Then it was Tori’s turn. “Just did the pee stick so best guess is July.”
Carmen mumbled something in Spanish that made Alex slap his thigh and roar with laughter.
“What’s that, Carmen?” Stephanie asked with her usual beauty queen drawl.
Carmen chuckled and waved away the question. Her face colored with a blush as Alex slung a proprietary arm around her shoulders.
“She said,” he snorted with laughter, “that she and Ria cooked up a Mazatlán Fertility Potion before the wedding. They hadn’t counted on it spreading beyond my lovely wife and I.”
Angie doubled over with laughter.
“Well shit,” Tori giggled. “Carmen! Didn’t you know we all drink from the same glass sometimes?”
Meghan smiled broadly when Carmen shrugged and snickered.
Parker all of a sudden boomed, “Angel! Don’t share beverages with anyone! Our fathers would make me a eunuch if you get pregnant without the benefit of some marriage vows.”
Alex made a fearsome frown and muttered “Word,” as he used two fingers to motion that he had his eyes on those two.
Zeus woofed and licked Angie’s hand.
The black Labrador always seemed to Meghan as if she knew exactly what was going on with her humans. Absently rubbing her tummy, she watched Alex’s original BFF trot to her side, sat and look up at her with a doggie-adorable gaze of pure love. Meghan patted the dog’s head and gave her a smile. Later tonight when Alex tucked the babies in, as he promised them he would, she thought a formal introduction to the family pet was in order.
They gravitated toward the big kitchen—somehow they always ended up there—and proceeded to drive Carmen batshit crazy when she tried to start dinner. Meghan’s heart overflowed as she made the rounds with her eyes.
Drae immediately claimed the big wooden chair he’d replicated in 19th century Spanish style and pulled Tori onto his lap.
She was overjoyed that they were having another baby and couldn’t wait for a chance to shoot the girl-shit with Tori and find out how things were going with the marriage reboot. St. John 2.0 was a phrase getting a lot of Family Justice use these days. Heather’s bangtastic suggestion for all of them—her and Brody included—was to invest as much energy into couple’s nights as they put into family responsibilities. That very suggestion was why Daniel was camping at Cam and Lacey’s. It was all kinds of cool that the family came with built-in babysitting.
Angie was perched on a high stool at the corner of the island and keeping up a lively back and forth with Carmen. With her phone clutched in one hand she was speedily entering a recipe the long-time Marquez caretaker dictated as she went about getting dinner ready. A lifetime of closeness was on full display as her hilarious sister-in-law gave Carmen as much shit as possible while the grandmotherly woman dished it right back.
Parker and Alex were tap-slapping each other in the middle of the kitchen as Drae egged them on.
Calder and Stephanie were seated side-by-side in the breakfast nook, paging through an old family photo album.
And then there was Cam. Meghan’s eyes sparkled with quick tears when she remembered those awful days when his safety and whereabouts had been in serious question. The prospect of losing one of the founding Justice brothers was too awful to think about.
She loved this crazy mash-up of unique people. Resting her hand upon the tiny bump where her babies were growing, Meghan thought about the winds of providence that blew all of them, in their own time, to this magical place in the desert. It felt as if the universe moved each of them, like game pieces, to Bendover, and then let nature take its course. And now a second generation to the Justice family was growing in the red Arizona dirt. Somehow the energy they created will stretch across eternity through their children and then through their kids.
It was a sobering and yet thrilling realization. She, Alex and their twins were now part of that eternal thread.
What’s an eye-opening moment without an added ear-worm for flair? We Are Family, the Justice Ladies’ tongue-in-cheek theme song fired up in her head. The song about sisters was tailor made for them.
Her eyes swung to Tori. After a second, she looked up and met Meghan’s gaze. They stared at each other for a minute and stood at the same time. She reached out her hand and Tori skipped across the kitchen to take it.
“We’ll be back,” Tori chirped. The announcement was met by shocked expressions from Alex and Drae.
“What does that mean,” Alex growled.
Drae talked over him asking, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Tori snickered and shook her head at both men. Then she looked at Cam.
“I need some Daniel snoodles and Meghan has something to tell Lacey.”
Stephanie smiled at them with a knowing glint in her eye. She liked that Tori’s mom was part of their unusual family. Not only had she made Alex’s uncle the happiest fifty-something guy on the planet, she brought an irreverent but deeply understanding outlook to their shenanigans.
Carmen swung into action at hearing Lacey’s name. She ran around like a hurricane, packing a small hamper with healthy snacks for the boys and a plastic bowl filled with Ponytail’s favorite soup.
Alex dismissed Tori with a domineering flip of his thumb, indicating she should get lost and then grabbed Meghan’s elbow and led them to the edge of the kitchen. She was ready for the argument he was sure to throw at her and if he wasn’t just so freakin’ adorable with his alpha worry she might have blown him off.
“We’ll drive slow, master,” she teased. Gently poking him in the gut, Meghan tried to suppress a giggle when his expression grew openly amused. “And if it pleases you,” she smirked, “I’ll even FaceTime you the whole way so you know we arrived safely.”
He stared at her and then burst out in a low, throaty laugh. His smile deepened and then the laughter stopped and his eyes began to smolder.
“Only for you will the leash stretch that far.”
Did he? She smirked. He did!
“I told you before. Sticking with the leash talk will only lead to a collar. And then what will people think? I mean, sheesh! They already imagine every fifty shades of wild fuckery under the sun.”
His face suddenly got serious. “Do you think the kids know what we do?”
She couldn’t help it. Laughing, Meghan wrapped her beloved Major into a hug and rocked them side-to-side. “Oh, baby. I’m pretty sure they know our brand of fifty shaded fuckery is exactly why they’re here.”
Her answer seemed to satisfy him and then he leered like the devil he was and gently fingered her neck. “I think we’ll explore that collar scenario. In private.”
She shivered at his words. The rings on her left hand, the Marquez crest tattooed on her ass…of course a collar would be next. For whatever reason, the outward signs of his absolute possession and her willingness to feed those urges were things of tremendous importance to her.
“I would kiss you, Mr. Marquez but that’d only lead to some of the aforementioned fuckery.”
He smirked at her, ran his thumb across her bottom lip and said, “Eh, not to worry. When I walk you to the driveway I plan to push my tongue into your throat. Little reminder.”
She sighed. He grinned.
“Will ensure that you get your sexy fucking ass back here in a hurry so we can eat Carmen’s dinner, make nice and then I think perhaps we’ll stop by the barn to visit the horses.”
Ooh! The barn. Yay. She visualized leather riding crops and a conveniently perfect leather bound saddle horse.
“Um, husband,” she murmured, leaning into him and wrapping her arms around his waist. “Would you mind slipping the nipple clamps with the tiny bells into your pocket before we go for a walk?”
“Like those, do you?”
More than he knew! Whispering into his ear she described a deliciously naughty scene involving some silken Shibari rope, the tinkling clamps, a riding crop and her husband’s wonderfully dirty imagination.
He didn’t know it yet but she was working out a way to introduce a fuck-swing to their trove of toys and equipment. Ever since they’d seen one in use during their revelatory visit to a D.C. BDSM club she’d been thinking about the possibilities. There was undoubtedly something hot about being trussed into a swing, helpless and completely vulnerable to her husband’s manly cock.
Her mind was a bottomless pit of carnal depravity when it came to her husband.
“Alright you two. Enough with the whispering. Let’s move it Red. Carmen says we have half an hour and I wasn’t kidding about snoodling Daniel. Get your ass in gear lady and let’s go.”
Alex did what Alex always did—he followed through. Escorting them to the driveway and seeing her safely belted into one of the fancy new Polaris vehicles, he grabbed her by the chin and dove onto her mouth, keeping his promise to push his tongue down her throat.
As they drove away she heard Tori giggling happily at her side. “Best part of being preggo is the hormone sex. Morning, noon and night. Looking forward to it, I am!”
Laughing, they followed the road past the turn-off to Tori’s home and continued along into the modest stand of trees surrounding the Cameron cabin. Pulling up to the front steps, Meghan marveled at the hand of fate that found all three of them pregnant at the same time.
Life sure was interesting.
23
“You are a good man, Alexander. You make your papa proud.”
“God, I hope so,” he confessed. Snapping beans fresh from Ben’s greenhouse garden into a big bowl, his mind picked apart the conversation with Carmen. Thinking out loud he murmured, “I thought my folks retiring and coming back to Arizona was going to be weird but now with the twins…” His voice trailed off and he shrugged because any sentence containing the words, ‘the twins’, wasn’t going to need a lot of clarification. If his wife carrying twins wasn’t explanation enough, well…fuck it.
The aroma of a favorite Delgado family recipe, one that was on his comfort food bucket list, filled the air. Carmen’s famous roasted garlic and chicken nestled in a pile of creamy whipped sweet potatoes was one of the curious things he longed for during his time overseas.
“It’s funny, isn’t it?” she asked while pulling a pan from the oven. “Your mama and papa opening up the Sedona house again. So many changes.”
The shot of discomfort he felt each time the subject of his parents coming home was mentioned made Alex feel like a dick. It had been a very long time since he lived under his parents’ thumb and he wasn’t altogether sure what having them around meant for the villa.
Decades had passed since his father and Uncle Eduardo agreed to legally cede their shared interest in the Valleja-Marquez property, an inheritance put forth by their long-gone grandparents, to Alex.
As the heir to the family’s Spanish-American legacy, he had total control over the hundreds and hundreds of acres making up the Marquez holdings and was a beneficiary of the family trust of which Uncle Ed and his dad were conservators.
Was he making a mountain out of a sand pile? Imagining a loss of control that existed only in his anxious thoughts? It was unlike him but hey, he really felt he should be graded on a curve. This was new territory for him. Someplace that didn’t come with a guidebook or a map.
“They’ll be here in time for Christmas,” he told her. “Mom’s bummed they couldn’t make it for the family center opening but I’m pretty sure…”
“The twins,” they said in perfect unison.
Laughing together as they’d done for Alex’s whole life he smiled at the faithful family guardian who for more years than could be counted and with the full consent and encouragement of his mom had become his surrogate mother. With a droll murmur he yanked Carmen’s chain because it was too easy. “Guess you and Mom are gonna have to arm wrestle over who gets to spend more time with the kids.”
An empty pot she’d cleaned out and was getting ready to put away slammed onto the countertop with a loud thwack.
He managed a choking laugh when her brown eyes turned fierce. A second later she laughed. “Luckily, mi hijo, there are two.”
She had him there.
His phone lit up. Snapping a bean, he glanced at the screen. A text from Drae. Wiping his hands on his jeans, an action that earned him a tsk’ing frown, he gave an unabashed shrug and picked the phone up.
Bringing your wife home. You guys are totally fucking up my date plans.
He laughed. One day, Drae and Tori’s marital-dating antics would no doubt be part of the Justice legend.
Truth was, he was picking up valuable pointers just by paying attention. Having skirted way too fucking close to the edge with his marriage, Drae threw himself whole-heartedly into making his and Victoria’s relationship priority one. Last week they’d taken a day and went into Flagstaff where they went bowling, caught a movie and grazed at every interesting looking eatery along the way. To his surprise they’d even asked Ben to play chauffeur and made use of the limo.
In Justice parlance, ‘made use of the limo’ was practically code for fucked their brains out. He chuckled. This was why they were brothers. Everyone thought alike.
Carmen looked at him expectantly. “The lady of the manor is on her approach,” he informed her.
She shooed him away with a smart wrist snap that cracked her dishtowel against his leg. “Go get your woman, Alexander. I’ll set dinner out and leave you two alone.”
He kissed the stalwart Latina wonder woman and hugged her tight. “How about you? Got dinner plans?”
Astonished was his reaction when the unflappable woman he was used to blushed a deep red.
“Chief Winston is bringing Chinese later.”
The sound of his wife’s playful laughter because he hadn’t noticed something was brewing between the two rang in his head. Holy crap. Was Carmen dating his head of security?
“Uh,” he stammered. “You mean Duke?”
Good ol’ Carmen. She might be embarrassed but that didn’t change who she was. With a look bordering on pity, she made him feel like the dumbest S.O.B. around.
“Yes, Alexander. Duke. He Yelped a place that got good um, buzz.”
He bit back a laugh. Oh my fucking god. All of a sudden he knew why Carmen’s language was recently peppered with unusual words and phrases.
“I see. Well,” he intoned gravely. Should he have a talk with Duke? After all, he’d been Carmen’s protector all these years. “I hope the egg rolls are good.”
He didn’t know what else to say or do so he switched gears and went back to focusing on Meghan. The low rumble of an approaching ATV heralded her arrival. After some last minute meal instructions, Carmen dashed away.
The little table was set for two and all the food was in covered dishes on a convenient serving cart. They could more easily spread out in the dining room but his wife loved the cozy breakfast nook and the small table that gave every meal an intimate air.
In the center of the table Carmen placed two garden blooms, different but beautiful together, in a short crystal vase. It seemed symbolic.
He was soon to be the father of twins.
Wow.
Hurrying to the driveway he had just enough time to strike a pose at the end of the walkway as Drae’s vehicle swung around some bushes and made for the kitchen door.
Arms crossed, he took up a pirate stance because his Irish Goddess read body language like a boss.
“About time,” he growled when Drae cut the motor.
Meghan slid off her seat and shook out her dress, twinkled goodbye to Drae, blew a kiss to Tori then hugged her when the littler woman climbed into the front of the Polaris.
“Where are you two headed?” he called out.
Tori held up her hands to indicate she had no idea. Drae made a couple of hand gestures so Alex nodded and gave him a thumbs up. As Meghan came to his side she murmured. “How the hell do you two do that? Is it military hand signals or something?”
No way was he telling her it was all a
ruse. Total theatrical bullshit that they sometimes laughed over in private. The hand gestures? Made ‘em up as they went along. Calder called it part of the Bro-Code. He insisted women had some mystical way of communicating telepathically and that it wasn’t fair. The only way not to hive up the full advantage was to pretend they too had some sort of Y chromosome communication channel.
“You were gone a long time,” he drawled. “What happened to ‘come right home’?”
His wife smiled sweetly, cradled her non-existent belly and made a perfect moue with her luscious lips. “Don’t growl at me in front of the children.”
Oh, yeah. He was going to make sure she enjoyed the spanking he just put on the evening’s entertainment schedule.
“Be nice and wave to the St. Johns, woman. Then get your smart ass into the house.”
She fake rubbed her nose to hide a smirking giggle before waving like a lunatic as the St. Johns pulled away. The minute they were out of sight his fuck goddess appeared right before his eyes. Twining around him like a vine, she rubbed on his hard body and made a purring sound.
“You changed clothes,” she drawled with a huskiness that got his blood boiling. One hand moved to his pocket on a seek and find mission. He smacked it away and grunted. “Patience, woman.”
He very much enjoyed watching her eyes flare. They’d had one hell of a day but now it was time to leave the world behind and enjoy each other.
In the blink of an eye her expression changed from fiery and playful to something else. Her nose went up in the air. He saw her eyes dart around. Then she bit a lip, frowned like she was thinking, and murmured, “Hmmm.”
Two inhales later she beamed and threw her hand up for a high five. “Is that garlic and chicken I smell?”
Slapping her hand enthusiastically, Alex laughed in a deep, lighthearted way. “Cock-blocked by Carmen’s cooking.”
Blaming everything and anything for cock-blocking was his new snark-spression. With a quirky movement he loved, she smacked him playfully on his chest and kissed him on the lips.
“New rule to remember, daddy of twins. Food first. And then cock.”
Unforgettable (Family Justice Book 5) Page 27