Three Sacred Words (Golden Arrow #2)

by Christina Lee

  “What do you say, Joaquin?” I said around a thick throat.

  “Thank you, Mr. Alex.” He threw himself against his legs. “Can we get started now?”

  “Sure,” he said, patting his curls. “You spread it out at the kitchen table while I order a pizza.”

  The smile that passed between my child and the man quickly becoming the person I couldn’t live without made my heart blossom.

  29

  Alex

  It was difficult not to get swept up in the idea of having Meadow and Joaquin with me—in my city, in my home. But damn did it feel good.

  After Meadow put Joaquin to sleep, we had a long make-out session on the couch, where we laid side by side touching skin, lips against lips, my fingers against the rapid pulse at her neck, kissing like our lives depended on it.

  Given the circumstances we were in, that might’ve been the case. When she texted me from the motel room so shaken, I made the split-second decision to keep them with me, even if Charlie was wary about the idea. In the end, she understood.

  I considered asking Meadow to stay in my room for the night but I knew that would be placing her in an awkward position with her child, who was in a strange new place, and probably needed his mother’s arms around him.

  Besides, she looked exhausted from her long drive and more than a little anxious and confused about what might be happening with the investigation as well as at the reservation.

  I kissed her good night, worked from my laptop until after midnight, and still woke up early enough to get breakfast started. I made eggs, pancakes, and bacon and wondered if they even ate this stuff. Just as I got the coffeepot brewing, I heard their bedroom door slide open and Joaquin bolt down the hallway.

  “It smells delicious,” he said with a dreamy grin on his face.

  “Hope you like pancakes,” I said, patting him on the back.

  “I love them,” he said sliding into a chair and pulling his plate closer.

  “You got up early,” Meadow said with a shy smile, as she emerged around the corner. She had on cotton shorts and a t-shirt and her bedhead was sexy.

  I squeezed her shoulders, resisting the urge to pull her into my arms and brush my lips against hers right in front of Joaquin. “I wanted to make sure my guests had a good breakfast.”

  “You didn’t have to go through all this trouble,” she said, marveling at all the dirty dishes in the sink and the mess on the counter. “Thank you.”

  “Have a seat,” I said, sliding out her chair. After loading our plates, I poured her coffee using her favorite vanilla creamer.

  Her eyebrows rose. “You buy the same brand?”

  I felt a wash of color on my cheeks. I bought it with her in mind, considering her stay in the motel without any creature comforts. “Not normally.”

  She stared at me in awe. “Thanks for remembering.”

  As Joaquin scarfed down his food, I was glad I’d remembered to make a stop at the store as soon as I was back in town, to load up on last minute groceries.

  “Mr. Alex makes the best eggs,” Joaquin declared after he finished the last bite.

  “You want more buddy?” I asked and then scooped another spoonful onto his plate.

  “They are good,” Meadow said, around a forkful of food. “What’s your secret?”

  “Um, let’s see,” I said, chuckling. I had my mom to thank for the recipe. Except, I had held back the hot sauce. “I add some milk and queso blanco.”

  “Ah, must be the cheese,” she said, grinning. “It’s really delicious, Alex.”

  “Glad you like it,” I said, after chewing a mouthful of pancake.

  Joaquin cleaned up his own plate and then rushed to the living room to continue working on the Lego set we’d gotten started on last night, leaving Meadow and I alone at the table.

  She looked over her shoulder to make sure Joaquin was occupied. “Any news?”

  “They’re closing in on one of his top men,” I muttered, after taking my last bite of food.

  Her eyes widened. “Because of the phone call Gloria made?”

  “Yeah,” I said, piling our dishes from the table. “It gave us a good lead.”

  “Will Sparrow know it was her?” Fear swirled through her gaze. “Us?”

  Shit, Meadow was scared. We had done that to her.

  Fuck no, he had done that to her. The bastard. I wanted to nail him good.

  “I don’t know,” I said, going for honesty. “We’ve been searching for months. Anybody could’ve given them up.”

  She nodded but I could tell she didn’t quite believe me. Would she always feel guilt that she had helped delivered him to the feds? Would that detail always come between us? As I thought all of this through, I couldn’t help wondering if we were screwed from the get-go.

  I banished those ideas form my brain. If this was a weekend I could have them all to myself, I was going to take advantage and figure out the rest later.

  “Don’t you have to go?” she asked, tentatively. “To help find him?”

  I placed my hand on top of hers. “Did you think I would leave you in an empty house?”

  “I thought it was a possibility,” she said, looking away. “I know this case is important to you and your job.”

  “Not as important as keeping you safe.” I lifted her hand, kissing her knuckles.

  Her eyes softened but she kept silent as if waiting on me to explain.

  “I work with a team and we’ve talked through all the key details,” I said, lacing our fingers together. “In this instance we thought it best to keep me out of it.”

  Her face looked stricken. “Because of your involvement with me?”

  I shrugged. “Something like that.”

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, her finger nervously edging along the table.

  I lifted her chin with my thumb. “I’m not.”

  After we showered and changed, Joaquin squeezed between Meadow and I on the couch to watch The Empire Strikes Back.

  Meadow left the room when she received a call from her neighbor.

  I met her in the kitchen, where we had a hushed conversation about a man asking around for her at their trailer park.

  “Jayden didn’t think he looked familiar,” she said, as Joaquin giggled over something on the screen.

  “What did Jayden say to him?” I asked, knowing that it had to be one of Sparrow’s contacts. Especially since I’d gotten the same message from Charlie in a text. They ran his plates back to a rental car.

  “She told him that I must’ve been at work,” she said, cringing. “She asked if he wanted to leave a message and he said no.”

  I nodded. “Charlie said he hung around for a while before leaving. And that another one of your neighbor’s stepped outside to have words and that’s when he left.”

  “It must’ve been Frank,” Meadow said, with a faint smile on her lips.

  I brushed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m glad you have friends who watch out for you.”

  “Do you think that man was there on Sparrow’s order?” she asked, watching me place the remaining coffee cup from the sink in the dishwasher.

  “What do you think?” I asked, loading the machine with soap and turning the lever.

  “I think Sparrow’s checking out things for himself,” she said, straightening a dishtowel on the counter.

  “I think you’d be right,” I said, kissing her on the cheek. “Gloria called him and dropped a bomb. It makes sense that he would want to monitor the situation.”

  She shivered as I pulled her into my arms. “What would the man have done if we’d been home?”

  I rubbed her back. “I’m not sure. Just glad you’re here with me.”

  She gave me a peck on the lips and stared into my eyes. “Joaquin and I are very grateful, Alex.”

  Little did she realize that I was the grateful one. They were safe with me and I didn’t want them to ever leave.

  30

  Meadow

  As I was p
utting Joaquin to bed, Alex’s phone buzzed.

  “Hold on a minute, it’s Charlie,” he said, having wandered in the room to help tuck my child in. Joaquin seemed to like that idea very much, if the glow in his eyes was any indication.

  After I had sung him to sleep, I found Alex on the couch, busy on his laptop.

  Alex’s face was a mask of concern and it was hard to read him. But that call had been important and he was probably just waiting to tell me about it.

  He had been tense all day, checking out the window, and sweeping his hand over the gun holster that had become a permanent fixture on his hip, normally hidden beneath a jacket. It was a habit I’d come to associate with him. Though I had already warned Joaquin about never touching a weapon, I overheard Alex teaching my child the basics about gun safety the other day. It was a conversation we needed to have multiple times if Alex were to remain in our lives. The idea made my entire body hum with possibility.

  “You’re being quiet,” I said, edging closer, my stomach throbbing. “Is something up?”

  He nodded and patted the seat beside him. “They’ve got Sparrow’s second in command in custody.”

  My chest squeezed tight. I cleared my throat and finally got the words out. “So what does that mean?”

  “More than likely it means that Sparrow will move further into hiding,” he said. “And hopefully his man will give something up.”

  It brought back all the ways that we were conflicted. Could I really keep seeing Alex if he was hunting Joaquin’s father?

  My gaze darted down the hallway to where Joaquin was fast asleep, content and comfortable as he had drifted off. He knew it was unusual for us to be here, yet Alex had a way of making him laugh and relax. We were already in deep. So very deep.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Alex whispered against my throat. “I don’t want him to resent me either.”

  “Alex—”

  “I’m going to take myself off this case as a conflict of interest.”

  I felt my eyes tear up. “Oh honey, I don’t want—”

  He pulled me into his arms and kissed my head. “You guys are more important.”

  I threw my arms around him as a tornado of feelings welled up inside of me.

  “Listen,” he said, pushing my hair away from my forehead. “I don’t want to spend the night debating this. I want to spend it holding you.”

  His tongue met and tangled with mine as his fingers slid behind my neck, tightening our connection.

  We kissed in a languid pace, neither seeming to want to let the other go. Finally, I dragged my mouth away to inhale some needed air.

  “You and Gloria will be able to head back home in a couple of days,” he said with a pained expression.

  “I’ll need to get back to work,” I said, even though it was the furthest thing from my mind. “We can’t exactly afford this time off.”

  His forehead crinkled, like it always did when I mentioned our money struggles. But he kept his mouth closed; he knew it was the reality of our situation.

  He gathered my face in his hands, his thumbs brushing across my cheeks.

  “I’m in love with you, Meadow,” he said, his gaze locked on mine. “With Joaquin, too. I want you both in my life.”

  I buried my head into his shoulder as relief and overpowering affection coursed through me.

  “I know that may overwhelm you,” he said, his fingers grasping for my chin, forcing me to look at him. “But I’ll follow your lead. We can go as fast or slow as you like.”

  Tears pricked my eyes and I swiped at them with my forearm.

  “I’m in love with you too,” I said, kissing his jaw. “I know Joaquin already thinks the world of you. He—”

  His eyes softened as he waited for me to finish my thought. “I’ve been afraid for him . . . I don’t want him to be disappointed by a man again.”

  He shook his head adamantly. “I would never—”

  “Shhhh . . .” I said. “I know that. You’re amazing.”

  Alex led me to his bedroom where he turned on soft music as background noise and then slowly undressed me. He knelt before me on the floor as I sat naked on his bed, my body thrumming with need.

  His fingernails scaled down my collarbones and then lightly grazed my breasts.

  “Just look at you,” he whispered. “Are you really mine?”

  I threw my head back in a moan as he sucked a nipple into his mouth and bit down lightly. “Alex.”

  While his tongue laved the underside of my breast, his fingertips skimmed down my arms to my hips, leaving pinpricks in their wake. His strong hands gripped my thighs, tugging me forward.

  Trailing his tongue down to my navel, he licked around it and then buried his nose in the patch of hair below. It was the sexiest thing anybody had ever done and I felt revered, desired, loved. As his gaze mapped lazily over my skin, his shoulders settled between my hips.

  He licked a stripe up one inner thigh and then the other, until the tip of his tongue brushed against the hood of my clit. I nearly sprang out of my skin as my fingers clutched at his hair. Just seeing him on his knees using his mouth and lips and tongue to bring me to nirvana, made my heart slam against my chest and my hips buck toward his mouth.

  “Give me what you got,” he rasped. “I want to taste every single part of you.”

  I moaned unabashedly as Alex thrust his tongue inside of me and his thumb circled patterns over my clit.

  He rolled up my hips so that I was forced lie back on the bed. His tongue was everywhere—circling, sucking, and bathing the area in and around my entrance. My body had never experienced so much attention all at once.

  “Alex, please,” I begged as my thighs quivered.

  “Please what, baby?” he asked, biting the underside of my cheek.

  I whimpered. “I need you inside me. Right now.”

  He wasted no time shedding his clothes or rolling on the condom. Nudging me toward the headboard, he lined up his cock to my slick entrance and thrust inside. I was so overwhelmed with sensation that I cried out, firmly hooking my legs around his waist, as he pounded inside me.

  His mouth came down over mine and his tongue drove past my teeth, allowing me a taste of where his lips had just been.

  “Turn over baby,” he said, his voice hoarse as a rosy color bloomed along his cheeks, neck, and chest. “So I can see that beautiful ass.”

  His words made me feel completely electric as I flipped to my stomach. Alex bent over to kiss each of my cheeks almost worshipfully before tugging me upward, my shoulders against his chest, and plunging back inside. My nipples were taut and standing at attention as I held onto the headboard and watched his hand snake between my legs.

  “I have never been with a sexier woman,” he said, biting my earlobe. “There’s nobody else for me. Only you.”

  “Oh God, Alex. That’s—” I was overcome with emotion and at a loss for words as he palmed my breasts and sucked on the back of my neck. I loved everything about what he was doing—so raw and real and emotional.

  After several more minutes of driving inside me, I could feel that familiar low pulse in my belly, like the spark of an undercurrent ready to ignite. I sank down on my hands and knees, whimpering. “I’m so close.”

  He flipped me back over and slowed his rhythm, staring deeply into my eyes.

  “Come with me baby,” he whispered and I let it all unravel, like a closely guarded secret vault. My passion and fears, anxiety and love. I let him feel all of it as I shuddered uncontrollably beneath him and the room whited out for several blissful moments.

  Afterward, he wrapped me up in his strong arms and kissed me breathless before I returned to my child in the other room.

  31

  Meadow

  The ride home was difficult because everything felt up in the air.

  Not our feelings for each other—that seemed solid. But there was this ache deep in my chest because I wanted to be with that man all the time now, but I didn’t know
how or where just yet.

  Alex would officially take himself off the case and until then he would call every day so we could figure out our lives. But for now I had a job to return to and jewelry orders to fill.

  Charlie and another agent would remain in town to see us through the next few days, to be sure their assumptions about Sparrow were correct. I couldn’t help thinking that Sparrow knew Gloria was behind this latest break in the case and I was fearful for her safety. I’d been able to talk to her last night and told her I’d see her soon at work.

  I could tell something was on Joaquin’s mind as well. The way he hugged Alex so tight upon leaving. He looked as forlorn as Alex had.

  “What’s up buddy?” I had asked him a few minutes into our trip.

  “I’m going to miss Mr. Alex,” he said and my gut tightened.

  “This city too?” I said, clearing my throat.

  He looked out the window at the passing scenery. “It’s nice.”

  “Do you miss home, sweetie?”

  “Yes,” he said, clutching his drawing paper tighter. “But I wish Mr. Alex was coming with us.”

  I searched his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Why is that?”

  “He’s nice and funny and he plays with me.”

  And he’s sexy and gorgeous and special.

  “I agree,” I said. “Those are good qualities to have.”

  We both fell silent, each lost in our own thoughts as we connected to another freeway.

  “Momma?” Joaquin asked a few minutes later.

  “Hmm?” I asked dreamily.

  “Do you like Mr. Alex a lot?”

  Yikes, this was a tough one because I didn’t want to confuse him. But it was time to tell him some important truths, especially if Alex was going to be involved in our lives. “I do, yes.”