Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Because it couldn’t be the same.
“A kiss. From you. That’s what I wished for.”
Juan’s gaze stayed locked with hers. He didn’t tense or act like that surprised him at all.
“All right,” he murmured.
“All—”
“Yeah. Let’s make that come true.”
In the next second, he was kissing her.
It wasn’t her first kiss.
Her heart still exploded all the same.
Chapter 10 – Little Brothers
Juan POV
Eighteen years old ...
“So, this is just what you’re going to do now?” Cece asked.
Juan grinned her way as he turned the car onto her street. He’d much rather whip the car around—illegal U-turn right there in the suburbs—and take her back to his hotel for the night, but he didn’t think that would end well for him all things considered. Her father was lax with a lot of rules as long as he understood what was going to happen. If plans changed, however, then Cross took issue and didn’t mind letting Juan know it, either.
But God, he missed his girl.
All the time.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
From the passenger seat of his rented Mercedes, Cece gave him a sweet—but still sexy—smile when she said, “This, Juan. Flying here for the weekend to take me out and then running back to Cali for the rest of the week. Seems like a lot of time and money—”
“Seems like effort to me,” he murmured.
That quieted her.
Not in a bad way, either.
Juan raised a brow, waiting for Cece to respond. She simply kept staring at him with the same smile as before, although it did deepen a little bit to show her pleasure as his words.
“Effort, huh?”
“I was told,” Juan said as he came to a stop at the bottom of her parents’ driveway, “that when you love someone, it’s all about the effort you make to show them you love them rather than everything else in between. That’s all.”
“And you love me.”
It wasn’t even a question.
She just knew.
He needed her to be sure of it.
Maybe it was strange—here they were with him at eighteen, her at sixteen, and this was how they had come to be. They’d known each other for most of their lives. There had never been any big changes that reset the course of their relationship with each other. Everything had always seemed to just fall into place. Even something like love. He’d just always loved her for as long as he could remember.
Juan didn’t remember falling in love but that didn’t make it any less real or strong or absolutely fucking terrifying. But he needed it—and her. The same way he wanted the sun on his face every morning and air in his lungs with each breath.
This girl was his.
He would keep her.
“Love you forever,” Juan murmured.
Cece’s lips split with a grin that showed off her teeth before she leaned over in the seats after unsnapping her seatbelt. He barely even had the chance to put the car in park before she leaned over the middle section and kissed him. The kind of kiss that—once again—had him wishing he’d made different plans with her for the evening than simply a date and bringing her back home. Her lips moved hungry and hard against his own before he finally got a taste of her on his tongue when she opened up for him. In a blink, she sat in his lap, her back tight to the steering wheel while his hands worked to drive the skirt of her dress higher over her thighs.
Because just like that ...
Juan forgot where they were. Who might be watching ...
All of it.
Cece made it easy to forget.
He should really know better, though.
A knock on the driver’s window had Cece shrieking and pulling away from Juan before she fell back into the passenger seat. He sent up a quick, silent prayer that when he turned his head, he wouldn’t see Cece’s father on the outside of his car. Because if there was one thing in this world he was terrified of, it just happened to be Cross fucking Donati.
The man had a way about him. He could make a threat both entertaining and scary which was a talent in and of itself. And if there was anything the man cared about more than himself, it was his wife and kids.That’s all Juan was saying.
Fortunately, it wasn’t Cross.
It was, however, almost as bad.
“Jesus Chris, Nazio,” Cece snarled under her breath.
Sure enough, Juan turned to his left and found Cece’s younger brother smirking from where he now stood on the sidewalk. At least the little fucker wasn’t peering into the window, but he was still a little too close for Juan’s comfort.
Since he and Cece had become an official thing, he’d learned quite a bit about her younger brother. Before, Juan hadn’t given Naz much attention or thought because frankly, the kid hadn’t mattered to him that much. They didn’t make friends, there was quite an age difference, and the two of them seemed fine with that.