Her Venice Affair (The Albury Affairs) (26 page)

She rubbed his hairy jaw. “But we have to get rid of
this first. She won’t recognize you with all this hair.”

Then her eyes moved to his shoulder and he saw the joy
seep out of her eyes. He cupped her cheek and turned her head away, but her
eyes stayed rooted on his scar. She lifted her hand to touch it again but he
caught it before she could.

“Riana,” he groaned when he saw the tears start to
fall. “Please don’t cry.”

“Can you get them removed?” she whispered before she
turned her eyes to him, “I don’t…I don’t want a reminder and I don’t want
Aurora to ever see them.”

He nodded. While he was at it, he was going to get
tested for the cancer gene. He had a family, and he needed to make sure Aurora
and the other children he was sure they would have were risk free. He wouldn’t
be able to handle it if he passed something so horrible to them.

“I’ll get it done as soon as possible, I promise.”

She nodded wiping her face dry, and then leaned against
him, her head tucked under his chin. “Good.”

Chapter Fourteen

Riana couldn’t stop laughing.

“Will you quit it?”

Riana knew he was getting irate with her but she just
couldn’t stop laughing. Getting his hair cut and shaving his beard were
understandable. In fact, they were a necessity. But what she didn’t get was his
insistence to wear a suit and get all fashioned up like he was going to a
business meeting and not to meet his daughter.

It took a lot of convincing, but she got him to dress
in jeans and a black T-shirt. After she warned him of Aurora messing up his
suit with sticky fingers and food, he thought it best not to wear white.

She borrowed some of Melody’s clothes, hoping that she
really wouldn’t mind—as Allan had promised—and also stayed away from the
whites.

He looked even more anxious and pale standing at her
door than on their trip to her apartment.

The moment the sun was up they had left the hotel and
went to his apartment. The first thing he did was go into the bathroom to
shave. He’d already lathered the cream when she asked him to let her do the
honors. It was something she did for her brother that bonded them even tighter
when she was younger.

Shaving was a rite of passage a teenage boy shared
with his father. Their mother had cried so much because of it, and all the
other things a father was to share with his children that they were denied. But
Reno and Riana hadn’t dwelled on it because they had decided long ago they
wouldn’t let that man make them feel like they’d missed out.

So they’d muddled through his first shaving—he did the
parts he could see and she did the parts he couldn’t. She’d enjoyed it much
more than hiding his dirty magazines from their mother. At the age of twelve,
seeing what was in them scared her half to death. She’d decided she didn’t want
to grow up. She was so scared of getting big boobs.

She went as far as locking herself in her room when
she got her period.

Reno had picked the lock and opened the door. They’d
sat in silence—she trying futilely to shrink away in the corner and him sitting
at the foot just staring at her like he was trying to read her. Which of
course, he could always do. Then after a long while, he’d told her he was
leaving for a moment and he’d be right back.

He’d came back ten minutes later with a brown paper
bag and offered it to her. Riana took it, thinking it was candy, only to find
tampons in it. She thought she was going to die from the embarrassment. She was
sure she would when he began a lecture on the girl’s anatomy and menstrual
cycle like he was talking about the weather.

She never thought she could love her brother more than
at that moment.

Their mother was a little disappointed she’d lost that
mother daughter experience but she was glad Reno was there. That was the day
she stopped feeling guilty over not having their father around.

So, from that day forward she shaved her brother, hid
his dirty magazines, and played defense against his ex-girlfriends, and he
became the male figure a shy, quiet, and lonely little girl desperately needed
in her life.

She felt the emotion choke her when she thought of how
he’d also been there for her as she mourned Allan, putting his own personal
problems aside just for her.

If Riana could get her hands on Reno’s wife Jolie, she
would choke her!

As she’d shaved Allan—she had to sit on the vanity
with him standing between her legs—she told him all about this including the
cheating, runaway sister-in-law. On Jolie’s part, he said the best revenge was
finding Reno another woman who would make him happy. He went as far as
suggesting Loraine—a suggestion that made Riana laugh but thinking about it, it
didn’t sound so bad.

And on the rest, he said he was grateful she had Reno
in her life, and more grateful that he was there to take care of Riana and
Aurora when Allan couldn’t. That’s when he told her about the fear he carried
of loving a woman more than his children.

He told her about his father, letting the cancer kill
him so that he could join his wife, leaving his two children alone. They were
grown and capable of fending for themselves but Allan had felt betrayed until
the day he lost Riana. She understood that, but she also understood Allan’s
father.

She had thought about killing herself to join Allan a
few times, but Aurora moving inside her had always kept her from carrying
through. She knew Allan would want his child born no matter what, and his
confession proved her right.

After what seemed like hours of having a heart-to-heart
in the company of shaving cream, a razor, and toiletries, hosted in a bathroom
that was only seen in hotels like The Ritz, he pulled her forward, shredded her
panties as he pushed his boxers down, and made love to her with such vigor it
had her bending backward with her hands pressed against the mirror at her head.
She steamed it up with her heavy breathing, moans, and cries of ecstasy as she
watched him devour her body with his hands, mouth and cock.

The memory made her shiver.

It wasn’t a surprise, really, that they had ended up
in that situation. They had always had an insatiable appetite for one another.

“Riana, would you stop thinking about my bathroom and
open the door? I’d like to meet my daughter
without
a hard-on!”

She chuckled, “Oh. Sorry.” She inserted the key and
turned the lock. She heard him suck in a breath when it clicked open. She
turned the knob and asked before she pushed the door open. “Ready?”

He let out a long breath and shook his body to relieve
the tension. That action was also returning the color in his cheeks. “What’s
wrong with me? I’m going to meet my daughter not Sinclair Enterprise’s board of
directors.”

She knew she shouldn’t tease him but…“No, honey. You
do that a week from now.”

His eyes narrowed when he turned to face her. “Funny,
Riana. Real funny.”

She laughed, pushing the door open and pulling him in.
She had just closed the door when she heard small running feet and a high-pitched
voice scream, “Daddy!”

She felt like she was going to cry but she wasn’t sure
from what though—her daughter running to Allan screaming ‘daddy’ or her hand
being crushed in Allan’s tightening grip.

* * * *

The word fear wasn’t enough to describe the flood of
terror that filled him when he saw her.

He looked into the big brown eyes that stared up at
him and listened to her shrilly giggles that filled him, pushing the fear out as
she jumped up and down.

“She’s beautiful,” he whispered as he watched her
chant ‘daddy’ in a singsong voice as she danced around, her unruly, curly,
black bob of hair moving with her.

She seemed fascinated by how her hair moved around her
head, covering her face when she paused, her head turned to the side. It
reminded him of how Riana used to dance around, her hair flying all over her
face until it completely blinded her. She would trip over her feet and Allan always
had to stay alert to catch her before her ass touched the ground.

She looked so much like Riana—happy and carefree.

He was amazed by the instant love he felt for his
daughter. Since the moment he’d known about her he’d loved her, but it stunned
him how hard the emotion hit him when he saw her and heard her voice.

It was like getting hit by a freight train and he
wasn’t sure he’d ever feel steady again.

His heart was beating so fast he wasn’t sure it was
normal. Maybe he was having a heart attack.

I have a
daughter, and I love her so much it takes my breath away!

He felt a hand on his cheek and he turned to look down
at Riana.

“She doesn’t know the difference between happy and sad
tears. Seeing them will make her cry, too.”

Allan nodded, and batted his tears away like Riana.

His daughter stopped dancing and moved closer to him.
Her head leaned right back as she looked up at him, her head turned to the
side, silently inspecting him. He noticed she barely reached his knee. He also
noticed that the fear was rushing back.

She threw her hands up. “Up! Up!”

Wide eyed, Allan turned to Riana. “What should I do?”

Riana chuckled. “Pick her up before she screams the
roof down?”

“Up!”

The demanding shriek made him jump.

He bent down, placed his hands under her arms, and
straightened, holding her out.

“Am I doing this right?”

Riana laughed. “Hold her closer.”

He pulled Aurora to his chest and sat her on his
forearm. His daughter just stared at him and he felt like she could see right
through him! It was the most uncomfortable and scary feeling ever!

Then Aurora placed her hands on his cheeks and pushed
them in until his lips were puckered. She leaned in, pressed her lips against
his, pulled away, shrieked out a laugh and jumped out of his arms and into
Riana’s.

For a moment he thought he was going to drop her and
his heart stopped but Riana was waiting with her arms out, like she knew she
was going to do that.

Aurora let out the sweetest laugh he’d ever heard and
hid her face in Riana’s neck, in a split moment of shyness before she pulled
her away and announced loudly, “Mommy, kissy daddy!”

“Yeah, I saw that,” Riana responded kissing her small
pink cheek. “How are you? Mommy missed you.”

Aurora kissed her back. “Mish you too!”

“She can talk!” Allan exclaimed, shocked, and then he immediately
felt silly. She was two months away from turning two. And she just yelled ‘up’
at him. Damn, all those years in the middle of the ocean with no company must
have made his mind mush. It had done a number on his social skills—he no longer
had any.

Riana laughed. “Yes, she can.”

“And she loves the guys.”

Allan turned to Loraine’s voice. It had been so long
since he’d seen her. Besides her shorter, shoulder length hair, she hadn’t
changed one bit. His smiled grew when he saw his sister follow behind Loraine.
She looked happy, relaxed. Two things he’d denied her.

Riana sighed. “I know. Did she kiss the door man
again?”

Melody laughed. “And the pizza deliveryman. Bro, I
think you need to invest in a shot gun as soon as possible.” She waved at him.
“Sorry, I couldn’t wait to meet my niece.”

He heard Aurora whine and turned to see her leaning
toward him, her face creased in distress as she repeated something incoherent
to him.

Loraine groaned. “Please take her before she starts
screaming. I swear that kid is spoiled rotten!”

Allan took her and she went quiet, staring at him like
she could see through him again. He was never going to get used it.

Then she smiled and giggled, “Daddy,
pway
wit me!”

“Pray?”

“Play,” Riana corrected. “She wants you to play with
her.”

Allan felt a little unsettled. “She doesn’t even know
me.”

The moment those words came out, he knew he was wrong.
He turned to look at Riana who was watching them with so much love and
happiness in her eyes. This wonderful woman had made sure his daughter knew
him. He wasn’t starting fresh with Aurora, she made him feel like he had been
around from the moment she was born and he’d just come back from a long trip.

He was her daddy because her mommy told her so, and
that’s all she needed to know to love him.

Loraine snorted, pulling his attention. “Doesn’t stop
her from kissing every guy she sees.”

Yeah, five minutes of being a father and already he
was thinking about ringing some necks. This interest of hers had to stop.

“Honey, we need to have a conversation about boys.”

With a raised brow she said, “
Uh
?”

The ladies in the room laughed and Allan was beginning
to feel more relaxed.

Riana tucked herself under his arm and wrapped her
arms around his waist. He wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and this
sudden anxiety filled him. While Riana answered Aurora’s enthused gibber, all
he could think about was that he was holding his family in his arms and he
could never ever allow himself to be a coward again. They needed a man who was
strong, ready to defend them when threatened, to make the hard decisions they
couldn’t. To provide for them and carry the burden so they wouldn’t worry, to
support them and cheer on when they needed that boost of confidence, and to
give them the love that only he could give to make them strong enough to face
and conquer the world.

He turned to Aurora when she patted his cheek to gain
his attention and began to speak again. Some words he understood, others he had
no clue, but she spoke like what she was saying was very important and he gave
her all his attention, nodding and answering what he understood and what he
couldn’t, he waited for Riana to translate.