Tempt The Hookup (Tempt Series Book 3)

by Natasha Madison

  “It’s as serious as it comes,” he starts. “What are your plans with Eli?”

  “You’re going to have to be a bit more specific with that question.” Now my leg starts to shake.

  “It’s pretty to the point. What are your plans with my daughter?”

  “For tonight?” I ask him, and he just looks at me. “If you have to ask me about what my plans are for the future, I have to say you haven’t been paying attention then.” He just stares at me. “She’s going to be my wife.”

  “Is that so?” he says, and now a smile fills his face.

  “That’s a fact,” I tell him.

  “Does she know this?” He raises his eyebrows, and I could swear his eyes twinkle.

  “Not in those words exactly,” I tell him, and he laughs now, and the weight that I had on my shoulders is suddenly lead. “I’m trying to get her to agree to officially move in with me, and then I’m going to throw down the marriage card.”

  “What if she says no?” he says. and my stomach drops.

  “Do you know something I don’t know, Leonard?” I ask him and try not to get up and pace the room. He’s the best poker player at the table, and I have to make sure he isn’t bluffing.

  “I’m just wondering what you are going to do if she says no.” He leans back, and I can see he’s trying to poke at me.

  “I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure she wears my ring,” I tell him. “Even if I have to throw her over my shoulder and drag her there.”

  He laughs now, and I wish I could tell him that I am joking, but I’m not. “That’s what I thought.” He gets up now. “Not that you need it, but you have my blessing.”

  “Good to know,” I say, and my phone buzzes to let me know it’s time to leave. “Now I have to go get my son. I’m planning on taking him for ice cream and then going home and making dinner.” I unroll my shirt and then slip my jacket on. “See you on Sunday,” I tell him and then walk out, seeing that Lauren is already gone.

  When I pull up to the school, I get out of my car and walk to the school yard, my phone beeping in my pocket. Pulling it out, I see it’s from Eli.

  Eli: Text me when you’re on the way home.

  Me: Will do.

  I put the phone back into my pocket when the sound of the bell rings. Children fly out of the door, running to their parents. I look for Aiden, who comes flying out of the door. His white shirt looks like he rolled around in the grass. His pants also have dirt all over them. “Dad,” he says, coming to me, “I played baseball.”

  “Did you?” I say, bending to kiss his cheek. “How did you get so dirty?”

  “I slid into home base,” he says, grabbing my hand as we walk to my car. “I didn’t have to, but it was fun,” he says, and I shake my head. “Can we have spaghetti for dinner?” he asks, and I nod my head.

  “I think I can work that out,” I tell him, helping him in the car and buckling him in. “What do you say we get some ice cream before we head home?” His eyes go big, and he smiles, nodding. We sit on the bench, and I try to keep up with the leaking ice cream, but I’m afraid it’s a losing battle. By the time he finally finishes it, it’s leaked everywhere. We visit the bathroom where I attempt to clean his hands and mouth, but nothing can clean his pants.

  When I pull up to my house, I get out and hold the door open for Aiden, grabbing his backpack and walking up the steps. I unlock the door and walk in, seeing that the drapes are closed. “Hey.” I hear Eli, and I look at her.

  “I thought you were going to be late?” I say, going over to her and kissing her on the lips.

  “You stopped for ice cream?” she asks me and then looks at Aiden who nods at her.

  “We did,” I tell her. “Did you just get home?”

  “No,” she tells me, and I see that she is dressed up, and I look at her.

  “What’s going on?” I ask her, and she looks at Aiden and smiles.

  “I think I need to sit down,” she says softly and then grabs a manila envelope, walking to the couch. The same couch that we usually start our make-out sessions on and then take it to the bedroom.

  “Are you okay?” I ask her, and she looks down, and I see that her hands are shaking. Oh my God, maybe she isn’t really happy. Maybe this is why Leonard came to see me and asked me all those questions. Maybe she is suing me for full custody. I look at Aiden, who smiles, and the shirt starts to get tight around my neck. My heart starts to beat faster than normal, and I walk over to the couch. My hands start to get a bit clammy, and my feet feel like my shoes are suddenly filled with concrete, making my walk to the couch hard. She sits down and then opens her arms for Aiden to sit on her lap, and then I finally get there and sit next to them. My shoulders slump forward while I put my arms on my legs and fold my hands together.

  “The past couple of weeks have been an eye-opener for me,” she starts and then looks down at Aiden. “Well, for us, really.”

  “Okay,” I say, and it feels like I’m in court, and the judge is coming back in with a ruling, and he gives his speech right before he hands down the judgment, and I just want to speed things up.

  “Well, I know that you’re Aiden’s father,” she starts, and I want to yell spit it out. “When he was born, and I had to fill out the birth certificate, I didn’t put anything under his father’s name,” she says softly and then a tear leaks out of her eye, and I reach over and wipe it away. She smiles at me, trying not to cry. “I knew your name, but I just didn’t know your full name.” She takes a deep inhale. “When we finally found you, I made my father draw up papers,” she says, handing me the envelope, and I take it, pulling it open and sliding out the documents inside.

  I pull out the white paper with the official county logo on it. My eyes go to the place where you put in the last name Coco-DiMarco, and my eyes shoot up to Eli. “We,” she says, her voice trembling now, “thought it would be good to have your name on his birth certificate.”

  “I’m a Coco-DiMarco. You’re really my dad now!” Aiden says, smiling, and I take them both in my arms, kissing first Eli and then looking at my son.

  “We were hoping it would be okay with you,” she starts to say, and I kiss her lips to stop her from talking.

  “Dad, she needs to finish, so we can go to the party,” Aiden says, laughing, and I look at him.

  “What party?” I ask him, and he gets off Eli’s lap and grabs my hand, pulling me to the backyard where our family and friends stand.

  “Surprise,” Aiden says as he opens the door. I finally see that my parents are standing there in the front row next to Maryse and Leonard. Mona and Nick are there, and so is Lauren and her husband. I spot other people from the office as well as Troy and Todd. Balloons are scattered all around the yard that spell out D-A-D.

  “What is all this?” I turn to look at Eli.

  “This is a party to honor you and to honor Aiden,” she says, and Aiden just takes off down the stairs and runs to my parents. “I didn’t just change his birth certificate. I changed his school records also.”

  “Baby,” I say, pulling her close to me and kissing her lips. “I was so scared you were going to tell me that it was over.”

  “What? Why?” she asks me.

  “I don’t know. It was weird. Your father this afternoon, then you here, and you had to talk to me,” I tell her and look down at the paper in my hand. “Can we frame this?”

  “We can,” she says, “but how about we get out there and celebrate with our family and friends?”

  “I’m …” My eyes are still on the paper. “He’s got my name as his middle name.”

  “That wasn’t changed,” she starts to say. “Luca was always his middle name. I couldn’t list you as the father without a last name, but I wasn’t going to let our son not have a piece of you.”

  It’s me now who’s blinking away the tears. “I love you,” I tell her finally.

  Smiling, she looks down, tucking the hair behind her ear when it falls forward. Her eyes look back up at
me. “I love you, too,” she says softly, “but if we don’t get outside, we are going to have both our parents knocking down the door.” I look out into the yard to see Nick with Aiden, but both our parents are looking at us. My parents with a worried look on their face.

  I turn to put the paper away and then grab her hand and kiss her fingers. We walk out of the house, and I walk down the steps, and my father is the first to congratulate me. “My son has a son,” he says, and I just nod.

  My mother hugs me at my waist and then moves aside, so Maryse comes to me. “Congratulations, my dear,” she says, and I bend to kiss her on the cheek. “Welcome to the family.”

  “Welcome to the family,” Leonard says, putting out his hand and shaking mine. “Couldn’t have asked for a better dad for Aiden,” he says, and right now, it means the world to me.

  “Dad!” I hear Aiden yell and look his way to see him standing next to a table. “We have cake.”

  Shaking my head, I walk over to him where Eli stands next to him, and everyone follows me to the table. I greet a couple of people while I walk over to the table, and I look down at the cake. “Nonna made it,” Aiden says, and I’m not surprised. She’s always made my cakes and decorated them with simple vanilla or chocolate frosting. This one is chocolate with white writing. Coco-DiMarco. I smile and grab Aiden and pick him up.

  “Look over here,” Nick says, and we turn toward him. With my right hand holding Aiden, I reach over and hug Eli with my left. Her arms go around my waist, and we take our first family picture.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Eliahn

  “I think I ate too much,” I say, putting my hand on my stomach as soon as we leave Luca’s parents’ house. It’s been three weeks since we started this tradition of Sunday lunches. I didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t to have our parents get along so well. My father has actually been golfing with Dominic a couple of times since they met, and my mother is over at their house at least twice a week because they bake together.

  “I told you not to eat that second piece of cake,” Luca says from beside me as we drive home. It’s been a month since we moved into Luca’s home, and it became ours. After we lived there for our trial week, it just became easy to see that we didn’t care where we lived as long as it was together. So one night after dinner, we moved all my clothes into Luca’s house. Aiden, of course, had to bring his whole entire room with him, so he has two bedrooms in the house. He calls one the playroom and the other his bedroom.

  “It was dulce de Leche.” I look over at him. “It’s my favorite cake ever. The way your mother fills it with the cream, oh my God,” I say, and then my stomach gets a touch queasy.

  “Well, she packed you a whole one for the week,” he says, and I look over at him. He is wearing jeans and a regular white polo short-sleeved shirt, and I have to laugh because he dressed Aiden like him today. I lean over and run my fingers through his hair like I do a couple of times a day. We wake up every day wrapped in each other. The night doesn’t go by without one of us waking up, looking for the other.

  “Well, we have two soccer practices and skating this week.” The weekdays go fast with Aiden now in soccer, football, and starting skating lessons, but he loves it.

  “It’s going to be another busy week,” he says, looking at me and smiling. I lean over and kiss him when he gets to the red light. “Love you.”

  He takes off, and my stomach falls again. “I really don’t feel well,” I tell him, and we pull up to the house, and I get out.

  “Go in and lie down. I’ll take care of all the bags,” he says, and I nod at him. Gabriella knows how busy we are during the week, so she prepares our meals, and I have to say it’s a godsend. I walk into the house and kick off my ballerina shoes, going to the couch. Lying down on my side, I close my eyes, and my stomach lurches, so I rush up, running to the bathroom. I close the door and make it to the bowl before I lose my lunch. It doesn’t stop for the next ten minutes, but then I get up and rinse out my mouth and go upstairs to change out of my clothes and into my comfy pjs.

  I get into the bed and pull the covers over me and close my eyes. “Are you okay?” I hear Luca say when he walks into the room. “You look pale.”

  “My stomach is just a mess. Maybe it’s the sushi we had yesterday,” I tell him. He sits on the side of the bed next to me and pushes my hair away.

  “Dad, the movie is starting!” Aiden yells.

  “I promised him we could watch Toy Story this afternoon,” he says, and my heart warms with how amazing of a father he is. From the day he found out that he was a father, he accepted it wholeheartedly and never looked back. “Do you want me to get you anything?”

  “No, I think just a nap will help,” I tell him, and I am asleep even before he leaves the room. I try to wake up, but the minute my eyes open, they are so heavy that I shut them again, and I only really open them when Aiden comes in and kisses my cheek.

  “Night,” he says to me, and I look at him confused. He walks out of the room to go to his own, and when I sit up, it’s the worst thing to do because my stomach roils. I barely make it to the bathroom this time, but whatever didn’t come out of me before is definitely out of me now after dry-heaving for a good five minutes. I get up and wash my face and grab a wet cloth to place on the back of my neck. A soft knock on the door has me looking at it. It slowly opens, and Luca pokes his head in.

  “Hey,” he says softly, coming in and hugging me from behind. As I lean over, his cock pokes me. I look into the mirror at him, and he just smiles.

  “Seriously.” I look at him. “You just heard me throwing up.”

  “Hey, I have no control over him,” he says and leans down and kisses me on the neck. “I have some ginger ale. That should help.”

  I nod at him and get up, following him back into the bedroom. A glass of ginger ale sits on the side table. I take a couple of sips and then lie back down. “I don’t know what this is, but I really hope it’s gone tomorrow.”

  “Can you take the day off?” Luca asks me from the doorway to the bathroom. He takes off his shirt, tossing it in the laundry basket. “Or maybe you should just work from home so you can relax a touch.”

  “I think that is what I’m going to do,” I tell him, grabbing the cover, turning to my side. “I’m so tired.”

  “You could also be coming down with something,” he says, undressing, and I look at him.

  “You’re so hot,” I tell him, and he smiles at me. “Just so you know.”

  “Good to know,” he says, coming to me and kissing my cheek. “I’m going to take a shower.” I just nod at him and sink down into the bed and close my eyes. The nausea rolling through me feels like I’m on a boat with huge waves. I don’t hear him come to bed, but I feel him pulling me to him. I try to open my eyes, but the next thing I know, Aiden is coming in to tell me he’s leaving for school.

  Luca follows him into the room with a cup of warm water and honey. “This is supposed to be good for your stomach. I didn’t have ginger.” He leans down and kisses me. “I’m going to drive Aiden and drop by the office. I’m just going to swing by and get some case files. Then I’m going to come back.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” I tell him, tossing the covers off me and sitting up. My head spins right away, and I push him away from me and make it to the bathroom. Holding my hair in my hand, I dry heave.

  “Oh my God.” I hear Luca say as he gets his phone out. “Mom, I need you to take Aiden to school. Eli is sick, and I can’t leave her.”

  “No,” I groan from the toilet bowl, the sound echoing. I look over at him as I lay my head down on my arm on the toilet seat.

  He presses end and then dials again. “Lauren, it’s me. I’m out for the day. Can you have the courier deliver the Blackstone files to my house?” he says, and I want to tell him no, but I dry heave again. “No, Eli isn’t feeling well, and I can’t leave her. Will do, thanks.”

  “I’m going to be fine,” I say, sitting now on the f
loor with my back to the wall. “You could have left to drive Aiden and then come home.”

  “Dad, are you coming?” Aiden yells from the stairs, and then I hear the sound of his footsteps on the stairs now. He comes into the room and stops in front of Luca, who is standing in front of the bathroom door. “Mommy is sick?” he asks and then comes in, squatting down in front of me. “Mommy, are you okay?”

  “Yes, sweetheart,” I tell him and reach out to touch his face. The nausea rolls through me again, but I breathe in and then exhale. “Nonna is going to drive you to school today.”

  “Is she bringing me cookies?” he asks with his eyes wide open.

  “I want to say no, but she probably is,” I tell him, and just then, the front door opens, and we hear her voice.

  “Amore mio,” she calls, and then I hear her footsteps on the stairs. “What happened?” She comes into the room and sees me in the bathroom. I want to say I’m mortified, but I’m too sick to even care.

  “I think I have food poisoning from the sushi we had on Saturday,” I tell her, and she just shakes her head.

  “I’ll go home and make you some broth.” She smiles and then looks at Luca. “You need to give her warm water and some ginger. I’ll go to the supermarket after I drop off Aiden. Let’s go, Amore, you don’t want to be late.”

  He leans in and kisses my cheek. “Nonna, did you bring me cookies?”

  She tries to hide the smile, but she can’t. “Of course, Amore.” He cheers while they walk out of the room. Luca goes into the closet and takes off his suit.

  “Do you want to move from there?” he asks, and I just nod my head and get up. So far, so good. I put on a robe and walk downstairs with Luca who sets me up on the couch. I lie down and sleep most of the day. I hear Luca beside me on his phone calls with the office but other than that, it’s an uneventful day. When Aiden comes home, I get up on the couch and wait for the nausea to hit, and it doesn’t. I get up and see that Gabriella is coming into the house with Dominic, who carries a pot in his hands.