Always Me (17 page)

He squeezed my hips, stopping my movements, and wrapped his arms around me.

I didn’t know how long we stayed in each other’s arms, but my arm’s wouldn’t let go. I was terrified this was good-bye.

***

“So you’re telling me that he’s back? The father of your baby? Who’s been supposedly dead for two years...”

I sighed. “Yes, mom.” Leaning against the counter, I took a sip of my coffee as I watched my mother pace in my small kitchen. I was going to wait to tell her about Sebastian being alive until after this shit with Jose was over, but with her showing up unexpectedly, I had no choice but to tell her.

She stopped pacing and placed her hands on her hips. “Where is he now?”

“Upstairs with Antonio.” After we had sex, Sebastian seemed off. Vulnerable even. After the things he confessed to me and letting me make love to him, I had hoped he wasn’t upset that I wouldn’t let him be in control. I knew he needed it from me. To surrender, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had pushed him too far.

“Do you trust him?” my mother asked, searching my face.

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. I trusted him with my life and our son’s life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Can I meet him?” she asked with that motherly air.

At that point, Sebastian came down the stairs holding Antonio. His face was tight, his body rigid as he came towards us.

My mother turned to him. “You must be Sebastian.”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Please. Call me Susan.” She walked up to him and kissed Antonio on the head. “Do you love my daughter and grandson?”

My cheeks heated at the interrogation.

Sebastian’s gaze flicked to mine and then back to my mother’s. “Yes.”

“You plan on leaving her again?” my mother asked, placing her hands on her hips.

“Mom!” I couldn’t believe her.

Sebastian hesitated, making my stomach drop. He was going to leave again. After Jose was dealt with. Oh God.

Everything I had said to Sebastian didn’t help. He was still going to leave when all was said and done. Anger and nausea rolled through my stomach.
Malvado
took that moment to scratch the patio door. Thankful for the distraction, I left Sebastian and my mother.

“You’re going to keep him, I assume?” my mother asked as I let him in. He darted to the couch and plopped on it with Rooster joining him.

“Yeah. He’s much safer here,” I told her, sitting beside them on the couch. Running a hand over
Malvado
’s strong back, tears welled in my eyes. My heart felt heavy and ached with loss even though Sebastian was still there. He was leaving me again, and there was nothing I could do.

Light whispers came from the kitchen, but at that moment, I didn’t care what my mother and Sebastian were chatting about.

Rooster purred as he snuggled into
Malvado
’s side, and I smiled the sight. Two animals that were the complete opposite of each other instantly becoming friends, trusting the other.

“Baby girl.”

I turned to the sound of my mother’s voice as she came up beside me. “Do you mind if I take Antonio for a couple of days? It would give me some time with my grandson and you some time alone.” With Sebastian went unsaid.

Would it help? Probably not. “Not at all.” I rose from the couch and headed up the stairs with my mother on my heels.

“He loves you, you know,” she told me when we entered Antonio’s room.

“I know, and I love him, but that doesn’t seem to matter,” I mumbled as I packed up an overnight bag for Antonio.

“Patience, Tori,” she said.

I was sick of being patient. Sebastian was lucky that I wasn’t like most women. If I was like Keisha, I would have left him long ago and never looked back. God, what was wrong with me? Was I that desperate?

I sighed and handed her the bag. My mother knew about Jose. Knew about the kidnapping and that he was still out there, but that was it. I had spared her the details, feeling the less she knew, the better.

“The best thing out of this whole mess is our son,” I said, running a hand down Antonio’s cheek.

“I agree. I just want you happy, baby.” My mother kissed my forehead, making tears well in my eyes. “I’m glad we’re getting along better.”

I smiled. “Me too.” I swallowed past the hard lump in my throat and kissed Antonio’s cheek again. “You be good for Grandma.”

He giggled and cooed and snuggled into the crook of my mom’s neck.

“If you need anything, you call me, all right? I know things have been rocky with us over the years, but I love you, Tori.” My mom’s eyes glossed over as she pulled me in for a hug.

I smiled and squeezed her hard. My son was in good hands. This would give Sebastian and I the time to fix this crap between us. “I love you too, Mom.”

***

As Jose sat in his car a block away from Tori’s house, he watched the older woman walk down the sidewalk with his boy. Or a boy that could have been his. Every time he saw him, roiling tore through his gut that he wasn’t the one that got Tori pregnant.

Seeing the older woman leave his
cochina
’s place raised a hope in him that maybe she was finally in fact alone. No more Sebastian. The thought of him being gone for good made him hard.

When he saw Sebastian about a year ago and realized that he wasn’t dead, he had jumped him. Ah yes, now that was a fight to remember. Jose rubbed his chin, his fingers scraping along his jaw. He smiled at the memory of pounding his fist into Sebastian’s, reveling in hearing the bones break. Unfortunately Sebastian fought back. A broken nose, dislocated jaw and a knife to the side later, Jose learned the hard way that the only person he could trust was himself.

Tori’s image popped into his mind, making his dick twitch his pants. To feel his
cochina
’s body under him again as he fucked her hot cunt had him pressing a little too heavily on the gas. The car jerked forward, narrowly missing a squirrel. He should have hit it.

Since seeing Tori for the very first time a couple of years ago, thanks to his dear friend Sebastian, he’d wanted her. And because Sebastian wanted her, Jose needed her that much more. He was possessed by her. If he couldn’t have her, no one else could. His dick hardened to the point of breaking.

After the last time he saw her and touched her, he found some lowly slut at a bar and fucked her good. He made sure she had black hair and curves to die for so he could fuck her from behind while imagining Tori.

He remembered the whore’s screams as he drove his cock into her tight ass. Jose shivered and then readjusted his pants. Now was not the time to be thinking of that.

The old woman put Antonio in the car and drove away.

Jose pulled out of his spot at the curb and drove slowly down the road, following the car that had his son. He would claim the boy as his own whether Tori liked it or not. That boy would be his, including her.

He looked at the door to Tori’s house and saw Sebastian standing in the doorway looking at him. The windows to Jose’s car were tinted but knowing he was still there and didn’t actually leave made his blood boil.

He watched Sebastian close the door but didn’t get a chance to see Tori. Jose’s
puta
. When he had first met her, he just wanted her for a good fuck, but now he had to have her forever. He needed her.

“You will be mine,
cochina
,” he said to no one but himself.

He drove by the feds, laughing that they didn’t know who he was. Jose never kept a car long enough for it to be traced back to him. Since they found his precious vehicle with his pictures, he found another car quickly.

He followed close behind the older woman as she drove down the road to the next set of lights. Tori had lived in an area where houses were few and far between. It should have made catching her easier, but it took him almost two years to find her.

Jose growled, biting his inner cheek that he was losing his touch.

His cell phone vibrated beside him, and after reading the ID, he swore under his breath. “Yeah.”

“You owe me asshole. You owe me fucking huge.” The anger that flew through the phone into his ear made Jose smile.

“Do I now? And why’s that?” Jose decided to play along. He was bored. He had a feeling the woman who left Tori’s house lived at least a half an hour away, so it would be a long drive.

“I did what you asked, fucker, and you haven’t paid me yet.”

“Do I have Tori with me? No. I told you, fucker, that as soon as I had my
cochina
, then you would get paid.” Jose gritted his teeth. He hated working with people. Sebastian was the only one who never questioned him—until he met Tori and grew a set of balls. Bitch. He would get her for that too, and maybe her hot little friend as well. Keisha...was that her name? What a tight, small little body. He’d love to take a bite out of that. He’d probably break her or rip her open, but either way, it would be well worth it. Two for the price of one.

“You said you would pay me if I told you where she was. You...”

“Listen,” Jose snapped. “You’ll get paid when I fucking feel like paying you. Now don’t call me again until I have Tori. You hear me?” He disconnected the line and threw his phone on the passenger seat. There was no fucking way he was going to get told what to do.

About a half an hour later, the woman who he assumed must have been Tori’s mother pulled onto Main Street of the small town Jose originally found Tori in.

The older woman turned onto a side street and pulled into the driveway of a small house. What do you know? It had a white picket fence to boot.

Jose parked a block away, hidden under shadows of overhanging trees and away from streetlamps. He stepped out of the car and headed toward the woman’s house.

He watched her grab the boy out of the car and reveled in the fury that swirled through his blood. Oh, this was going to be good.

Chapter 21

When my mother had left, the atmosphere in the house had changed. Sebastian and I didn’t touch or even talk. I didn’t know what to say to him. No matter how much I tried convincing him that he was good enough for me, he didn’t seem to listen. He was stubborn and set in his ways and wouldn’t change his mind for anyone, not even me. But I didn’t understand how he could question my love for him. I had his baby. His son. My life. My soul. He gave me one of the greatest gifts a man could give a woman, but now he was going to throw it all away and leave us again once this shit with Jose was done. Over.

Anger and confusion flew through me that Sebastian had once again made a decision without speaking to me. He didn’t trust me enough to help him with whatever shit he was going through. Fine. I had had enough.

I flopped down on the chair and heard Sebastian in the kitchen. I watched whatever movie was on the TV, threw my legs over the side, and huffed loudly. Probably immature on my part, but I was annoyed, frustrated, and in love with a man who I swore got off on driving me insane.

A moment later, a brown bottle came into my view. Without looking up, I grabbed it. “Thank you.”

“You’re in my seat,” he grumbled.

I rose and moved to sit on the couch. Sebastian hooked an arm around my middle and pulled me onto his lap.

Without skipping a beat, I pushed out of his hold and plopped onto the couch, sitting as far from him as I could. I took a swig of my beer, my gaze flicking to his.

A hint of amusement flashed in his eyes. “You going to stay over there?”

I cleared my throat. “Yup.”

Sebastian rose from the chair and joined me on the couch. He placed his hand on my knee and ran a thumb back and forth.

I ignored my skin tingling under his touch and shoved out of his grasp. I finished my beer and headed to the kitchen to grab another one. I walked back into the living room and sat on the chair.

He smirked and lay back on the couch, his big long body taking up the whole thing and more. “I can play this game all night, little one.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He was not going to make me give in to whatever little fantasy he had going on in his head. Even though I wanted to. Oh God, did I ever, but I was going to make him work for it. I was not going to throw myself at him. I was furious.

He rose and sauntered over to me. “You know exactly what I am talking about.” He grabbed the beer out of my hand and placed our bottles on the table.

I rolled my eyes. “Oh? Enlighten me.”

His eyes danced with mischief. This was the man I had grown to love. It was like he had buried the guilt. Maybe this was a sign of things to come. “So now that we’re alone, what should we do?”

I shrugged. “Hmm…why don’t you tell me?”

His gaze roamed down my body as he towered over me. Leaning down to my ear, his hot breath sent shivers down my spine. “How about I show you instead?”

I scoffed. “I don’t think so.”

His eyebrow rose and he lowered to his knees. He grabbed my foot and started massaging, moving his fingers fluidly over it. “No?”

Oh wow, that feels good.

I swallowed. “Not with the way you’ve been playing head games with me.”

He frowned. “Tori, I—”

“Whatever.” I pulled my foot out of his grip and sat up.

Sebastian grabbed my foot again and pressed his thumb into the arch, and before I could ask for more, he placed it back on the floor in front of me and repeated the movements with my other foot.

By the time he was done, my feet felt like jelly. Turning my bones into mush from the pleasure. I leaned back in the chair and sighed in peaceful bliss. “Who knew that a foot massage could feel so good?”

Sebastian smiled. “I know some other things that feel good too.”

I sighed. That was it. I was one of those women who got mad at their boyfriends and then they do one nice thing and I was putty. He was kissing my ass. He knew I was mad at him. Good. “Oh, I know you do.”

A smug grin formed on his face as he lightly grazed his fingers down my cheek, running his thumb over my bottom lip.