Cortez brushed his hand over Antonella’s thick curls. She sat wedged beside him in her pajamas on the sofa. They were in the living room where he, she, and Gabriela watched television. Gabriela sat on the chair perpendicular to the sofa with a morose expression on her face. She was going to miss her cousin.
“You have to go to bed so you can get up in the morning,” Cortez said quietly.
Antonella shook her head stubbornly, refusing to budge from his side.
This happened every time she came for a visit. She never wanted to leave. He never wanted her to leave. They should be used to the ritual by now, but it only grew more painful each time.
“You’ll be back in the winter,” he said.
She always visited for a month in July during her summer vacation, the middle of winter here. Maybe by then Nadine would have forgiven him for what he’d done, and he could try again to convince her to come back. For them to start over. Even if Erich was his son.
His head fell back against the back of the sofa at the futility of his thoughts. He couldn’t do that to her. He’d made his bed, and now he had to lie in it.
“Come on, you two. Let’s go.”
Cortez turned off the television.
“Papá.” She didn’t have to say another word. The despair came through loud and clear in her pleading tone. Antonella’s eyes, beautiful and dark like her mother’s, implored him to do something. To make this visit different.
He wanted to fight and yell at the unfairness of the situation, but he had to be an adult. Be firm with his daughter, knowing it would be another six months before he could touch and kiss her sweet face again.
He cradled her head in his palms. “The time will go quickly. Before you know it, you’ll be back again, okay?”
She nodded, but her lower lip trembled as she tried to keep from crying.
He took both girls upstairs to Antonella’s room and made sure they climbed into their beds. When he left them, they were under the covers, but he suspected they wouldn’t go to sleep anytime soon. Last year he’d peeked into the room on the last night and found them wide awake, sitting on Antonella’s bed, talking.
He hesitated at Nadine’s bedroom. It was dark under the door. She was probably fast asleep. Antonella took after him in that she didn’t need much sleep. Nadine, on the other hand, preferred to get as much as eight hours per night, and since they had to leave early in the morning, she was probably already asleep.
He proceeded down the long hallway and around the corner to his suite, his thoughts on the bike ride this afternoon. The pervasive loneliness he’d grown accustomed to had been temporarily alleviated—if only for a little while. He loved when his daughter came to visit, but having Nadine here, too, had made this particular trip that much more special.
In his room, Cortez changed into pajama pants and lay flat on his back on the bed. He stared up at the dark ceiling. Reflecting on the close moments they’d shared, the room seemed to fill with the sound of her laughter. He saw her smiling at him as she popped the last grape in her mouth. Then he saw her beneath him, begging him to prolong the pleasure. Begging him not to stop as he sank deeper and deeper.
Could he give it all up? Hadn’t he done that before—given up, because he thought it was the right thing to do?
What had she said in the studio? You didn’t exactly fight for us to stay, did you?
Cortez sat up, heart darting into a faster pace.
Essentially, he was repeating the same behavior by letting her go without a fight because he thought it was the right thing to do. But it wasn’t. Not when they loved each other.
He hopped off the bed, intending to barrel down to her room and wake her up. But when he yanked open the door, Nadine stood on the other side, dressed in a loose-fitting pair of shorts and matching tank top, hand in the air as if she was about to knock.
Cortez didn’t ask any questions. He already knew why she was standing outside his bedroom door. He saw it in her eyes.
He pulled her into the room and slammed the door.
Nadine backed into the wall. “It’s going to be hard,” she whispered, her voice pained and trembling. She swallowed.
Cortez walked slowly toward her, holding her gaze. When he stood directly in front of her, he held her face in his hands, rested his forehead against hers, and closed his eyes.
“Nadine,” he breathed.
“But you’re mine. You’re my husband.” Her voice sounded stronger. “If Erich is your son, we’ll work through it. I—I don’t want anything or anyone to come between us again.”
Cortez lifted his head. “Are you sure you can work through this?” he asked, even though he’d been about to go to her room and ask her to do that very thing.
She nodded.
“Say it,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “I need to hear it. Tell me when you leave here, you’re coming back. Tell me you won’t make me live another year without you. Tell me again that you love me.”
She smiled through the tears. “I’m coming back. I can’t live another year without you—the man that I love. Mi esposo.” She’d called him her husband.
Cortez’s hand slipped into her soft hair. Dragging her tight against him, he kissed her.
The reason his love life had been so barren since the divorce—why he hadn’t pursued a relationship with the telenovela actress, the Brazilian socialite, or any woman, for that matter—was because they weren’t this woman.
Cortez groaned as he kissed her, tenderly at first, the velvety softness of her lips moving slowly under his. He groaned, pressing his mouth harder against hers, and she kissed him back with an equal amount of fervor.
No other woman looked like her. Not a single one of them made his heart race, his blood boil, or forged an automatic smile onto his face. Not a single woman in his entire life had ever made him want to write music, sing out loud, or slow dance in an empty room, just the two of them. No one but his Nadine, the woman who’d captured his heart and held it firmly in her possession since that day in the café.
He pushed down her shorts and hauled her underwear with it. As she pulled the top over her head, he fastened his mouth over one full breast and the nipple sprang to a hard bud in his mouth.
By the time she’d tossed the top aside, he had her against the wall, sucking her very delicious breast, her moans like music to his ears as her fingers tossed his hair into disarray.
They maneuvered down his zipper and lowered his pants, and he pressed her into the wall. With her bottom seated in his hands, he surged up into her wet flesh, her gasp right in his ear.
“Mi esposa,” he rasped. “Hasta que la muerte nos separe.” Til death do us part.
Their hips rocked together, chests pressed up against each other, her legs tight around his waist. Her fingers clutched his shoulders and her breathy whispers of incoherent words spurred him on. With each thrust, his body tightened and edged toward a total lack of control.
He felt the moment she came undone in his arms, even before her impassioned cry alerted him to her orgasm. She chanted his name as if they were the words to a song. The heart of her clutched him, the tight, wet heat too good to withstand.
With a brusque grunt, his body stiffened, and he join her in his own intense climax.
As they lay in the bed together. Cortez kept both arms wrapped around Nadine. He didn’t want to let her go or wake up and learn this was a dream.
“When do you find out if he’s yours?” she asked. Her breath brushed his collarbone.
“We take the test on Monday and we’ll know in a few days.”
She went quiet, and he threaded his fingers through her soft hair. He smoothed the short strands away from her face.
“Antonella and I will stay a few extra days.”
“What about school and work?”
“She’ll be fine, and I’ll call my boss and let him know there’s been a delay.”
He brushed a thumb across her cheek. “I wish…I don’t want you to be hurt by this. I wi
ll do my best to protect you.”
“You don’t have to protect me,” she said quickly. She gazed at him with such love in her eyes, he had no doubt of her sincerity. “We’ll face it together. We can handle anything together.”
Shaking his head in disbelief, Cortez asked, “Have I told you how much I love you, mi esposa?”
He nuzzled her neck.
He heard the smile in her voice when she spoke. “You might have mentioned it.”
Epilogue
Eleven months later
From the kitchen, Nadine looked out at the dramatic sunset on the back patio and pressed her face into the baby’s neck, inhaling his scent of baby and powder.
“He is getting so big,” Philippa said, a wide smile on her face.
“Pretty soon I won’t be able to carry him.” They both laughed. “You’re almost ready?” Alec and Catarina were coming by later for dinner. Tomorrow, they were all heading out to Gustavo’s estancia for the weekend. Cortez’s parents were celebrating their fiftieth anniversary.
Philippa nodded. “Sí, señora. Go sit down. Rest. And don’t worry about anything.” She shooed Nadine from the kitchen.
With a soft chuckle, Nadine hurried from the room. She bundled her son in a white blanket and put a soft hat on his head before stepping out into the crisp spring air. He liked to be outside and gurgled happily against her breast, gnawing on his fisted fingers as he examined the environment.
Nicolás Alesini had arrived six weeks early on a cool winter’s night in August. At three months old, he was a bundle of energy, kicking fearlessly and smiling with a beautiful, toothless grin.
Although she suffered from sleep deprivation, she couldn’t be happier. If she never slept again, she’d be just fine.
“Where’s my little man?” Cortez’s voice boomed behind her.
“I don’t even think you see me anymore,” Nadine teased.
“Of course I do,” he said, lifting Nicolás from her arms. He planted a soft kiss on her lips and then held out a wrapped box she hadn’t noticed when he first appeared. “A little something for you.”
“What’s this about?” She held the box to an ear and shook it.
“Nada mucho.” He shrugged.
“Your idea of nothing much is not the normal person’s idea of nothing much.” The other day he’d bought her a new Audi in glacier white, because he wanted her to have something safe to drive the kids around in if Joachim wasn’t available. That had been a nada mucho gift, as well.
She opened the box and inside was a bracelet with three gold discs, each embedded with a birthstone of one of children—a ruby for Nicolás, a pearl for Antonella, and an emerald for Cortez, Jr.
“It’s gorgeous,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
After fastening the bracelet around her wrist, she pulled his neck down and gave him a loud, appreciative smack on the lips.
They sat on one of the cushioned benches, and Cortez rocked his gurgling son in his arms.
The past year had been busy, to say the least. The first hurdle they’d crossed was getting the test results to determine if Erich was Cortez’s son. A courier had hand-delivered the envelope, and she and Cortez had sat together on the sofa in his office, holding hands. When he’d opened the envelope, her eyes focused right away on the words is excluded as the biological father. She’d never known such relief.
Fabiana had tried to claim Cortez as her son’s father when she found out the real father couldn’t financially support her the way she wanted. She’d hoped to cause a rift between Nadine and Cortez by offering Cortez a child. Her plan failed. Miserably.
Furthermore, two months after her return to Atlanta, Nadine discovered that the persistent queasiness she’d experienced for two days straight were symptoms of an unforeseen pregnancy. She and Cortez had not exactly been careful each time they made love, but being that they’d had difficulty conceiving before, this baby had come as a surprise.
Her excitement was second only to Cortez’s. By the time he’d arrived in Atlanta to move them back to Argentina, the entire Alesini family was preparing for the baby. She’d stayed busy, nervous even though she knew that the chances of having another stillborn were statistically very low. She worked with an assistant—whom Cortez had insisted on hiring and which she eventually was glad he did—getting Antonella back in school, going on doctor visits, preparing the nursery, and planning a wedding. Cortez had been adamant that they be married before their son was born, and Nicolás had almost spoiled their plans, arriving only two days after their small wedding.
Antonella came racing up from the shores of the lake, where she’d been feeding the ducks.
“Hi, Nico.” She kissed her little brother on the cheek. She looked forward to the days when he would be walking and talking and promised to teach him how to horseback ride and roast marshmallows on an open fire.
Nadine scooted over and her daughter plopped down between them.
She looked over Antonella’s head at Cortez, holding their son who’d settled against his father’s chest and fallen asleep. Cortez reached over and brushed her cheek with his free hand. She kissed his fingers and then looked out again at the sunset.
The vibrant reds and oranges that dyed the evening sky had recaptured her attention. She smiled to herself. Content.
She was home.
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Latin Men series
Check out the Latin Men series with heroes from Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina: The Arrangement, Fight for Love, Private Acts, The Ultimate Merger, Second Chances, and More Than a Mistress coming soon.
Also by Delaney Diamond
Love Unexpected series
The Blind Date
The Wrong Man
An Unexpected Attraction
The Right Time
One of the Guys
That Time in Venice (coming soon)
Johnson Family series
Unforgettable
Perfect
Just Friends
The Rules
Good Behavior (coming soon)
Latin Men series
The Arrangement
Fight for Love
Private Acts
The Ultimate Merger
Second Chances
More Than a Mistress (coming soon)
Hot Latin Men: Vol. I (print anthology)
Hot Latin Men: Vol. II (print anthology)
Hawthorne Family series
The Temptation of a Good Man
A Hard Man to Love
Here Comes Trouble
For Better or Worse
Hawthorne Family Series: Vol. I (print anthology)
Hawthorne Family Series: Vol. II (print anthology)
Bailar series (sweet/clean romance)
Worth Waiting For
Stand Alones
A Passionate Love
Passion Rekindled
Still in Love
Subordinate Position
Heartbreak in Rio (part of Endless Summer Nights)
Free Stories: www.delaneydiamond.com
About the Author
Delaney Diamond is the USA Today Bestselling Author of sweet, sensual, passionate romance novels. Originally from the U.S. Virgin Islands, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She reads romance novels, mysteries, thrillers, and a fair amount of nonfiction. When she’s not busy reading or writing, she’s in the kitchen trying out new recipes, dining at one of her favorite restaurants, or traveling to an interesting locale. She speaks fluent conversational French and can get by in Spanish.
Enjoy free reads and the first chapter of all her novels on her website. Join her mailing list to get sneak peeks, notices of sale prices, and find out about new releases.
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