Chapter Fifty-Two Alejandro
Chapter Fifty-Two
Alejandro
The night of the auction
My hand was damn near trembling as I held the last thing I had to put on as part of my cover story: Mitch’s wedding band. The fact it was a perfect fit was about to send me over the edge. Not sure why it bothered me so much. It worked in our favor, but still—it did.
I finally forced myself to get it over with and slid the symbol of forever that didn’t belong to me onto my ring finger.
Maybe Mitch was no longer a traitor to the country, but that didn’t change the fact he betrayed the oath he made to Audrey. No excuses for what he did. Irredeemable, in my eyes. But judgment and forgiveness weren’t up to me. That was between God and Audrey.
I could hear music coming from the bedroom Audrey and I would never actually share as she changed into the dress Hollis had picked out for her before we swapped hotels earlier.
Jazz, of course. Maybe it helped ease her nerves, with everything about to go down. She was one brave woman. A hero for what she was willing to do for her country tonight, protect names and missions on a file that maybe should never have existed in the first place.
At the feeling of being watched when I was supposed to be alone, I turned around, not too shocked to discover Hollis had gotten the drop on me.
She was hanging by the front door, already dressed in a red silk gown. Reed was her plus-one tonight, not yet with her. He’d swapped places with two of Hollis’s teammates so we’d maintain a visual on Helix’s stronghold to track their movements when it was time.
No signs of Beau or Rhett yet. Only another fake Mitch text with instructions for the trade: Audrey and the ring for Eden. Location TBD. Time: 2200 hrs. —Hell.
The “trade” to get Eden back was a trap. They were looking to divert some of our team, knowing we’d rescue Eden while they went after their real marks: Audrey and the ring.
I tossed Mitch’s empty ring box onto the couch and strode over to her.
She lifted her chin toward the closed bedroom door. “How is she?”
I turned to the side. “She’s nervous but trying to pretend she’s fine. She FaceTimed Chase an hour ago. Trevor too.”
“And her mom?”
“Not her, no. Maybe they’ll talk when this is over. And I’ll make sure she gets through this so she can.”
She nodded, then went for the door. “Audrey finally shared with me what Mitch did to her that night. She was right—I’d have killed him.
Zero second thoughts. And not two in the head.
” Her gaze slipped south to my crotch for a second.
Message received. “I’m really glad she has someone like you in her life to wipe the slate clean and start over with.
And that you’re so cool with Trevor being in her life.
Maybe you two can even work together again? ”
I’d once been against that idea; now I had every intention of being the one to ask him myself.
She took off, and I focused on the bedroom door again, wondering what was taking my date so long.
I went over and rapped my knuckles against it.
“Come in,” she called out over the music, which had clearly drowned out my conversation with Hollis.
I opened the door and froze at the sight before me. “You’re not dressed.”
Not only was she not dressed, but she was standing there in a wedding-white lacy bra and matching panties. One foot on the bed, rolling up a black thigh-high stocking.
“I’m in something.” Her smile reached her smoky, done-up eyes.
This was one of those times when I needed to walk away like I’d done at the lodge.
We couldn’t make love now. Not tonight. Not in the fifteen minutes we had (I could stretch that to twenty, maybe), but still . . .
So I behaved. And also became immediately stiff. The woman was in see-through white lace, after all. Looking as much like a goddess as she did my wife.
Her black dress was laid out on the bed we’d never get to use.
The jazz music competed with the sounds of my heart beating wildly up into my ears.
“Mind closing my door so no one else sees me?”
Good point. I closed and locked it, then slowly and very stupidly punished myself by turning to face her. Look but don’t touch—but this woman was just begging for me to do exactly that.
No padding for her bra, so her pink nipple poked through, calling to me like a Siren.
My chest rose and fell as I worked to keep it together.
“Does driving me out of my mind help ease yours?”
“Well, you are my husband tonight, aren’t you? We have a few more minutes until our reality is shattered.” That touch of sadness at the end slayed me.
We were hedging on mission-starting territory. One wrong move and I could die.
But I was right there with her in not wanting to rejoin reality yet. The way she was sliding her hand gently along the hem of her panties ignited something inside me and destroyed my resolve.
She was playing dirty.
Officially corrupting my chances to behave.
Then she turned, and I pressed a closed fist against my mouth, nearly biting my hand.
Her ass was right there. She had me wanting to press my cock against it, let her feel how hard she made me.
Unable to stop myself, I walked up behind the little tease and reached around between her legs.
She moaned and lifted her hand, hooking her arm around my neck. “Why can’t this be real? Just you, me, here in this beautiful place, with the sole purpose of making love as husband and wife.”
I closed my eyes, going still at her words. “Is that something you could ever see being again?”
“A wife?” she asked softly.
“Well, to be specific, my wife.” I retrieved the eternity band from my pocket, sitting lonely without its box. “Tonight, at least. Will you?” I held up the ring.
She turned toward me. “And what would you say to me?”
I kept the ring between us, her beautiful eyes on me. Her blonde hair pinned up, showing off her neckline, the perfect sweep of her shoulders. “If I were proposing?”
“No, if this was the moment we said our vows. What would you say before you slid that ring on my finger?”
No longer was she standing before me tempting my flesh; she was connecting with my spirit. “Audrey.” I inhaled.
“Just amuse me, please. Let me buy into the illusion for a little longer before you risk . . . risk yourself for me. For our country.”
“Are you worried I won’t make it out of this?” I didn’t blame her if she did, given everything that’d happened to the men she’d married.
First with Trevor. Then with Mitch.
And had she processed yet that Mitch was gone for good? Where was her head about that? I didn’t want to ask now, but something told me that if he was an obstacle for us, she wouldn’t be standing here before me with her heart on her sleeve.
“Of course you’ll make it out.” Her hand covered mine as her gaze lifted to my eyes. “And while I know this ring is a lie, what it symbolizes for us isn’t.”
I swallowed, my emotions catching in my throat.
“Which is how we feel about each other.”
I shifted her hand to the side so I could take hold of her other one. I brought the eternity band to her finger, but didn’t slip it on yet.
In a shaky voice, I confessed, “I’ve spent my whole life second-guessing what I see, never trusting my own eyes.
But then you walked in with that incredible laugh and adorable son, and you somehow made everything feel real.
And because of you, I now know it’s possible to have everything I ever wanted that I stopped believing in. ”
“I, um,” she said with a sniffle, “feel the same.” She blotted her tears with the back of her hand, trying not to ruin her makeup.
I gently snatched her wrists and kissed her before murmuring something in Spanish.
“Translate, please.”
“Mmm. How about after?” After was becoming my least favorite word.
“After, okay.” Her brows furrowed as her hands went to my shirt. “We shouldn’t, I know,” she whispered, undoing two buttons anyway.
And I should have stopped her.
Should have done a lot of things.
I didn’t do a damn one.
She bypassed my open suit jacket, her hand settling on the buttons of my dress shirt as she pressed up onto her toes to kiss me.
I reached around to unhook her strapless bra, letting it fall between us.
Two more buttons undone as she continued talking about why we should wait.
Then she freed my shirt from the dress pants as I echoed her words back.
Wait. And after. All the things.
We ignored every last word as she undid my buckle as now happened.
My lips found the curve of her neck, one hand teasing her nipple while the other gripped her ass cheek.
With my white dress shirt open, belt free, and pants officially shoved down by the ravenous woman, I had to slam down on my back teeth as she reached through the hole of my boxers to wrap her hand around my hard-as-a-rock dick.
Her name broke in half in my mouth as I tried to say it while she fisted my cock.
We’re doing this now, aren’t we?
“I don’t have a condom,” I said before kissing her again as the blood rushed in one direction with her hand on me like that.
“I’m not on the pill.”
Fuccccck.
“Just finished ovulating, so we should be fine if you pull out—but you know, if not . . .”
If not? She didn’t say it, but I saw it in her eyes. A future. A maybe. A family.
I needed to take a moment. To regain my control and my senses. I stepped away, forcing her to let go of me.
Staring at this woman—in only her white panties and thigh highs, her full, luscious tits rising and falling on deep breaths and her lips swollen from kissing me—was going to be my undoing.
“Loco. Crazy, I know. We’ve known each other for only two months, and only intimately recently, but when you know, you know.” She chewed her lip, her nerves catching as she stared at me, clearly nervous about how I’d react. “I believe everything happens for a reason.”
“Kids?” I blurted out. “With me?” I covered my mouth, shock ripping through me. “You’re willing to risk winding up pregnant with my child?”
“Doesn’t sound risky or peligroso to me at all. Making a baby with a man as honorable, kind, and incredible as you sounds kind of perfect, in fact.”
She’d just told me everything I never knew I needed to hear, but there was a small problem with this perfect plan. “You know your brother would murder me if I were to get you pregnant outside of marriage.” My gaze slipped down to her pink, perky nipples. “Then again, there are worse ways to die.”
“Loophole.” She lifted her hand, showing me the ring. “We’re married tonight, so . . .”
I stepped out of my pants so I wouldn’t trip, then picked her up to carry her over to the bed.
“Is that a yes, then?” she whispered, hopeful eyes meeting mine as she stretched out sexily, waiting for me to join her.
I swallowed. “Are you sure? This is one of those no-take-back kind of things, you know. Like once I’m inside you, even if I pull out, there’s still a chance I get you pregnant,” I said steadily somehow, despite my heart rate flying.
“More than anything,” she promised as I quickly removed and set aside Mitch’s wedding band, not wanting to think about him while we made love. “So are we in the same boat?”
“I’m wherever you are.” I leaned forward to kiss her before I stripped down to nothing.
Her gaze flicked to my side and the bandage.
“Eyes up. On me,” I begged.
“But what about your wound?” she whispered.
“I’m healed,” I promised. “You healed me,” I choked out, and for a second, I wasn’t a soldier or a protector. I was simply a man who was falling in love. Maybe already in the thick of it now. Loco or not.
Her dark lashes fluttered, eyes riveted to mine.
“Now,” I added with a devious smile, “part your legs for me.”
She obeyed, sliding her panties to the side to show me that bare pink flesh I’d move literal mountains for if it meant filling her.
I groaned and stroked my cock, forgetting all about what would soon be going down tonight. All of it ceased to exist outside the four walls of this room.
“I need to taste you first.” I bent forward and hooked her legs at the backs of her knees and shifted her around, scooting her to the edge before dropping onto the floor before her.
With her legs over my shoulders, the silkiness of her thigh-highs sliding across my skin, I wasted no time in setting my mouth between her legs.
She let go and I moved the lace aside, her hands flying through my hair while I dragged my tongue along her sex.
“Alejandro,” she gasped, hips arching.
My name on her tongue. I could die a happy man. Almost. I wasn’t ready to go anywhere until I felt her walls tighten around me while our bodies connected in the way we were made to do.
“Take me. Now, please,” she begged a few minutes later, panting hard as the jazz music thrummed louder and more intensely, like a soundtrack for this moment. “I need to come with you, not alone. Together, remember?”
Together.
That word from her freed something inside me. I’d said it yesterday, but hearing it from her . . .
Illusion or not, as far as I was concerned, this woman and I were bound to one another in this lifetime and our next.
I climbed onto the bed, freed her of her panties, then did what she asked of me.
Our eyes stayed locked, our fingers entwined above our heads, anchoring us together as I buried myself inside her, giving us both exactly what we needed. And when she whispered my name again—not from fear or sadness, but in love—I knew I’d carry this moment with me into whatever came next.