Page 28 of The Hottest Daddy
River wiped the rest of the syrup from his face as his phone chirped with a text message. His smile faded as he read it. “Goddamn it.”
When Sunday came back from the bathroom, her smile faded when she saw his expression. “What is it?”
He cut his eyes at Berry and shook his head. In the car on the way back home, he waited until Berry had fallen asleep before he spoke. “Angelina is coming to town on Friday to talk.”
“Christ.”
“Yeah.” He glanced at her. “Listen, I’ve been thinking. I don’t want to risk her recognizing you. If you two have a beef then she’ll think nothing about revealing where you are to the whole world and there’s no way I’ll allow that. Your life isn’t up for negotiation in this.”
“So what are you saying?”
“When Angelina’s here, I’ll deal with her. I’ll allow visitation with Berry—supervised—but that’s as far as I’m willing to go. For Berry’s sake. But I want you out of the way. Don’t come to the house; don’t engage with her.”
Sunday was silent for a time and River reached his hand over and took hers. “You know I’m right.”
“I wanted to help you.”
“I know, baby, but you still can. Research anything you can that we can use against her if it goes to court.” He sighed. “I know what she wants, of course, but she’s no going to get it.”
“She wants you.”
He nodded. “But I’m not available.” He grinned ruefully. “Not that I ever was to her. Not since … you know.”
Sunday touched his face. “If she even tries anything …”
“Oh, she will, but I’m a different person now. A man. A man who will shut that shit down the moment she starts.”
“Don’t be alone with her. Have Carmen or Luke there.”
“If I can. Listen, will you stay tonight?”
Sunday nodded. “I will. Now that Berry knows about us, I will.”
He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Thank you. Just knowing you have my back gives me great strength, baby. Angelina won’t get her own way this time.”
Chapter Fourteen
By the time Berry was fast asleep, Sunday and River were exhausted but happy to be together. River drew them a hot bath and they shared the tub together, stroking each other’s skin, kissing. Sunday straddled him and he buried his face in her breasts, making her giggle.
“Pervert,” she teased, and he laughed.
“When it comes to you, yes.” His curls were sticking to his face and she swept them back with her fingers.
“God, you’re handsome, Signore Giotto.”
He grinned. “Listen, when this crap with Angelina is out of the way, I’d like us to take a vacation together. Italy. I own a place in Tuscany. Sun, nature, and plenty of room for Berry to play, while I take advantage of her stepmom in the olive groves.”
“Ha ha, that’s just poor parenting,” she giggled, then sighed as he slipped his hand between her legs and began to rub. “She asked me if we thought about having children. I told it was way,waytoo early for that.”
River considered. “Do you want kids?”
“The truth? I never even thought about it. With Cory, we had plans to travel the world, and to be honest, we didn’t plan anything further than that. Looking back now, I don’t know why. Weirdly, it felt like we were racing against time—and it turned out, we were.”
River stopped rubbing her sex and instead held her. “I’m so sorry about Cory.”
Sunday nodded. “The night he died … God, it was so quick, so final. He … the killer, I mean, said my name. I thought it was a fan; sometimes they used to hang out outside the studio to say hi or grab a selfie. I was smiling at him when he shot Cory. Smiling. God.” She closed her eyes, remembering. “I just remember Cory’s chest exploding, blood everywhere, in my eyes, and instead of screaming, I got mad. I went for the gun and he shot me. I still managed to scratch the crap out of him but it didn’t do any good. They never found him.”
River’s arms tightened around her. “But you were hurt.”
