Page 62 of Indulging Temptation (Tempting the Heart #1)

Unbelievable. “So let me get this straight, the prick out bids me on the abandoned bakery property, and he’s now essentially charging me over the highest bid price to screw me over again?”

Tomás lets out a sigh. And for the first time since he stormed in here, he looks at me again like I’m his friend and not his enemy.

“Pretty much.” His chest puffs forward. “But listen, before we dive into a game plan, I need to know what the fuck this is.” He motions between us.

Lorena squeezes my hand, bringing it to her lips to kiss. The simple gesture is so sweet and unexpected, I almost forget that Tomás is here.

“Lorena, please,” he begs, sounding like he’s going to be sick.

“You asked what this is. Well, this is me for the first time in my adult life feeling true happiness. I’m happy, Tomás. So. Fucking. Happy. And it’s all because of your best friend. He treats me better than I’ve ever been treated. He listens to me. He shows up for me. He loves me, how I love him.”

His brows shoot up. “Love?!” he asks, shocked.

Lorena turns to face me, though she is answering Tomás. “Yes. Love.”

The silence from Tomás is heavy. It’s making me uneasy.

I need to say something. “Hate me all you want, but I love her.” I know he hears me, but he looks like he’s still trying to figure this all out.

He knows as well as I do how allergic to relationships Lorena is, so to hear this, let alone from Lorena about me, has to be a lot to process.

Especially finding out something like this.

“Love? You two?” Tomás mutters, saying it to himself repeatedly, still trying to compute it.

“Yes,” we say in unison.

Neither of us can read the expression on his face.

“In love? You two?”

Lorena rolls her eyes, exasperated. “Yes, Tomás, what part of this aren’t you comprehending? Me. Tino. We love each other.”

“I can hear you,” Tomás says, zoning out a bit. “I just can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

“Well you’ve heard it. Repeatedly. Process it and get the fuck over it, so we can figure out what we’re going to do to fix this,” Lorena says, and it goes completely over his head.

“All of it,” he mumbles.

Lorena moves us closer to him, still latched onto my hand.

“What?” she asks.

Tomás finally tilts his head to look at us. “You asked me what I’m not comprehending. All of it.” He slumps down against the pass-through’s island I just had her on. Realizing, he jumps, looking a combination of grossed out, relieved, and overly confused.

“Why don’t we go sit out in the main dining room, and we can explain better,” I suggest.

“That’s a good idea,” Lorena says, as she leads the way to the dining room while I decide to grab a bottle of wine and three glasses.

It feels more celebratory than the vibe of the room right now, but after this entire debacle, not to mention the leaked tape, I figure we are all in need of some booze.

I meet them at the table they choose and divide the bottle evenly between the three of us.

Tomás wastes not a second gulping it down.

When he comes up for air, there’s a total shift in the room. Suddenly he’s not Tomás, Lorena’s brother or Tomás, my best friend. He’s Tomás, the attorney, ready to brainstorm and attack this head on.

“So, you two had no idea the cameras were there?”

Lorena scoffs. “Of course not. Why the hell would we plan fucking there if we knew there was a surveillance camera? I love some public play, but I’m not a fucking idiot.”

Tomás covers his ears, wincing. “Must you always be so bold?” He asks Lorena to which she bobs her head forward then side to side muttering a ‘yeah’.

I hesitate to say what I’m about to say, but I have to. “I had a feeling.”

“What?” Lorena looks at me, somewhat betrayed. I slither my hand to hers above the table, and as irritated as she looks with me, she still interlaces her fingers with mine.

“I didn’t know they were there when we were…” I clear my throat, needing to choose my words wisely with Tomás near. “Together. But I got a weird text the next day.”

“I knew something was up,” Lorena says. “I picked up your phone by accident at my mom’s, and I saw on the preview lock screen a bunch of question marks in a text, but I didn’t think anything about it.

That fucking bastard, I’m going to…” Lorena trails off as I squeeze her hand lovingly for her attention.

“You are going to do nothing. I’m going to deal with this. No one, let alone those two assholes are going to get away with trying to hurt you.”

“Us,” she corrects me.

“It may have been us on the tape, but you're the one I care about. They can try to fuck with me all they want. I don’t care. What I do care about is them trying to mess with you. It’s disrespectful, and I won’t fucking sit back and allow anyone to disrespect you.

And they have the audacity to threaten to press charges?

Hell no. Both of them are going to pay for that. ”

Tomás looks at me, trying to decipher what I mean by that, and when it clicks, he starts to click his tongue. “Tino,” he says my name in reprimand. “Don’t you fucking think about it.”

“What?” You can’t tell me they don’t deserve one of these that you gave me.” I point to my eye that I can feel is bruising by the second.

“Sorry about that. Fuck.” Tomás stands up, looking around as he lifts his empty wine glass. “You got more of this?”

I laugh. “Umm, yeah, how about a whole bar full. Go pick one.”

“Thank fuck, after what my eyes have unfortunately seen tonight, I’m going to need it.”

Tomás grabs another bottle of wine and opens it, quickly pouring himself another glass as the three of us figure out how we are going to handle this. Lorena puts on her public relations hat while Tomás sets his anger aside, as they both try to devise a plan.

“Okay,” Lorena says, thinking out loud now. “But we’re going to have to make a statement of some sort.”

“I’ll do whatever I need to, after you give me that prick’s address.”

They both look at me. “That’s the opposite of what we should do,” Tomás says.

Lorena chimes in.“I agree.”

“So I can pay him.” I shrug with a smirk.

“You’re not paying him. That’s a ridiculous amount of money,” Lorena says. “And you’re also not doing whatever is running through that mind of yours.”

I reach for her hand, kissing it like she kissed mine before.

“Nice try Tino, but you aren’t going to kiss your way out of this. You’re not paying him a visit or the money.” Lorena attempts to reprimand me. I hate to disappoint her, but I can’t do what she’s telling me. It goes against everything I stand for.

No one messes with what’s mine. And Lorena is mine. To protect, to love, to defend as long as there is air in my lungs, and if I have any say in it, beyond that. In this life. The next. I will pay whatever toll I have to, so I can ensure she’s forever loved and protected.

“I hear you, I really do but I know what I need to do to handle this and make both these fuckers back off,” I say to Lorena.

Keeping her hand in mine, I direct the rest of what I’m saying to Tomás.

“I know that you’re not happy about this, but I mean it.

I love your sister, and there isn’t a damn thing that I wouldn’t do for her.

We can hit him with a lawsuit. I can put on my best smile and say whatever I need to say to make this go away.

But if the shoe were on the other foot, and it was your best friend’s sister you were in love with, or anyone you are in love with for that matter, tell me you wouldn’t want to have a one-on-one talk with the fucker who tried to hurt them.

So you can make sure they understand that if they try to mess with what is yours, they will have to get through you first? ”

Tomás considers everything I’m saying, and I see his wheels turning as he processes.

“You really love her?” he asks.

“More than I’ve ever loved anything or anyone,” I reassure him.

Reluctantly, he nods. Accepting my answer before going back to what I said prior.

“But you have your career to consider.” Tomás states the obvious.

“And the awards are coming up soon,” Lorena adds.

“I know, but all of that doesn’t mean a goddamn thing if I don’t have her happy and protected. I won’t let a fucking thing happen to her because of my impulses, even if one of my biggest ones is her.”

“I can’t condone what you want to do.” Tomás flattens his tongue against his teeth. “I could be disbarred.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything besides being my attorney and my friend, that is if you’ll still have me.” I wink, and the laughter that follows feels like a suture to a bloody wound, mending it.

“Shut the fuck up,” he says through his laughter. “It’s going to take me awhile to get used to you two together, but I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen Lorena this passionate about something since…”

“Ever.” Lorena interrupts him, moving up from her chair and draping her arms around my shoulders, as she leans over to kiss my cheek.

Tomás jokingly shields his eyes. “Too soon. Stop!”

“Oh, grow up,” Lorena says, as she reaches for her phone and sends me something.

I glance down at the message on my phone. My stomach twists in a knot at the contact name.

Current Fuck- Real Estate Guy.

Her lips skim my ear as she whispers to me. “I never got around to changing the contact name, but rest assured, the only current fuck I have and plan on having is you.”

Relief floods me as she continues.

“Also, that was kind of hot how you were talking before, with that whole ‘she’s mine, and I’ll do anything for what’s mine’ talk. I liked it.”

I turn my head to look at her, almost forgetting Tomás is there.

Whatever, he got the most expensive bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon I carry at the restaurant, as a condolence and a gift, and I got a black eye; he can drink while I give the only person who truly matters to me in the world the reassurance and attention she needs and deserves.

“I promise I won’t do anything that will put my reputation in jeopardy, any more than I’ve already done. But I can’t sit back and let this fuck get away with this.”

“Then give him hell for me.”

“I will. Anything for you, mi cielo.”