A Corisi Christmas (Legacy Collection #7) (5 page)

Your father

Dominic tucked the letter into the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket and replaced the cover to the box. His mind was racing as he replayed the letter over and over again in his head.

His father had given in to the rage within him, and it had destroyed not only him, but his family as well. Dominic would never lay a hand on his wife or his child, but he was at times ruled by the anger within him.

He stood in his office with his hands clenched. A confusing mix of emotions swirled within him. He didn’t want to pity his father. He wanted to hate him, but hadn’t it been hate that had made his father into who he was?

A small hand closed around Dominic’s. He looked down to see Judy had taken his hand in hers. “Dad, are you okay?”

He forced a smile and picked her up. “What are you doing up?”

“I had a nightmare.”

“Me, too,” Dominic said to himself.

“I dreamed everyone was fighting.”

That sounds about right,
Dominic thought but didn’t say aloud.

Judy patted her father’s face with her hands. “What did you dream about?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Mom says that talking about bad dreams makes them go away. You don’t want to have the dream again, do you? You’d better tell me.”

Dominic kissed his daughter’s forehead. “I dreamed I did something to make Auntie Nicole sad, and I didn’t know how to make it right.”

Judy smiled. “That’s easy, what does she want for Christmas? Give it to her now. Everyone loves presents.”

Dominic thought about it and laughed at the simplicity of Judy’s solution. “You’re a genius, Judy.”

“I know,” Judy said with a huge smile. Then she frowned and asked, “What’s a genius?”

N
icole looked out the window of their private plane as it circled Isola Santos, the Andrades’ private island. “You’re really not going to tell me what my surprise is?”

“I’m really not,” Stephan answered.

“But we had to come all the way here to get it?”

“We did.”

“It’s dangerous to mess with a pregnant woman’s emotions. I’d rather just know what we’re doing here.”

Stephan gave her hand a squeeze. “You’ve made it this far. I can’t tell you now.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss. “Trust me.”

“I do,” Nicole answered without hesitation. In the past week, Stephan had proven to her again and again that she was a priority to him. He’d attended doctor appointments, gone shopping for baby items with her, and hovered over her, making sure she wanted for nothing.

He’d suggested they not go to his family that Christmas, but Nicole had had a change of heart. She couldn’t imagine missing an Andrade holiday. And if she and her brother could only connect at a gathering like that, then so be it. She would meet him where he needed to be.

Stephan’s announcement that they needed to fly to his family’s island the weekend before Christmas had come as a surprise. He wasn’t saying why, but Nicole guessed it had something to do with the talk they’d had about how she wanted to start family traditions of their own. Or he simply wanted her to see their completed home on the island.

The plane landed and as they stepped out onto the runway Nicole noticed Dominic’s plane on the other runway. She wrapped her coat tighter around her against the cold island wind. “Is my brother here?”

Stephan’s chest puffed with pride. “He and his family flew in this morning. I hope you don’t mind, but I had our home decked out for the holiday. Next year we can come early and decorate.”

Nicole’s eyes filled with happy tears. “How did you get him to come?”

Stephan guided Nicole up the steps of their new home. “He called me. He said he had a present for you. I told him you had something for him, but he’d have to fly here to get it.”

Just outside their new front door Nicole threw her arms around Stephan’s neck. “Every time I think I couldn’t love you more, you find a way to make me fall in love with you all over again.” She kissed him deeply. In that moment everything else fell away and it was just Nicole and the man she loved. The passion she’d always felt for him was there, pulsing within her, but years together had given it a depth she’d never imagined. She didn’t just want him; she needed him. His touch, his body thrusting into hers, was as vital to her as the air she was raggedly taking in. She writhed against him, digging her hands into his hair. “Do you think we have time before they come over?”

Stephan took out his phone and sent a quick text. “We do now.” He opened the door, swung her up into his arms, and carried her over the threshold.

Nicole kissed his neck and laughed as he took the steps two at a time. “What did you say?”

He lowered her to her feet just inside a large bedroom. “I told them we’d see them at six.”

Nicole buried her face in his shoulder. “Do you think they know?”

Stephan took a clip out of the back of Nicole’s hair and released it. “Do you care?”

She shook her head. “My goal for the new year is to be more honest about what I want.”

A lusty smile spread across her husband’s face. “I like that.”

Nicole would describe their sex life as healthy and heated, but she didn’t often take the lead in the bedroom. She enthusiastically went where he took her, but she had fantasies she’d never dared voice. “Do you? What else do you like?”

His eyes burned with passion for her. “I love the feel of your lips around my cock. I love burying myself deeply inside you as you call out my name.”

Nicole ran a hand down Stephan’s chest and cupped his erection. She said something she’d never dared to before. “You’ll have to earn those pleasures this time.”

His face flushed with excitement. “I’m yours to command.”

Nicole hesitated, but desire flamed through her and made her bold. “Strip me.”

He fell easily into the game. “With pleasure.” After he removed an article of clothing he worshiped the exposed area with his mouth and hands before moving on to remove another piece.

“Kneel and don’t stop licking until I come.”

Fully dressed, he sank to his knees before her and lifted one leg, placing it over his shoulder. “You’re so fucking hot when you talk like that, Nicole.”

Nicole held on to a bedpost to steady herself and closed her eyes. “Stop talking and start licking. I want to feel you pumping a finger in and out of me.”

Stephan was a gifted lover, but he was particularly skilled in the oral sex department. He licked around her clit, teased her until she was digging a hand into his shoulder, and took her gently between his teeth.

She was wet and ready for his finger when he slid it inside her and started to do his magical circular motions that always drove her crazy. “Oh, God, yes.”

His tongue began to flick back and forth over her clit, slowly at first, then faster and faster. She called out with pleasure when she finally came, and he picked her up and tossed her down on the bed.

“What else do you want?” he asked in a hungry, husky tone as he stripped off his own clothing. “Tell me.”

“I want to be this happy for the rest of my life,” she said, loving each part of him he uncovered.

“I can do that.” He crawled onto the bed and positioned himself above her, then rolled until she was sprawled on top. “But I was hoping for something a little more specific.”

She smiled down at him. She wasn’t assertive by nature, but his love was her safety net. “Then slide yourself inside me and quit your chatting.”

He did, and together they went to a place they’d gone many times before, but this time was more playful than it had been in a while. When she lay in his arms afterward, she thought about something his mother had once told her about how to make a marriage work. “Honesty. Respect. Forgiveness. And a little red bikini.”

The longer she was married, the more wisdom Nicole found in those words. The bikini symbolized keeping the passion fresh and exciting. Naked in her husband’s arms, Nicole vowed to do just that. She leaned forward and kissed him, thrusting her tongue deep into his mouth and teasing his into hers. “Now, you tell me what you want.”

Stephan groaned and checked the clock on the bedside table. “We don’t have time.”

Nicole leaned off the bed, found his phone and sent a text. “We do now,” she said cheekily.

“I told him I’m getting an early Christmas present.”

Stephan grabbed the phone, looked at it, and tossed it onto the floor. “You sent it from my phone? Your brother will kill me, but I’ll worry about that later. Come here, wife.”

Nicole laughed, a little embarrassed. “Sorry. Do you want me to send another text explaining it?”

“No,” he growled against her neck. “I want you to make it up to me.”

“I can do that, but you’ll have to be a little more specific.”

Abby checked the time on her phone. “It’s seven thirty. Do you think it’s safe to head over there now?”

Dominic stood by the tall glass-paned wall and glared at the other house. “For them or for us?”

Abby tucked herself beneath her husband’s arm. “Have a sense of humor, it’s almost Christmas.” When Dominic didn’t respond, Abby chided, “They’re married, and your sister is pregnant. How do you think that happened?”

He made a face. “It’s my little sister.”

“Who is a grown woman with a husband she loves. Be happy for her.”

Dominic sighed. “You’re right.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Where’s Judy?”

“She’s pretending not to be peeking at the pile of gifts we left in the hall. It was a good idea to bring them. I know we’ll see my family and the Andrades for Christmas, but it helps Judy understand what this is about, too. It’s a lot of celebrating for one holiday.”

“We have a big family.”

Abby smiled and rested her head on Dominic’s shoulder. “We do. We certainly do.” Abby sent a text to Stephan. “Get dressed we’re coming over.” If it weren’t for Judy, Abby would have let the lovebirds have their time together, but they’d told Judy their plans for the evening, and she wasn’t about to try to explain to her why they couldn’t go over to see her aunt and uncle.

Judy came rushing in. “Is it time yet? Can we go?”

Abby laughed. “Patience, Judy. Yes, we can head over.”

“Do I get to open all of my presents now?”

“What do you think, Dom?” Abby asked.

“My mother comes tomorrow morning, and she’ll bring presents. Your sister will have something when we go there. The Andrades will have more. I say yes.”

“Don’t forget Santa,” Judy added.

“And Santa,” Dominic agreed.

Like a puppy excited to go outside, Judy ran circles around them as they gathered up their coats and packages. “This is going to be awesome.”

With each of them carrying several packages, Dominic, Abby, and Judy crossed the lawn between the home Dominic had built years before and the new home Stephan had built to replace it. When Nicole opened the door her face was beautifully flushed, and she was smiling.

“Sorry about the delay,” Nicole said, trying to sound contrite, but her smile didn’t waver.

Dominic gave Stephan a narrow-eyed look that his brother-in-law merely shrugged off. “Time just got away from us,” Stephan said.

Dominic handed Stephan some packages with more force than the action called for. “Mind holding these for me?”

“Not at all,” Stephan answered without looking the least bit upset.

They walked together into a room displaying an elegantly decorated Christmas tree and a crackling fire in the fireplace. Judy handed her boxes to Nicole and sprinted over to the tree. “There’s one for me and there’s one for you, Dad.” She went back to hold her mother’s hand. “Don’t worry, Mom, I have one for you.”

Abby gave her daughter a quick hug. “I have everything I need, but thank you.”

Nicole deposited the boxes Judy had given her beside the tree and blushed. “Abby, the gift for Dominic is really for both of you.”

Abby waved a hand and took a seat. “With all of you here, I have everything I need. When your little one arrives you’ll see that the best gifts are the ones you watch your child open.”

Dominic sat beside Abby. “I agree.”

Judy climbed onto Dominic’s lap. “Me, too.”

Everyone laughed at that.

Nicole retrieved an envelope from beneath the tree and handed it to her brother. “This is from Stephan and me. It’s something that was yours, and we want you to have it again.”

Dominic opened the envelope and read the paper inside twice before handing it to Abby. It was the deed to the house he’d built on the island. A huge smile spread across his face. “Abby, I told you it was too beautiful to knock down. I’m glad someone else agreed with me.”

Stephan looked as if he were trying not to laugh. “That’s what it was, the beauty of it.”

Nicole chuckled and gave Stephan a nudge. “This is a family island and you’re family. Your house belongs here.”

Dominic cleared his throat and pulled an envelope out of his coat pocket. “I have something for you, Nicole. I hope it makes you as happy as you’ve just made me.”

Judy said softly, “Those gifts don’t look that exciting.”

Abby corrected her gently, “It’s never the gift that’s important, Judy; it’s the love behind it that matters. Remember that.”

Nicole started to cry as she read the letter, then she stood and rushed over to give Dominic a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. This is exactly what I needed.”

“Me, too. I love you, Nicole. And things are going to be better from now on. I promise.”

Judy was momentarily squished between them when Nicole threw her arms around Dominic. Judy peered out at her mother from between her father and her aunt and said, “I guess grownups like mail.”

Abby laughed. “I guess they do.”

Nicole walked back and handed the letter to Stephan who nodded as he read it, then hugged her. He blinked several times, and his eyes shone with emotion as he said, “Thank you, Dominic.”