by Mya Black
Now.
Alessandro cupped her head in his hands and devoured her mouth until she was scratching at him and begging for more than his lips. And, he gave her everything she asked for. His hands skated up and down her body, noting all the wonderful changes that had taken place as their baby grew inside her. Her breasts were larger, much larger, and so tender he could probably make her come just by sucking them. When his tongue curled around a sensitive peak, she gasped loudly and held his head to her, arching as much as she could into his mouth.
“Alessandro,” she moaned and when his teeth grazed her nipple she screamed out and her juices flooded his fingers until they dripped with her arousal. He smiled and moved to her other sensitive peak, straining to get closer to his mouth. He did it all over again and this time when she came, she made the sweetest sound.
“I want you, Eve – now. Say you want me, too.” She nodded, but that wasn’t good enough for him. “Say it,” he urged her on and on. “Tell me you want this, want me, too.”
“Alessandro, I want you. I want you so fucking bad. I need you deep inside me. Now.” That was all he needed to hear to free himself and strip her clothes from her sexy body, round with his child, and plunge deep inside her. She was wet as hell and tight for him, crying out when he was fully seated.
“Is this okay?” He held himself still so she could adjust to make sure he wasn’t too rough on her or the baby. With one solid pull, her ass was hanging off the bed, her feet rested at his shoulders as he began to move.
“Yeah, it’s great.” He smiled at her husky voice, thick with lust. Her disappointment ran out when he pulled all the way out and her screams made him puff with pleasure when he thrust deep inside her again. “Alessandro. More.” He gave her exactly what she asked for – more of him. So much of him they were both sweating and grunting their pleasure as they both stretched closer and closer to that lowest hanging star, put in the sky just for them.
“Eve. Sweet Eve.” He repeated those words over and over again. His spine tingled and her nails dug deep into his shoulders, they were both so close. His thrusts were more frantic, wilder, until they were both screaming their pleasure like wolves howling at the moonlight. “Fuck, I love you,” he said into her eyes and those words, his love for her pushed her up and over that precipice until she was squeezing him so tight he saw stars.
“Alessandro, I love-” She cut herself off as the ripples took her over and over and her orgasm lasted for minutes. When she finally came down, her breathing was labored, but her eyes were closed tight and she wasn’t moving. Alessandro was smiling the smile of a well loved man who knew more than he should. When she opened those gorgeous amber eyes, they were heavy with lust and that satisfied smile made him love her even more. Her hand cupped his jaw. “Alessandro, that was incredible. I’ve never come like that before, it was…magical.”
“Stop,” he joked, “you’re making me blush.”
Then, his phone rang again and ruined it all.
He sat on his plane as it taxied and all he could think about was that tortured, yet resigned look on her face. That look that said it all. I knew this would happen and this is why I wouldn’t let myself love you. I knew you would leave me, leave us, and go back to your family. And, that’s exactly what he was doing, no matter that it was reluctantly.
His heart was breaking and the last fucking thing he wanted to do was deal with Sabrina or her parents. But she had some type of respiratory infection and he was her healthcare proxy, so he had to make the decisions. He didn’t care what happened to her, not anymore. Not since her decisions had effectively ended their marriage and her own careless behavior had locked him in a prison and made life unbearable for the woman he loved. Over and over, he replayed her last words and the look on her face as she said them. “Maybe you should just go back to your place when you get back to town.”
It wasn’t over between them. It couldn’t be.
He wouldn’t let it be.
***
Two days of endless tears and buckets of pistachio chocolate chip ice cream and Eve was officially done. She was through mourning the first and only man she had ever loved. Probably would ever love. She was through wasting water on a man who would always be running off to another woman, and she was done wishing for fairy tales and happily ever after. From this day forward, she was a true realist. Her goals were twofold: take care of her baby the best way she could and grow her business so they would always be taken care of.
As soon as Alessandro had left to go see about his wife, she hopped in her car and went to her Beverly Hills salon. Based on the numbers she’d seen, business was up twenty percent from last month and a pop starlet had been in and made a second appointment. She smiled – life was good. She didn’t need Alessandro or love to make her happy. She had everything she needed right here.
Over the next couple of days, she visited each of her salons and discovered they were all doing sound business. She couldn’t be happier. Even the new location had been open two months and was doing a brisk business. Marcus suggested she run deals with the nail salon next door and she told him to go for it. As she drove back to the Hollywood Hills, she felt a deep sense of accomplishment. She’d delegated plenty of tasks to her managers so she would be ready when this baby came in twenty three days.
She stopped at her favorite Indian takeout and went home. She would shower and put on her comfortable pregnant lady clothes, watch a bunch of junk television, and get used to the quiet life. Twenty minutes after she got home, that’s exactly what she did. At least, it was until the spicy food began to play tricks on her baby.
She cried out at the cramps that felt as though they were tearing her body in half. “Oh no! No, no, no, no!” This could not be happening. She still had almost a month before her precious baby was due. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to calm down so she could think. “Okay, I’m not in labor, but,” she talked herself through everything she could remember reading, learning in her childbirth classes, and hearing from Dr. Baker. Even though it wasn’t labor, she knew she needed to go to the hospital, so she called 911 and almost an hour later she was being wheeled into the emergency room. Again.
“We really have to stop meeting like this,” Dr. Baker joked when she entered the room.
“Hardy har, doc.”
“I guess you haven’t been taking as easy and I’d hoped. So,” she pressed her tablet to her chest, “we’re doing things my way now. You’re staying here in the hospital until that baby comes out. End of story.”
Eve didn’t care where she stayed as long as her baby was safe. She turned her head away from Dr. Baker. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”
Dr. Baker patted her thigh sympathetically. “Is there anyone you’d like us to call for you?”
She shook her head. “No, doc, no one at all.”
She stayed in the hospital for a week before she called Carla. When she finally explained everything, her friend came to the hospital and spent twenty minutes reading her the riot act. “I can’t believe you were in the hospital for a week and you didn’t tell me! Do you know I was calling police stations, morgues, and hospitals looking for you? They wouldn’t tell me crap.” She slapped Eve’s arm to display her disapproval.
“Well, I’m not dead or in jail, so there’s that.”
Carla took a step back and looked at her friend. She noted the dark stains under her eyes, the sadness shining in her amber gaze, and her defeated posture. “Where’s Alessandro?”
“He’s with his wife.” She explained everything that happened last week before Alessandro boarded a plane back to his wife and her family. Eve was proud of herself, she’d only shed a handful of tears.
“Well, if she’s sick he doesn’t really have much choice, Eve.”
She slapped the mattress. “Don’t you think I know that, Carla? That is precisely the point. It will always be Sabrina first, the baby and I second, and I just can’t live like that.” She deserved more than that from the man s
he loved and if he couldn’t give it, then she didn’t need him around.
“You don’t think that’s a tad black and white?”
The sympathy in her friend’s eyes nearly tore apart her resolve, but she couldn’t afford another breakdown. She needed to be strong. She was all her baby had. “No, I don’t. I’m here in the hospital and he’s at his wife’s side. If ever there was a preview of the future, this is it.”
“Does he even know you’re in the hospital?”
She looked away because she did feel a small twinge of guilt for not letting him know. But he knew she was on bed rest when he rushed from her bed back to his wife, so that’s what she went with. “No, but did he bother to find someone else to look after me while he was gone? Let me answer for you, no, he didn’t. They called and fifteen minutes later, he was gone. That was a week ago, Carla. A week.”
Carla fixed her mouth to speak several times, but nothing would come out. “I got nothing. I’m all out of excuses for the miserable bastard.” Finally that got a smile out of her. “I’m sorry, Eve.”
“Don’t be. I’m not.”
***
Alessandro sat outside under the gloomy Seattle sky in shock. His life had just changed in a major way and he was numb. He should be happy, and he was, but it was more a sense of relief and freedom. Like he imagined it felt to be released from a long prison sentence. This morning at 10:51 a.m., Sabrina took her final breath and was pronounced dead. Her parents had screamed at him and threatened legal action when they learned of the Do Not Resuscitate order that prevented the hospital from taking extraordinary measures to save her life.
The infection would have likely killed a healthy person, but someone in a coma for years with a compromised immune system hardly stood half a chance. There was nothing else they could do, especially as long as the DNR stood. In those moments when they could have helped, he had acted like a bastard, telling them he would rescind the order as soon as they granted him a divorce. They refused and so did he. After a few minutes of ranting and threatening, Alessandro told them they could stay in the house he had rented until the end of the month. He hadn’t seen them since.
He wanted to call Eve and tell her the news, but it seemed too soon to be jumping for joy. Even though he had his issues with Sabrina, he wouldn’t be the man dancing on her grave. He would just wait to explain to her that they could finally be together. The idea of sharing a life with Eve and watching their child grow brought a smile to his face. He couldn’t wait to get home to her. As soon as he figured out funeral arrangements, he would go straight to her.
He’d been going crazy not talking to her, but she hadn’t called, so he assumed she didn’t want to talk. Even as he thought it, he felt a small niggle in the back of his mind that said he should have called her. She was having a difficult pregnancy, after all. He pulled out his phone to call and saw Valentino was calling. “Hey, Valentino, I can’t talk right now, I was just about to call Eve.”
There was a long pause. “That’s actually why I’m calling you.”
Panic set in immediately at the wary tone he heard on the other side of the phone. “What’s up? Is something wrong? Tell me!”
“Well, you know I’ve been out on a couple dates with Carla, right? Anyway, I was there the other night and I overheard her talking on the phone to some guy, Marcus, and she said ‘take care of it, she’ll be there until the baby is born.’” Valentino let the words sink in since his brother was suspiciously silent. “I guess it could have been another pregnant chick, but…” he trailed off unsure if he should continue.
“But?”
“Don’t be mad, but I just left the hospital, I’m actually sitting in the parking lot right now. She’s in there, and I talked to her.”
Alessandro listened as Valentino told him how Eve had experienced premature labor and had checked herself into the hospital a few days after he left for Seattle. The labor was stopped with medicine, but Dr. Baker put on her bed rest until she gave birth. He sucked in a breath as he listened. A few days. “What happened to start the labor?”
“She said she didn’t know. She’d checked in on the salons, stopped for takeout, and woke up with stomach cramps. It all sounded pretty harmless, but apparently she’d still been experiencing problems even after you left.”
There was no way Valentino could have known but those words gutted him. Of course, she was still experiencing problems – she was still supposed to be relaxing around the clock. But with him gone, she had to do things for herself. “Dammit! Thanks for letting me know, Valentino. I’ll try to get on a plan in the next few days.” There was a loud silence on the other end and Alessandro sighed. “What is it Valentino?”
“Well. Okay, Eve was nice to me. You know how charming I can be,” he smiled, “but she asked me not to tell you. She said she’d call you when the baby was born.”
He screamed his frustration into the bleak Seattle sky. “I’d be home in hours if I could little brother, but-”
Valentino cut him off. “But what? Eve is laid up in the hospital with your baby and you’re up there again with that succubus. Get your priorities straight.”
“Sabrina died this morning.”
Valentino paused then asked, “So why are you still there?” He explained his reasons and his brother responded, “So hand that off to her parents and get your ass back down here before the only relationship you have is a civil ‘hello’ when you pick up and drop off your kid.” Valentino hung up.
Time to go home.
Chapter Fourteen
“Carla…don’t ever…get pregnant. It…sucks.” Even speaking was a burden as contractions ripped through her body. They were coming long and hard, but, dammit, they were still about eight minutes apart. “If one more cheery nurse tells me to ‘hang in there,’ I’m going to tie my IV around her neck and strangle her to death.
Carla doubled over with laughter. “I’m sorry for your pain, Eve, I really am, but damn you’re funny when a tiny human is ripping your insides to shreds.”
“Hey, Carla, come closer I want to tell you something.” She motioned her over. They both laughed again when Carla shook her head and backed away. Another contraction hit and she spent the next minute screaming and groaning. “Okay. Done.”
Carla came closer and patted her friend’s hair. “You’re doing great, girl. Have you called Alessandro yet?”
She gave her friend the evil eye. “I’m kind of busy at the moment. When I’m not I’ll give him a ring.” She would not give him a ring. If he ever remembered he had a child she would never deny him access, but she wouldn’t be calling him anytime soon. He’d left her high and dry for fifteen long days without so much as a text message to check on her – on his baby.
“But Eve,”
“Nope,” she cut her off quickly. “Not a discussion we’re having today. He’ll know when he needs to.”
Carla bit into her bottom lip. “I’ve been seeing Valentino,” she blurted out.
Eve rolled her eyes. Of course, she was seeing Valentino. He was young, hot, and charming as hell. “He was in bed with you when I called?” She nodded. So, Alessandro probably already knew and if he was in town, he’d be here soon. “You’ve been here for more than an hour, Carla Simone Macklin.”
“I thought you’d want him here. He’d come rushing through the door with his hair standing on end, declare his love for you, and tell you you’re beautiful while you push this baby out.” She bowed her head in shame. “I’m sorry, Eve.”
She laughed. “Carla, if your heart wasn’t in the right place, I swear I’d cut it out and eat it right now.”
“Um, gross.” Another contraction ripped through Eve and this one lasted a lot longer than the others. Carla checked her stopwatch app, then announced, “Six minutes.”
One minute to go. Soon she would be holding her baby in her arms and the last nine months of hell would be a distant memory. Eve rubbed her belly. “Hurry up and come out baby. Mama’s eager to meet you.”
> “Yeah, your daddy is, too.”
She looked up and sucked in a breath at the sight of Alessandro standing in the doorway looking ten kinds of mad and fifty kinds of sexy. “Alessandro, what are you doing here?”
His long legs at up the few feet that stood between them. “You’re having my baby.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. It was so good of him to remember she was having his baby. “All of a sudden that means something to you again?”
“I’m just going to head out,” Carla said and inched toward the door.
“Carla, you stay right here unless you want to join those chipper nurses on my list!” She stopped walking and took a chair in the corner.
“You actually thought I wouldn’t be here?”
She could see the anger flaring all over his handsome face, but she couldn’t stop. He’d hurt her and if she let him, he would continue to do so. “How the hell would I know? I haven’t seen or heard from you in two weeks, so you can turn around and come back in another two. I don’t need you here right now.”
“That’s too damn bad, you got me!”
“I don’t want you, okay? Get that through your thick fucking skull! Go back to Seattle or anywhere but here. Just get the hell out of my face!”
Alessandro stumbled as though her words had physically struck him. He couldn’t believe her words. They were angry and filled with hate. Looking at her face, he knew he’d lost her. The most disturbing sound he’d ever heard ripped through the air and he turned to see Eve’s body contorted in pain. “Eve! Are you okay?” He turned to Carla and asked, “What’s happening to her?”
“Contractions. Four minutes. Good news, Eve, we’re good to go. I’ll go get the nurse.”
Eve squeezed Alessandro’s hand to help her ride the powerful contraction through to the end, her breathing technique long forgotten under the pain. “Oh, oh. Oh.” She relaxed back onto the bed and took in the pained expression on his face. “I’m fine, Alessandro.”
“The hell you are! You screamed like you were being split in half and you aren’t even pushing yet.”