months pregnant, Lacey Cameron glowed the way every happily expecting mother-to-be
should. Not to be outdone though was Tori St. John. For being such a tiny thing, she
was carrying her pregnancy like a champ but not without some difficulties. A few months
behind Lacey, soon there would be two babies in the Justice Brothers family and no
one could have been more delighted by the prospect than Carmen.
Tori noticed that Alex wasn’t alone on the patio and asked what was up. Carmen grinned
like a schoolgirl when she announced, “He’s got a guest. A woman .” The emphasis she placed on the word woman got the pregnant ladies dashing for the archway leading to the patio so they could
check out what was going on.
“Holy shit!” Tori giggled, peeking from behind a large antique pantry next to the
doorway. “Quick, Lacey! Look. I think he’s smiling.”
“Ehrmygawd!” Lacey laughed aloud. “Who is she?”
Both sets of eyes turned on Carmen expecting an explanation of the situation.
“Well, I’m not sure where she comes from but I do know her visit rattled the M eee ster’s cage. She’s been here for a while. They had lunch together and talked. Next
thing I know, he’s telling me she’s staying.”
“Really?” Lacey asked. “Is she going to be in the Casita? I loved that little house,”
she added dreamily as an afterthought.
“Actually, no.” Carmen replied.
“No?” the ladies chimed in unison.
“What does that mean exactly?” Tori questioned. She’d been working as Alex’s assistant
for months and anything outside his normal mode was going to pique her curiosity.
“What that means ladies is this. Alexander Valleja-Marquez just instructed me to put
her in a guest room in the hacienda. So what do you think about them oranges?”
“It’s apples and I think flabbergasted covers it nicely, thanks,” Lacey mumbled looking
at Tori with a sly smile. Suddenly, both women had a burning need to run home and
see what their husbands were up to. Carmen laughed knowing the earful the other two
Justice Brothers were about to get. Poor Alex.
With Cam and Drae joyfully married and babies on the way, only Alex was still clinging
to the ridiculous notion that he didn’t deserve to be happy. Carmen would never understand
why any of them felt that way but she knew enough about their Special Forces experience
to accept that dark shadows from the past sometimes made it hard to see the light.
Meghan was astonished how quickly and easily Alex had maneuvered her into staying
at the Villa. Truth was, she hadn’t been all that difficult to convince. At some point
during their time on the patio she’d started feeling more than just a little bit drawn
to the handsome man with the mussed hair and broad shoulders.
She didn’t have a type, the way most women did. Maybe it was because she came from
a family dominated by men that she had simple tastes when it came to the opposite
sex. Alex Marquez hit so many high marks she didn’t know where to start.
He was large which was a plus. As a healthy Irish girl with more curves than straight
edges, she felt like a hippo next to men of average height who wore skinny suits and
looked like they got the occasional facial. His athletic build turned her on, plain
and simple. He was also well mannered and didn’t take himself all that seriously.
More big pluses in the win column.
And then there was the subtle undercurrent coming off him that made her think all
kinds of wicked thoughts. He was what the girls referred to as a dominant. She could
feel it in her bones. It wasn’t overt – more like an aura of control that really got
to her. She bet he was the type of man who would simply say, get in my bed and a woman would eagerly crawl on hands and knees to comply.
The room she’d been given was tucked behind the master suite in a section of the hacienda
that retained it’s original rustic colonial character
Steven Booth, Harry Shannon