Page 121 of His to Bedevil

“I know. Me too.”

We sit there silently for a while. He holds me while I close my eyes and try to deal with all the emotions that are yanking me in several different directions. I love what Alejo did for me. I lovehim. He’s so good to me, and I wish I knew of a way to ever repay him. I’d give him anything. Anything he ever wanted.

“How are you feeling about your mother right now,mi esposa?” I open my eyes and see him staring at me. Watching me for any signs of distress.

“I’m not sure. I wouldn’t even know what to say to her. I hate her for everything she’s done, but for some reason, whenever I think about my mother, I resort to the good times we shared. How beautiful she was and how she used to love me.”

“It’s because you’re human, Irma,” Alejo says gently.

“You don’t think I’m pathetic for wanting her in my life still?”

“Never, my love. You have such a tough exterior, but you carry a heavy heart.”

“You mean a soft heart,” I mutter.

“I don’t think it’s so soft,” he muses with a smirk. “If you were soft, you wouldn’t have held out on me for so long. And I could name a few other things that would back me up.”

I bite back a grin. “I guess not.” I did pepper a few men with bullets without so much as a hesitation. Granted, I was protecting the love of my life.

“Well, we are in no rush. I will keep your mother on my watch until you tell me not to.”

“Can I see her? I mean, like, a picture of her?”

He smiles. “Sure. I’ll have one sent to me right now.” He pulls out his phone and sends a text to someone. “Your mother asked for one of you as well.”

“Which one did you send her?” I thread my fingers into the back of his hair and play with it, making his pupils dilate while allaying my anxiety as well.

He goes through his phone, and after a moment, he turns the screen to me. It’s one of our wedding photos, but it’s a candid one. I take the phone in my own hand to study it more closely. It’s one of him and me dancing. I’m staring up at him with stars in my eyes, and he’s looking down at me as if I hung the moon. We were already in love with each other then, we just didn’t know it.

I look at my husband again, here and now. “Alejo.” I bring my lips close to his again. “I love you. I love you so much.”

“No more than I love you,mi corazón.”

“That’s debatable,” I murmur against his lips. “If we weren’t already married, I would ask you to marry me right now. I don’t know what else I can offer you to show you how much I love you.”

“We could have a wedding, if you would like. One with salsa dancing and only our family there.”

I love it when he saysourfamily.

I press my lips against his and show my husband just how much I am in love with him with the only thing I can offer him. My body and soul. And most of all, my heart.

Alejandro

It took Irma two weeks to decide that she wanted to see her mother. We were lying in bed together one night, and she just came out and said it. That she wanted to hear what her mother had to say after all these years. If anything, she deserves some kind of explanation.

Irma has still been clinging to me as if I might disappear on her, and I am still eating up every second of it. Truth be told, if she wasn’t the one clinging to me, I would be clinging to her.

We’re now sitting in the back of a limo on our way to Malibu to see her mother. She’s tucked into my side, and has her arms wrapped around my torso.

She hasn’t talked much about what she wants to say to her mother or even if she’s nervous about it. She said she wanted to see her, then quickly changed the subject. The very next day, I planned our trip, and the day after that, here we are. I won’t push Irma, because I know she’ll open up when she’s ready to.

“When we get there, do you mind if I go in and talk to her alone first?”

I run my hand up and down her arm that’s wrapped around me, loving the feel of her soft skin under my calloused fingers. “You sure?”

I feel her nod her head. “It’ll probably be two women crying. Not something I would ever subject you to,” she says dryly.

My fingers go under her chin, and I tilt her face up to look at me. “I don’t care if it was one hundred women crying. If you are one of those women, I want to be there.” My Irma. So strong.