Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
“I don’t need it. I don’t need it to remind me to try to be worthy. Every day is a battle, baby girl, but not a day goes by where I don’t tell myself how fuckin’ lucky I am that you love me back.”
I kissed him.
He tucked my hair behind my ear. “Never will I forget how much you mean to me. I’ll never hurt you on purpose again. Won’t use my temper or demons as an excuse to hurt you. If you wanna play, we play. If you want me to spank this cute little ass, just say so, but I will never lay my hand on you in anger again. I don’t need the necklace. It’s just like you said baby girl; you’re the necklace.”
We were in Costa Rica for two more days before going home and they were blissful days. The day before we left, we took a long and scenic carefree drive to a little village and Tommy took me to a very fancy spa.
He told me he’d be back in three or four hours, for me to enjoy a facial, massage, mud wrap, and so on. He made sure it was a female masseuse, who he tipped ridiculously well, and then he left.
I didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth; I just enjoyed myself.
He picked me up and we drove back to the beach house for our last night there.
“What’d you do all afternoon?” I asked, feeling loose and relaxed.
“Wouldn’t you like to know…” he teased.
“Secrets aren’t good for a marriage,” I told him.
He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Wanna take a swim?” he suggested, when we were back at the house. “No wait. Can’t really,” he said, with a strange look on his face.
“Why? You got your period or something? Out of Tampax?” I giggled.
He laughed. “Not exactly.”
He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed a fresh tattoo. A crucifix in the center of his chest, to the right of my name and owl, and right where his old silver cross used to sit.
“I don’t need a necklace, like I said, but I want you to know how serious I am. This? I can’t ever take it off. Can’t forget what my ma told me because it’s on me forever, and won’t forget to try harder to be the man you deserve, the man our child deserves. It’s inked for good, like your name on my heart.”
I burst into tears.
And then I gave him the best blowjob of his life.
“I have to tell you something,” Tommy said to me.
He’d popped by and was sitting on a stool at the island with me. We were having a beer. Angel was having a bubble bath.
“What?”
“I met with Alessandro Romero in Costa Rica.”
Tommy and Tia had spent five days there; they’d just gotten back that day.
“You what?”
“He showed up. Fuck, thought that was it for me. Guess if my wife’s high school friend could find us there, it’s not so far-fetched that Romero could do the same.”
My eyes widened.
Tommy shuddered in memory.
“He wanted to talk about your situation. He agreed to Angel being allowed to see Holly.”
“What?”
“He’s willing to take steps to make it all look good.”
He didn’t have to elaborate. I knew what that meant. Alessandro Romero was not giving her up. And he was willing to marry Holly to keep us from pushing our suit regarding her, meaning it’d connect our families so that no one would look sideways at us for allowing it. It was an old-school way of thinking; truces were done via marriage as far back as time went.
He’d gone to my brother knowing that my brother would be the likeliest to be able to reason with me and probably also did it knowing that my brother had a similar reputation to his. Maybe that was why he figured he could talk to Tommy.
I wasn’t happy. But, it did solve some problems. Or it would, if we could see that she was willing. Was she? Or was she a broken little doll? This guy was going to great lengths to try to not be our enemy for some reason.
I stopped by Tessa’s house. It was good she was home. She seemed better when I sat down to talk to her.
“You wanna talk?”
“About what happened to me? No. I’m glad it’s over.”
“Can you at least tell me about Holly?”
“She’s young. Sweet. You can’t not like her. She radiates with beauty.”
“You saw them interact”
“Her and Alessandro? Yeah, briefly.”
“What’s he like with her?” I took a sip of the coffee she’d made me.
“He watches her, tracks her every move. He didn’t touch her, barely spoke to her, but the way he looks at her? He looks at her the way Tommy looks at Tia.”
I winced. I was afraid of that.
The girls had talked at length, back when Tommy and Tia started out, about how his eyes tracked her every movement, how he was evidently completely obsessed with her.