Pretty Packages (34 page)

“When did you get this ring?” Giada asked
Kentucky
, getting back to the previous subject after taking a deep breath to compose herself again. “To my knowledge, you haven’t been out of the house since we came back last night.”

“I got that ring before I left for
Africa
. I gave it to Mama for safekeeping,”
Kentucky
explained.

“She watched over it all this time. Even after I tried to give it to her in my anger toward you, Mama still deemed it your ring and never wore it. She gave it back this morning while you were showering.”

Giada’s eyes watered. “Thanks for keeping it for me, Mama Jones.”

“You’re welcome.” Hannah smiled, getting up to finally clear the table. Those dirty dishes had been tolerated long enough. A silent Malik moved to help her.

“Had this ring been presented to me before now, I might have sold it and given the money to the school like I did with the funds from my engagement ring,” Giada said, letting them in on a little secret as she moved to help clear the dishes.

“I was wondering where you got so much money to make that sizable donation,”
Kentucky
said, pulling her back into his lap. His stepmother had already insisted upon spoiling them over the next few days. Thus there was no need for Giada to move an inch to do anything but kiss and make love to him.

“You know about my donation to the school?” Giada asked with wide eyes. “But how? I sent that money in a cashier’s check. Used a PO box for the return address.”

Kentucky
grinned. “As the new CFO of the
Hardy
Jones
Academy
, it’s my job to know where
all
money comes from and goes to at the school. Following the money is also how I found out that my cousin Millsap has been sending funds to the school through his legitimate businesses,” he replied, inadvertently sharing a secret of his own in that response.

That secret?
Kentucky
was giving up the bodyguard business for good and taking on a regular nine-to-five job.

“As your new husband, it’s also my job to find out how you feel about living in
Village
Square,
Georgia
full-time. I can commute to work if you’re not ready to leave
Florida
yet on account of work and school.”

“You’re leaving it up to
me
to decide where we live?” Giada couldn’t believe he wasn’t taking charge like before.

“Yes. I had a long time to think about what might have gone wrong in our relationship. I realized that I was too domineering at times,”
Kentucky
shared. “I think it was because I didn’t want you leading me around by the nose like you’d done all your other men. Plus, I thought about how, if I had listened to you about that African assignment, I could have saved all of us a whole lot of heartache and pain.”

“But then you never would have met Malik,” Hannah said, returning to the table for more dishware. “Which means
I
never would have met Malik.” She turned to smile at the African man coming from the kitchen.

“She’s got a point there, baby,” Giada said, noting how amorously the older couple stared at each other.

“So I guess everything worked out in the end, huh?”
Kentucky
said, kissing the side of his wife’s neck.

“Guess so.” Giada moaned.

“Let’s go back to bed, baby,”
Kentucky
suggested.

“Please do,” Hannah inserted, “before y’all start rubbing off on
other
people.” She nodded in Malik’s direction.

Giada chuckled at the ardent look on Malik’s face. The man looked like he wanted to kiss Hannah at that very second.

“Malik, you might want to go watch TV while Mama cleans the kitchen
alone
,”
Kentucky
said with special emphasis.

“Yes, television sounds very good right now, Kosey,” Malik said with a sheepish look before quickly making his way to the den.

“Stop scaring the poor man,” Giada said, poking him in the side before rising to her feet.

“Scare Malik? Please.”
Kentucky
chuckled, standing to his feet as well. “
His
nickname should be Kosey, because he has the heart of a lion way more than me. It was Malik that taught me how to hunt all kinds of wild animals. Plus, I saw him personally spear a lion to death when it tried to get at one of the village goats,”
Kentucky
continued as he and his wife exited the room.

* * * *

Behind them, Hannah’s mouth dropped open in shock. She had no idea Malik was so courageous since
Kentucky
had neglected to share certain African experiences with her. He hadn’t wanted to alarm her about the other dangers he encountered in the motherland.

“I think somebody deserves a kiss anyway.” Hannah headed for the den. How could she not kiss the man who not only took care of her stepson when he was injured, but also taught
Kentucky
how to survive in the African wild?

Chapter Thirty-One

Much later, Giada spooned on the large bed against
Kentucky
’s sweat-drenched chest. They’d just made enough love for five newlywed couples and a few celebrating their anniversaries. And even though they were resting now, they were still connected in the most intimate of ways.

“I’m going to make a doctor’s appointment this week so we can start on our family,” Giada said after their breathing patterns had regulated again.

“Great. No need to waste all this good seed.”
Kentucky
chuckled behind her.

“I know, that’s right.” Giada laughed, too, squeezing her thighs together and using her inner walls to clench him.

Kentucky
moaned at her actions.

Giada moaned right after him when she felt his lower body stir with excitement, causing him to pulse inside of her.

“By the way, where are we gonna raise these kids? You never did give me an answer about whether you wanted to live in
Florida
or
Georgia
,”
Kentucky
said, continuing their conversation in a huskier tone.

“I think it would be cheaper to live in
Georgia
considering the cost of commuting. I don’t think I would have much trouble finding a job there. Only thing is, I don’t know if my scholarship is transferable.”

“It is.”
Kentucky
bent to kiss her neck.

Giada looked over her shoulder. “How do you know that?”

“Because I’m the benefactor behind that scholarship. I have been from the beginning,” he confessed as he began to move within her wet depths again.

Giada’s eyes widened. “Now I feel bad for getting mad at you for making me stick to a budget and get a job, for thinking
I
was the one constantly giving up things for the relationship. You’ve been making sacrifices all along for me. The biggest one is when you went to
Africa
just to afford some big wedding that I don’t even want anymore.”

Kentucky
suddenly stopped moving. “You sure you don’t want a big formal wedding? Not even just a little bit?”

Giada chuckled. “Okay, maybe just a little bit, but I definitely want you more. Now that I finally have you, I don’t need all the frills. As you recall, I married you in somebody’s living room with no wedding dress, no tuxedo, and no ring.”

“Can I give you that dream wedding anyway?” He started to stroke inside of her again.

“Only if you let me pay for half of it. Plus, I need to tweak it a bit since I no longer want the same level of extravagance.” Giada faced forward again, closed her eyes, and moaned at the wonders of
Kentucky
’s lovemaking. The man was lethal with his hips.

Suddenly he stopped.

* * * *

“Are you sitting on money somewhere, Giada?”
Kentucky
asked upon pausing their lovemaking. This was the first time she ever offered to go half on anything. Now that he thought more about it, she’d also offered to pay for an elopement trip to Vegas.

Was
Giada sitting on a stack of money? If so, how?

“I got a small nest egg from the sale of my house across the street. It’s actually a big nest egg considering the fact that I sold it for way more than it was worth.” Giada grinded against him.

“Baby, please go back to what you’re doing. It felt so good.”

Kentucky
moaned this time and started moving again. “We’ll see what you can do to get your house back. No use both of us losing our houses.” The house he’d owned had been razed to the ground soon after being sold. He still didn’t know why the new owner had done that. The house had been in mint condition, livable for many years to come.

“I already have my house back.” When Giada told him how she got it back,
Kentucky
stopped moving again and actually disengaged them.

“What’s the name of the Realtor Fabian used to buy your house?” he said, sitting upright in bed.

When she told him,
Kentucky
sprang to his feet and started pacing the floor, oblivious to his nakedness. “He used the same Realtor to buy my house above and beyond the asking price, too. No wonder he had it torn down right after buying it. And a review of the school’s books revealed that this same Realtor made an offer on the school’s land.”

“What!” Giada sat upright now.

“Which means Fabian has been working behind the scenes for a while now, trying to take nearly everything we owned so that he could use it against us one way or the other. And I have no proof, but I’m starting to think he had something to do with me getting that African assignment with Jamie. Jamie said that I came highly recommended by a friend of his, but he never would tell me who that friend was.” As
Kentucky
paced the floor, his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.

“I guess the joke’s on Fabian, because we still ended up with each other and with most of our original possessions. We also now have fatter bank accounts because of him,” Giada noted, trying to calm
Kentucky
down by appealing to his common sense.

Kentucky
abruptly stopped pacing and looked at her. “You’re right. The joke is on him,” he said as a slow smile spread across his face. “Now where were we?” he asked, giving her a heated look as his anger was swallowed up in rising desire.

“I believe you were right
here
,” Giada said, directing his attention to her hot core as she spread her legs in invitation.

Kentucky
licked his lips as he approached the bed again. Within seconds, he was back where he belonged, joined to the hilt, as one with his beloved wife.

* * * *

It took three days for Lloyd to learn the story of
Kentucky
’s miraculous survival in
Africa
. It had taken every connection he had to get even the basic details about the man’s sudden reappearance since this was a story that
Kentucky
intended to keep to himself until he finished writing the book about his experience. One hundred percent of the proceeds of this book would be donated to help the foster kids at his boarding school.