Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War (21 page)

Yes, he’d just kicked his ass, and Nathan had a lot of questions to ask him, but he was happy to see his father’s old friend alive. Like Nathan had told Carter when they’d first met; he’d known her father quite well because the man had been around since Nathan was five years old. When Nathan had first started going to work with his father at the age of five, his father and Robert had a running joke about Nathan’s reason for wanting to work there so young. Carter. They’d had more than a little fun teasing Nathan about his crush from his toddler to teen years.

When they pulled back from the embrace, Robert gave him an insanely hard slap on the back, causing him to stumble forward with a frown.
Damn ….

“So you’re still working with your father, and you actually managed to get my daughter to marry you.”

A wide grin spread across Nathan’s face. “Yeah, I knew I’d make her love me the moment I saw her a year ago.”

Robert rolled his eyes, and they began to walk back to the house. “Well, at least you got her out of that place she was working. I don’t like the thought of my baby girl working at a bar. I want to go to Hope Beach and burn the place down, simply because I know my daughter was exploited.”

Nathan chuckled. “Exploited?”

“Yes, exploited. Men hire women waitresses at bars because they want to attract other men to their establishments. They probably had my baby girl parading around in next to nothing.”

“Yeah …” A sly smile played on Nathan’s lips as his thoughts drifted to Carter’s waitress uniform. He’d made sure that she kept those little shorts and tanks for one of their role playing scenes. The struggling French actress, meets Nathan the billionaire in a bar—

The remaining dirty thoughts were smacked right out of Nathan’s head by Robert.

“Ow!” Nathan yelled. “Dammit, Robert!”

“Don’t think about my daughter like that, boy. I see that shit all over your face.”

“Well, she is
my
wife,
” Nathan reminded. “It wasn’t the first time I’ve thought about her like that, and I gotta tell you, it won’t be the last. Ah!” Nathan bellowed when Robert caught him in a deadly tight headlock. “What the fuck, Robert?” he shouted, trying to break the man’s hold. “Dammit, Spook, I’m too tall for this shit now. I’m not a kid anymore!”

Nathan remembered when Robert would do this to him when he was a kid. Every time Nathan would do something to piss his father off, and cause trouble at school,
Spook Steele
would bust in his room and scare the shit out of him.

“Why do you kids keep saying that?” Robert asked through laughter. “You’re a kid until you prove to me that you’re an adult, Nathan.” He released him, and Nathan dramatically collapsed on the ground.

“Oh dear God …” He fell out, feeling as if he’d just done a four hour workout. Damn he was tired.

Robert sprinted up the steps, making all of the guys jump back out of his path.

“Anybody else want a crack at the old man?” He was obviously amused by the fear he saw in their eyes. “Valente’s? Bruno’s son?
Freddy Russia
?” He laughed when they shook their heads no, and made a wider path for him. “Tell Carter I’m headed out, I’m going to town. I’ll be back in an hour or two,” he said as he entered the house.

“You’re all bunch of pussies!” Nathan grunted in pain while he laid out on the ground. “You guys were right, though. He’s still got it.” His whole fucking body hurt. Carter was going to be so pissed when she saw his face. He didn’t know how he was going to get past her to go get cleaned up. “Somebody go tell him he can have his job back if he wants it … He may have some money tr–trouble when he gets home.”

“Hey, Nate, are you all right, man?”

Nathan’s eyes were semi closed as he mumbled, “I’m good...” He was pretty sure he was about to pass out from all of this pain. “Can somebody go grab my wife, please?”

And just like that, he was out.

Chapter 9: Two Faced

Nathan inhaled a deep breath, filling his lungs to capacity then releasing. It felt good, like he’d just gotten out of a deep, heavenly sleep. He shifted on top of what felt like a cloud and stretched his limbs. As he yawned and stretched his arms, his fingers grazed something soft. Nathan sunk his fingers into the soft tresses and moaned. Oh, now he knew where he was. In bed, with his sexy wife.

“Mmm … morning, baby,”
he mumbled.
“Gimme a kiss.”

“Umm … your wife is right in the bathroom, so I don’t think that would be appropriate. Plus, I
am
kind of your brother-in-law and all …”

With a gasp Nathan’s eyes shot open wide. He jerked his hand back like it was on fire, and jumped up from the bed. “Wh–what the fuck?” he shouted. Noticing that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, he quickly covered his body and frantically searched the room for his wife. “Where is Carter?” Jesus Christ, he was having the craziest fucking day of his life!

Gabriel, who knelt by the side of the bed, stood up with a large amount of blood-stained gauze and medical supplies in his hands.

“Relax, dude. I was just cleaning up the old gauze,” he explained, and pointed to Nathan’s side. “We had to patch you back up. Robert popped one of your stitches loose and you lost a little blood. Carter would have done it by herself, but her hormones are a little out of control right now.” He’d said that last part through soft laughter. “Carter, he’s awake,” Gabriel called, then looked back at Nathan with a smile. “I like your tattoo.”

A second later, Carter came running out of the bathroom. “Nathan,” she cried when she saw him. She ran into his arms and then abruptly jumped back. “Oh no! Did I hurt you?” she panicked.

Nathan quickly took her hand and sat on the bed, bringing her to stand in between his legs. “No, you didn’t hurt me, baby,” he reassured her.

Smiling, she touched his face lovingly and brought his face to her breasts, hugging him tightly. “I’m so glad you’re okay, bubby. I wanted to be next to you when you woke up, but there’s something wrong with me. I have to pee all of the time …”

“I told you that’s normal, Carter,” Gabriel chuckled.

“I was so scared. I was five minutes from taking you to the hospital.”

“I convinced her that you were fine, though,” Gabriel said, still cleaning behind them. “You were a little out of it, but you’ll feel better after you eat something.”

“There would be nothing wrong with him if Daddy would have just kept his hands to himself!”

“Carter, you knew he was going to attack your husband whenever he got the chance.”

“No I did not. I thought he was just screwing around. Now I’m gonna kick his ass.”

“Be calm, Carter. He’s just being a father,” Gabriel reasoned. “You’re his only daughter and this is the first man you’ve brought around him.”

“That’s because for the past six years I thought he was dead!”

Nathan listened to them go back and forth, pretty sure they had forgotten he was even in the room. He watched Carter while she angrily voiced her contempt for her father’s actions and Gabriel acted as her conscience, reasoning with her, trying his best to keep her from going downstairs to challenge her father and fight for Nathan’s honor. Chuckling as he listened to Carter’s anger winning over Gabriel’s reason, he decided to help the guy out. He turned his gaze to her belly, and proceeded to lift her shirt and press his lips to the place where his child grew inside of her.

He kept his eyes on her stomach and spoke softly. “How’s it going in there,
bambino
?” he asked his child. “How long do you think your mama will ignore you and Papa?”

Even when he heard the bickering stop, Nathan continued his conversation with his baby. “Do you want to tell your mama why it’s not a good idea to challenge your grandfather to a fight, or should I?” Nathan acted as if he was listening for an answer and then nodded. “All right,
bambino
, Papa will talk to her.” When he looked up, Carter was gazing down at him with a smile in her eyes. “I’m sorry, honey. I know you’d like to fight and defend my honor, but my baby and I discussed it and decided that it’s in your best interested to stay as far away from violence as possible.”

“Don’t I get a say?” she asked.

Nathan shook his head in mock sadness. “Sadly you’ve already been outvoted, honey. I’m mean, between my vote,
bambino’s
vote, and …” He glanced back at Gabriel and he nodded. “Looks like that’s three votes. Sorry, baby.”

Carter leaned forward and kissed his forehead, then his nose, and finally his lips. “I’m sure you are, Nathan Salerno.”

“I am,” he whispered before capturing her lips in a kiss.

“I’ll just meet you two downstairs” Gabriel said as he slipped out of the bedroom.

Nathan lifted Carter in the air and placed her gently on the bed. He positioned himself between her legs as his kisses traveled to her neck.

“Nathan,” she sighed. “You’re still hurt, honey.”

“I’m fine, Carterina.”

“Baby, we can’t make love again. I’m sure they heard us last time.”

Grunting, Nathan released the button on her jeans. “Your father should still be out, Carter, so this is the perfect time. As for the rest of those motherfuckers, they can kiss my ass. It’s my house. If they’ve got a problem with what they hear they can get the fuck out.”

“Nathan, don’t be mean.”

“I’m not mean, I’m nice.” He should beat all of their asses for spectating while Robert kicked his ass, but he wasn’t going to do that. Instead he’d just make them run late night shipments with the soldiers when they got back to New York.

“Nathan, you need to eat. Your dinner will get cold—”

Nathan silenced her with hard, passionate kiss. He knew they’d already done it three times today, but after weeks of no sex, they had a long way to go before Nathan was satisfied. Carter’s pussy now, then Carter’s cooking a little later … then more of Carter’s pussy.

He removed her shirt, releasing her perfect full breasts from her bra. Nathan covered one of her hard nipples with his mouth and slipped his hand into her jeans. Carter tossed her head back, arched her body, and let out a glorious moan. Her fingers sunk into his hair as he continued to lap—

“Well it looks like you’re feeling better.”

Carter screamed when his voice sounded at the door, and scrambled to cover herself by hiding behind Nathan. With a long, frustrated sigh, Nathan sat up on the bed, blocking her half-nude state with his body.

“Dad! What the hell?” Carter screamed.

Nathan reached over and yanked one of their pillows off of the bed, placing it over his raging erection, which only became more painful when Carter pressed her bare breasts against his equally bare back.
Jesus fucking Christ …
Nathan shut his eyes and tried to focus on anything but her nipples grazing his back. Not even Robert’s presence outweighed how much he wanted his wife right now.

“This is …
highly
inappropriate, Daddy.”

Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Can we help you with something, Robert?”

“No,” Robert said nonchalantly. “I’m just going to stand here until you decide
not
to fuck my daughter.”

“Dad!”

“Shall I take a seat on the bed?” he asked. “Cause you know I will. It doesn’t bother me one bit.”

“Dad, would you please leave our bedroom. We’ve already discussed this! What Nathan and I do in the privacy of our bedroom is our business.”

“Carter, do you think I’m going to stand by and let you spend the entire day fornicating with this
miscreant
? Hell no! You’ve had enough private time, get your asses downstairs.”

“We’re married adults, Robert,” Nathan said tiredly.
Wait, did Robert just refer to me as a miscreant? What the fuck …

Robert ignored him and continued to yell at Carter. “You’re barely twenty-three, Carterina. We never even had the fucking sex talk.”

Carter groaned and raked her fingers through her hair. “Well as you can see, I don’t really need it now.”

Robert pointed his finger at her. “Don’t test my patience. Don’t fucking do it! I’ve already overlooked a large amount of shit that you’ve done thus far. Do
not
push me.”

“I’m not doing anything wrong!”

“Are you at least using protection Miss
I don’t really need the sex talk now
?”

“
He is my husband
!” she shouted.

“So you’re not protecting yourself? You’re
twenty-three
!”

“I know how old I am,” she screamed, her cheeks now becoming flush with anger.

“God forbid he get you pregnant!”

Carter and Nathan’s silence gave away their secret almost immediately.

Robert’s face twisted with pure, unadulterated rage. Nathan could have sworn he saw steam coming from the man’s ears. “You’re pregnant?
What in the fuck, Carter
?” Robert roared. “I have never been more disappointed in you than I am in this moment.
What the hell were you thinking?
It’s unlike you to do something so stupid.
So foolish …
so
fucking mindless!
I’m looking at you now, and I don’t even know who the
fuck you are.
Because you’re damn sure not my goddamn daughter anymore!”