“Yes, but—”
“Good.” He shut the door before I could keep talking. Irritated, I rolled down the window as Sal, Papi, and Gio walked over. “Where am I going?”
“It would be a horrible surprise if we told you.” Gio winked.
Papi’s eyes shone with tears. “You be a good girl, Val.”
“Eat!” Sal added. “You must eat!”
“Sweet potatoes,” Gio said in a serious voice. “They help the eggs.”
“Eggs?” I repeated. “What eggs?”
Papi blushed and whispered, “Yours.”
“Mine?”
“For the children,” Sal explained. “We pray for a fertile womb.”
Oh please don’t. “I’m only nineteen! Let Dante pop out kids!”
“That is not man’s job.” Gio frowned and then snapped his fingers. “After the act is done, be sure to wait at least five minutes and then drink carrot juice. You will be pregnant in no time!”
Note to self, jump out of bed and stay away from all vegetable juice. “Right. Well, thanks.”
Sergio got in on the other side and slid across, then he reached for my hand and didn’t let go.
Gio poked his head through the limo window. “I almost forget. Men, they sometimes have minds of their own. He scares you with his…” He didn’t say the word. I thanked God. “…manliness, you just kick him. It may — it may not feel good—”
“Okay!” I practically shoved him out of the window. “Bye now, love you!”
“But Val this is very important, this talk! We must have this talk! Remember the pictures I drew!”
I hit the window so it would go up and blew them all kisses. “I love you guys!”
Once the car started to pull away, Sergio turned to me and smirked. “Pictures, huh?”
“Shut up.”
“Do you still have the pictures?”
“Sergio,” I warned, face prickling with embarrassment.
“Did you help draw the pictures or were you simply an observer?”
“Are you done yet?”
His blue eyes twinkled. “Oh, I don’t think I’ll ever be done with this conversation. Ten years from now I’m still going to ask. Fifteen years from now, I’m going to damn well demand you show me what has you looking like sex is the most terrifying thing on the planet.”
I didn’t respond.
We sat in silence as the limo drove through Manhattan.
“A year ago, sex with me would have been terrifying,” he said quietly. “I would have taken you hard.”
A part of me was intrigued while the other part was still so embarrassed I was tempted to jump out of the moving vehicle.
“And now?” I just had to ask.
He didn’t speak for a few minutes. Maybe I hadn’t said it loud enough. I turned to ask again, only to find him staring intently at me.
Licking his lips he leaned forward, his left hand reached for my face and then stopped as his fingertips danced across my bottom lip. “Slow.”
“Wh-hat?”
He pulled back. “I felt like the villain today.”
“You’re not—”
“I am.” He looked away. “In a way I always will be. But, that doesn’t mean you have to play hero to my villain, Val.” His eyes met mine briefly. “I’m going to try… and though you may never have my heart… I promise you one thing.”
“What?” My voice was hoarse.
“You will always have my body.”
I am slow of study. –A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Sergio
YEAH, ROMANCE WAS lost on me. Didn’t Andi say those very words a few months ago, when I offered to shoot her twenty-four hours before our wedding? Damn, I was a dick.
I wanted to do better.
It wasn’t a second chance, at least not in the way that a person would think. Hell, I would have said no if I was offered to me, and I actually had the option of saying no, but since it was a forced yes, I wanted to do right by her.
And after reading Andi’s letter, I had felt ashamed at the way I’d been acting, but my emotions refused to stay in check where Val was concerned. She confused me, tied me up in knots, and oddly, had me feeling the most vulnerable I ever had in my entire life.
I hadn’t deserved Andi.
I sure as hell didn’t deserve Val.
Was God insane? Was this some cruel joke to make me change my ways? Give me two of the most incredible women in existence? But make it impossible to love them. Take the first away, and create a pain so swift, so strong, that I had nothing left for the next.
I glanced at Val out of the corner of my eye.
In another life, I could love her. Truly love her.
It wasn’t fair.
Bitterness threatened to take over as we took the exit for JFK.
The privacy shield slid down. ““Sir, we’ve had the same car tailing us for the last ten miles, thought you should know.”
I gritted my teeth. “How close are we to the airport?”
“A few miles out, but with this traffic…”
The shield went back up. We came to a screeching halt as the light turned red; cars were jammed all around us. I turned around. Two large men stepped out of a car and started jogging toward us.