by Koko Brown
Her eyes held mine, then she nodded. I picked her up, secured her seatbelt, and we went home. This time, I didn't take her across the way to the guest house, we entered mines, and I put her in my bed. Once she was secured, I gathered her shit from the guest room and brought it over. Her big brown eyes watched me put her toiletries, clothes and bags up, then I tore off my shirt and climbed in bed behind her.
"Rest, mi alma," I kissed her hair. "I'll be here when you get back up."
Never in my life did I think having a woman, any woman that would interrupt my flow, would bring me joy. Never did I think holding one and feeling her relax into me would make my heart skip a beat. She wasn't just mines, I was hers and fuck if she wasn't right.
The shit wasn't fair.
The next day, Destini was back to her old chipper self. The nurse was there early in the morning and was able to go over some of the procedures Destini needed to do in order to not further exacerbate her situation. She only stayed for an hour, but never the less, Destini seemed annoyed the entire time she was there.
"You don't like the nurse?" I asked, once she left.
"She's okay." She muttered.
That meant, she didn't like her. I learned that from Catalina, who was known to be a bitchy princess from time to time. I didn't push the issue, but after eating breakfast, we went to the studio where we saw Hugo.
"You must be Destini," he smiled. "I've heard so much about you."
"That so," she replied with a curious smirk.
"Good stuff, I promise." Then he leaned in and said, "Heard you brought my oldest brother to his knees. Literally."
He whispered this loud enough, so I could hear it. When I went to grab him, he burst out laughing and jerked to the side, eluding me.
"Don't know about that, but he has brought me to mine." Destini said with a tilt of an eyebrow. Then, it must have dawned on her what that sounded like because she chimed in again. "You know with his hospitality and all."
Hugo and I both looked at her, then he looked to me and smiled. "Y'all have to come over, and we'll do dinner with my Elisabeth."
Before I could say hell no, Destini said, "I'd love that."
Shit.
I most certainly did not want to eat with them, especially if I had to kill the chick when her and Hugo were no longer together.
"Perfect," Hugo said. "I'll coordinate the times with Diego."
"Cool," Destini replied.
"Hermano mi," Hugo called. "You got a minute."
"Yeah," I immediately went on red alert because something was wrong.
Without thinking, I walked to Destini, pulled her into me, kissed her temple as she wrapped her arms around my waist.
"I'll be back with your lunch, okay." I whispered to her with our noses touching.
"Okay," she answered with those big eyes trained on me.
Goddamn, she was beautiful.
Letting her go, I followed my brother out the room, only to enter another room with all four of my brothers. This couldn't be good.
"Brothers," I greeted as I took a seat at the end of the table. "Did I miss a meeting?"
"No," Sebastian answered. "Just waiting on you."
"For?" I left it hanging.
"What do you need us to do?" Ian said impatiently. "You got a woman up in here, helping mama, assuming warming your bed with only six months to live. What are you doing?"
My back was up and the temperature in the room dropped at least twenty degrees.
"Say again?" I sneered.
"What he's saying in a horrible way," Sebastian interjected. "Is what do you need and how can we help?"
My eyes scanned the room to see all of my brothers, blood and bond, attempting to help me do what I needed for my own happiness.
"She belongs to me," I clarified. "She's mine and has six months to live. Her blood type is AB negative, and the last donor that she knew of was Malvo Dominguez, who I killed right in front of her. I'm looking into other options to find another donor or ways to prolong her life, but she can't know about this until I have facts."
"Fuck brother," Curtis whistled as the others murmured.
"Okay," Sebastian spoke. "Looks like you have us. Now, where should we focus our efforts?"
We sat and talked for another thirty minutes planning the next course of action for the future moves. My brothers shocked me with their pitching in, but it felt good being able to rely on them for help. I'd have to tell Destini about all of the additional things that were happening, but right now, I just enjoyed the real bond of brotherhood.
The next day, ShaRon knocked on the door at seven in the morning and Sebastian wasn't far behind her. Destini was in the shower getting dressed when I heard, "Who's she?"
That was coming from my brother Sebastian.
"The nurse." I responded as I put on the coffee. "Destini's in the shower."
"That is no nurse," Seb openly stared at the woman. "She's a fucking goddess."
"Seb, I don't need to warn you about mixing business with pleasure." I reminded him.
"Says the man who hired a nurse to take care of his girlfriend he found on a hit," He replied snarkily.
"No, no." I shook my head. "Says the guy whose girlfriend will be tended to by that goddess and don't need your paws on her." My eyes leveled on his similar tanned face seeing the resemblance of mama.
My brother's eyes remained on the nurse as she floated around, setting up her station and putting various items in the refrigerator. From the look I knew, there would be no keeping his hands off of her. Soon, he got up and approached the unsuspecting nurse. To my surprise, she wasn't intimidated and stood confidently as Seb towered over her.
"Ma'am, it's so nice to meet you," he smiled in that Salazar way while sporting a dimple in his right cheek. "My name is Sebastian."
To my surprise, the nurse's eyebrow rose and then her lips slightly poked out in a smirk.
"I know who you are," she said with dripping sarcasm. "You fuck 'em and leave 'em. Won't be doing that over here."
Then, she turned back around and finished setting up her station, effectively ending the conversation. At that point, the shower cut off, and it took everything in me not to burst out laughing as my brother returned to the seat with his tail between his legs.
"Don't say shit," he muttered.
At that moment, I stood and said as I went to get my own goddess, "Nothing to say. Play nice."
The woman was right about Seb. On some level, none of us were the relationship type, but only Hugo decided to do that whole dating thing. We did have sex, but I was a bit more discreet than my brother. I didn't pick women up at bars or anything like that. It was usually at an event, conference, or something that was of mutual interest. It was known that it'd be for one night and there would be no hard feelings. Unlike me, Seb picked them up at clubs and bars. The same one's that he frequented usually. And though I know he never made promises, but once he dipped into them, he didn't take them again. That was his rule. Can't fuck 'em twice because that was dangerous territory. It had worked for him until today with ShaRon. I doubt she'd been with him intimately, but she apparently knew of his reputation and flat out told him that she wouldn't be his next conquest.
That told me more than anything, I had picked right about her being Destini's nurse. She'd need that spunk when dealing with the stubborn woman.
When I entered the bedroom, Destini was readjusting the towel under her armpit.
"Is she here already?" She asked with more curiosity than I anticipated.
"Yes, she's setting up outside now." I replied.
Destini's eyes rolled to the side, which caused me to close the distance between us. "Angel, you said you'd do this. Give it a try."
Those brown eyes hit mine, and I wanted to kiss the frustration off her lips.
"I will but do you have to be here?" She answered. "I think you'll be a distraction."
"To you?" I asked. "I won't interfere."
"No, not to me. To her. She's cute, h
ot and well, I'm sure you might want to talk to her soon but..." She trailed off, then thought better of it. "I guess, for my last remaining six months, I'd like to have you to myself and not watch you fall in love with the next woman. That's selfish, I know. Okay, forget I said it."
Fuck all of this.
My body swooped down, lifted her over my shoulder, and carried her to the bed, where I laid her down gently. Then, I stalked to the door to lock it, ripped that towel from her body, and captured those luscious lips in a kiss. At first, it was the lips below the waist and then I made my way back up towards her face. Two of my long fingers entered her, while my thumb rubbed her taut nub. She was exquisite and fuck if those moans didn't spur me on. Destini clutched to me like she was holding on for her dear life with those nails breaking the skin, and I was sure there'd be blood.
I didn't give one fuck.
My mouth on hers, my fingers fucking her while my thumb played her tune as she writhes under me. This was the fucking life. My cock was so goddamn hard, I needed relief, but it'd have to wait. As Destini grew close to an exploding orgasm, I began to mark her neck. It was the animal in me, marking my territory, but she just moaned louder. When her body started to shudder as she came, the woman screamed my name loudly, and neither of us gave a damn if anyone out there knew what we were doing. This was about us.
Destini's arms dropped to the bed, and I knew she was spent.
"Angel, I don't want that nurse. Only you. That is one thing you never have to worry about." I kissed her forehead. "What's selfish is that I ain't letting you go. That's selfish."
Her sated eyes fluttered to mine, then she nodded her head. She understood.
"I can tell the nurse to come back," I offered.
"No, no. I'll just freshen up again because I do need to talk to her about some things. Okay?" She asked with pleading eyes.
It wasn't clear if she knew or not but whatever she wanted, I'd give it to her. Everything except leaving me. I told her that I'd help and that is what I planned to do. Help her get exactly what she needed by any means necessary. I'd do all of that for her.
My head descended to kiss her again before I said, "Of course. I'll be back in an hour."
Destini smiled and said, "Okay, sounds good."
When I emerged from the bedroom, both Sebastian and ShaRon looked at me with smirks on their face.
"That was a loud goodbye," my brother joked.
"Very loud," the nurse chimed in.
"She doesn't like it when I leave." My shoulders shrugged, then I looked to my brother and said, "Let's go. Got to stop by the studio for an hour."
Sebastian hopped up and said to the nurse, "Until next time."
She rolled her eyes at him, then I said, "She'll be out in five minutes."
We left the house but on the way there, my heart started to beat at rapid rates as if I was running a marathon.
"You alright, brother," Sebastian asked. "You're red."
"Need to find a donor. I don't care of the cost," I muttered.
"We're working on it brother." Sebastian answered. "We're on it."
The more I thought of the angles, the angrier I grew. We'd looked at all the hospitals in and out of the country. It really was a rare blood type and damn near impossible to find a living match. My next step was turning over the jails and getting the records for inmates.
I needed to clear my head, get out of the studio and try to figure out what to do next in regards to Destini but as I turned coming around the corner of one of the classrooms, I overheard Mama whispering. The words that made me stop was, "Diego can't know."
My steps faltered but I kept listening. Mama had been in this business forever, and some of her decisions, I knew would be based on the entire family and not one individual. Including her oldest son.
"You positive? Be positive." I heard my uncle whisper.
"Ciata, I'm always positive. La familia." She uttered.
"He'll know it was you," my uncle warned.
"So be it," she snapped. "Diego's a good boy. He puts familia first, and it may take awhile but he knows."
Quickly moving away, so I'd go unseen, I texted Sebastian to meet me near the car. My heart hurt too much to comprehend the pain from her words, but I'd also known what Destini said was true. Mama didn't mind me being with a girl for six months but finding a cure for the same girl would prolong her life and that would be a problem for mama. She wanted no interruptions, no hassles, and no outsiders. The woman was Salazar through and through, but she was wrong about one thing. If Destini died because I couldn't get the cure because of mama's doing, there'd be war in the Salazar family. Blood would be shed, and I probably wouldn't survive it; but then again, neither would none of them.
SEVEN
DESTINI
I was jealous.
Plain and simple jealous and that was never my modus operandi. Especially over a man. Maybe over healthy people who did dangerous things as if they could not lose their life in a blink of an eye. Yes, that made me jealous. But never over another person.
It was possessive.
It really was obsession.
The asshole, my ex-captor, made me fall for him. Called me his own, and I guess for someone like me, who never had much of anything to call my own, that meant something.
However, the problem still remained that if I didn’t find a donor, I’d be no good for him. There was no point, and I had to live. It was not fair to Diego, and it was not fair to me.
The next day, after the nurse left and somehow Sebastian had been there gawking at her, my jealousy ebbed. According to Diego, Seb was a lady magnet, but the nurse’s eyes did not even blink in his direction. This did not stop the relentless man as he pursued her with random conversation, compliments about her natural hair, which was in a bush, and all the things he could show her.
As I watched their normal routine, I started to plot my next move. Next week, I planned to strike.
Diego
The weekend could not come fast enough because that meant my house would not be crawling with other people besides Destini. Mama kept stopping by to check on her. ShaRon was there, which meant Sebastian was over. Hugo and his girlfriend showed up, and oddly enough, Catalina graced us with her presence.
She still did not like Destini but she seemed to be madder at someone a little more than her when she stopped by.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her as she sulked, washed dishes and threw pots and pans around after we ate dinner.
Destini cooked us an Italian dinner with spaghetti, sauce, noodles and Italian bread with garlic and cheddar cheese. It was delicious and that’s when I reminded her that she could indeed, burn.
While Catalina was cleaning up the kitchen, someone else knocked on the door, but this time it was Curtis. Something was wrong, but he wasn’t saying anything.
When Catalina poked her head out of the kitchen, she groaned and said, “Well, I guess this is my que to go. Man talk. You sick of that yet, Destini?”
It was a rhetorical question but one that Destini must have known something was off. Curtis told her in Spanish to get off her high horse because it wasn’t that serious. She fired back at him that he was something resembling a horse, which was called an ass.
I told both of them to get the fuck outta my house with that shit because we had our own drama. The two of them were always fighting. Probably because they were two of the three that were newest to the family. Hugo had a girlfriend, so that was his focus. If he didn’t, he’d probably be arguing with them too.
“Jerk,” Catalina sneered.
“Princess,” Curtis snarkily remarked back.
She patted her ass as if to tell him to kiss it and left. He soon followed her outside.
“Are they always like that?” Destini asked as she moved towards the window to probably see if they would kill each other.
“Yeah, mama found Curtis when he was about eight years old. So, he came around the same time that Hugo was born, and Catalina is a girl who
has always fought for attention. They fight all the time.
Destini gasped as she looked out the window.
“What?” I started to move towards her.
“Oh, oh. N-nothing.” She waved me away. “It’s nothing. Just some gas, probably from the garlic.”
She closed the drapes and moved towards me in that knowing way. It had been four weeks of us cohabitating, going on adventures, and Destini being engrained in my life. Every weekend, I took her to two things on my list, and each time, she would smile, kiss me, and say, “I wish we had more time.”
Then, she’d get a faraway look, and I always tried to bring her back to the present. Something was wrong, and I was getting closer to figuring out what Mama was up to and securing a donor for her. I figured that would solve the problem.
All of our problems would be solved after she got the organ.
Destini finally reached me and gave me that sultry look, which undid everything inside of me. It tore down all of my shields, my disposition, and even my guard. The woman undid me every time.
“It’s time,” she smiled as her arms snaked around my shoulders. “I’m ready.”
“Destini,” I warned.
“Today was a great day with ShaRon, and I’m pleased to report, Seb made no progress with her. Today, she even reported that her boyfriend would not like the fact that he was harassing her.” She said with glee.
“Shit, what did Seb say?” I asked, knowing how my brother could get.
Destini lifted her small shoulder with a side smirk and answered, “He said, he’d kill ‘em.”
Holy shit.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Well, I’m not sure this is a …”
“It’s a good idea.” She pulled my face down to hers. “It’s time.”
Her needy kiss took me off guard and woke my cock right up. She had gained a good amount of weight since she had been with me, but she was still easy to pick up. Grinding my center into hers, I moved us to the bedroom.