by Linda Verji
Zoe snuck a not-so-subtle glance at Jay before turning to Aiko. “Can’t we stay for a bit longer?”
Aiko turned her wrist to check the time and realized that it was past six. “No, it’s late. We can pass by tomorrow though.”
With obvious reluctance, Zoe got into the car. After strapping Seraphina into the car, Aiko turned to give Lincoln one last hug before she sped off. To be honest, she was really eager to get home, to see Damián.
Their plan to chat last night had flopped because she was too busy breaking the news of his existence to Lincoln. By the time she’d finally left Lincoln’s room, it was past midnight. Despite the missed call she’d seen from Damián it didn’t feel right to wake him up just so she could see his face. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to him this morning either because his phone was off. The series of misses only made her more eager to see him.
Damián didn’t get home until almost eight p.m. and by then Aiko was on tenterhooks. It took everything in her not to dash out of the house when she heard the sound of his car sweeping into the estate, and even more effort to keep from jumping into his arms when he walked into the house. Pretending a calm she didn’t feel, she exited the kitchen to meet him in the foyer.
His eyes lit up the moment he saw her. “You’re home.”
“I am.” Smiling, she closed the distance between them. “Hi.”
“Hi.” His smile mirrored hers as he locked his arms around her. She sighed deeply, absorbing his male scent and warmth as she burrowed into his arms. It was almost painful to pull away from him so she could ask, “How was the meeting?”
“The usual.” He dipped his head for a brief glance of his lips against hers. “How was your day?”
“It was okay.” Any further response was prevented by the arrival of their daughters. For the next couple of hours they were both preoccupied with catering to the needs of their children.
Much later the same evening Aiko found herself all alone in the living room. She flipped through the various channels on the television searching for something watchable. She’d just settled on an interior design show when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned her head just in time to find Damián entering the room.
“Is she asleep?” Aiko watched him stride towards her.
“Yeah.” He circled the couch to plop down beside her. “Took a few bedtime stories, but she’s finally down for the night.”
“Thank you.” Aiko scooted closer to him to set her head on his shoulder just as he slung his arm across her shoulders. She sighed. “Phia used to be such a good sleeper. I don’t know what’s happened in the couple of months. Now getting her into bed has to be a whole song and dance.”
Playing with one of the strands of her hair, Damián said, “Might be just growing pains. And she’s not so bad. When Zoe was that age bedtime was hide and seek time. Once we spent the whole night looking for her only to find her at about three a.m. inside one of the cabinets in the dining room.”
Aiko chuckled and squeezed his thigh. “That child was bad news.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Damián’s chest rumbled with his own laughter as he dropped a kiss on Aiko’s forehead.
They sat in comfortable silence for some moments watching the show on TV until Aiko broke it to say, “Carmen was in my office today.”
“She was?”
Aiko nodded. “She wants me to set her up with someone.”
He burst into laughter. “What?”
“Yup.” A smile tugging at her lips, Aiko played with one of the buttons on Damián’s denim shirt. “She came in as I was closing up and asked me to set her up.”
Damián snorted. “If I were you, I wouldn’t do it.”
“Why not? Your mother deserves love.”
“Yeah, she does. But trust me, that’s not why she came to you.” He stroked her arm. “She’s only doing it to get my dad’s attention.”
Aiko looked up at him. “You think?”
Damián nodded. “This is just one of their games. He comes to the kids’ Sport’s Day with a blonde playboy bunny, she retaliates by finding herself someone to make him jealous. Next will come the fireworks because they’re both ridiculously possessive even though they’re not even together. Then the make-up. I bet you by this time next month, they’ll be telling me they’re together again. And you know what you’ll be?”
Aiko shook her head.
Damian flicked her nose with his finger. “The woman who tried to keep them apart by introducing Carmen to a gigolo.”
Aiko winced. “That sounds awful. I don’t want to be the in the middle of any drama.”
“Those two are drama personified. If you don’t want any part of it say no before they suck you in.”
“I think I’ve already been sucked in. Carmen and I have an appointment for Wednesday.”
“Tell her that you couldn’t find someone for her.”
“No way.” She shook her head. “I don’t turn good clients away. I have a reputation to maintain.”
“You turned me away, remember?” He looked at her pointedly.
“That’s because you weren’t a good client.”
“Is that your sneaky way of calling me an ass?”
“If the shoe fits…” she teased.
“Ouch, that hurt.” Damián pressed his palm to his chest as he stared at her with mock-pain in his eyes.
“You can handle it.” To ease the sting of her words she gave him a brief kiss before adding, “Carmen is really nice. And despite her ulterior motives, I know someone who would suit her to a T.”
He stared at her for a moment. “You’re really going to do this?” When she nodded, he shook his head. “It’s your funeral.”
“Oh God, don’t say that.” She pinched his thigh. “Now, you’re frightening me.”
Amusement glittering in the depths of the gray eyes, he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
“Damián.” She slapped his shoulder lightly drawing a laugh from him. His laughter was contagious, and she soon found herself joining him. Then because he looked so handsome when he was happy, she turned her head upwards and kissed him. This kiss deeper and longer, and it stoked the fire that always seemed to glow between them. By the time they pulled apart to breathe in, a sweet warmth had settled in her belly.
Cuddling even closer to him, she whispered, “I told him.”
“Told who what?” Damián asked as he stroked her hair.
“I told Linc about you.” She lifted her eyes to meet his in time to see the instant relief and pleasure that clouded his gaze.
“You did?” he asked. When she nodded, he asked, “How did he take it?”
“Okay, I guess.” She lowered her eyes to his hands. “He said that he was cool with it but I think he was kind of disappointed in me.”
“In you or in the situation?” Damián asked.
She didn’t know how to answer that because if she were in Lincoln’s place she wasn’t sure she could’ve been as understanding as he was.
When she didn’t say anything, Damian tipped her chin up so she was looking at him. “You don’t need to feel guilty, sweetheart. You had to move on sometime. No one can blame you for it.”
“I guess.” She shrugged, even though deep inside she still felt guilty. “In any case the least I can do is be there for him as he gets used to being back. Femi has agreed to hold on renting out my apartment until he’s ready to move.”
“We should probably pay her rent though,” he suggested. “Wasn’t she planning to use the money to rent a larger space for the bakery?”
“I’ll handle it. After all, Linc is my problem not hers.”
“No, we’ll handle it.”
He’d done so much for her that her first instinct was to refuse his offer. “No, Damián. I can do-”
“We’re a team,” he cut in, his tone as insistent as the stubborn gleam in his eyes. “And Lincoln’s our problem. I’m going to help you any way I can so don’t figh
t it.”
What more could she do other than surrender. “Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me for doing my job.” He kissed the tip of her nose. Running the back of his hand lightly over her cheek, he asked, “Has Lincoln agreed to see a doctor yet?”
“I spent the whole weekend trying to convince him, but he still won’t go,” she said. “To be honest, I’m really worried. His memory loss has to be a symptom of something, right? Maybe he’s got some kind of brain damage that could get worse.”
“Are you sure it’s really amnesia though?” Damián asked. “What if he actually remembers what happened but just doesn’t want to tell you?”
She frowned. “Why wouldn’t he want to tell me where he’s been?”
Damián shrugged. “Maybe he’s hiding something? Something bad.”
Fierce protectiveness and ire rose inside her at his words and she snapped, “Look, I know you don’t know Linc very well, but I’ll tell you one thing he’s not that kind of guy. He’s not a liar or sneaky. And for you to accuse him-”
“Hey. Hey. Hey.” Damián squeezed her shoulder. “I’m not accusing him of anything. I’m just hypothesizing over why he wouldn’t want to go to the hospital.”
“Well stop hypothesizing.” She shrugged his arm off her shoulder and stood up. “It’s late. I’m going to bed.”
“Aiko,” he called out to her.
But she was already on her way out of the living room. Anger guiding her steps, she stomped her way upstairs. She knew it was unfair to be angry at Damián for just offering up a theory, but after everything Lincoln had been through she felt protective for him. Any word against him was like a word against her.
Damián took his time coming to bed probably because he was checking to make sure that all the doors were locked and the lights were off. Or maybe he was just giving her time to cool off. If that was his reason, it worked. By the time he pushed their bedroom door, she’d calmed down enough to raise the white flag.
She started, “I’m sorr-”
“I’m sorry,” he apologized at the same time. They both smiled at that. He was first to speak again, “I shouldn’t have accused Lincoln of being a liar.”
“You didn’t.” Aiko rose from the bed and closed the distance between them. “I’m the one who flew off the handle unnecessarily.” She looped her arms around his shoulders. “It’s a bad habit I’m trying to break.”
“Well don’t go breaking all your bad habits.” He wrapped his hands around her waist. “I like some of them.”
She smiled up at him. “Hmm, which ones exactly?”
“Let me show you.” He bent his head and sealed his lips to hers.
Her body yielded to him as his mouth shifted over hers in sensuous coercion. His tongue slid inside and found hers, mating with it in a slow intimate dance as he stripped her of her clothes. A twinge of guilt speared through Aiko as he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed – guilt that perhaps he should’ve been Lincoln. But Damián quickly quelled that guilt. With his sweet touches and tender kisses, he dragged her into his den of passion. With his murmurs of how much he loved her and how much she meant to him, her lassoed her heart back into his hands.
“I love you,” he whispered as he held her close and fit his body within hers.
“I love you too,” she returned as she easily let him in.
The delicious feelings his thrusts aroused were overwhelming, kindling waves of lust that threatened to drown her whole. She clung to him, run her hands over every inch of his skin she could reach, rose to meet his every pump with a cry of yearning. And when he finally overwhelmed her, sent her souring up the heights of release, she couldn’t help the lone tear that slid down her cheek. No wonder it had been impossible to let go of him.
CHAPTER 9
A few days later, Damián lay on their bed watching Aiko dress. “Why can’t I come with you?”
“You know why,” she said as she spritzed some perfume onto her wrists and neck. “Besides, you don’t even like church. You’re always complaining about Reverend Yu’s hell and damnation sermons.”
True, but he’d gotten used to going to church with the rest of his family. Besides that, in the last week or so they’d hardly spent any time as a couple. With Aiko juggling work, their family, her extended family and Lincoln, there was barely any time left for Damián.
“Would it be so bad if he met me?” Damián asked.
She moved from the vanity to pluck a deep blue dress from the settee. Pulling the dress over her head, she said, “I just don’t want to rub our engagement in his face.”
“I know, but he’ll have to meet me eventually,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be better to get it over with sooner rather than later? You could introduce us today and end all this waiting.”
Zipping up the dress, she muttered, “I hardly think church is the best place for introductions.”
Damián sighed. He didn’t know what Aiko was so scared for. After telling Lincoln about them, the worst was over. Even Zoe had met the guy, so what so difficult about letting Damián meet him too? It wasn’t like he and ex were going to get into some brawl. He just wanted to meet the guy, to let him know that he was real. Maybe then Lincoln would realize that Aiko had a man at home and stop taking all her time. What was so wrong about that?
Aiko must’ve heard Damián’s sigh because her gaze flashed towards him. She paused in zipping up her dress to watch him for a moment then said, “Maybe we can organize a dinner later in the week.”
“Great.” He jumped on the offer immediately. “Invite him to dinner, tell me the day and I’ll let Major know.”
“No, not here,” she was quick to refuse.
“Why?”
“You know…” Her words petered off and her brow furrowed as if she was looking for the right words to explain. “We have so much, and I don’t want him to think…”
“You don’t want him to think what?” Damián waited for her answer. When all she did was worry her bottom lip with her teeth, his voice softened. “We’ve got money. It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”
“I know.” Aiko’s eyes lowered to her feet. “But think of how we even got together. He’ll think that I’m a gold-digger-”
“You’re not.” Damián pushed the covers away and exited the bed. He padded towards her and took her hands in his. “People meet in different ways. You don’t have to give him the whole story anyway. Just an edited version. Other than you, only Femi and I know the full details behind the original engagement and neither of us will tell.”
Her lips twisted as her eyes clouded in thought. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Of course I am.” He spun her around to tug her zip up her back. Even after the zip was in place, he stayed behind her with his hands on her waist. After a brief moment of silence, he conceded, “But if you don’t want us to have dinner here, then fine. We won’t do it here.”
“Can we do it at my dad’s?”
Damián frowned. “I don’t know if your dad’s place is the right location for that kind of meeting. Won’t it be awkward with the rest of your family there?”
“No, it won’t. I think dinner with just us three would be more uncomfortable,” Aiko turned her head to meet his eyes. “With the rest of the family there, especially the kids, there’ll be less tension and the focus won’t be on you.”
“You’re right,” Damián agreed. Patting her ass, he said, “All done.”
“Thank you.” Aiko spun to give him a brief kiss on the lips.
Damián said, “If Reverend Yu starts up with her living in sin sermon, just remember that you’re the one who hasn’t set a date for our wedding.”
Aiko laughed. “Remember last time when she kept on looking at us as she was preaching.”
“I have never sweated so much in my life.” Damián chuckled at the memory. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he asked, “Speaking of wedding dates – have you settled on one for us?”
Aiko’s
nose wrinkled. “I wanted it to be soon, but with Lincoln here…”
Lincoln. Again. It took everything in Damián to suppress a growl of irritation.
She cupped his face in her hands. “I promise I’ll figure it out soon. And then you’ll have your own personal ball and chain.”
Chuckling, he lowered his lips to hers for another peck. “I can’t wait.”
Damián stayed in bed for some time after Aiko and the girls left for church, but eventually he woke up. After his shower and breakfast, he headed off to visit the one person who was as much of a pagan as he was, Josiah.
“How in the world do you manage to avoid going to church every Sunday?” Damián asked when he walked into the large mansion that was his friend’s home. “Aren’t your in-laws like the church’s chief sponsor’s or something?”
Leading the way to his study, Josiah shrugged. “I told them I was Jewish.”
Damián laughed. “And they believed you?”
“No, but every time they bring up the topic I pull out the race-card.”
“You’re wrong in so many kinds of ways I don’t even know where to start.” Damián chuckled as he settled into a seat.
“Drink?” Josiah asked as he made his way straight to the bar at the far end of the room.
“No.” Damián shook his head. “It’s a bit too early.”
“It’s five somewhere.” His friend tipped a decanter full of clear brown liquid into a glass. “I suppose you’re here to grill me over what I found out about Lincoln.”
“What?” Damián sat up in his seat. “You have something already?”
“No. Nothing.” Josiah said, causing his friend’s hopes to plunge into a deep sea of disappointment. Spinning around to face Damián, he tipped the glass to his lips and after a long sip said, “Which is the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“I found nothing. I never find nothing.” Josiah frowned as he continued, “There’s always a trail to pick up, some dirt somewhere, documents that I’m not supposed to see. All I got was his military records up to twenty eleven. Not that they were of much use. Those records claim that he died in Iraq in an IED blast. The same blast that he supposedly saved Aiko from.”