Page 25 of Last Hope
“Go help her with that.” She nudged Antonio, who sighed and stood up to take it from her grandmother’s hands. He placed it down gently on the coffee table before them and moved to sit back down next to Ezzy. “Thank you so much,” she said. “I really appreciate this.”
“You stay here tonight,” her grandmother said after she had taken a seat. “Sleep in spare room. Baby sleep my room.”
Ezzy glanced down at Viktor, then back up at her grandmother. She held onto her son protectively. She hardly ever let Viktor out of her sight and the moments she did, there was always a baby monitor in the room so that she knew what was happening every moment. She didn’t feel comfortable with leaving Viktor with her. Grandmother or not, she was still a virtual stranger.
It’s fine,Antonio’s voice wafted through her mind, using their Soul Mate connection.I can sense her thoughts. She means well.
Esmeralda sighed and nodded with hesitation. “I hope it won’t be too much trouble.”
“No trouble. I have question for you, Esmeralda.”
“Yes, ask me anything you want.”
Her grandmother looked at her with dark, somber eyes for a moment. “Why him?” And she lifted a finger, pointing it straight at Antonio’s nose. “Why make baby with Antonio Santiago?”
Esmeralda’s cheeks set ablaze immediately. She hadn’t been expecting that question at all. Beside her, Antonio burst into laughter. She elbowed him in the ribs to get him to shut up.
“Well—uh—I mean…” Ezzy stammered to find the right words. How was she supposed to answer that? Why did she make a baby with Antonio? What was her grandmother implying? That Antonio was the problem? Or was she implying something else secretively. Was she calling her a whore? What was it?
“Soul Mate,” Antonio responded for her. All humor had left his voice and he was staring intently at her grandmother. His black eyes began flashing red like a projector blinking rapidly. “You know what that means don’t you?Alma Gemela.Just like Ignacio and Katheryn.”
Her grandmother’s eyes widened. “Soul Mate?” she repeated, as if the concept was strangely foreign yet all too familiar too her. If it was familiar, and she had seen Ignacio and Katheryn as Soul Mates then she should know, Ezzy thought. She should know that what she and Antonio shared was deep, and that she shouldn’t question it.
She blinked her wrinkled eyes a couple of times, as if trying to keep herself from crying. Abruptly, she stood up. “Day is coming,” she said in an accented, scratchy voice. “Get rest.” And she walked out of the room without another word.
* * *
Esmeralda slippedon a white silk shirt. It was low cut, the edges along the hem lacey black, forming the figures of roses. She wore nothing under it but matching underwear as she stepped out of the bathroom, towel drying her hair.
“My grandmother is really nice,” she stated with a smile on her face. “At first I was afraid; I didn’t know what to expect.”
Antonio stretched his long limbs across the top of the bed. “She still thinks I’m a bad influence.” He smiled with weird satisfaction.
Esmeralda rolled her eyes and tossed the hand towel onto a nearby chair, eyeing Antonio sarcastically. “I wonder why that could be…” She gazed at his thick leather boots and dark pants. Everything about him screamed “bad boy.” He seemed like the type of guy that would put a firebomb in your mailbox, just for fun.
“Yes, I often wondered why as well.” The corner of his mouth tugged up. “By the way, you look absolutely ravishing in lingerie.” His dark eyes flashed red for a moment and then he stood up and, as quickly as the blink of an eye, he was in front of her. His hands caressed her sides and she felt his warmth through the flimsy material.
“I’m not a big fan of it, to be honest.” A blush heated her cheeks. The electricity he provoked caused a coiling sensation in her stomach, one she felt she would never really get used to.
“I am.” He kissed her cheek, down to her jawline and made his way to her neck. She shivered beneath his touch. She wanted him. With trembling fingers, she pushed his jacket from his shoulders and he pulled her closer to him by the waist. “In fact, if you chose to wear lingerie for the rest of your life I don’t think I’d mind it at all.”
She looped her fingers inside of the waistband of his jeans, feeling his smooth skin against her flesh. Her breathing grew ragged and she grew weak in the knees. The feeling grew when he found her mouth and kissed her deeply, his hands moving up and down her sides. She fought back a shiver as she leaned up and pressed herself tightly against him.
I love you, his thoughts fluttered into her mind, causing her to slip her fingers under his shirt and feel the flat, smooth muscles on his stomach. She didn’t get very far, though, because he suddenly gripped her by the shoulders and flipped her around. She gasped when he pushed her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck. His hands caressed the bare flesh on her shoulders, the strap falling from its rightful place.
His hands were replaced by his mouth and his fingers were slipping into the front of the silk top, traveling up and sending shivers through her body, even more so when his hand gripped her breast.
“Antonio,” she groaned, then gasped when his other hand moved aside her panties and he fingered her warm flesh. She relished in the familiar sensations of her Soul Mate, enjoying the touches that brought them closer together. Inch by delicious inch.
“Yes,querida?” he whispered against her naked flesh.
She opened her mouth to respond but a knock sounded on the door instead, causing them both to jump apart. Antonio stared at the door with loathing and slung out every curse he could think of, before removing his hands from those comfortable spots and shoving them into his pockets and stalking over to the bed.
Esmeralda heaved a sigh and, just before fixing her straps and hastily pulling on a random pair of sweatpants from the floor, walked over to open the door. Esmeralda smiled at the sight of her grandmother. Despite her obvious old age, her eyes gave her the flame of life and radiant energy.
“Everything to your liking?” she asked in an accent thicker than Antonio’s.
“Yes! It’s all so wonderful! And I can’t thank you enough for letting us stay here.” She honestly meant that. It would be a great experience for her to meet the woman that knew her parents; the woman that took care of her father when he was a child.
