The Barbarian King

Chapter 52

“Forget it, Diego. You’re not serious about her if—”

“My father is in the ICU, Jonah. I can’t leave my family right now. If something happens and I’m in another country…”

“f**k, man. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s why I need your help. I can’t be here and not know where she is, that she’s okay, safe, healthy.” It seemed ludicrous, but I even wanted to know what she was eating to make sure she was staying healthy for our baby. “I’ll lose my mind and be no good to anyone.”

“I’ll check on her for you,” he said, trying to satisfy me with the small gesture.

Not f*****g happening. “I need to see her, Jonah. And you know what the f**k I mean. You remember telling me about the cameras you keep everywhere so you can keep track of your wife when you were on your fifth beer at that poker game three years ago?”

No response.

“Thatcher didn’t exactly hide his obsession with his wife any better.”

Jonah sighed. “I want to help you, Diego. But Thatcher is one of my closest friends. He’s like a f*****g brother. I can’t just give you an all-access pass to his baby girl.”

I was out of options. I didn’t have anything to blackmail him with, begging and pleading wasn’t working, even comparing the situation with his wife...I was screwed.

Unless… There was one more arrow in my quiver, hiding at the bottom where I hadn’t seen it. “She’s pregnant.” It was only partially a lie since the possibility did exist.

“For the love of...Don’t ever tell Thatcher you knocked up his little girl before you’ve even told him you’re together. Actually, don’t tell him at all. Tell Imogene.”

“Will you help me?”

He groaned, and I heard what sounded like his fist hitting the desk. “Yes. I’m probably signing my own damn death warrant, but I understand where you're coming from. Give me a couple of days to make it happen.”

I started to argue, but he shouted so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “TWO f*****g DAYS, SANCHEZ. And you’ll still owe me until the end of time.”

“Two days,” I agreed through clenched teeth.

_

Diego

I pulled my phone from my pocket and kicked my feet up onto the arm of the sofa before I laid back with a pillow under my head. It was nearly as soft as a concrete slab, but it was all I had at the moment. My father had finally been moved out of the ICU and into a private room. It had taken almost four weeks because he’d developed an infection. We’d nearly lost him, and as much as I loved my sisters, they were no help. They were more emotional than my mother, and she coddled them.

My mother was asleep in the bed next to him, and my sisters and brother had gone home to sleep and hadn’t returned yet. It was still early, and I was glad to have the privacy. Every morning and every night, I found a place to be alone with my girl. Not that I didn’t keep an eye on her throughout the day, but at these times, I gave myself permission to forget about everyone and everything except her.

There was no time difference between New York and the Dominican Republic, so I had easily synched our schedules. Fortune was in my favor when it turned out that Allison and Charlie (not a blood relative, but still a cousin) had moved into a townhouse owned by her parents. It would have been a f**k of a lot harder to get access to her if she’d still been living under Thatcher’s roof.

I’d considered calling her and warning her that as soon as my father was on the mend, I was coming for her. But I decided against it because I’d have an easier time watching her, and then finding her, if she went about her normal routine.

Allison’s alarm went off at seven, just as it did every weekday, and she went up onto one elbow so she could grab her phone from the desk next to her bed and silence it. Phone in hand, she flopped back down onto the mattress and held it to her chest as she closed her eyes again. I didn’t like the dark circles around her eyes. She’d gone to bed early the night before, so she shouldn’t look as though she’d barely slept. A few minutes later, she opened her eyes again and yawned as she began to fiddle with her phone.

Jonah was right. I owed him the equivalent to my firstborn. I dug a second phone out of my back pocket and unlocked it before tapping on the only app. After logging in, the screen changed, and I was now looking at the real-time contents of another phone. Allison had opened f*******: and was scrolling through her feed.

I went back and forth, watching her reactions on one device and seeing what was causing them on the other. It was like our own private moments, just after she woke up and right before bed. If I let the world fall away, I could almost believe I was there with her. Being away from her was f*****g killing me.

After twenty minutes, Allison hesitantly sat up as if she were expecting something to happen. When nothing occurred, she tossed off the blankets she’d been snuggled into. It was a damn good thing she lived with a female. The first time I saw her in the little shorts and tank top she wore to bed, I was both incredibly turned on and ready to murder anyone who saw her in that outfit. And I was using the word outfit generously.

All that skin, her puckered n*****s, the shorts molded to her sweet ass...those belonged to me and only me. I much preferred the nights she wore my shirt to bed. I still had the panties she’d been wearing the night I popped her cherry, and I kept them near my pillow whenever I slept at my condo. I didn’t want to bring them to the hospital and chance losing them or deal with questions if one of my family members found them. People would probably think I was crazy for sleeping with a woman’s underwear so that I could smell her p***y all night. I didn’t give a f**k about what anyone thought when it came to my Ali, but I didn’t want to deal with the inquisition I would face because I wasn’t ready to share her yet.

Allison climbed out of bed and stretched her arms high above her head as she arched her back. The tight little peaks poking through her top made my mouth water. I couldn’t wait to suck on them again, especially when she was pregnant. I hadn’t seen any signs yet, but if I hadn’t done the job on our night together, she was going to spend all her time with my c**k buried in her p***y until I’d remedied the situation. The idea of tying her to our bed was intriguing. I’d keep her legs wide open and practically live between her thighs. Feasting on her, drinking her juices, it was all I hungered for.

Lethargically, she made her bed, then trudged to her closet. She took out a blue sweater and a black skirt that looked like it would end at or below her knees, saving me from the possessiveness and jealousy that would have plagued me all day until she’d changed into something else. I was a bear on those days, and my sisters had given me endless grief over it.

She draped the clothes on her desk chair before digging into a drawer in her dresser and withdrawing a b*a and panties. Some days, she would go straight to her bathroom and reemerge fresh and clean. On the other days, I excused myself as soon as one of my sisters or brother arrived. Then I sped home to take an arctic shower. The first time, I’d considered giving myself some relief. But the thought of anyone’s hands, even my own, giving me pleasure was repellant.

It seemed today was going to be one of those days. Allison tossed her underwear on the bed, and as she walked toward the bathroom, she grabbed the hem of her tank top and pulled it over her head, tossing it in the hamper as she stopped in front of it. Then she took off her little shorts—which she wore without panties, another reason I was glad she lived with a woman—and they went into the basket as well.

Her big, heart-shaped a*s was unbelievably sexy, and the flare of her hips—which oddly looked a little wider today—had my c**k leaking as I thought about how they were made for large babies. Considering my size, I doubted our children would be petite when they were born.

Allison resumed her trek to the bathroom, but just as she began to walk over the threshold, her phone dinged. She pivoted on her heel, and my breath caught in my lungs. f**k. She grew more beautiful every damn day. It almost looked like her t**s had gotten a little bigger. It didn’t seem as though she’d put on weight, but Allison would be the sexiest woman on earth no matter what she weighed. And I wasn’t stupid enough to complain about her having larger t**s.

Her p***y was still bare, and I licked my lips, remembering how it tasted and the way my beard had left light marks on her n***d mound. I f*****g loved that there had been nothing between us. I was going to insist it stay that way going forward.

I finished my perusal of her body at her dainty, pink-tipped toes. There wasn’t one spot on her that I hadn’t hand my mouth on, and the flood of memories was making things very uncomfortable. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I ground my teeth in frustration over having another fifteen minutes before my brother arrived and I could go back to my place.

My girl fetched her phone and disappeared into the bathroom. I listened to the water running and fantasized about what I would do to her in our shower at home. The water shut off after ten minutes, and she was in there for a few more before the door opened, and steam billowed out. She was wrapped in a towel, her long hair twisted and laid over one shoulder. I loved seeing her like this. Fresh-faced, smelling like the coconut shampoo she’d been using at the resort, and her skin pink from being scrubbed. She didn’t need anything to make her more beautiful. She was the most exquisite creature in all her natural glory.

Allison’s hand went to the knot between her breasts holding the towel together, but a knock sounded on the door, pissing me off because it intruded on our private time. Allison padded across the carpet and answered with a dimpled smile.

“Morning, Charlie.”

“Carpooling today?”

Since Allison and Charlie had both secured internships at K-Corp for the summer, they often shared a cab. I wasn’t particularly happy about it, but it wasn’t as if I could send her my driver. Yet.

I’d assumed it was a given, considering she was the child of one of the owners. But I’d pored over every bit of information I could find on her for the past month, and I’d stumbled across her application. It turned out, she and Charlie hadn’t been given any kind of preferential treatment. They’d more than qualified academically, applied for the position, and were interviewed and hired by a committee. If anything, I was willing to bet they’d been graded more harshly than the other candidates so that if they earned the position, it couldn't be disputed as nepotism. I was so f*****g proud of my girl.

It comforted me to know she was going there each day. Jonah wouldn’t budge over allowing me access to K-Corp, so I had to be satisfied with knowing she was in her family’s care. Not that it would be for long. When I returned to New York, I was going to marry her pretty little a*s immediately, then take her home and keep her on her back until I’d planted my baby inside her. She’d had such longing in her voice when she’d talked about having a family and being a mother. It had made my determination to fulfill her every wish even stronger.

“Yes,” Allison answered. “Just give me a few minutes to change and grab a cup of coffee.”

There was a pause before Charlie asked, “You sure you should be drinking that stuff?”

Allison sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll wait until I talk to a doctor.”4