Moreno's: Moreno Brother's prequel (Moreno Brothers)

by Elizabeth Reyes

  “You’re fine,” Alejandro said already heading toward her. “Don’t panic. Just paddle.”

  But he could see it in her expression as she continued to try to swim to the side in vain. She was panicking, and it was only making her efforts more difficult.

  “Alej,” she called out as the current pulled her away farther.

  “I’m coming,” he said, diving under to get to her quicker.

  When he came up, he was close enough to reach out for her until a sudden current pulled her even farther.

  “Alej!”

  As wet as her entire face was, Alej could see her panicked eyes were tearing up.

  “Relax, cariño,” Alej said in as reassuring a voice as he could, but truth was he was beginning to panic too.

  Taking another dive under to reach her faster, his heart spiked when he felt the current push him further under than he’d intended. Fortunately, he fought it and came up close enough to reach her. The moment he took her hand he pulled her to him and toward another branch she could reach out for. Isa clung to him with one hand but continued to paddle with him with the other. The moment he was able to, he reached for a branch and pulled her with him toward it.

  Taking a deep breath once he had her safely off to the side and holding on to the branch, he realized how out of breath he was. It’d all happened so fast and his adrenaline had taken over, so he didn’t realize how scared he’d been for a minute there. He let his head drop back as he exhaled loudly.

  Isa was breathing just as hard as he was. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have closed my eyes.”

  Alej turned to her. He’d been right about her tearing up earlier, but it surprised him to see her eyes completely welled up now. “Well, don’t cry, Isa.” A feeling of overwhelming panic consumed him for an altogether different reason this time “It was just a close call. But you’re okay, right?”

  He searched her eyes, wondering if in his adrenaline rush, he’d also missed her possibly getting injured. Had she hit a rock or something?

  “I’m fine.” She nodded. “I just feel stupid. You’d just warned me.”

  “Don’t feel stupid. So, you didn’t notice yourself floating away in time. It’s why you never come out here by yourself, that’s all.”

  Her lip quivered, making Alej’s heart spike. In all the years he’d known her, he’d seen her spunky side often but never seen her cry, and he hated it.

  “That really scared me,” she whispered, wiping at the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

  In a panic again, Alejandro reached out for her and pulled her to him again. Only this time so he could console her. “Please don’t cry, Isa,” he pleaded, wanting nothing more than to make her tears go away.

  As he kissed her forehead, he felt an overpowering tenderness. He’d always had what he referred to as a soft spot for Isa, only he knew it was so much more now. Except somehow it felt a little different holding her like this. It was only then that he realized holding her this close against his shirtless chest, and with her in her drenched clothes, he could feel the soft outline of her breasts. Breasts he’d been desperately trying lately not to be so obvious about noticing how ample they’d seemed to have gotten almost overnight.

  Glancing up at him, Isa touched his right bicep, staring at it like she’d just noticed it. The side job he’d picked up that past winter chopping firewood had paid its dividends in more than ways than just cash. Like her breasts, his biceps and forearms had also swelled overnight, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d just noticed.

  With her tears gone now as she continued to cling against his body, he nearly flinched when she kissed his bicep. His already overworked heart pounded against his chest again when she glanced up at his face and brought her wet fingers to his lips.

  “Even before our dance last year at my party, I had a feeling you might actually go for it after all the times we practiced and it nearly happened.” She traced her finger over his lip as his heart raced. “But I’d always known you’d be my first kiss.”

  “And last.” The words flew out without thought.

  “And last.” She smiled before whispering the next words. “Kiss me, my hero.”

  As his heart continue to get a workout, Alej stared at her, his breathing accelerating again. He glanced around quickly.

  “Isa, out here alone like this—”

  “Please?”

  His lips were on hers in the next second, and it was glorious, just like each time he’d kissed her since the party. Before Isa, he’d only ever kissed a handful of girls in a few stupid and thankfully very secret teen games Cido had convinced him to take part in after school. Those kisses had nothing on everything he was feeling at that moment.

  Parting her lips gently with his tongue, he licked the insides of them, before slipping his tongue all the way in her mouth, something he’d only allowed himself to do a handful of times since his lips had first touched hers. A moan escaped him in reaction to this much deeper taste of her mouth than he’d ever indulged in before. He straightened out a bit, afraid she’d feel just what it did to him. Their tongues moved in a slow perfect rhythm. Alej had never been drunk, but he was sure what he was feeling at that moment, aside from the feeling of floating in air, this was it. He’d say he was drunk in lust, but just as he’d always thought it, he was sure of it now. He pulled away, searching her eyes.

  “Do you love me?”

  “I do,” she responded immediately.

  “I love you too, Isa.”

  Alej dove right back in, needing to taste her mouth again. For someone who’d never been kissed like this before, Isa caught on quick. Though as frantic as his heart and every inch of his body felt now, he made sure to take it slow. This was a first for her, but also for him. Those two-minutes-in-paradise kisses weren’t shit compared to this, and he already knew nothing would ever compare.

  He’d begun to think that maybe, because of the lack of experience on both their parts, making out like this might be awkward at first. But it hadn’t been. It’d felt perfect from the very first kiss, like their mouths were meant for one another. Their kissing went on and on for what felt like forever but at the same time not long enough because Alej just couldn’t get enough.

  Mindful of his father’s warning, his head was already working this out. They’d have to be super careful, because he wouldn’t even kid himself and try to reason that this would only happen every now and again. He knew damn well already that he wouldn’t be able to go even a day without kissing her lips now.

  Alejandro pulled away to look into her beautiful eyes, still unable to believe this was actually happening. He’d waited years to kiss these lips like this, and it’d been absolutely worth the wait.

  “I’ve always known it, amor.”

  Isa’s brows furrowed in question. “Known what?”

  “Yo naci para adorarte,” he said very seriously as he caressed her face. “Known it since the day Señorita Munoz introduced you to the class.”

  She smiled, and to his surprise, her eyes welled up again. “You said you were going to marry me.”

  Nodding, he smiled in confirmation. “It was the very first thing I said when I first laid eyes on you.” He kissed the corner of her eyes where the tears threatened to spill out. “And I meant it.”

  Wrapping her arms around his neck, Isa pulled herself upward against his body. Her thin wet blouse did little to deter him from feeling her erect nipples against his chest as she brought her legs around his waist, pressed against him, and kissed him frantically.

  Slowing momentarily the moment he knew she was feeling his unabashed erection against her, she pulled away letting out a gasp and searched his eyes with a yearning. The very yearning, he was feeling but there was no way. “We can’t.”

  Her face tinged with slight color. “I think I’m the one who’s supposed to be saying that. Not you.”

  Burying his face in her neck, he hugged her tightly with a groan. “Isa, mi amor. Mi adoración. You hav
e no idea how badly I want to. But we can’t. God forbid anyone finds out or worse.” His eyes went wide as he pulled away to look into her beautiful lustful eyes. “What if you get pregnant?”

  “There’s only one way you can get pregnant, Alejandro.” She ran her fingers through his hair as her smoldering eyes stared into his eyes. “But I’ve heard the girls at the preparatoria talk about other things they’ve done with their novios that don’t run the risk of that.”

  Feeling his eyes go wider, and unbelievably his erection get painfully harder, he followed her hand down to where she begun undoing her blouse buttons. Already her wet shirt left nothing to the imagination. Alej could see everything the thin material was supposed to cover. To his surprise, and his pounding heart’s delight, she unbuttoned the blouse all the way down.

  Opening it slowly she indulged him with the sight of her beautiful ample breasts. “They’re yours, Alejandro. I’m yours. No other man will ever have me. Touch me.”

  One time. She didn’t even have to say it again to convince him of this. His mouth was instantly on one of her nipples, devouring it, as his other hand took her other breast in and he molded the amazing soft skin with a groan. Just as he began to move his mouth to her other breast, he stopped and looked up at her wanton eyes. “You can’t tell anyone,” he said breathlessly. “Not a soul. You understand? I don’t care if it’s girl talk, Isa. It’s how rumors start, and that’s not happening. Not about you.”

  She nodded, a bit wide-eyed, but he needed her to understand this, so he cradled her face, staring right into her eyes with conviction. “I can’t stress this enough, Isa. If I hear so much as an insinuation that I’ve done more to you than the peck everyone witnessed last year, I’ll end up in jail. I swear to you. Because I’m not having it.”

  No sooner than she nodded and Alej smiled, kissing her in response, did he go back to devouring her glorious breasts. Breasts that as she’d so accurately put it were all his and only his—forever.

  Capítulo 7

  Entitlement

  Alejandro

  “Don’t be a pendejo, Cido,” Alej said under his breath as he nudged his best friend with his hip.

  Cido was supposed to be shucking the corn from the cobs for the esquites, while Alej slathered the works on another corn cob for their waiting customer. Instead, his friend was busy throwing rocks or something across the plaza.

  They’d since moved up from selling out of a supermarket cart to a makeshift cart their dads had built. It was built onto the front end of a bike. They still rolled it out every day. Their improvised wood-burning stove was made from an old gutted propane stove because it was cheaper to burn wood than buy propane. And they used dry ice in the steel compartment below to keep the soda cans they now sold cold. They had a couple of old ironing boards his dad had painted bright red to match the cart they set out for customers to stand and eat at. It wasn’t fancy by any means. But it did the job and was right up there with just about all the other vendors in the marketplace.

  Just recently, their dads had finally graduated to renting the vendor spot at the marketplace on the weekends and were now preparing a wider variety of food entrees. Since Alej and Cido were done with the preparatoria, there was even talk of renting the spot a few days out of the week until they could eventually rent to be open every day.

  Unlike with the street cart where they only had enough room for corn and esquites, his dad could now prepare his specialties he’d been perfecting at home for years. Cido’s dad Octavio was content and had reached his goal of being able to afford to sell in an actual vendor spot at the marketplace in the city on the weekends. But they continued to make money with the food cart because the boys could more than cover it on their own. In spite of their progress and the talk of renting the spot more days out of the week, Alej’s dad still had bigger dreams.

  He kept saying he wanted more for his kids, and he knew there was only so far he could progress there in Mexico. He’d already started working on getting the family their permanent visas. It’d still be a while though. Maybe a few years even, but Alej was in no hurry to leave.

  He’d been to the other side several times, and he didn’t see what the big deal was. Sure, it was fancier and had lots of big cities with tall buildings. There were plenty of big buildings in Mexico’s bigger cities. But even then, Alej preferred his little pueblo to the city.

  Something clinked off the closed pot of steaming elotes and bounced to the ground. Alej handed the customer his food, took his money, then looked around to see what it was. It was a peanut. He glanced up across the marketplace to where the Franco’s vending table was. Sure, enough it was her. Isa smiled coyly at him, feigning shame. Her big dark eyes gazed at him as they did so often now. The same way he was incapable of not gazing at her anymore. Isa was the main reason why Alej had no desire to leave Mexico—ever. He only prayed those permanent visas would never come through and, if they did, she’d be old enough to marry so he could take her with him.

  Oh yeah, Alej had every intention of marrying her as soon as he could, even if he was forced to move to the other side before he could. He’d move heaven and earth to come back for her. They were still considered way too young to be anything more than what was understood but unspoken by most in their pueblo as betrothed to marry one day, when she was old enough. Isa’s mom was very overprotective of her. Even after her quinceañera but especially what their time in the watering hole had begun that summer, Alej was even more mindful of being as respectful as possible in her mother’s and her abuela’s presence. He knew more than ever now his patience would someday pay off big. Just as he’d known the day she first allowed him to touch her, their make-out sessions had since gotten longer and longer. Short of touching any other most private places, which he dreamed of doing almost nightly now, their extended and very heated make-out sessions had since become a regular thing now. He’d been on a mission since that day to find the most secluded spots just outside the town because he’d meant it when he said even the slightest disrespect or insinuation about Isa, and he’d end up in jail. So, he wasn’t taking any chances of being caught.

  Still smiling at her a bit too dreamy-eyed, he watched as she flinched out of the way to avoid being hit with something flying her way. It happened so fast she bumped her mother, who was about to hand a cup of horchata to one of their customers. Half the cup spilled, and Isa was immediately reprimanded by her mother, who had to refill the cup.

  Alej turned to Cido, who was shaking his hand in front of him with a stupid grin, and shoved him. “Idiota! You got her in trouble.”

  Cido argued something about her having thrown the peanut to begin with, but Alej wasn’t even listening anymore. As it usually happened, their customers came in herds. They could be standing there for long periods with not a single customer; then suddenly they had a line. It was herd time, and Alej and Cido got to work.

  Isa’s family were also street vendors now in the city on the weekends but stuck with mostly selling smaller food items like aguas frescas, roasted peanuts, and small bags of homemade churros. Only during the week, they didn’t. Her mother worked at the mercantile store, and her grandmother took clothes home every weekend after they’d worked the marketplace to mend and wash by hand from people in the city who paid her to do it.

  Isa, Ale,j and Cido all had one thing in common. Despite Isa’s abuela being so hands-on, they all only had one actual parent raising them. Cido’s mom had died when he was just a baby, and he’d been raised by his dad and uncle. It was just one of the reasons why they’d all bonded, but of course Alej and Isa had always had the tighter bond. And even more significant, that bond had now reached a whole other level.

  While rumors of Isa being a bastard child had lingered for years around their town, the real truth still hadn’t been confirmed. Alej had kept her secret all this time. He’d never shared it with anyone, nor did he ever plan to. Not with his father or sister. Not even Cido.

  It was just one of the reasons why h
e’d known so early on his relationship with Isa was much deeper than her relationship with anyone else. Aside from the physical turn their relationship had since taken, Alej knew there was so much more to why he felt about her the way he did. She’d shared so many other things with him over the years that she’d asked him to keep to himself. It went both ways. He’d made it clear she was off limits for Cido to look at in any other way than just a friend even before her quinceañera. But even afterward, the guy would have to be an idiot not to understand just how off limits she was now. Cido hadn’t had an issue with that back then, but it seemed lately he’d taken to doing more to get her attention. Like the peanut throwing today.

  “So, did you have a good day?” Isa asked, walking up to their cart at the end of the day as they closed it down.

  “Sold every last corn we brought,” Alej said with a big smile.

  Cido smiled just as big with a nod. “And we brought a lot.”

  “Good for you,” Isa said, watching as they folded up the ironing boards and tied them on to the side of the cart with the umbrella. “We had a good day too.” She stretched her arm out, offering from the bag of churros she was munching on. “Only had a few bags left. But the peanuts and all the aguas went.”

  Both Cido and Alej took a churro from the bag. They talked more about the day’s sales and the upcoming Independence Day celebrations in their pueblo. “We’re likely going to spend it here in the city with my aunt’s family,” Isa informed them.

  Alej frowned. That was a disappointment. Every year he looked forward to the traditions they’d been building over the years. But in the last year or so, Isa’s mom and grandmother had taken to spending more of the holidays they normally spent in Pueblo De Oro with her aunt’s family in Juarez or even her other aunt in El Paso.

  “What’s with you guys doing everything in town or over the border lately?” Cido asked the very thing Alej was thinking.