Protecting Her: A Romance Bundle

by Mia Ford

  Suddenly Tiffany gasped, sitting straight up in the bed and looking around frantically. Carefully, I stood up and walked to her side, taking my free hand and stroking her head. She focused in on me and looked down at Justin in my arms. Her face went relaxed, and she put her hand to her heart, letting out a deep breath.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “I woke up thinking I fell asleep with Justin in my arms. I just about had a heart attack.”

  “Say, no, Mommy, I’ve been sleeping in Daddy’s arms.” I walked back over to sit down with him.

  “It is so amazing watching you bond with our little boy,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine a better father for him. He is going to be so spoiled.”

  “Haha.” I laughed. “Maybe not by us, but definitely by his grandma and grandpa.”

  “And probably Uncle Jordan, too,” she added.

  “Oh, yeah.” I shook my head. “They probably already have a car full of goodies and a lifetime membership to the candy company.”

  “Oh, Lord,” she sighed. “Can we make a rule that if you feed him candy, you have to keep him for the night?”

  “Sounds legit to me,” I said, looking over at her and laughing. “You give him a sugar high, you pay the price.”

  “Done.” She laughed again. “Gosh, what a day. That definitely happened a lot faster than I expected.”

  “You were amazing,” I said. “Seriously, I love you so much and you were a freaking rock star.”

  “I thought I was going to break your hand there for a second.”

  “Me, too,” I scoffed. “But all is well. I love you, Tiffany, so very much. I’m so proud of you. You did such an amazing job.”

  “Meh.” She waved a hand. “It was easy being a human incubator—said no one ever.”

  “You’d do it again.” I winked at her, knowing I was right.

  “Maybe once I can walk straight again.”

  I stood up from the chair and walked over to her, leaning down and kissing her on the forehead. I gently placed Justin in her arms and stood back watching as she fed him, humming the same tune I was humming earlier but with much better vocals. I stared at the two miracles in the room with me and just couldn’t believe how lucky of a man I really was. I had the most beautiful wife and child I had ever seen. My life had been so empty before they came around, even though I didn’t realize it until now. Before Tiffany, I didn’t really live. I had simply gotten up every day, went to work, drank, and went home. I’d had nothing substantial to look forward to. When Tiffany came barreling through my world, it was like she shined her light into every dark corner of my life. Even the days I wanted to sit and mope, she was there to lift me up and bring her amazing smile to my world. In the ten months we had been together, my entire life had turned completely upside down and in such a good way.

  I pulled the chair over to the bedside, and Tiffany and I talked as she nursed the baby and rocked him to sleep. We talked about life changing, we talked about what we wanted to show and teach our son, we talked about his future and our future, and we sat there bonding until the sun came up the next morning. She looked over at me and smiled as I poured her a cup of decaf and unwrapped the sandwiches I had grabbed from the cafeteria. Her eyes were light and hopeful, and she giggled as the baby grasped onto her finger.

  “I love you more than anything little man,” she whispered to Justin. “And I love your father that much, too. I can’t wait to get you home and all comfy in your new pajamas.”

  Looking at these two, I felt like the luckiest man in history. I couldn’t wait to get them home as well and all settled into their new life. Tiffany, Justin, and I were a family now, and I would never let anything come between us. It was the best gift I had ever been given, and I couldn’t imagine life getting any better than it was right then. No matter what sleepless nights, temper tantrums, or fits came our way, I had the most perfect family in the whole world.

  Book 7

  Taken

  Blurb

  I never thought I’d sleep with the man who murdered my fiancé...it wasn't just a one-night-stand!!!

  He was strong and tough, the kind of passionate man I’d always wanted.

  Alessio

  Thanks to that nosy brunette bitch, Beth, I served six months in Rikers Island for violating parole and cocaine possession. I spent every single day of those six months cursing her. I couldn’t wait to get out of jail – then I’d be able to really make that bitch sorry.

  I hadn’t counted on her being so sexy. I hadn’t thought someone like Beth would be capable of arousing someone like me. But somehow, her innocence and naiveté turned me on more than ever before. Soon, the nosy little cunt was all I could think about.

  Fucking her didn’t get her out of my system. But she’d be the one fucking me if I didn’t convince her to change her mind and refuse to testify against me.

  And there was no way I could let that happen.

  Beth

  I never thought I’d sleep with the man who murdered my fiancé, Michael Bennett. But Alessio Amoruso wasn’t just a one-night-stand…I was starting to realize that he was more than just a crime boss with a sick sense of humor. He was strong and tough, the kind of passionate man I’d always wanted.

  Too bad there was the little problem of Alessio murdering my fiancé. If I didn’t testify against Alessio, I’d never have revenge against the man who’d first asked me to marry him. Alessio told me that he’d changed. He swore up and down that he’d do whatever it took to prove that he was a different man.

  But I never expected my heart to change. What was going to happen now that I was falling in love with the man who murdered my fiancé?

  1

  Alessio

  I smiled as I sat down in the leather executive chair behind my desk. The morning papers were spread across the desk surface, along with my breakfast – freshly squeezed orange juice, a bran English muffin with peanut butter, and half of an apple, sliced neatly into wedges.

  Picking up the paper, I stared at the headline on the first page.

  “AFTER A TRAGIC YEAR, AMORUSO FAMILY REBUILDS”

  Damn straight we’re rebuilding, I thought with a smirk as I opened the paper to the article and began skimming down the page. The photo accompanying the headline showed our flagship restaurant, Amoruso’s, with all of the wait staff standing out front and smiling. I grinned at the sight of the hostesses and waitresses in their short black skirts with tiny white aprons. When my father, Gianni, had founded the local chain, he’d decided that he was only going to hire the prettiest girls and make them wear the sluttiest uniforms possible. Forty years later, it was seen as a little jab against the nature of the politically correct world. But I enjoyed it. I’d fucked a lot of those girls in my day, and I didn’t plan on stopping. Just because I was thirty-eight didn’t mean that I was slowing down.

  If anything, I was starting to move faster than ever before.

  My father, Gianni, had been killed. Ten months ago, to the exact date, he’d been in a car driving to Jersey for a business meeting with the restaurant partners. He’d been killed instantly when a tractor-trailer crossed the highway median and hit his car, head on.

  I’d been devastated. At thirty-seven, I’d thought that I had years and years before taking over as the head of the Amoruso family business. But instead, I’d been catapulted into the spotlight and I was still recovering. I missed my father, but to tell the truth, I hadn’t had very much time to grieve. Death stops for everyone, and business can’t stop for death. While some people said it was shameful the way I’d moved on, the truth was that I couldn’t have stopped. If I’d even slowed down, the business would have tanked.

  And god knows, I couldn’t have that.

  I sighed, stretching as I reached forward for a piece of muffin. It had already cooled, but I didn’t mind. There was something satisfying and savory about the taste of salted butter on top of the crunchy surface. I closed my eyes and chewed for a long time, thinking of everything I’d have to wrap u
p later in the day. First, I had a meeting with my best friend, Silvio – my advice man. Then, I was going to drive out to Jersey and check out two of the restaurants.

  I smirked. There was a girl working at one of them – Cara, or Carina, or whatever the fuck she called herself – who was damn cute, and she’d been making cow eyes at me ever since we first saw each other. I’d been too distracted to try getting her alone, but today, I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be content until I left with her spit still clinging to my dick. I hadn’t had sex in weeks, and I was achingly horny. Most of the time, I called in girls to my home whenever I needed…release. But lately, I’d been so busy that I’d resorted to porn, stroking myself to the sight of three naked blondes licking each other’s pussies and moaning theatrically. It wasn’t as good as the real thing, but it had been a decent substitute.

  Taking a long drink of juice, I unfolded the rest of the paper and skimmed the article. I wasn’t worried about any negative press – the local paper was on our side, and I knew they wouldn’t print anything sordid or inflammatory unless we were in on it.

  The truth was, I wasn’t just a local business owner. Amoruso’s had done better than anyone in my family had ever expected – including my father. But while we slung pasta and “Italian” dishes at sloppy families, that wasn’t the only goal. The original restaurant had started as a place to launder money. We’d been a cheap takeout (cash only, of course) and my father Gianni hadn’t expected the venture to last more than six months. But to everyone’s shock, Amoruso’s chicken parmesan was such a crowd pleaser that in less than two years, my father and Silvio opened two more restaurants. The year after that, we opened four. Now, we had ten restaurants in New York and New Jersey combined, and we pulled in a solid sixteen million per quarter.

  Of course, all of that money didn’t come from chicken parmesan. But no one had to know that – even if some suspected. New York was full of crime family activity, and it was my job to make sure the Amoruso family did our part and kept our heads down. Most of our revenue came from dealing with shipping firms under the table. But there was a big problem right now, and it was starting to give me a headache.

  I hadn’t thought that I’d be tested this much in my first year of running the family business. Things hadn’t ever been easy. All ten restaurants had done poorly over the winter, because of snowstorms that kept people inside, and I was dealing with a real pig over at Magnate Shipping. Magnate had been our partner for years. The owner, Douglas, and my father Gianni had even been friends. But now, the owner’s son Michael was making a real big stink and I was going to have to think of something radical if I wanted to stay on top.

  I stood up and walked across the plush carpeting of my office. A small mirror by the door showed that my dark hair was beginning to grey at the temples. I frowned – I knew some women liked the idea of a silver fox, but I wasn’t even forty years old yet. I made a mental note to visit a hair stylist and have her do something before I went out to Jersey. If I wanted to get inside little Carina’s panties, I was going to put my best foot forward.

  My phone buzzed on my desk and I picked it up without glancing at the caller.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, boss,” Silvio said. “How’s it going?”

  I nodded stiffly, forgetting for a moment that Silvio wasn’t in the room to watch.

  “I’ve had better mornings,” I said honestly. “We need to figure out a way to deal with that prick over at Magnate. The most recent shipment has been held up for days, and unless I act soon, it’s staying like that for some time. We’re bleeding money, Sil.”

  “I know, I know,” Silvio said. “Look, I’m on my way over. I have some news.”

  The last word struck my chest with fear. “What news?”

  Silvio sighed. “I’ll be honest, boss,” he said slowly. “It ain’t good.”

  I steadied myself with a hand against the back of my desk chair.

  “Hurry up,” I barked into the phone. “I ain’t waiting around all morning just to hear some bad shit, Silvio.”

  “Of course,” Silvio said. “I’ll be there in five.” He hung up without saying anything else. Normally, Silvio’s brusque demeanor would have irked me. But today, all I could think about was how to get out of this mess. Ever since Douglas’s son had started working at Magnate, I’d had shit like this to deal with during almost every delivery. The Amoruso family smuggled cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy with the help of Magnate shipping…and I needed to make sure I was getting the money that I deserved.

  True to his word, Silvio showed up no more than five minutes later. I heard his heavy footsteps thundering through my home before his tentative, soft knock on the door.

  “Sil, come in,” I called loudly, sitting down in my chair and grabbing a pen and paper. Over the past year of leading the Amoruso family, I’d learned to conceal my nervous ticks pretty well. I still didn’t feel like the head of a crime ring, but I was learning. My father would be ashamed, I thought as I glanced down at my right hand. It was shaking.

  Silvio pushed the heavy office door and strode in, hands clasped in front of his wide belly. He was wearing a grey flannel suit with the first two buttons of his shirt unfastened. A tuft of silvery-grey hair stuck out, against the stark tan skin of his chest.

  Silvio leaned down in a respectful bow. He was my father’s age – early sixties –and because of a lifetime of drinking and partying, he looked it. He looked like he’d aged ten years overnight – especially around his eyes.

  “Boss, I’m sorry to tell you,” Silvio said heavily. “But we lost two men last night.”

  “What the fuck?” I narrowed my eyes. “What the fuck happened?”

  Silvio sighed. “I know,” he said. “We had men go over to Magnate, try to soften Douglas up. But Douglas stood firm – said you owe him somewhere in the neighborhood of a cool three million.”

  Blood inflamed my face and I glared angrily. “That’s fucking horseshit,” I muttered. “You know I don’t know that old man shit!”

  “I know,” Silvio said. He shrugged casually. “It ain’t about that, Alessio. You know that as well as I do.”

  I glared at him. “Then what the fuck is this about?” I rolled my eyes, feeling anger tear through my body with astonishing precision. I felt like my veins were inflamed with rage, like I could tear a block of concrete in two pieces just because of the anger controlling me.

  “You know what it’s about,” Silvio said evenly. He met my eyes with his intense gaze and I didn’t back down at the black look in his eyes.

  “I don’t know what that fuckin’ means,” I growled.

  “He’s testing you, Alessio,” Silvio said. He shook his head sadly from side to side. “Your old man didn’t take no shit from Douglas, and now that Gianni’s gone, he’s tryin’ to mess with you. It ain’t about what you owe him or don’t owe him. It’s about him thinkin’ he can push you around to get a higher rate.”

  The anger intensified and I growled as the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Nothing made me angrier than knowing that someone was trying to fuck with me because they didn’t think I’d retaliate. I wasn’t my father – I was my own man, and Douglas Bennett was going to learn that as soon as possible.

  “We gotta do something,” I said, leaning forward and closing my eyes. I tried to think – how could I hurt Douglas? He was rich – even richer than me – and powerful. But he had to have a weak spot…

  “He just got a new wife,” Silvio said. He smirked. “Some bitch he bought from eastern Europe. She’s a real slut. You thinkin’ something to do with her?”

  I shook my head. “He goes through women like some people go through tissues,” I said dismissively. “That ain’t gonna be enough to make him take me seriously. Plus, it’s the most obvious option.”

  Silvio nodded. “What about a little…destruction of property?” His dark lips curled into a smirk. “You think he’d be hurting real bad if one of those warehouses suddenly blew up.”

&n
bsp; “No,” I said. “That hurts us, too. We depend on that asshole to get our stash. We can’t take the hit by shooting ourselves in the foot.”

  Silvio nodded. “You’re right,” he said slowly. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, boss.”

  I waved my hand dismissively through the air. The compliment was nice, but I wasn’t going to feel any better about this fucking situation until I had an answer ready to go.

  “Well,” Silvio said. “There is one more idea.”

  “I’ve got it,” I said suddenly. “He’s got a kid, don’t he?”

  Silvio smiled unpleasantly. “A boy,” he said. “Some kid named Michael.”

  I grinned. “How old is he?”

  Silvio shrugged. “Like I know? Maybe twenty-five, thirty. He ain’t that old.”

  My grin grew so wide that my cheeks ached.

  “Perfect,” I said.

  2

  Beth

  “What about this?” Heather held up a mint-green silk chemise. “I think this would be pretty with your skin.” She held it against my pale arm.

  I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t know,” I said. “Green always makes me look kind of jaundiced, don’t you think? It’s these damn yellow undertones,” I added quickly. “I hate how I look right now!”