Page 79 of Falling for the Enemy

“I’m so sorry, Ari!” Clutching her chest as if she’s half a second from going into cardiac arrest, a red-faced Anna stands inside my now open bedroom door, a textbook clutched beneath her arm, phone in hand. “I’ll just…” She hooks her thumb and points toward the hall behind her. “Go.”

Her eyes flick to the side of my bed.

And that’s when I see him.

Standing by the mattress, red and black decorative pillow shielding his khui from our unexpected guest’s eyes, a nude Alejandro looks to me for help, crimson tinting his cheekbones.

Anna isn’t the only one embarrassed.

I smile at the realization.

“I’ll meet you downstairs, love,” I say, worried that she may pass out from humiliation before she finds the strength to turn and exit. That would rile Casper up like nothing else. “Then I’ll help you with whatever it is you need, da?”

Homework, I’m guessing.

She nods. “Okay.” Palming her forehead, she darts her gaze back to Alejandro. “Sorry, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Scary.” I choke down a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be in here.”

Visibly swallowing, she shakes her head.

“Especially someone with a…” She gestures toward the square pillow he’s using as a shield with a wild, sweeping gesture. “Penis.”

An expression I never would’ve suspected the kingpin capable of wearing contorts his handsome face. He looks as if he wishes the floor would open up and consume him whole.

It’s comical, to say the least.

Climbing off the mattress, I wrap my sheet around me like a toga, covering the bruises Alejandro’s unrelenting grip from last night left on my hips. “Anna, breathe.”

Wide-eyed, she sucks in an audible breath, her mortification apparently having destroyed her ability to function.

“Now head downstairs and wait for me. I’m sure Mina, along with your brother, is already waiting in the dining room.”

On an exhale, she dips her chin.

“Alejandro and I will join—”

“Hold the frick on!” a new voice calls out through the phone, the realization that Anna is FaceTiming someone momentarily knocking me off-kilter. “Did she just say Alejandro?”

It’s now that I recognize the voice.

My bedmate too, judging by his expression.

“Alejandro who?” his niece continues. “Tell me she isn’t talking about my uncle, Anna!”

The kingpin’s eyes close, his free hand rising to his face. Pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers, he shakes his head. “Mierda, I’ll never hear the end of this.”

“Uh…” At a loss for words once more, Anna lifts her phone and turns the front-view camera toward the kingpin. “Is this guy your uncle?”

Jade replies with a shocked scream.

“Oh my God!” she yells, parroting Anna’s words from seconds before, the sounds of her footsteps as she bounds down what sounds like a flight of hardwood stairs reverberating through the speaker. “Mama C, you’re not going to believe this!”

Snapping out of the daze he’s spent the last minute in, the kingpin shoves his hand into the duffle that sits on the edge of the mattress and pulls out a pair of clean sweats.

Clearly, he was dressing when she barged in.

“Hermosa, help me out here,” he begs, continuing to hold the pillow in place with his right hand while he slips one leg of his pants on with his left. “If my sister—”

I open my mouth to repeat my demand for Anna to head downstairs, but it’s too late.

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