FOUR MONTHS LATER
BARCELONA, SPAIN
DE LOREN HACIENDA
Shane and Sebastian stepped warily into their grandfather’s office, remembering well the last time they were called in for a meeting in such a way.
They paused just inside the door, allowing it to close softly as they faced Fernando and Sebastian’s parents, as well as Lucien. Standing off to the side like a recalcitrant teenager, arms crossed over her checkered blouse she wore with jeans and boots, Alyssa shot them a look of silent amusement.
Sebastian restrained the groan that threatened to break free. This was becoming a weekly thing. Fernando demanding their presence to demand they do something about yet another of their wife’s shenanigans as Fernando called them.
Sebastian rubbed at the back of his neck, aware of Shane breathing out a hard breath. They stepped forward together, uncertain of what she could have done. For the first time in the weeks they had been at the hacienda, their grandfather’s expression was bland rather than a mix of amusement and bemusement. He rarely knew what to do with her, or what to say to her.
“What did you do this time?” he muttered as he neared his wife.
She gave a little roll of her eyes. “He’s blowing it completely out of proportion you know.”
Hell.
Fernando’s expression lapsed into one of complete amazement. He looked from Alyssa then back to them then to Lucien.
Narrowing his eyes on his brother, Sebastian watched as Lucien lowered his head, pinching at the bridge of his nose and giving it a little shake.
“I promised them I wouldn’t do it again, for a while,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her breasts. “They wouldn’t even listen to me. Just called you like Summer’s parents used to call Momma.” Exasperation filled her voice. “Completely uncalled for if you want my opinion.”
“Sebastian. Shane.” Fernando stared back at them broodingly as someone smothered a chuckle, probably his father, Sebastian thought. He was completely smitten by his daughter-in-law. As far as he and Tabitha were concerned, Alyssa could do no wrong.
“Yes Grandfather?” Shane asked broodingly. “What did she do this time?”
“This is really unnecessary, Grandfather.” She turned to the old man with a winsome smile, her expression filled with such sincerity. “I did promise after all.”
The old man stared back at her, his expression softening as he stared at that smile. Sebastian couldn’t blame him. That same smile had the power to blow their minds as well.
“Grandfather.” It rarely worked on Lucien though. He adored his ‘little sister’, as he called her, but that smile rarely affected him.
Alyssa glared at him. “Tattletale,” she muttered.
“I was viewing security tapes from several weeks ago, Sebastian,” Lucien informed him then. “I was given quite a show.”
“Look.” Alyssa stepped forward, her hands on her hips, her expression less than pleased. “I said it won’t happen again.”
“I will make certain of that,” Lucien drawled.
“It can’t happen again,” she bit out.
“Alyssa,” Lucien growled. “Your safety.”
“I just learned I’m pregnant, Lucien. I would never risk my baby.”
The room went silent.
“That was a month ago,” she informed him archly. “I always make certain I’m not pregnant before doing something…” she smiled, pausing. “… the males of this family would disapprove of.”
Still, no one spoke.
Fernando sat down slowly, still staring at her in shock, while Sebastian felt a surge of such emotion explode inside him that it nearly brought him to his knees.
“A great-grandchild,” Fernando said softly. “I have a chance to see my first great-grandchild.”
“Good God, he’d let her hang glide if she wanted to,” Lucien growled. “Father. Mother. Stop staring at her like that.”
“But Lucien, a grandchild,” her mother exclaimed with a little hitch of her breath. “My first grandchild.”
Alyssa was staring at him and Shane worriedly.
“I wasn’t pregnant then,” she assured them. “It was just a little ride.”
“On Diablo,” Lucien snapped.
“And he loved me.” Excitement filled her voice. “He was a sweetheart, I swear he was. And he runs like the wind, Sebastian.”
He blinked at her.
Diablo was huge, midnight black, and completely unridable. Or so Lucien bitched often.
“That fucking horse is in love with her,” Lucien growled. “And that’s besides the point.”
She was pregnant.
Nothing else mattered.
Because as she said, she would never risk their child. For the next nine months or so, they would have a wife that walked as though on eggshells.
And they would have a child.
She flashed them a smile of such joy that Sebastian felt his heart melt all over again. She was his beloved, she was their beloved.
He took a step toward her.
“You’re certain?” he whispered.
“Have you been home yet?” The little seaside home his grandfather had given them.
Sebastian shook his head.
That smile that tilted his lips … If she hadn’t held his heart before, she held it now.
“Test strip is in the bathroom.”
Before he could move, Shane did. He swept her up in his arms as she gave a joyous little laugh.
“Coming?” she asked as Shane walked past him, heading for the door.
“She has you two wrapped around her little finger tighter than a Christmas puppy,” Lucien informed him broodingly.
“Fall in love, brother,” Sebastian suggested softly. “And then tell me that.”
Turning, he followed his cousin and their wife. And the child they had created together.
It would never matter which of them fathered the babe, he or she would always belong to both of them.
Just as the mother belonged to both of them.
WASHINGTON D.C.
We’re pregnant!
OMG. I’m god-mommy!
Of course you are. Come see me Summer. I miss you.
Very soon sugar. I promise ☺
Better be soon. Love ya
Love ya:P
A tear dropped on the phone’s screen before Summer tossed it to the mattress and returned to staring at the wall, slowly dampening the pillow beneath her cheek with her tears.
It was so much easier to fool Alyssa by text than it was by voice. Thank God her friend hadn’t actually called. Had she done so then Summer would have never hid the tears, the pain she couldn’t stop.
“You look like a fucking Barbie doll, bitch,” Gia muttered as Summer arrived at Falcone’s home for a pre-assignment briefing.
“Why sugah, that was the point behind it all,” Summer laughed, believing the other woman was teasing.
The pretty sundress bared her shoulders and the upper mounds of her tanned breasts. It hugged her body like a lover from breast to scant inches below indecent along her thighs. She looked good. She knew she did.
Left loose but for the small amount pinned back from her face, her hair hung down her back in rich, black curls, falling to her waist with a healthy, silken sheen.
“Take the tobacco out of your mouth,” Gia sounded irritated, but she would always flash Summer a smile to show she was teasing. That was her way. Or so Summer thought.
Her brothers hadn’t liked Gia. Especially her older brother, Caleb. She and Caleb had gotten into a horrible fight when he called Gia a trashy little tramp.
Margot never said anything nasty about Gia, but she rarely gave any notice to Gia when she was around either.
“You should cut that stringy hair,” Gia snarled as she watched Falcone help Summer braid the long strands. “It’s a fucking hazard…”
“I would spank you, little one,” Falcone laughed, tying off the braid. “Your hair is lovely.”
“I would have let her die…” Hatred filled Gia’s voice.
“She always sounds like her mouth is filled with chewing tobacco…”
How stupid she had been. So stupid. She should have known how Gia was lying to them all these years. It was her fault Alyssa had lost her lovers, her fault that sweet little baby had died. Oh God, how had Alyssa ever forgiven her?
Perhaps she hadn’t really forgiven her. Alyssa was so sweet she would never deliberately hurt anyone. Especially someone with the history they shared.
They had saved each other so many times. Now, there was no one there to save Summer, though. No one to take away the agony resonating inside her. And it hurt. Oh God, it hurt so bad she couldn’t stand it.
The tears fell harder again, and though she didn’t sob, still, the ones she tried to contain had her breathing with harsh, ragged sounds. It was just hard enough, just enough to cover the sound of the intruder sneaking into the room.
“My God! What have you done to yourself?” Falcone’s enraged exclamation had her coming up in the bed, her weapon clearing the pillows before she could halt the action.
Before she could actually aim the gun at him, she dropped it to the bed instead and just stared back at him, her shoulders jerking with a contained sob as she met his gaze.
She knew what he saw.
Tears poured from her eyes as she looked around at the long strands of her hair thrown haphazardly on the comforter. The scissors lay somewhere on the floor where she’d thrown them.
“Summer. All your beautiful hair,” he whispered, sounding grief-stricken. “Baby, what have you done to yourself?”
The long midnight black curls were gone. Her hair was a slick, black cap that ended at her nape in a shaggy cut that testified to the haphazard snips she’d made with the scissors.
“Leave, Falcone.” There wasn’t a hint of the accent everyone found so distasteful.
She’d taken voice classes at Margot’s insistence. She’d learned how to not sound as though her mouth was full of chewing tobacco. But Margot had heard it the first time and declared she wasn’t Summer without her unique drawl. But only Margot had liked it.
Rising from the bed and quickly drying her tears she turned back, hating that look of icy emotionlessness on his face. She’d always hated it. She would flirt, joke, become completely outrageous until it cracked.
His pale blue eyes moved over her nearly naked body, taking in the black boy shorts and black sports bra she wore. The only tattoo she had was thankfully covered. God wouldn’t it be a mess if he saw it. He would be so regretful of course, but probably so amused.
“You have let her destroy you,” he said coolly. “I did not think anyone could do that to you.”
She snorted at the statement. “She didn’t break me, Falcone,” she assured him. “She merely drove home the fact that a few changes needed to be made, nothing more.”
She hadn’t broke her, but Gia had broken her heart. She’d damaged a part of her that Summer had no idea how to heal.
He didn’t say anything for long moments. Those icy blue eyes kept moving over her, becoming colder by the minute.
“Get dressed and get your gear,” he snapped. “We have an assignment.”
“I’m not ready…”
“Then fucking get ready.” He was in her face so fast she didn’t have time to jump back. And he was furious. Madder than she’d ever seen him. “Get dressed and get your gear now! You will get ready to go out on assignment and you will get your head out of your ass immediately. Because if you don’t, I will call Caleb and answer every question he’s ever asked me. Do you hear me?”
Her eyes widened. “Caleb would kill you.”
His smile was filled with anticipation. “Let him try. You want to risk it?”
No, she didn’t. She knew her brother, and she knew Falcone. They would kill each other if Caleb ever learned some of the assignments Falcone had taken her on.
“Bastard,” she hissed.
“Oh, baby, you haven’t seen the bastard in me yet,” he assured her. “But you’re getting ready to. I promise you, you’re getting ready to.”