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The thumb he’d rubbed along her lip poked into her mouth, and she couldn’t help but be a good girl and suck the tip. Rodrigo’s eyelids lowered to half-mast, lust etched along his beautiful face. He rose from the bench, his demeanor hinting that he was planning a completely sexual public display.
He stood over her, menacing her with his body.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“What I should have done ages ago.” He grabbed her right hand and jammed something onto her finger.
She looked down at her hand. A ring. In color, it matched the band Severin had made for her, but it was elegant and filigreed. Platinum rather than stainless, if she knew Rodrigo at all. The stones were big and clear, and she had the distinct suspicion they weren’t zirconium.
“What’s this?” she asked stupidly, looking from the ring to his face. There was a grim determination there, like he wasn’t about to take no for an answer any more than Severin had.
“To show people you’re mine.”
“Oh, I am, am I?”
He narrowed his dark eyes, and she bit her lip, knowing she shouldn’t be provoking him in public, but was too full of adrenaline to care.
“You are,” he replied, so full of confidence she couldn’t find it in herself to make it into a joke. Instead, he claimed that part of her heart she hadn’t realized she’d reserved for him, in case he ever wanted it. “I’ll be the parts of him that you need that he can’t give you.”
“So you’re all of Severin’s warm fuzzy bits?”
“I’m a complete bastard who adores you and wants to make you happy.”
“So you’re a complete bastard, but you’re my complete bastard?”
“Exactly. And I can give you the outside world, like this. I can give you an extended family.” His dark eyes were full of emotion. “And when he can’t be there for us, I’ll be there for you. We’ll take care of him together when he needs us, but I won’t forget that you need someone looking after you too.”
“I’m a big girl.”
“Everyone needs people to take care of them sometimes, no matter how grown up they are, preciosa. When loving him hurts, I’ll be around to kiss it better.”
He pulled her to her feet. Before he led her to the hotel, she peeked back at the bench, wanting to remember exactly how it had looked.
Chapter Nine
Wedding crap coated every flat surface of his mother’s house. Magazines with wedding dress fashions, print-outs of reception ideas, piles of fabric swatches, stacks of brochures – the array of colors and choices and details that needed to be seen to overwhelmed Rodrigo, even though most of the choices were Minnow’s to make, and it was going to be a small affair.
Well, the decisions were hers to make, and yet it was his mother and sister going crazy over arrangements.
Jorge dozed in Minnow’s arms, his tiny features finally filling out so he looked more cherubic than he had when he was born. His oldest nephew, Santiago, was crawling around the floor barking at people and trying to chew their shoes.
Mama and Mayte were flipping through some of the wedding magazines, showing dresses and cakes and decorations to Min, who seemed completely bemused by the whole thing. Instead, her attention was focused on Jorge’s every facial movement, as though his REM sleep was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.
Something about seeing Minnow holding a baby was making Rodrigo think terrible things – like how sexy she’d look pregnant. She’d be an excellent mother, but they’d have to hire a really, really understanding nanny. One who was hard to shock.
As expected, Severin had escaped into the yard early on, needing to get away from the hubbub, or maybe to get away from the kids. Or both. At least he hadn’t grabbed his bike and taken off yet. Every time Severin walked into the house, Santiago was crawling on him, trying to make friends. Severin was so damned awkward with the kid it was hard not to laugh. Typical, though. Kids and cats always found the people who didn’t like them then pestered the hell out of them.
Fidel snickered. “What the hell were you thinking telling them Minnow needed help with the wedding? I thought you wanted something small.”
“It’s going to be small. Who the hell would we invite to a poly wedding?”
“From the looks of things, everyone your mother and sister have ever met,” his brother-in-law Dax said, grinning. “You’re so effing doomed.”
“You shut up. Don’t you have babies to make?”
Dax closed his eyes, and ran a hand through his shock of sandy blond hair. “Shh. Santiago isn’t sleeping through the night yet, Jorge isn’t latching well, and Mayte’s already talking about how she wants to make sure there’s not too much of a space between Jorgie and the next one.”
“And here she always blames you!” Fidel laughed.
