“You had more than dinner and now you’re not sure you want to mix business with pleasure. There was pleasure, right?” Paolo teased and leaned closer to scrutinize Carlo’s face.
Carlo felt the heat rise to his cheeks and ignored his brother. Hesitating because he didn’t want to violate the trust Emma had placed in him, he said, “Emma is right to worry about mixing a personal relationship with a business one.”
But he knew it was also more about the number her father had done on her with his emotional abuse. Plus, he suspected there was more to the story that she still hadn’t told him.
His two brothers shared a look and he had no doubt what they were thinking.
“I’ll speak to her when the time is right, but it isn’t. I’m way short of what I’d need for a bid. On top of that, the building still needs a ton of work which means I need even more cash to get it ready for customers,” he explained.
“I don’t have much, but you’ve paid me well. I can kick in whatever I have,” Paolo said with a nonchalant shrug.
“I haven’t had many needs in the Army so I’ve stashed away a nice nest egg for civilian life. I’m in,” Tomás said, adding his support.
Carlo held his hands up in disbelief. “Just like that. Without even taking a look at the place?”
His two brothers glanced at each other again and just shrugged as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Paolo dipped his head in Tomás’s direction, and his middle brother looked at him and said, “We trust you, Carlo. Whatever you want to do, we’re here for you like you’ve always been there for us.”
Carlo’s throat choked up with emotion at the trust his brothers were placing in him. With a nod, he managed to choke out, “Obrigado. I won’t let you down.”
“We know,” they said in unison and rose to get back to work. As they left the office, Carlo hoped their trust in him wouldn’t be misplaced. He likewise hoped that Emma could get over her issues and learn to trust him as well.
EMMA PLACED THE PLATE with the flan and chocolate covered strawberries on the coffee table in front of Carlo. “We never did get to eat that delicious dessert you made, so I thought I’d give it a try.”
She sat cross-legged on the couch beside him, plucked a strawberry off the plate, and held it up to him.
“You remember what happened the last time you offered me this treat?” he said with an arch of his dark brow and a playfully dangerous glitter in his gaze.
But she was feeling just as deliciously sexy. Bringing the strawberry to his lips, she said, “Why do you think I made this dessert?”
He took hold of her hand and bit off most of the berry. He chewed it slowly and made a point of licking his lips, daring her to taste him.
She did, but just a fleeting kiss meant to tease and entice him.
He reached for a berry and held it up to her lips. She bit into the berry and juices exploded all over her mouth, but she had barely swallowed when Carlo had his mouth on hers, kissing and tasting her. He urged her into his lap, but she slapped his hands away with a laugh and stood.
“I’ve got a much more comfortable place for us,” she said, tugging him out of her living room and into her bedroom. On the way in, she snagged the remote and flipped on the gas fireplace. It cast warm intimate light in the otherwise dark room.
At the edge of the bed, she paused in her headlong rush and faced him. “I want you, Carlo, but not just physically.”
With a wry grin and a sweep of his gaze around the room, he teased, “Color me confused, because this sure seems like a seduction to me.”
“Shut up,” she said and urged him to sit on the edge of her bed.
“Domineering too? I think I may like this,” he said, barely containing a laugh.
“You’re not taking this seriously,” she said with a pout, reached down and yanked the black sweater he wore up and over his head, baring his upper body.
“But I am, Emma,” he said and eased his hands to the tiny buttons on the V-neck cardigan she wore, undoing them quickly. He groaned as the fabric parted to reveal she had nothing on underneath. Quickly he covered her with his hands, jerking a rough sigh from her as he caressed her breasts.
“I can’t think when you do that,” she said and swayed toward him.
He grinned and replaced his hands with his mouth, causing her to wrap her arms around his head and hold him to her. She dropped kisses on his temple and forehead and moaned as he gave a rough tug at her nipple with his mouth.
“Carlo, please. Stop,” she said and eased her hands between them to urge him away.
“Emma, is something wrong?” he asked, leaning back onto the bed.
“Nothing’s wrong, Carlo, but I want tonight to be about you. I want you to know just how much I care for you.”
Carlo shook his head. “Meu amor, I know. Trust me –”
“I do, Carlo. I really do only . . .” she said, hating that what should have been a special night might suddenly go south.
“Meu amor, we have all night, don’t we?” he said and reached up to cradle her breast again. He bent his head to kiss the tip of her breast while he whispered, “Don’t over think this. Just enjoy.”
She couldn’t think with his mouth moving on her, making her insides clench with need and her center grow damp. She laid her hands on his shoulder and urged him to lie down on the bed. As he did so, she hurriedly yanked off her own pants and then undid his jeans and stripped them off his body, exposing him to her gaze. He was so beautiful. So lethally masculine. The firelight cast its light on his skin, painting him golden in spots, but casting shadows also. She traced her finger along those lines across his abdomen, then skipped her finger down to his navel and lower until she encircled him.
He groaned as she ran her hand up his erection and it jerked and trembled beneath her palm. She stroked him and his big body shuddered. His voice was tight as he held out his hand and said, “Come here, Emma. Please.”
She had wanted to pleasure him but couldn’t resist his plea.
She took hold of his hand and with a surge of power, he had them in the center of the bed with his big body trapping her beneath him. She loved the weight of him. The feel of his hard body against hers and the press of his erection at her center, so hot and thick. Lord, she wanted to love him, be one with him as settled himself at her center, slowly parting her.
“Carlo, protection,” she said, fearing they’d both lose their heads and do something foolish. Although a picture of a baby that was a mix of both of them flashed through her mind for a hot instant.
He muttered a curse, reached for his pants from the floor, and jerked a packet from his back pocket. There was a rip of foil and suddenly he was back over her, but trailing kisses down her body until he reached her center.
“Carlo,” she protested, halfheartedly she had to admit, but that plea became a moan as he parted her and sucked at the sensitive nub with his mouth. He eased one finger and then a second into her to stroke her until she was wet and arching her hips to him, seeking satisfaction.
EMMA KEENED WITH PLEASURE and her nails bit into his shoulders as he tasted her. Beneath his lips and hands, her body vibrated with the first tremors of her approaching climax. As she called out his name again and his erection jerked at the sound, Carlo couldn’t wait any more.
He danced kisses up her body until he reached her breasts again. Suckling her, he poised at her entrance and with a subtle move of her hips, Emma took him inside inch-by-pleasurable-inch. He stilled, awed by the feel of her around him. Beneath him. By her pale beauty in the firelight and the pleasant heat from the fireplace that couldn’t compare to the warmth of her body.
“You take my breath away, meu amor. You are so beautiful,” he said as he rose up on his arm to look at her. Wanting to see her as passion rose, rousing the blush on her skin and deepening her amazing eyes to a green as deep as the most precious emerald.
Emma ran her hands across his shoulder and down to cup his chest. She skimmed her thumbs across his
nipples and his gut tightened with the caress.
“You like that,” she said and rose up to suckle him, causing him to groan and close his eyes against the pleasure.
She bit the tip gently and he had to move as desire pummeled him.
He shifted in and out, driving passion ever higher in both of them. Straining not to lose control as her climax approached and the waves of her release rolled over him. Over and over he stroked until with a sharp thrust, she arched upward with her climax and he couldn’t hold on anymore and fell over with her.
Chapter 23
Emma was cradled between his legs as they finally ate the flan and finished off the strawberries covered in chocolate. As he set aside their plates on her nightstand, he wrapped his arms around her and drew her back against his chest.
“Delicious. As good as mine,” he said and kissed her temple.
“Liar. There’s no way it was as good as yours,” she said and rubbed his forearms with her hands.
“Way better since we actually ate it, Em,” he teased.
She laughed and shook her head. “You’re incorrigible,” she teased.
But a second later he had his hand between her legs, touching her intimately and rousing need again.
“No, that’s incorrigible, meu amor,” he whispered in her ear and proceeded to show her just how good it was to be bad.
CONNIE RETURNED THAT weekend from her honeymoon and brought with her a couple of unseasonably warm December days. With the temperature hovering in the mid-fifties, Emma and her friends had grabbed a couple of big blankets and laid them out behind the Pierce and Sinclair beach houses to enjoy the weather, sun, and a picnic lunch that Emma had picked up earlier from Jesse’s shop.
Connie had finished eating and was lying on the blanket, wearing a lightweight jacket. Unbuttoned, it fell open to reveal a very pronounced baby bump.
“OMG, Con. Did you swallow a coconut or something on your honeymoon?” Emma kidded and gently ran her hand over Connie’s newly burgeoning belly.
Connie leaned up enough to see it and smiled, happiness radiating from her like summer sunshine. She skimmed her hand across the growing mound and said, “It’s like the baby was waiting until after the wedding and then said, ‘Bam it’s time to show me around.’”
Tracy laughed and said, “You tell that little girl she’s got to wait. It’s not time for her to come out yet.”
Connie glanced at her friend, a slight scrunch to her brows. “You think it’s a girl? That’s the way I’ve been feeling too.”
“I hope it is so she can have wonderful friends like all of you,” Tracy said and hugged Emma, who was sitting beside her on the blanket.
Cross-legged, Maggie was opposite Connie on another blanket. She turned to take a look at Connie’s protruding belly and with a laugh, she said, “Are you sure there aren’t twins in there?”
“No, twins, thankfully. We have enough going on with the new building, the house renovations, and my new job,” Connie said.
Maggie swiveled and laid shoulder-to-shoulder beside Connie. Maggie spread her hands across her own belly and said, “Good thing since Owen and I are having twins and may need some help.”
Connie shot up to stare at her friend while Tracy squealed and leaned over to hug both of them.
In shock, Emma covered her mouth with her hands as tears came to her eyes. “Twins?” she said shakily.
Maggie nodded and grinned. “I guess all that trying worked for us,” she said with a laugh. “The doctor said twins. I’m almost at the start of the third month and we heard the two heartbeats at our last visit.”
“Wow, Maggie. That’s amazing,” Emma said and reached out to grasp her friend’s hand.
“Amazing and scary, but it’s nice to think that Connie’s baby won’t have to wait too long to have friends around,” Maggie said and hugged Emma.
Tracy clapped joyfully and said, “And the babies will have Aunt Tracy and Auntie Em –”
“Sweet lord, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that,” Emma said with a heavy sigh and a roll of her eyes.
“But you’re going to be a fabulous aunt, Emma. So am I,” Tracy said and hugged her hard, sensing that she needed the support.
Emma could picture it. Tracy and her, the favorite old maiden aunts, taking their friends’ trio of babies for ice cream or to the amusement park on the boardwalk a few towns over. But then the image in her mind morphed and that reddish-haired, hazel-eyed baby came into the picture again as it had the other night and joined her friends’ babies. She embraced that image and found the courage to say, “Carlo and I . . . we’ve been seeing each other. Seriously.”
The squeals that followed that announcement were as loud as those for Maggie’s news.
“That’s epic, Em,” Connie said, earning a groan from Maggie.
“That’s so Jon of you, but it is epic,” Maggie teased, mimicking the surfer lingo Connie’s husband was so fond of using.
“It is,” Emma said, but her friends knew her too well not to see she was still reluctant.
“It’s going to work out, Emma. He loves you,” Maggie said and leaned forward to squeeze Emma’s hand to emphasize the point.
Connie added her support by moving across the blanket to hug her. “When Jon and I first got together, I was worried too, but Jon said to take it organically. I laughed and thought he was crazy, but look,” she said and gestured to her belly.
“Organically, huh?” Emma said with a shake of her head. “I’ll try, Con. I’ll try not to over think it,” she said, recalling the words Carlo had said to her just the night before.
“Try, Emma. Try to set aside all the hurt your dad did to you. Trust Carlo,” Connie said.
Tracy emphasized it with a hug. “Carlo is a good man. He’ll make a good father.”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” she said although she had. Not that she could admit it yet or even truly believe it.
“Liar, but we’ll let it go for now, Emma. We can all tell it’s too soon,” Maggie said.
“It is and all I want to think about right now is enjoying this gorgeous day with my best friends forever,” she said and to prove her point, she joined them all together in a group hug.
Their laughter and smiles filled Emma with joy and comfort. She knew that no matter what, they’d be there for her through good times and bad. Her one hope was that the times to follow would only be good for all of them.
CARLO SCROLLED THROUGH his electronic ledger one last time and then his 401K summary. Not that he wanted to tap into that, but he would if it would secure the future for him and his brothers. And Emma. For the last several years his dreams had always included Emma both in his personal life and his business one. But he still hadn’t had the courage to talk to her about the convention center and as much as he dared hope, he feared Emma remained unsure about their personal relationship. Flipping to the spreadsheet he’d created to keep track of the funds he’d been able to put together for the bid on the convention center, he sighed with regret. With what Paolo and Tomás could contribute they only had enough for a substantial portion of the purchase price, but nowhere near what they’d need to finish the renovations to the building.
He could reach out to Emma, but his gut tightened with concern. He wanted her to be a part of it so much. But how would it affect their too new relationship? he wondered and settled more deeply into the cushions of his chair. He steepled his hands before his mouth and rested his head on the back of his chair, considering what to do. How to do it.
A sharp series of knocks on the frame of his door yanked him from his thoughts.
Jonathan Pierce stood there, looking tanned, relaxed, and incredibly happy. “Dude, why do you look so down?”
Carlo hopped to his feet and hurried to bro hug his friend, clap his back, and clasp his hand. “Mano, you look great. Marriage obviously agrees with you.”
“I feel great, Carlo. I never thought I’d say this, but married life is awesome,” J
onathan said with a huge smile. His sea blue eyes gleamed like sunlight on the ocean.
“I can tell. You really do look happy,” he said and motioned him in the direction of a chair in front of his desk. “What brings you here today?”
“I just got back and found out the convention center is for sale. You know me. I wanted to jump on that, but when I called Mary Sanders, she said she couldn’t help me. That she already had another client interested in the property.”
Carlo nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets as he sat on the edge of his desk. “I guess you’re here because you figured out who it was.”
“I did and it makes a lot of sense. I know Emma and you have talked about starting an event planning business together and that’s a perfect location. Lots of opportunities for holding events,” Jonathan said, the surfer dude replaced with the businessman who had turned the energy and vehicle industries on their heads.
“A good place for you to have conferences as well. The ballrooms seat a nice number of people,” Carlos said.
“According to the specifications on the main ballrooms, they’re approved for five hundred people each. Perfect for the kinds of conferences I wanted to have. I’ve got some ideas on the first one I’d like to hold there, but I want no part of dealing with the food, planning, and everything else it takes,” Jonathan admitted with smile as he tacked on, “I’d rather be surfing.”
“Or inventing another fabulous new car.” Carlo reached across his desk to grab the fob sitting there. “It worked like a dream,” he said as he returned the key to Jonathan.
“Glad to hear that, Carlo. We have high hopes for the Thunder. Are you game?” Jonathan asked and pocketed the fob.
“Game? Does that mean you want to be like an Angel Investor?” Carlo said, wanting to make sure that he understood just what Jonathan was proposing.
Jonathan laughed. “An Angel Investor, huh? Haven’t been called that before, but I like the sound of it.” His friend eyed him thoughtfully and plowed on. “I have total faith in you, your brothers, and Emma. Partners, Carlo.”
Never a Bride Page 19