with me.
On the way to the airport, I made one quick stop at a bank to retrieve an heirloom from our family safe deposit box. Then I sped to my private jet, parked my car in a garage with the others I owned, and boarded the plane.
I sat in one of the soft leather seats and buckled up for takeoff. Then I leaned it back, trying to unwind. Knowing I was going to see my girl in a few hours was pumping adrenaline through my veins. But this was the first chance I’d had to really be alone for more than a few hours in weeks. I closed my eyes, figuring it would help me relax for the duration of the flight.
“Fuck,” I groaned as my back crashed into the shower wall. My knees had gone weak, and I could barely hold myself up anymore. “Oh, fuck, that’s good, nena.”
Allison hummed as her lips glided up and down my shaft, and the vibrations sent shockwaves of pleasure straight to my balls. She held my ass cheeks in a tight grip as she sucked hard, hollowing out her cheeks so that even her dimples disappeared and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. I almost stopped myself from shouting until I remembered that the kids were with their grandparents for a few days so we could celebrate our anniversary. “Shit! Oh, fuck yeah. Suck it hard, Ali. Fuck!”
The base of my spine began to tingle, and my balls tightened, warning me that I was close.
My hands had woven into her hair, and I grasped it tightly, urging her to release my cock. “I love your mouth, nena, but I want to come buried in your tight, wet pussy.”
Allison hesitated, and I knew she was contemplating ignoring me to make me finish in her mouth, but after a minute, she let my dick slide from between her lips and pop out where it bounced against my stomach.
She licked her way up from my groin, her velvet tongue trailing over my abs, up my chest, then my neck, before reaching my mouth. “How come you get to dictate when I’m done with my favorite sucking candy?” she asked as she rubbed against me seductively. “Whenever I tell you to stop eating me so I can climax with you inside me, you just work harder to make me come.”
I snorted, but it turned into a groan when one of her small hands began jacking my dick.
“When have you ever asked me to stop when I was licking your sweet pussy, Ali?”
Allison chuckled and nibbled o
n my lip. “You have a point.”
“Now I’m going to make another one,” I told her in a low, wicked tone. “A very hard, fast point.”
I picked her up and quickly reversed our positions, bracing my legs apart to keep me steady as her ankles locked at the top of my ass. My hands slammed onto the wall on either side of her head as I entered her roughly, bottoming out in one stroke.
“Diego,” she moaned, softly, biting her lip to keep from being any louder.
“Para de morder ese labio, Ali!” I growled. She was going to earn herself a spanking if she didn’t quit biting that lip. It belonged between my teeth and no one else’s.
She suppressed another cry. “The kids aren’t here, nena,” I reminded her. “Let me hear how much you like my cock fucking you.” I punctuated my demand by driving hard into her again, slapping our slick skin together.
“Yes!” she screamed. “Harder, Diego!”
Spurred on by the urgency in her words and the ragged need in her tone, I pumped my hips in a feverish pace, impaling her over and over, driving her closer to her peak. “You want more?” I rasped in her ear.
“Please,” she whimpered. “I want it all. Oh, yes! Yes!”
I dropped a hand to her tits and pinched each nipple before letting it fall between us. My thumb drew circles around her clit a few times, making her shudder and beg for more. Then I put pressure on it each time I withdrew my cock, so she was being stimulated by my cock hitting her G-spot, and then my thumb on her clit, working her in tandem, without a reprieve.
Her cries escalated until they were ringing off the tile walls, stripping me of any control I had left. It wasn’t long before the tingling had returned, and I knew I wouldn’t last much longer. I grabbed her ass and took a step back so I could bounce her up and down on my cock as I shoved it deep over and over.
“Let go, nena,” I commanded. “Now!”
Allison had grabbed my shoulders for support, and her nails dug into my flesh as she fell apart, screaming my name. The little bit of pain mixed with my pleasure, and I went off like a fucking rocket. “Ali! Yes, nena! Fuuuuuuck!”
I jolted awake as the wheels of the plane touched down. My heart was racing, my skin beaded with sweat, and my cock was lying in a sticky mess. “Fuck,” I muttered. It appeared I’d been more tired than I realized because I’d slept the entire flight.
The captain announced it was safe to move about the cabin a second later, and I sighed in relief. Quickly unbuckling, I stalked to the bedroom at the back of the plane and rifled through the drawers of a bolted down dresser. Business meetings sometimes came up unexpectedly, so I had a few things stowed on the plane. It was mostly suits, but I finally found a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved Henley.
I cleaned up and got dressed—sans boxer briefs because I couldn’t find a pair and didn’t want to waste any more time searching. I threw the dirty stuff into my duffel and zipped it up just as the stewardess came through the curtain at the front.
“The pilot has given the okay to open the door, Señor Sanchez,” she informed me in Spanish.
I nodded and set the strap to my bag over my shoulder. “Gracias, Luisa. I’m sorry I fell asleep before I even said hello. How is your princesa?”
Luisa pulled back the lever on the door as she laughed. “Three going on twelve. A little diva.” She grasped the handle and opened the door, then grinned as she shook her head. “She’s going to be a handful, that one.”
I smiled as I walked past but stopped on the first step and twisted around. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen her and Kai. Once my wife and I are settled, we’ll have you over.”
Luisa’s eye went wide, and she gasped before a giant smile spread across her face. “You got married?”
“Not yet, but ask me again tomorrow.”
“Does she even know she’s getting married?” she asked in a cheeky tone.
“Did you know you were marrying Kai the day before he took you to that chapel in Vegas?” I tossed back.
“Fair enough,” she said as she shook her head and laughed. Then she gave me a jaunty wave and disappeared back into the plane.
Callum was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, and he started walking toward the car as he launched into a to-do list as if we were going straight to the office to work. I couldn’t blame him for the assumption since that had almost always been the case in the past. Things were going to be very different from now on. I was going to be a husband and a daddy, and my family would always come first.
“Callum,” I interrupted him with a firm hand on his shoulder. “First of all, hello.”
His head popped up from his phone, and he looked at me as if I’d grown another head. “Um...hello?”
I smiled, and that seemed to confuse him even more. Had I been that much of a grump? “Thank you for holding things together while I was unavailable.”
“It’s my job,” he said in a tone that suggested he was explaining something to a five-year-old.
We arrived at a black Town Car, and Derek, my driver, hopped out of the front seat to open my door. I shook his hand and nodded my thanks as I continued my conversation with Callum. “Yes. Well, we need to have a chat about where you want to go in this company because things are going to change.” I climbed into the back seat and slid over to make room for Callum.
“Diego.”
Something in Callum’s tone made me stop mid-buckle and look at him. He was scrutinizing my face with narrowed eyes. “What?”
“Holy fuck!” he shouted, startling me and drawing Derek’s attention from the front. “You actually took a vacation? You got laid!”
I frowned, unhappy with his choice of words as it applied to my Allison. Before I could voice my displeasure, he muttered, “But you would never—Holy fuck!” he shouted again. “You’re in love?”
He didn’t seem to need an answer, so I didn’t give him one. Instead, I addressed my driver. “Derek, did Rufus get you the address I requested?”
“Yes, sir.”
I glanced at my watch and judged how much time I had before Allison’s appointment. With Manhattan traffic, I doubted I could be at K-Corp early enough to pick her up. “Let’s go straight there.”
“We aren’t going to the office?” Callum inquired.
“I’m going to get my fiancée and take her home,” I replied.
He sputtered a few times before he flopped back into his seat. “I was honestly starting to believe that you were going to be a bachelor for the rest of your life,” he admitted. “I was afraid you were going to die alone.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think, Callum? Especially considering I have such a large family.”
“You know what I meant.”
My tone was dry when I responded. “Yes, well, I’m glad I put your fears to rest. As you know, your happiness is my primary concern.”
“Good grief. I fucking hope not,” he snorted.
“Anyway, this is why I want to have a discussion about your role. I’m going to be backing off a lot, and I think you’ve earned the right to step in.”
“Sure. I can make sure things run smoothly whenever you can’t be there,” he said distractedly when his phone pinged.
I snatched his phone, and his head flew up, his eyes narrowed, and his lips pursed in annoyance.
“I’m trying to tell you that I’d like for you to take a bigger role in the business because eventually, I’d like to make you a partner.”’
He stared at me in silence, his face awash with shock, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Then he audibly swallowed and rasped, “A partner.”
“Did you think I was grooming you to be my assistant for the rest of your life, idiota? I’m pretty sure that job description doesn’t include business meetings with potential investors or putting together assessment portfolios for properties or businesses we’re considering.”
The car slowed down as Derek parallel parked in a tight spot in front of the small bu
ilding that housed a medical office. “Think about it, and we’ll talk later. Don’t be here when I get back.” I rechecked the time as I exited the vehicle and was pleased to see Allison’s appointment wasn’t for another fifteen minutes. If she wasn’t early, I could have a chat with the doctor before she arrived.
Not to mention, make sure it was a female doctor. I didn’t give a fuck if he was a doctor, married, a monk, or a eunuch, no other man would be anywhere near my wife’s pussy. I wasn’t all that happy about a female either, but that was unavoidable since I didn’t have the knowledge and skills to handle Allison’s every need.
It turned out that luck was on my side. Dr. Frazier had been the OB-GYN for Allison’s mother and aunts. Once I told the receptionist—Harriet, if the stitching on her scrub top was correct—that I was Allison’s fiancé, she’d rolled her eyes and led me back to an exam room. “Figures she’d fall for a guy just like her dad and the other men in that family,” she muttered. We entered the room, and she pointed at a chair and snapped, “Sit. And behave yourself.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied automatically, barely refraining from giving her a salute.
After a minute, a woman in a long white coat stepped into the room and gave me an exasperated smile. “Cut from the same cloth as the Kendall brothers, are you?”
I didn’t pretend to be ignorant of her meaning. “If you mean devoted, protective, and a little overbearing, you would be right. Now, let’s add demanding to the list. You are not, under any circumstances, to give my fiancée birth control.”
The doctor rolled her eyes so hard, I almost heard them rattle in the back of her head. “Like I said,” she drawled, “cut from the same cloth.” She pointed her finger at me and narrowed her eyes before adding, “And I’ll tell you what I told them. I will not help you be a controlling bastard or interfere in my care of my patients. If your wives are fine with your caveman tactics, that’s their choice, but if they come to me asking for birth control, or anything else they need, I will not turn them down. You want to try to ruin my practice or take away my license for putting my patients first, go right ahead.”
True Love Page 6
