Alessandro (Members From Money Book 21)

by Katie Dowe

  “Alessandro, we are not married yet-”

  “We are engaged and in some parts of the world it is as good as,” he murmured as he bent to lift her into his arms. She did not fight him, it was not her style and besides she felt her body heating up slowly as she took him in, the scent of him and the magnificence of his body. He climbed the steps and placed her onto the bed. Somehow she found the strength to protest.

  “Listen to me, please.” She raised up on her elbows.

  “We will find some time to talk later.” He pushed her back down and started to undress her. His hands cupped her breasts encased in sheer black lace and he murmured deep inside his throat. He peeled away the lace and almost wept as he saw her breasts, the dusky nipples already hardened and ready for him. “So beautiful,” he whispered. Jayda was helpless as she tried to fight the intense sexual tension inside her. He took off her dress and his hands wandered over her body passing over her pubic area causing her to tremble.

  “Alessandro, please I am begging you to stop!” She placed her hands over his as her body arched towards him.

  “I can’t,” he said hoarsely. He let go of the towel that had been wrapped loosely around his trim waist and Jayda gasped as she saw his erection. He was big! Too big, she thought in fright and knew she was not ready for him yet. He started to climb onto the bed and over her but she used her hands to stop him.

  “Listen to me please,” she said desperately. He rested on his hands and looked down at her his eyes stormy.

  “What?” he rasped.

  “I am asking you to wait please. I am not ready. I want when we get together it will be perfect and we will both want this. I want my first time to be absolutely wonderful, a coming together with the man I love and I don’t want it like this. I am begging you please.”

  His body was stiff as he looked down at her earnest face. He was burning up with need and there was a fog around his brain where his commonsense was supposed to be! He was thinking of nothing else but wanting her!

  “Do you have any idea what you are asking me?” he asked her harshly.

  “I do.” She curled her hands against his muscled chest and almost gave in to her baser needs. He was beautiful and the sexiest man she had ever seen in the flesh! But she wanted to wait and she wanted him to want to wait for her! “I am begging you to just wait and I promise you that it will be worth the wait.”

  He stared down at her for so long that Jayda thought he was not going to respect her wishes. With a smothered groan he got off the bed and reaching for the towel he wrapped it around his waist. Without a word to her he grabbed the bottle of champagne and headed to the next room and slammed the door shut! Jayda got up and almost went after him but she had to stand her ground. Ever since she was a little girl she had sworn that she would stay a virgin until her wedding night and no matter how much she loved him she was not going to go against that! She closed her eyes and taking a deep breath she climbed off the bed to find a nightgown to put on. She had seen a bag at the foot of the bed and assumed that there were clothes in there for her. He had planned it all along and she was not going to be upset about it. He was a man and he had not been with anyone since her. With a trembling sigh she wondered if he was going to find someone to be with who would not be unwilling to open their legs to him! He was a beautiful man and he would have no difficulty calling someone up. Secretly she was afraid that if she gave in to him just once he would find that he did not have to stay with her!

  *****

  Alessandro put the bottle of the fine champagne to his head and guzzled it down before he took it from his mouth. He was trying to dull the heat spreading through his body but it was not helping one damned bit! Who the hell did she think she was, he thought angrily. How dare she deny him! It would serve her right if he went right out and found some willing woman to screw. But he knew he could never do that to her and he did not want anyone else! Damn her!

  Chapter 11

  “You are not enjoying the meal?” Isabella asked the girl curiously as she dug into her salad a little disinterestedly. Isabella had called her and asked her out to lunch in order to get to know her a little bit. She was curious about this girl her brother was marrying. She was not his type as beautiful as she was. And besides she was a small town girl who went to church. What on earth did they have in common? But she had seen the way Jayda looked at him and as reluctant as her brother was to show his emotions she had never seen him look at a woman the way he did Jayda. It was as if he was intent on protecting her from everything. He had made himself her knight in shining armor and she had never pictured Alessandro in that light.

  “I am not particularly hungry,” she said looking up with a wan smile. “It has been a very hectic few weeks and the wedding being two weeks away I am afraid I am kind of nervous.”

  “You will get used to the round of parties and functions that is required of you,” Isabella assured her. She sipped her flavored water and eyed her curiously. “Is that all?”

  Jayda shrugged. “Your brother is not very happy with me.”

  “Alessandro is complex. I would have thought you would have picked up on that by now.”

  “I have.” Jayda swirled her drink around in her glass. And then taking a deep breath she continued. “We are in a very strange situation, Isabella. At least it is strange for him. I am a virgin and I told him that I am not willing to let go of that until we are married.”

  Isabella stared at the woman in shock! This was getting stranger and stranger! “Are you sure you are engaged to my brother?”

  Jayda smiled at her before answering. “I know of his past, Isabella. I have read up on him and knew that he was a wild card before he met me and I am still a little fearful of that but I know he is going to be faithful to me because for some reason he never wants to hurt me and he told me he cannot look on anyone else. He is avoiding me. We would go to these functions and he would have the driver take me home but we are never alone together.”

  Isabella stared at the innocent woman opposite her and almost burst out laughing! Either she was the real deal or she was an angel minus the wings and the halo. “He is probably avoiding you because of the very same unusual situation you two are in.” She looked at the girl speculatively. “My brother has never done that before. He is spoiled where women are concerned and I guess you understand why.”

  “I am not one of them. I am the woman he is going to marry and I am determined that he is going to look at me different.”

  Isabella looked at her; understanding dawning. “You want to be the one he thinks of as special.”

  “I am.” Jayda stared at her soon to be sister in law. “I love him more than I ever thought it possible to love anyone and I know we will work.”

  “I have a feeling that with your kind of attitude it will,” Isabella said with a smile on her beautiful face. “I am going to love having you for a sister.”

  “Thanks. I never had one and now I thank God that it is going to be you.”

  *****

  “Don’t worry, darling, I am not going to allow any strippers to sit on my lap,” he told her in an insolent drawl. It was the night before their wedding and she was heading out to a bridal shower that Leesa and the others had planned for her and was being held on the church grounds. They had tried to keep it from the press but somehow it had been leaked. Now she was being whisked away in one of the cars that belonged to Rivera’s Chocolate complete with a driver.

  “I am sure you won’t,” she said quietly looking towards the front of the car although the partition had been drawn. “I am looking forward to becoming your wife, Alessandro.”

  “I can’t wait to sink my dick deep inside you,” he said a little insolently hoping to shock her. He had been edgy ever since that aborted attempt to make love to her. He had started avoiding her ever since; going to the necessary functions but never being alone with her. At nights he felt it the most! He would crave her in more ways than one and had found that he was not sleeping well because he
could not stop thinking about her! And it was not just the sex!

  “I dream about you every night,” she surprised him by saying. “I cannot wait for you to make love to me, to teach me how to please you, Alessandro. I want so much to do that. I know you are very experienced and I am kind of scared about that but still I am looking forward to it.”

  He could not speak. This was what had him thinking about her so much! The fact that no matter how he behaved badly; she never answered him in kind. He did not deserve her! Not one bit.

  “I will be patient,” he whispered hoarsely. “Make sure you do not stay out too late.”

  “I won’t. I love you, Alessandro. I cannot wait for tomorrow.”

  *****

  “A toast to the man of the moment!” Lorenzo said raising his glass. “I never thought I would see the day when my cousin gets engaged to be married but then again almost all of us were in the same boat.” He waited for the laughter to abate. “I promised Monique that there will be no strippers and we know who wears the pants in my marriage.” Shouts of agreement came forth. “Alessandro, your fiancé is a church woman and we are here wondering how you could be so brave? A pastor’s daughter!”

  “It makes it all the more interesting,” Alessandro retorted causing them to laugh.

  “So instead we are going to ply him with liquor but not enough so that he will not wake up for his wedding tomorrow.”

  Alessandro enjoyed the rounds of liquor but kept it to a minimal because he wanted his head clear for tomorrow.

  “How do you feel?” Lorenzo asked as he came and sat next to him at the table. The club had served finger foods as well. There was music playing in the background and the well wishers were mingling around the vast room.

  Alessandro shrugged and leaned back in the seat, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand. “A great level of anticipation and wondering if I am going to disappoint her.”

  “You mean-”

  “Yeah,” Alessandro said with a laugh.

  “That’s a first for you.”

  “I have never felt this way before. She is like a magnet that I am drawn to and cannot untangle myself from. Sometimes it is suffocating but at other times it sends a very warm feeling inside me.” He looked at his cousin quizzically. “How do you deal with this every day?”

  Lorenzo laughed at the expression on the other man’s face. “It gets better as the years go by.”

  “Nothing I say to her turns her off, man. It’s infuriating.”

  “Reminds me of Monique. She was so patient that it was frustrating but I never stopped thanking fate that led me to her.”

  “Never in a million years would I have seen myself dating a woman like her and planning on marrying her.”

  “Things have a way of turning out differently than we plan.”

  *****

  “I am happy for you,” Millie told her as she sat next to her on one of the benches. The bridal shower had turned out in the form of praying and the women’s department led by her mother had sung several songs. Jayda had apologized to the group of elegantly turned out ‘wives’ who looked so out of place among the simple church people! Leesa had told her that it was different and refreshing. “We don’t get to go to church often, darling, so this makes up for it.”

  So Jayda had stopped worrying. Her father had made a speech about how proud he was of her even though she had begged him not to.

  “Thanks.” Jayda squeezed the girl’s hands lightly. She had made her the maid of honor even though they had drifted apart. “How is everything with Winston?”

  Millie shrugged slightly. “We are hanging by a thread, but I want to make it work.”

  “Does he?” Jayda asked before she could help herself.

  “You are in love with Alessandro and I look at him and think that he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen. I am sure you get scared that he does not love you back. Would you give up on him?” Millie asked her seriously.

  “Never,” Jayda told her. “You are in love with Winston?”

  “I am and in spite of the type of man he is I want it to work.”

  “Then I will be praying that it works.”

  “Thank you.”

  She looked around the room at the different sets of people present. Sister Marlene was talking with Felicia and they seem to be having a genuine conversation and over in one corner of the room her mother was having a discussion with Katarina. She wondered how she was going to balance both but somehow she would.

  “Tomorrow you will be Mrs. Alessandro Rivera” Millie commented in wonder. “A very powerful woman in society.”

  “I prefer to think that I am marrying the love of my life,” Jayda said quietly. “The rest of it is just bonus that I would have done without if he never came with it.”

  *****

  Jayda stood in front of the mirror and stared at herself, her dark brown eyes large with wonder. Her dress was made of the finest spun silk and was of a dazzling white. The bodice was encased with white lace overlay and hugged her frame lovingly. From the waist down yard upon yards of material cascaded down around her and drifted several inches away. The back was cut down and exposed her flawless skin. Jeweled straps crisscrossed at the back. She was wearing diamonds on her wrists and in her lobes; part of the heirloom from the Rivera family. Her hair had been curled in tiny curls and caught up in an elegant chignon. Heavy lace from the hat she had decided on covered half of her face. She, Millie, and Isabella were getting dressed at the Rivera mansion where she had spent the night. She heard a gasp and turned to see her mother standing in the doorway of the luxurious shell pink bedroom she had been assigned. “Mama, you look pretty,” Jayda said admiring the lovely lavender dress her mother was wearing.

  “And you look-” Jenny’s eyes brightened with tears as she looked at her incredibly beautiful daughter. She held out her hands as she came forward. “I always prayed that God would provide a good man for you to be happy with. You are marrying a man that when I look at him and see how beautiful he is I get scared that he is going to hurt my little girl but looking at you now and seeing how lovely you look what man would not want to be with you?”

  “You are biased, Mama.” She leaned in and kissed her mother’s cheek.

  “Your father thinks he is losing his daughter, but I have to remind him he is gaining a son. He thinks that Alessandro is going to hurt you.”

  “He does not know him like I do, Mama,” she said with a glow of confidence on her face. “I don’t think anyone does.”

  “You know your man and that is the greatest thing. No one else needs to know him,” her mother told her gently. “Are you ready?”

  “I am.”

  *****

  “You look nervous,” Adam Rivera murmured as his son adjusted the royal blue bow tie around his neck. His father and best man Lorenzo Romano were with him at his apartment where they were getting dressed. The press were waiting outside for them and he had a feeling that they were camped out at his parents’ place waiting for a glimpse of his bride to be.

  “I am anxious,” he corrected with a laugh as he stared into the mirror. His jet black hair was brushed severely back from his face and his dark blue suit fitted him to perfection.

  “She is an unusual young lady,” Adam said slowly.

  “I guess you could call her that.” Alessandro moved away from the mirror and pinned the sprig of gardenia that was a part of his bride’s bouquet onto his lapel. “Don’t worry, Dad; I am very sure about this.”

  “I can see you are.” Adam clasped his son on the shoulder. “She is very good for you.”

  “She is,” he mused. “She makes me want to be better somehow even though I never knew I wanted to be better.”

  “I wish you all the best.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  *****

  The small chapel was full to overflowing. A red carpet had been laid on the tiled floor for them to walk on and roses had been scattered all over it. The press had been camped outside the buildi
ng in spite of the cold November day and they had been whipped into frenzy at the amount of rich society people that had filed into the church. They snapped to attention as the bride was helped from the car by her father and the cameras went off as soon as they saw her. Pastor Barry Walker folded his hand over his daughter’s small one as they made their way into the church. He was playing two roles. He was giving her away and he was going to perform the ceremony as well. Another minister was standing there waiting for him to take his place. The music changed and the guests got to their feet and turned to look at the woman walking up the aisle on the arm of her father. Alessandro did not have eyes for anyone else but her! His heart hammered inside his chest as he saw her. Their eyes met and he felt as if his chest was closing off and he could not breathe! Tonight he was going to show her how much he needed her but for now he had vows to make!

  They repeated their vows clearly, Jayda’s voice ringing out with the conviction of what she felt for him. He placed his rings on her slim fingers and promised to respect her and love her until death. She kept her eyes on him as she promised to honor and love him for the rest of her life.

  “I take you, Jayda Kimberly Walker, to be my wife for as long as we shall live,” he said in his deep cultured voice.

  “And I take you, Alessandro Antonio Rivera, to be my husband as long as we both shall live,” she told him.

  Very soon it was time for their first kiss as husband and wife and Alessandro had to reign in his intense desire as his lips touched hers. She did not make it easy for him as she opened up beneath him, her tongue touching his tentatively. He ended the kiss, his heart slamming in his chest, his breathing labored.

  “I now present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Alessandro Rivera,” Pastor Barry Walker said with a suspicious sheen in his dark brown eyes. “Please stand as they make their walk for the first time as husband and wife.”

  The cameras came alive as they made their way outside! Alessandro wrapped a beautiful cashmere wrap around her to ward off the cold as he bundled her into the vehicle that was taking them to his parents’ home for the reception. He stayed far away from her. He knew that one touch and he would have a hard time remembering that they were inside the vehicle.