Escape to Heaven (Heaven on Earth Book 1) (3 page)

It would be good to see them and spend time laughing and just having a good time. It had been a few weeks since the last time they were all together just to hang out. Usually one or more of them were off doing only God knows what, but this time they would all be with her at the same time. Plus, this would give her some time to press them on finding their soul mates and settling down. She kept bugging them to find good women and get married, but they weren’t biting. No matter how hard she pushed, they all seemed to ignore anything that had to do with marriage and kids. It wasn’t that they weren’t ready for marriage, because in her opinion they were well overdue. The problem was finding women willing to put up with all of them.

It was funny how it happened, but she could almost guarantee that by the second date, women realized they were a package deal. All six of them came together as one unit—no ifs, ands, or buts about it. When you married one, you got every single one of the crew. Not an easy thing for someone to deal with, but that was just how it was.

Laughing now at how difficult it had been for her to trust them in the beginning, Adele knew her life had never been as good before they entered it. At first, she had been very resistant to opening up and hadn’t been willing to believe that they simply wanted to be her friends. Having never experienced anything like it in the past, it completely threw her when these five gorgeous men, who could be doing anything they wanted with their free time, chose to spend it with her.

Thinking about her brothers, it amazed her how five people who were so diverse could have such a close bond. If you saw them separately or didn’t realize how close they were, you would think they hated each other. They cursed at each other, wrestled with each other, punched each other, and the insults were nonstop. But the wonderful thing about their haphazard family was that they could say whatever the hell they wanted to each other, and things would be okay. Other people didn’t have that same luxury, and they would not hesitate to stomp a hole in the first person who tried.

There would be no hesitation in fucking somebody up if they didn’t come correct at any one of her brothers, and she knew they felt the same way about each other. That was just how they were. They may not have known each other their entire lives, but that didn’t matter. Their bond was thicker than blood, and she dared anyone to try and mess with that.

Adele gave a small smile and finished her coffee. She recognized that her confidence had grown exponentially over the past five years. Her former self would never even recognize who she was today—and she was okay with that. Adele knew she owed part of her change in personality to her newfound family. She also realized the other part of her change was based on the fact she had finally grown a damn spine.

Adele stood up to stretch her muscles after being cramped in in the seat for so long. She looked at herself in the half-length mirror along the foyer wall and smiled. For a woman almost reaching the ripe old age of thirty, she looked damn good. In her opinion, her dark brown eyes were her best feature. Her eyes were wide and expressive, and they could turn soft or hard at the drop of a dime. Ethan and Tyler always told her they could tell when she was pissed at them by the look in her eyes. She knew that was why they often gave in to her crazy demands. She was the baby sister to their crew, and they loved her for it.

She stood about five feet nine inches and had womanly curves in all the right places. No matter what diet she tried or what workout she performed, even the boxing, she never seemed to get any smaller and her hourglass shape seemed here to stay. Not that she was complaining in any way, because she truly liked the way she looked. Her body was well proportioned and, without ego or conceit, she knew that men found her physically attractive.

Her legs were long and her ass was perfectly curved. She could wear a rockin’ pair of jeans one day and look just as good the next day in a tailored pantsuit. Her hair was kept in a neat bob that reached just above her shoulders. When she was feeling frisky, she left it curly and let it fall around her face in small ringlets. Her skin was pecan tan, as the older ladies of her generation would say, and her lips were nice and full, but not overly so. All in all, Adele knew she looked damn good, and any man worth his salt would be happy to have her by his side.

Looking back at her life with Joey, she could accept that his insults about her looks were meant to make her feel ugly, unworthy, and to lower her self-esteem. It was a calculated move on his part to make sure she never stepped out of line or tried to leave him.

Laughing to herself, she wished she could let Tony, Ethan and Daniel loose on his ass for fifteen minutes. That would show the sorry excuse for a man what it felt like to get beaten up with no way out. She also knew they were itching to get their hands on him–although they didn’t know the full extent of what he had put her through. That was a story for another day.

She looked at the clock on the wall—a quarter past six. Turning off her computer and picking up her gym bag and purse, Adele groaned at the thought of going to the gym. However, she knew she needed the stress release, and the gym had been calling her name for a few days now.

Hopping into her car, she sped off toward Hank’s Gym, hoping it wouldn’t be too full tonight. She needed a distraction in the worst way, and fighting for gym space just wasn’t in the cards tonight.

Chapter Two

Stefano Indellicati was new to the Virginia area and had found Hank’s Gym by chance. This was his kind of place, and he was damn happy he had taken the wrong turn two months ago and had come inside. He had gotten turned around when looking for a restaurant in the area and had come in to ask for directions. This was a man’s gym, and it felt good to take out his frustrations on a punching bag. He could visualize the bag as just about anyone he wanted to, and after running his own company for more than five years and then moving into the CEO role for a larger company that was about to have its first Initial Public Offering, he had plenty of faces he could picture.

Stefano was a former Recon Marine and was damn proud of what he had accomplished during his two tours in the Corps. Being an officer had its perks, but he had loved nothing more than being out there with his Marines, arm in arm, working the trenches right along with them. He knew they respected him for his willingness to roll up his sleeves and work beside them while the other officers walked by. The young guys, fresh out of boot camp, had trusted him implicitly and had respected him more than any other officer in their division. There was no way he could have let them down, and he hadn’t. Every mission they had the unfortunate opportunity to go on, he had made sure that every one of his guys came back alive.

Getting out of the Corps had been more about doing something different than not liking it anymore. He had reached the rank of Major, had made some lifelong friends, and served his country at the same time. He was proud of what he had accomplished and looked at his time in service with fondness.

His mom and dad had been only too happy when he had told them he was retiring his commission and getting out. He knew his mom had prayed nonstop for his safe return every time he left on a mission. Well, she didn’t have to do that anymore. Now she just prayed that he and his brother Mauricio would give them grandkids. Chuckling under his breath as he climbed out of his luxury vehicle, Stefano knew it was time to think about beginning a family. While he was in no rush, he was almost thirty-eight, and he needed to make some decisions.

His thoughts turned back to his mother, whom he loved very much. He could admit that she was a typical Italian mom. Whenever he went home, she swore he was too skinny and wasn’t getting enough to eat. However, at six feet three inches tall and two hundred twenty-five pounds, he was still amazed that she could say this to him with a straight face. No matter how much he protested, when he was visiting, she used every trick in the book to keep him stuffed with food twenty-four hours a day. Not only did she feed him all the foods he had grown up on, she fed him a few new dishes as well, hence the need for his continued gym membership. His mother was doing her best to fatten him up, and he was doing his best to prevent that from happening.

Grabbing his gym bag from the back seat of his car, he made his way to the doors of the gym. Once inside, he inhaled the smell of honest hard work and sweat. There was nothing like it. He could admit he was one of those men who got off on shit like this. A place like Hank’s was a man’s last sanctuary. Glad that Hank hadn’t turned the place into one of those coed gym’s, Stefano walked to the locker room to change, greeting some of the other regulars he’d come to know during the past few months.

As he walked out of the locker room fifteen minutes later, Stefano saw someone in shorts and a t-shirt standing in the boxing ring doing some practice hits with a trainer. Since the heavy bag was across the room, he had no choice but to walk by the ring on his way over. As he walked over to his spot, he couldn’t help glancing at the ring, and he noticed that something just didn’t look right with the guy throwing the punches. His hips were a little too rounded. Legs just a little too long and curvy, hair pulled back into a ponytail…  Holy shit! Was that a woman? In Hank’s?

What the hell? Coming to an abrupt halt near the ring, he simply stared. His willpower fled and he was forced to stand and just watch. Well, at least she had good form, he thought as he leaned up against one of the corner posts. Her jabs were straight and she canted her hips exactly so, coming up on the ball of her foot as she turned. Her body was muscular and toned, and she definitely didn’t look like a novice to boxing. She wasn’t skinny though. No, her body was all woman, and damn she was lush. Italian men had a certain fondness for women with a little meat on their bones, and the woman in the boxing ring was no exception. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail and pulled away from her face, allowing him to catch a glimpse of her profile.

Damn, she was beautiful. Even with sweat dripping down her face and the look of concentration etched on her features, she was a vision of loveliness. She was focused on the task at hand, ready to respond to the rapid-fire orders coming from the trainer, and she truly looked like she belonged in the ring. She looked comfortable, like a natural. How long had she been coming here? And why hadn’t he noticed her before today?

So focused was he on looking at the woman in the ring, he failed to see the two men approach him from either side. Until it was too late.

“What are you looking at, newbie?” the blond on his right asked him. His tone was less than welcoming and not exactly friendly.

“Just checking out the scenery.” Not sure what this was all about, he didn’t take his eyes off the woman in the ring.

“Maybe you need to check out the scenery somewhere else,” a dark-haired guy, who looked just as unfriendly, spoke in a low voice on the other side. “We don’t like anyone looking at her too long. Who are you? We haven’t seen you around here.”

Sizing the two guys up, he noticed the look of someone who had seen too much on the battlefield. He was sure they saw the same thing when they looked at him. Stefano didn’t want to mix it up with these guys, but damn, he was only looking at the woman. Who was this lady anyway that she warranted two protectors?

“I’m new to the area. Just moved here about three months ago.” Pulling himself up, he made sure they knew he wasn’t backing down. “Listen, I’m just watching the lady in the ring. Is that a problem?”

“Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. You just need to make sure that’s all you do.” The blond guy spoke this time.

“Ethan? Tony? What are you doing?” He heard a woman’s husky voice from over his shoulder.

He hadn’t noticed that the woman in the ring had stopped fighting or had walked over to the side of the ring closest to him and her two protectors. Damn, he must be off his game. That was now twice in a matter of minutes that he’d been caught off guard. Her voice was silky smooth, and without all that sweat covering her face, she was even more beautiful than he’d first thought. He couldn’t help but wonder, who were these guys to her? Hopefully they weren’t going to cause him any trouble, because she was definitely someone he would like to know better.

*****

Adele could not help but notice the fine-ass man talking to Ethan and Tony and wondered what they were discussing. More to the point, she wondered what Tony and Ethan were threatening him about. Tony and Ethan looked downright surly, and so, of course, her curiosity was piqued. While training in the ring with Tyler, she’d noticed the tall, dark-haired guy stop and watch her from the sidelines. Too focused on not messing up, she hadn’t thought much about it and had ignored him enough to focus on her workout without getting too distracted. Tyler wouldn’t have been happy if she was paying attention to something else, especially a man, while training with him.

She thought that maybe she was a novelty for him to watch, recognizing that not many women came into Hank’s. She could understand why he may have stopped to observe her training. In reality, she wasn’t just any woman, and everybody knew it. Well, everyone except for him. She had earned the right to be in this gym by virtue of her past and what she had needed to learn when she had walked through that door the very first time. While the average member of the gym didn’t know that, Hank and her brothers did, to some degree, and that was all that mattered. If she remained the only woman who ever darkened the door of this gym, it would be just fine with her. Plus, the regulars knew she was protected by five guys who could be very unfriendly when they chose to be, so she was left to her own devices.

“Ethan, why aren’t you guys paying attention to me? Who’s your new friend?” Glancing at the man standing tall and holding her gaze in his, she almost turned tail and walked away. Almost.

“Nobody you need to know.” Without glancing her way, Ethan was the one who responded to the question.

“Well, good gracious guys, don’t be rude.” Leaning over the rope, she removed one of her sparring gloves and extended her right hand to the stranger, ignoring the frowns that quickly formed on the faces of both Ethan and Tony. “Hi. I’m Adele Woolner. Don’t let these guys give you a hard time.”

Without a second’s hesitation, he grasped her hand in his, his deep velvet voice reaching her ears. “Hello, Adele. My name is Stefano. Stefano Indellicati. Nice to meet you.” As he spoke, he looked into her eyes and she felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her body. She quickly removed her hand from his and rubbed it against her leg.

When she saw his eyes drop to her hand, she knew he’d caught the motion. His mouth quirked up to the side, and she realized he was aware of how his touch had affected her. His half smile sent a silent message that she really wanted the chance to answer. Stepping back slightly, she knew she wasn’t ready to admit—not even to herself—that she was prepared to accept what he had to offer. She had forgotten that they had an audience observing their exchange, so she almost jumped out of her skin when Tony spoke up.

“Adele, Tyler’s waiting for you in the ring.” Tony’s look was searching, trying to find out if she was intimidated by the stranger standing in front of her. Not that she could blame him. She had never been this tongue-tied by anyone else. Protecting her was all they knew how to do, so she couldn’t fault them for reacting this way. But damn, couldn’t she at least look at a man without them going into stealth, killer assassin mode?

“Oh, right! I’m going back now.” Giving Stefano a sweet smile, she almost reached out her hand again, but changed her mind. “It was nice meeting you, Stefano. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“Yes, I’m sure you will.”

Adele turned away from the group and made her way back over to Tyler on the other side of the ring. Damn! Did Italian men take lessons in how to make a woman melt? His voice was like aged brandy, and the look he threw her way was full of heat and promise. Sure, it was nice to look and all, but she wasn’t ready to start something with anyone right now.

However, in all honesty, she couldn’t lie to herself—seeing his hungry gaze roam over her body made her feel very sexy. She hadn’t felt that way in a long time, and she had to admit that it felt damn good.

*****

Stefano watched Adele walk back over to another blond guy and could not help but admire the woman who had enchanted him with just a brief smile. When he lifted his head in acknowledgement to her boxing trainer, the guy threw a look Stefano’s way that definitely raised his hackles. What the hell was going on here? Three protectors! He hoped she wasn’t his girlfriend, or worse, his wife. It was not his style to hone in on another man’s wife. Adele was someone he really wanted to know better and he hoped there was nothing, and no one, that would prevent him from doing just that.

Grabbing his workout towel, he turned away from the luscious vision in front of him, knowing it was time to begin hitting the bags. That woman had his body heating up from the inside out, and sporting an erection in a gym full of men was not the way to go. Seeing his way still blocked by the two guys, he sighed deeply. Damn, he really didn’t need this shit. He was only appreciating a beautiful woman. Why did these guys have to get so uptight about it?

“Listen, man, we don’t know you. But let me give you a warning. That woman back there…don’t fuck with her. She’s off-limits.” If his memory was correct, Ethan was the one who had just given him that dire warning.

He did not appreciate anyone telling him what he could or could not do. For the sake of keeping the peace, he refrained from putting this guy on his ass.

“I was just saying hello. But I tell you what, I’ll stay out of your way and you stay the fuck out of mine. You’re right—you don’t know me. Don’t underestimate me just because I’m new.” Taking a step to move around the dark-haired one—Tony, if he remembered correctly—he looked up when his way was blocked again.

“That woman over there, she’s like a sister to us. You don’t need to be sniffing around her. You finish your workout and move the fuck on. If she wants your attention, we’ll make sure you know.” Tony’s warning was just an ominous as Ethan’s, but being the man he was, a little warning was nothing he couldn’t handle.

Laughing, Stefano sized up the two towering tree trunks blocking his way. If he went toe-to-toe with both of them at once, they might think they could take him. Maybe they could, maybe they couldn’t, but he would make sure they never forgot the experience. However, since they seemed to be connected to that woman in the ring, it wouldn’t help his case if he went off on them and tore up the place just because they pissed him off.

“Well, maybe she needs to be the one to decide that. You’re not around her all the time, and she
is
a grown woman.” With that, he walked away and began preparing for his workout.

*****

“Come on, Tony, let me fuck him up. Sorry ass newbie.” Ethan’s deep growl caught Tony’s attention as he watched the guy walk away from them.