Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War (48 page)

“Mmm … I’ll be your baby girl,” Tamara muttered. “Your dad has a really nice ass.”

Carter bit her lip to hold back her laughter. “Will you shut up, Tamara?”

Tamara shook her head and smiled slyly. “Carter, I’m so serious. All I want for Christmas is Robert Steele under my tree wearing nothing but a red bow tie.”

The women burst into laughter.

“Why the red bow tie?” Katherine asked through laughter.

Tamara shrugged and laughed at herself. “I don’t judge your fantasies, do I?” She turned around and reached out to Gabriel. “Gabe, sweetie, will you be my boyfriend tonight?”

Gabriel glanced at his sister, who smiled at him, before he looked back at her friend. He winked at Tamara and came over to sit next to her.

With a sigh, Tamara leaned back against his chest. “Carter, I’m seriously in love with your brother.”

“You’re in love with my whole damn, family,” Cater muttered. “I’m afraid for you to meet my sons.”

“They’ll be my boyfriends, too,” Tamara said with wink. “Especially if they look anything like their daddy.”

“I thought I told your ass to stop looking at my husband …”

Nathan chuckled as he watched them continue their animated conversations from where he sat with his brothers.

“I’m sorry, but when did Carter get friends?” Kyle asked. “Did I miss something?”

Nathan shrugged. “She met Brittany and Reanna through Katherine, Tamara and Reanna are sisters, Aniyah works at S.O., and she and Mickey met Aria in New York.”

“Yep, she owns this little restaurant in Manhattan,” Mickey said. “She gives Carter’s cooking a run for its money, and that’s saying a lot, because as you all know—”

“Trust me, we know,” Nathan said, pursing his lips and looking away from Mickey.

Mickey was obsessed with Carter’s cooking. The man was obsessed with food period. Nathan couldn’t wait for Mickey to find his own woman so he would stop coming to
his
house every night for a plate of
his
food that his wife made for
him
.

“Don’t be like that, Nate,” Mickey said as if reading Nathan’s thoughts. “You know you love it when I stop by for my plate. I’ve been waiting for one of you to hook up with a woman that could cook … or a dude of course,” he quickly added for Dante’s sake.

“How about you get your own woman … or
dude,
” Dante suggested jokingly. “Then you will not have to invade Nathan’s home every night.”

Mickey shrugged, then looked over at the women on the bed. He pointed to Gabriel and Tamara. “Is Gabriel sure he’s gay?”

“He is,” Dante muttered, turning a cold gaze over to Gabriel, “he is just flirtatious it seems.”

Nathan caught the slight anger in his tone, but decided not to comment on it.

Mickey shook his head and turned his head back to the guys. “Look at the way he touches her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were … you know.”

Nathan’s brows furrowed and a smile pulled at his lips. “
You know
?” He was unaccustomed to hearing Mickey filter himself.

Chuckling, Mickey sat back in his seat. “I don’t really feel right cursing while my niece is sitting across the room and I’m waiting to meet my little nephews for the first time.”

Nathan smiled. “Aww, look at little Mikilo growing up. So sweet,” he joked. “This no cursing, it is one of the lessons you learned from your Barney tapes as a child, no?”

“No, Nathan, I believe he learned this lesson from those Teletubbies,” Kyle joined in.

“Fuck you both,” Mickey whispered sharply, making the guys burst into hysterical laughter.

“Well, at least he lasted longer than I expected,” Kyle said. “Good job, little brother.”

“All right, Nathan and Kyle. Leave the boy alone,” Lucca said through soft laughter. “We all had our obsessions in the nineties, gentleman.”

Nathan grinned. “Dante and Lucca were determined to fight their fathers’ many battles as Power Rangers.”

Smiling, Lucca nodded. “Very true. And you and Kyle were determined to fight yours as Woody and Buzz Light year from Toy Story.”

“I think Kyle still has the hat,” Mickey added.

Nathan had to cover his face as he slipped into a fit of laughter. Soon the guys joined him.

“Please never tell my sons about this,” Nathan managed to say. “That’s just the most ridiculous shit. . .”

“You guys are so cute.” Their laughter subsided and they turned to Carter when they heard her speak. She, Gabriel, and her friends were now looking over at them with smiles on their faces.

“What’s so funny?” Tamara asked. “We want in on the joke.”

“It is a secret,” Lucca replied.. “We cannot tell you.”

A killer smile spread across her face. “Well that just makes me want to know even more. I love a good secret.”

“Not this one, sweetheart,” he said, his smile equally as devious. “If I tell you—”

“You’d have to kill me?” she asked, her perfectly shaped eyebrow arched and amusement in her tone.

Lucca chuckled. “Absolutely not. To rid the world of such beauty would be a true tragedy, love.”

Surprisingly, Tamara didn’t respond, she just smiled shyly and quickly looked away.

“Ooo … Lucca Salerno,” Carter giggled and her girlfriends joined in. “Tamara and Lucca are flirting.”

“And she is blushing like a school girl,” Gabriel teased, tickling Tamara’s sides and making her squeal. In return, she playfully hit his arm.

Everyone laughed, and Nathan reveled in the feeling of being right again. When he glanced at Carter she shot him a playful glare. Nathan had told her when she started hanging out with the young women to prepare for what would happen when his brothers got a whiff of them … they’d attack. Lucca hadn’t taken his eyes off of Tamara since she’d strutted through the door, Mickey’s gaze kept cutting to the ever quiet and lovely Aria, and Nathan was pretty sure Dante and Gabriel had something going on between them.

The life of a single person was damn exhausting in Nathan’s opinion. He was happy to be married.

“Hello, everyone. The little guys are ready to make their debut …”

Two nurses entered the room, each pushing a crib, and Nathan stood the moment his sons entered the room. Carter gasped and lit up as well. After she’d gently handed Sofia to Reanna, she motioned for Nathan to come and help her up from the bed. They hadn’t seen their boys since the delivery, and that had only been about thirty to forty minutes ago, but they still missed them like crazy. Distracting themselves with chatter from their family and friends had been the only reason they hadn’t pulled their hair out. The wait had been hard, but their sons had finally made it back up to the room perfectly healthy and swaddle snuggly in their little blankets.

Nathan went over to Carter first, lifting her out of bed and taking her closer to the boys. Once they neared their sons he gently placed her on her feet.

“Are you okay?” Nathan asked her. He knew she was still sore, so he wanted to make sure she was well enough to walk.

Looking up at him, she smiled and nodded yes. Nathan took her hand as they walked to the cribs. Both Aleksandr and Maksim were bright-eyed and wide awake.

“Aww,” Carter sighed through soft laughter as she picked up Maksim and Nathan picked up Aleksandr. “Hi. Did you miss Mommy and Daddy?”

“They didn’t stop crying until we got back up here,” the nurse said with a warm smile.

Nathan placed a gentle kiss on Aleksandr’s forehead and whispered his love in Italian. Carter turned to them with Maksim in her arms and placed a kiss on Aleksandr’s cheek.

“Hi baby,” she whispered. She looked up at Nathan with a bright smile on her face. “They’re even more perfect than they were earlier, bubby.”

Nathan leaned forward and kissed her gently. “So perfect.” All three of them. His wife and his two baby boys were perfect … and all his.

Carter kissed his jaw and gazed at the child she cradled in her arms. “Are you ready?” she asked him.

He immediately knew what she was asking. “It’s time to meet the family, boys,” he whispered to his sons. “All right, everyone,” Nathan said to everyone in the room. “I would like for you all to meet Aleksandr Alexis Salerno …”

“And Maksim Alessandro Salerno.”

The grandparents were the first to come forward and take the boys from their parents’ arms. The action was so swift and natural that both Nathan and Carter were sure it wouldn’t be the last time that happened, not by a long shot.

Carter came to Nathan’s side and wrapped her arms around his waist. He placed his arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer to him as they watched each of their family and friends introduce themselves to Maksim and Aleksandr. There was laughter, cooing, and bright lights flashing from Carter’s photographer friend, Reanna’s, camera. She’d offered to take pictures of the twins’ first day with their family for free. It was a very generous gift considering that she was a high-demand photographer with out of this world rates.

They continued to watch their family gush about everything from the boys’ hair and skin color, to their Salerno gray eyes and chubby little cheeks. Neither Nathan nor Carter could keep the proud smiles from their faces. It felt good to see how much their children were already loved. Their favorite part was when Sofia got to meet her little cousins for the first time. Kyle couldn’t keep the little ray of sunshine still in his arms as she gazed at her future playmates.

“I see everything is going well in here,” a nurse said as she entered the room behind them. “I brought up the bottles for them. And will you be breast feeding as well?”

Carter nodded, but never took her eyes off of her family. “Yes. I thought I told you they didn’t need bottles” said softly, hardly paying attention. “The lactation consultant is supposed to be here soon. I want them to be strictly breastfed.”

“Excellent,” the nurse said with a nod. “Well, here you go.” She placed the items in Carter’s hands. “Congratulations, Cecilia …”

“Mmmhmm…. thank you,” was Carter’s automatic response to the woman.

It took them a moment, but Nathan and Carter realized what the woman had said at the exact same time.

“Wait a minute. Excuse me?” Carter said as she and Nathan turned to ask the woman where she had heard the name. However, when they turned to face her, she was gone.

She gasped when Nathan pulled her to his side. “What the hell?” he muttered.

Sitting in front of them were two elegant, classic, and ridiculously extravagant pram strollers. Nathan had never seen anything like them before, except maybe on television. They were quite eye-catching. A clean royal-blue with gold lining all around, and platinum wheels. They resembled a gift that one might give to a royal family for a baby shower. Inside each extravagant strollers sat a gold rattle, and three different identical infant-sized outfits. Two black Italian suits, with royal-blue bow ties and polished black loafers, two polo shirts, white cardigan sweaters, and khaki polo pants, coupled with tan loafers and tan newsboy-style hats, and the last outfits were two elegant-style flannel pajama sets, both royal blue with gold trimmings.

“Where did this come from?” Carter whispered as her brows furrowed in confusion. “That nurse called me Cecilia.”

“Carterina.” Nathan drew her attention to the items in her hand.

The bottles, once again keeping with the royal blue and gold themes, had Salerno written in an elegant gold lettering. Not only that, but Carter had two closed envelopes in her hand; one with her name on it, and one with Nathan’s.

Carter immediately sat the bottles aside and handed Nathan his envelope. They both quickly opened them, finding letters inside.

Carter read hers first.

“My dearest, Carterina.

“My heart is full of both joy and regret on this day, the happiest day of your life. I am joyful because I celebrate with you, my daughter, for today you have become a mother, and I am filled with regret because I, your father, am unable to share this moment with you. I realize that it is my own actions that have distanced us, but my hope is that this show of love slowly reveals to you my genuine sorrow. I am deeply sorry for my treacherous actions, my child. My desperation to know you, to have you in my life, encouraged me to act out irrationally and without thought
.”

Carter frowned when she read the next part.

“
Robbie told me of your confusion. And I cannot blame you, dear. Our resemblance has fooled many, and came in handy when we needed it most, but I will help you remember our time together. First, Robbie did not play make believe. So the times that he said yes to the tea parties, were the times when you were with me, and the times that he said no, that was him. He also has never danced a day in his life. I, on the other hand, enjoy dancing, and I also enjoyed all of the times I danced with you. The anger toward your mother, that was me as well. I apologize for that. I guess after all of this time I still do not forgive her for leaving me, even though I now know that I deserved it.
Yet I assure you, dear daughter, that I am not the same man I once was. I am new, and I would love nothing more than to show you, Gabriel, and your mother the new me.