by Bethany-Kris
“And what is that, exactly?” the man asked gruffly.
“We will go our separate ways. We will find someone else to sell the weapons to, and you will find someone else to buy from. Of course, that means more time you go without the artillery you claim to need for your little … rebellion.”
Yes, that was a good way to put the fact that this man was working to overthrow his government with a large mass of people. That’s what the fucking media would call it when the uprising really got started.
“I thought we agreed—”
“Yes, yes. Not to talk about that.” Adriano sighed, scrubbed a hand down his face, and glanced at his wife again. Instead of focusing on little Lissa, the second—who everyone kept saying was too old for her to breastfeed now—Alessa was watching him. A line of worry creased her brow. That bothered him. She didn’t need to worry at all, but especially not about this trip. She probably couldn’t help it, though. So was their life. “Listen, you keep up your end, and we will keep up our end, Mr. Torres. You need something, and we have what you want. It’s as simple as that.”
The phone turned silent for a moment. Adriano almost wondered if the man had hung up the phone on him, but then the man’s voice filtered through again, proving that was not the case.
“And negotiations are possible on certain things?”
Adriano smiled a bit. “Negotiations are welcomed, but keep in mind, we aren’t here to support or help your cause. We are here to make money. If you believe appealing to our sympathetic sides about your cause will get those weapons into your hands at a cheaper cost, I can promise you will be wasting your breath.”
Another beat of silence passed before the man muttered, “Fine. I suppose the next time we speak will be face to face at the meeting, yes?”
“That is the plan, Mr. Torres.”
“I look forward to it, Mr. Conti.”
Adriano hung up the call, and immediately dialed another familiar number. Alessa shot him a look as if to ask, What are you doing now? He elected to ignore his wife for a second. Call him paranoid, but Adriano never liked it when people became too demanding. There was something about that which put him on edge.
The very last place he needed to be, honestly.
“Adriano?” Mikey asked when he picked up the call on the third ring. “What can I do for you? I thought you were supposed to be enjoying your vacation with the rest of them?”
“I am enjoying my vacation like everyone else is, thanks.”
“Well, what can I do for you?”
“Nothing too big, … just move the cache again. Say, to the other side of the city. They’re already packed in trucks, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to move them to a new location, should it?”
Mikey was quiet before he muttered, “That’s four trucks of guns, Adriano.”
Yeah, but part of their earlier deal with Mr. Torres was a sneak peek at the weapons. He’d sent a man into Chicago, and while they had done their best to hide where they were keeping the weapons stored, it was very possible that somehow, the man figured out an approximate area of their location.
He didn’t have any reason to think that was the case, or that the buyer might try to steal their cache instead of buying … but he kept going back to the fact that he didn’t like people who made demands, and paranoia was a bitch. Like fuck was he going to do all this work for someone to come along and steal the weapons just because they had a bright idea.
“Doesn’t matter,” Adriano countered, “move the cache.”
Mikey sighed hard. “Fine. You want an update when they reach the new point?”
“Of course.”
“Will do, Adriano.”
Mikey didn’t even bother to say goodbye, instead hanging up the phone without any warning. Adriano didn’t even mind. He had other things to focus on now like making sure this meeting went off without a hitch, and business was good. He glanced at his phone again, ready to make another phone call, but Alessa’s voice stopped him.
“Will you put that down?”
He glanced his wife’s way. She smoothed her palm over Lissa’s head, and tipped her head toward the empty side of the bed as if to silently ask him to come lay with her.
“I’m trying—”
“I know exactly what you are trying to do, Adriano,” Alessa said, “and I still think you can relax for five minutes, put the phone away, and forget about it for the moment.”
“Lissa—”
“It’s going to be fine, Adriano.”
She was so sure.
So calm.
Probably right, too.
Adriano chuckled. “I’m just on edge, I think.”
“I know.”
It felt like, even after all this time as a made man, he was still the youngest person who held his rank amongst many. He still had to prove himself constantly. He tried not to let it bother him, but it was almost impossible to do, too.
“Come here,” Alessa murmured.
Well, he supposed the phone calls could wait. Slipping the phone inside his pocket, he climbed onto the bed with his wife. His mind drifted back to the guns and the deal and the possible problems … and then quickly drifted back to his wife when she chattered on beside him.
That was the thing about his wife—she spoke, he listened. Things were easier that way, and simpler. They had fewer battles when he just chose to shut up and listen instead of trying to talk over her. Being married so young had probably been a mark against them in a way, although they would never willingly admit it. Things hadn’t been easy when they were technically still two selfish kids who didn’t know the first thing about enduring love or being married.
They figured it out, though.
Here they were.
Happy wife, happy life.
“Love you, Adriano,” she said.
He reached up to stroke her cheek. “Love you, Lissa.”
SEVEN
Eve and Theo
THEO
“For the record, Eve,” Theo grumbled, trailing behind his wife by a couple of feet on the docks that separated each vacation hut, “this is way too early for any-fucking-body to be awake. Look, the sun isn’t even up.”
He wasn’t lying, and it was way too early. Theo didn’t roll his ass out of bed before ten for anything less than his boss, his wife’s pussy, or a hell of a lot of money. Technically, none of those things were actually on the table at the moment unless …
“Are we gonna go fuck in the water?” he asked. “Because I am up for that, Eve.”
She shot him a look over her shoulder, all sweet smiles and twinkling eyes. He knew her answer before she even said it simply because if she was planning something dirty, that smile of hers would be a whole lot more sinful.
Damn.
“Will you quit whining?”
“It’s six in the morning,” Theo groaned. “What part of the fact that I can’t actually function at six in the morning don’t you understand, donna? You’re killing me here, Eve. Killing me. You’re going to give me a heart attack from the stress of forcing me to get up this early. And on a vacation, no less.”
It didn’t fail to amaze him how years ago, Theo stayed up for hours on end just to keep from falling asleep as much as possible. The nightmares had still been an awful bitch back then, to be fair. Over the years, he found sleep came easier for him, but especially when he was sharing a bed with Eve.
He still had the nightmares occasionally, but they were fewer and far between, now. They weren’t as traumatic when he did have them, either. He came out of them easier, and recovered far faster when one did creep up on him. He didn’t fear sleep anymore. Actually, he kind of fucking loved it.
Which was why he shouldn’t be up right now.
“Do you want a bow to go in your hair, too?”
“What?”
“You sound like you started your period.”
Christ.
He loved his wife. She was sharp and quick in ways a lot of people except him didn’t get to
see. She saved all that wit for him when he was giving her shit, and she knew she had to give it back just as hard.
Theo snapped his mouth shut, but not before murmuring, “I’m just saying that fucking in the water would have made waking up this early much more worth it.”
“If you shut up, you might get that later.”
Yep.
He shut right up.
All the way up.
Zipped lips all the way.
“Besides,” Eve continued, coming closer to Adriano and Alessa’s hut, “you know everybody with kids are already awake and getting ready for the day. They’re always waiting on your lazy ass because you don’t have kids, and you like to sleep in.”
“I take their kids all the time!”
“Don’t yell. Now be good and help me get the kids back to our place.”
Theo shot her a look, but Eve pretended like she didn’t even see it. “Are you going to watch them all by yourself for the entire day, or …? Because I am not going to be here.”
“Quite aware, and no. Just for the morning. I got all that stuff for pancakes, remember? You put the locks on everything because Damian was going insane about it.”
“Well, he did have a point.”
Not that Theo was willing to admit that to his brother-in-law. If he gave Damian an inch, the man took a fucking mile. So was their way, really.
Eve knocked on the front door of the hut, and stepped back. Adriano swung the door open less than two seconds later. Theo had to laugh at the fact the man already had both kids ready, and a bag for each one. It was a little past six in the fucking morning, and he looked like he had been up for a couple of hours.
Eve took baby Lissa.
Corrine ran out to grab Theo’s hand.
Adriano pointed a finger at Eve, saying, “I don’t know what you women have planned today, but my wife has been telling me to mind my goddamn business all last night. It better be worth it.”
Eve smirked. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
In the doorway, Adriano’s gaze narrowed before he shot Theo a look, shook his head, and then closed the door. Without a word, Eve continued down the path to the next hut. Theo trailed behind her like he had before, but this time, with Corrine bouncing beside him and tugging on his hand the whole way. The little one never stopped talking, and he swore she said twenty words for every single step she took, too.
Kids were cute like that, really.
And busy.
Little monsters.
At the next hut, Tommas and Abriella’s, Eve knocked on the door a hell of a lot quieter than she had for Alessa and Adriano’s place. Theo didn’t wonder why for very long when Tommas was quick to open the door with a half-sleeping Tommaso slung over his shoulder. He already had a finger pressed to his lips.
“Don’t say a word—Ella is still sleeping. I want her to fucking stay that way. You just take him, and go. Got it?”
Eve laughed quietly, gesturing for Theo to come forward and take the tired toddler. “You got it.”
Somehow, he managed to balance holding Tommaso and keeping a grip on Corrine’s hand at the same time. Tommaso’s sleepiness only lasted as long as it took for Corrine’s chattiness to start back up again, but they were almost to the far end where Damian and Lily’s hut was situated when the kids really started getting loud again.
Thing was, they didn’t even have to knock on the front door of the last place. Damian was already outside with Cory on one side of him, and Joe playing with a truck in the hammock in the front sitting area.
Damian shrugged when Theo asked, “Up early, or what?”
“Kids, man.”
Yeah, kids explained everything.
Cory darted forward, and Tommaso finally wanted to be let down to play with his cousin. Theo’s shoulder thanked the heavy toddler for giving it a break.
“Are you coming with aunt Eve today, Joe?” his wife called to the quietest of all the kids.
Joe made a face, glanced between his father and aunt, and then shrugged. “I guess.”
Eve laughed, and met Theo’s gaze over her shoulder. “He really knows how to stroke someone’s ego, doesn’t he?”
That was little Joe.
“You ready to get a start on this day, or what?” Damian asked Theo.
“More like, is Adriano and Tommas?”
Damian chuckled. “Truth.”
Eve worked on getting Joe out of the hammock, and convincing him nobody was going to take his truck while he spent the morning with her. And didn’t he like pancakes? Yes, he did.
“Theo, stop gossiping like a teenage girl and help me get all the kids back to our place.”
Theo rolled his eyes, and ignored Damian’s laughter following him as he headed after his wife. “What are you planning to do today, anyway?”
“Well, it’s not just me. All the girls are going to do something. Won’t be the same when you get back.”
His brow knotted. “I don’t understand.”
“That’s the point. Besides, it’s Christmas Eve. Do better, Theo.”
Damn woman.
Good thing he loved her.
EIGHT
Abriella and Tommas
TOMMAS
Tommas no sooner had the door to the vacation hut shut, and he was already heading across the open floor to head for where his wife was still happily sleeping behind sheer curtains. If there was anything he disliked about this vacation spot, it was the fact that inside the huts, there was very little privacy from the children.
Which meant he wasn’t getting to love his wife nearly as much as he needed and wanted to. But he had—at most—one hour to spend with his wife before the guys would be waiting outside to head on their … business portion of this vacation, and he planned on using every single one of those minutes to his advantage.
He doubted Abriella was going to complain, honestly.
Tommas wasted no fucking time stripping out of the night clothes he’d pulled on the evening before. By the time he was on his side of the bed, he was already naked and hard. So was his life with this woman sleeping unaware on the bed. He went to sleep rock hard, and woke up with a steel rod every fucking morning. He got turned on simply by watching his wife doing laundry. If it weren’t for responsibilities and life getting in the way, he’d keep his wife in bed all the damn time.
He was so weak.
Pussy weak.
Sliding into the bed next to his wife, Tommas didn’t even bother to try and wake Abriella up slowly. In nothing but a silk nightie that barely covered her bare ass, the only thing he really wanted to do was get his hands and lips on her body. So, he did just that.
His hands pushed her nightie high while his lips found her throat first. He knew the second she woke up from the way her pulse picked up under the nip of his teeth. Her soft gasp echoed into the room, filling him up with a lust like nothing else. He kept kissing her even as her murmurings filtered through his senses.
“What are you … oh,” she breathed.
He dotted kisses down her throat, and over the toned expanse of her stomach after he’d pushed her nightie high enough to free her skin to his mouth. He loved the taste of his wife first thing in the morning. It was just about as good as how she tasted after sex, really. Like sweetness and salt—uniquely her with a touch of him.
Because God knew he was all over her.
Constantly.
Like an animal urge he just couldn’t fucking kick no matter what he did. Every single person needed to know this woman was his, and he didn’t forget to remind anyone who might have thought differently.
“Jesus Christ, Tommy.”
Her words were high, and airless.
The way he liked them best, really.
He planned on getting them far louder when he got his head buried between her thighs. Abriella knew it was coming; he could feel it in the clench of her stomach when his tongue traced her navel, and the way her hips lifted to press against him. Her fingers threaded into his hair and tugged
hard enough to make his scalp sting when he finally slipped between her thighs properly.
His mouth found her sex, and Tommas was done for. Harder than granite, and grinding against the bed as he ate the heaven between his wife’s thighs. There was nothing easy or sweet about the way his tongue lashed at Abriella’s clit again and again. It wasn’t like she cared for soft and sweet, anyway.
She wanted to come. Each stroke of his tongue and the harsh way his fingers dug into her inner thighs to keep her thighs from locking around his head had her back arching off the bed, and her cries rising impossibly higher.
Sweet Jesus.
He adored his name in his wife’s mouth.
Pleading.
Loud.
Perfect, really.
“Oh, my God, Tommy, please …”
It was only once he drew her throbbing slit between his lips, and sucked hard that she finally came undone on the bed. Those fingernails of hers dragged through his hair as she tensed all over, and a shout left her lips that echoed in the quiet hut. Her trembling rocked them both, and for a second he enjoyed the sight of his wife as she panted her way through her first orgasm of the morning. If he had his way—and he would because he always did—it would be the first of fucking many.
Tommas didn’t give Abriella time to recover before he was sliding back up her body, leaving hot kisses that tasted like her come in his wake. Her gaze locked on his as her heavy breaths began to even out, and she graced him with one of her wicked smiles when his fingers wrapped around her throat right under her jaw. Pushing her head back into the pillow, he dropped a kiss to her lips that seared him from the inside out. There was something about the way his wife’s lips worked against his, how her tongue darted in and out of his mouth to get as much of her taste as she could from his lips that drove him crazy.
Her thighs wrapped around him in an instant, dragging him in close enough that she could grind her wet pussy against his length. And when her hand slipped between their bodies to get the head of his dick pressing against her slit, the world tilted back on its axis again. He thrust home, and life was good again.