I kissed my mother on the cheek before closing the car door behind her and watching as her driver turned out of my driveway. I’d suggested that she spend the night, but she wanted to visit her old friend while she was in L.A. She also made it clear that she was keen not to intrude on the newlyweds.
The irony of that wasn’t lost on me. The fact was, Alana and I got along much better when my mother was around – even if it was all only for her benefit.
I walked back into the house and looked for Alana. Whatever I thought about her, she had managed to convince my mother that this thing between the two of us was real, and for that I was grateful. I wondered what, or how much it might cost me, to repay that particular favor.
I found her in the kitchen helping Magda clear the dishes from our late lunch. They were laughing at something but stopped when they saw me walking into the room, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they’d found so funny.
Perhaps my mother’s tales of my misspent youth? Magda had worked for my family since I was a child, so they weren’t new to her. But, I had seen how much delight Alana had taken in listening to my mother’s stories.
‘I’ll just go and fetch the glasses from the garden,’ Magda said and excused herself, leaving Alana and I alone.
I walked towards her and she looked up at me with those huge brown eyes of hers.
‘Thank you for today,’ I said quietly.
‘Pardon?’ she said, cupping her hand to her ear in an exaggerated fashion.
I frowned at her. Could she not make anything easy? She was getting much bolder around me and I couldn’t work out if that was a good or a bad thing. ‘You heard me,’ I growled. ‘You have my mama fooled anyway. She loves you.’
‘Well, I’m actually very lovable,’ she said with a grin. ‘Your mom obviously has very good taste.’
I snorted and stuffed my hands in my pockets.
Alana tilted her head and looked at me for a few seconds before she spoke again. ‘Well, she is lovely,’ she finally said. ‘I really liked her being here. It’s a shame she had to leave so soon.’ Then she turned to look out of the window and I thought I saw tears in her eyes, but she blinked them away.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she sniffed as she wiped her eyes quickly. ‘Being with your mom today just reminded me how lonely I am here,’ she said softly. Then she shrugged and turned back to the dishes.
I stood watching her and felt something for her that I couldn’t quite work out.
A pang of guilt, perhaps?
Despite my general apathy towards her, she had made my mom a very happy woman today. It was easy to forget that she had given up her whole life to move here.
‘Well, what would it take to make you feel less lonely?’ I asked her.
She turned to face me. ‘I don’t know. Friends?’ she said with a shrug. ‘But I’m not that great at making them. What do the women around here do to occupy their time if they don’t work?’
I rubbed my hand across my jawline and shook my head. ‘I don’t know.’
‘What do your friends wives do?’
I frowned. I didn’t have many friends and the ones I did have didn’t have wives. But I knew what the wives of other rich men around here did. They had plenty of liquid lunches, spent their husbands money and justified it by raising a few bucks for charity once a year. I’d bet that would be just her kind of deal.
‘There’s a group of wives who run a charity committee. I think they meet a few days, a week,’ I suggested.
I saw her eyes light up as she confirmed my suspicion. ‘Oh, that sounds perfect. Can I just show up? Or do you need to introduce me or something?’
‘Amelia Grant is the chair. I’ll have a word with her and tell her to expect you … when?’
‘Tomorrow?’ she said, all bright-eyed and shiny.
I nodded. ‘Tomorrow.’
‘Great. Thank you,’ she said with a smile.
‘You’ll need to take Hank with you,’ I said to her and her smile turned to a scowl.
‘What?’ I snapped.
‘Hank hates me,’ she pouted.
‘Hank hates everyone.’
‘Couldn’t I go alone? Please?’
‘No,’ I barked at her, a little sharper than I’d intended. ‘This isn’t New York. You can’t just wander around here without protection. Not now that you’re my wife, Alana.’
She bit her lip and nodded. ‘But Hank, though? Isn’t there anyone else who could come with me? I know you have some female security staff?’
‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘If you are in danger, a man is stronger and faster and better able to protect you.’
‘That’s sexist!’ she snapped.
‘That’s genetics, princess.’
She glared at me and I knew she was biting back a retort. I could see the skin on her chest and neck turning pink as she struggled to keep a lid on her temper.
I tried not to smile. She was kind of hot when she was angry.
I expected an epic temper tantrum to follow – wasn’t that what spoiled little princesses did when they couldn’t get their own way? But, instead, she took a deep breath and leaned back against the counter.
‘Okay,’ she said softly. ‘If it has to be Hank, then so be it.’
I frowned at her. That had been far too easy. I could hardly blame her for not wanting to spend too much time in Hank’s company. He was a miserable bastard on his best days, but he was good at his job and that was why he was assigned to her.
‘How about I pick a few of my best men and send them over here tomorrow and you can interview them yourself?’ I offered. ‘Then you can choose your own personal bodyguard.’
She looked up at me again, her eyes shining. ‘Yes. But, you won’t choose a load of Hank-alikes, will you?’
I laughed. ‘No,’ I said with a shake of my head.
‘Then that sounds great. Thank you, Alejandro,’ she purred like a kitten and the sound vibrated through my whole body and headed straight to my cock.
She seemed so fucking grateful for such a small gesture. Was she just fucking with me?
For some reason, the memory of our kiss earlier and the feeling of her round, juicy ass in the palm of my hand forced themselves into the forefront of my mind.
I walked over to her until we were standing just a few inches apart. She looked up at me, her breathing fast and shallow as her eyes searched my face. I contemplated lifting her onto the kitchen counter and seeing what she was wearing under that sexy fitted dress she was wearing, when Magda walked back into the room.
Alana looked at my housekeeper in surprise, making me wonder whether just what had been going through her mind, and whether it was anything like the filthy thoughts that were running through mine.
I shook my head to clear it. It was probably better that I didn’t know.
‘I’ll send the candidates here tomorrow at nine am,’ I said and then I walked out of the kitchen with the twitch in my cock turning into a raging hard on.
I put my sunglasses on, shielding my eyes from the glare of the evening sun as I leaned back against the soft leather seat of my car while my driver took us to my hotel. I brushed the pad of my thumb against the platinum band on my finger. It still felt entirely alien to me and I wondered if I would ever get used to it.
How the fuck had I ended up married?
I frowned as I stared out of the window and thought about how three months earlier, my father had presented me with a proposal, and because I respected him, and I knew that it was good for business, I’d agreed.
The Montoya Corporation was a huge national organization, and we had plenty of legitimate businesses, but we had made our money in the illegitimate kind.
My father was keen to clean the up the family name and add some semblance of legitimacy to the Montoya brand. He was the son of Immigrant parents who had come to the US from Spain in the 1960’s, and I knew that despite all of his success, he could never quite shake that feeling that he didn’t belong here.
His grand plan for me, his only son and heir, was to marry into a wealthy and powerful, political family, and ensure that our family became undisputed US royalty. He had chosen three potential candidates, all of whom had fathers with enough ambition or plain old greed, to be willing to marry their daughters off to further their own careers.
Two of the women he’d chosen were even up for the deal, but Alana Carmichael had needed to be persuaded, and that was part of the reason I’d chosen her.
The other reason was that she was a spoiled Manhattan brat who I knew I could never even like, let alone love. But, I’d thought that I would certainly enjoy taming her.
‘You okay, amigo?’ Jax asked me as he sat back in the seat next to me, chewing on his nicotine gum.
‘I’ll be better once I’ve had a drink,’ I replied with a sigh.
We had picked him up on the way to the hotel. I figured that maybe a night of drinking with my best buddy was exactly what I needed.
Jax and I had met on a basketball court at the age of fourteen and had been inseparable ever since. I trusted him with my life. He was also one of the few people who knew the truth about my marriage to Alana. Even my own mother didn’t know, and she had been heartbroken when she’d discovered she had missed her only child’s wedding. I’d felt guilty for lying to her, but seeing how happy she had been today had eased my conscience.
Despite being a spoiled little princess, Alana had come through for me today.
