Page 127 of South Beach Bodyguards

I didn’t think of myself as someone who has nothing to say but Alejandro kept rendering me speechless. I realized I had made a mistake. That I hadn’t known him well in the years since Max had gone missing. Either Alejandro had changed or I had done a poor job of assessing his feelings back when he was a teenager. “This isn’t how I expected this to play out, I have to admit. Just forget I asked. Thanks for helping me move.” Now leave. That’s what I was thinking. Just get the fuck out of my house and stop insulting me.

“You’re welcome.” He didn’t move. He just watched me.

My cheeks felt hot from anger. His stare had me flustered. “It’s nice to see you. Let’s just start over on the right foot again. Forget I mentioned the whole baby thing. I don’t want to argue with you.”

It was a personality trait or flaw, some might say. I didn’t like to argue or fight with anyone. Just like that, I reversed and essentially apologized. I realized I had always done that with Max too. Max had taken advantage of it, I could admit that.

But Alejandro just shook his head. “We’re not arguing. I’m just communicating with you. Just making sure we are clear and on the same page. You couldn’t have thought that I would just hand over sperm without some questions.”

Maybe I had. I wasn’t even sure now. But I had made a plan and Alejandro wasn’t cooperating with it. “I didn’t expect that you would attack the integrity of my relationship with Max.” Damn, that sounded way more pompous than I had intended.

His eyebrows rose. “So you’re telling me that you have no doubts about Max’s perfection? That he was totally ethical, aboveboard, and never had a lie pass his lips in the entirety of the time you knew him?”

Guilt niggled at me. I couldn’t say that. I knew full well Max had been engaged in illegal activity. But I couldn’t betray him now. Nor was I going to admit that our relationship had flaws because it made me look stupid. “Of course I can’t say that. Everyone lies at some point. But you are implying he was evil and that isn’t true.”

No one had seen Max take care of me when I got the flu. How he had held my hair back while I threw up and made sure I had fluids and changed my sweat-soaked T-shirt with tender hands. Evil people don’t do those things.

What most people are is somewhere in between saint and Satan. They are shades of gray.

Look at me. I considered myself a decent person who wanted to cook and make a baby.

Yet I had been a drug dealer. An unintentional one, but a drug dealer nonetheless.

Not that Alejandro knew that.

But that was my point. He didn’t know everything about Max and me.

But I guess that was his point, too. I didn’t know everything about him and Max.

“Evil is a very dramatic word for it,” he said. “I would say selfish and narcissistic, definitely, like I said.” Alejandro gave me a smile. “I’m going to head out. Just think about it. I’ll be around if you want to talk. Or if you want to make a baby.”

It still didn’t make sense to me, what he wanted. “If you don’t have any love lost for your brother, then why would you be willing to help me?”

The smile turned sly, sensual. “Because I love you. My answer is the same as yours.”

That wasn’t reassuring at all. I just felt suspicious of him. It was an odd feeling in relation to Alejandro. “And on that note, goodnight, Alejandro.”

He just laughed. He didn’t try to convince me or explain himself further. “Goodnight, Miranda. Sleep tight.”

I didn’t think he would leave. But he just pulled open the door and started down the walk. His words reverberated in my confused brain.

Because I love you.

And suddenly I was going out the door after him. “Alejandro. Wait.”

He turned immediately, his expression curious, but not casual. He might think he fooled other people with his casual charm, but I knew him better. I did. Maybe I didn’t know everything. Hell, maybe I knew next to nothing. But I knew Alejandro had deep, loyal feelings for those he cared about. He stuck. He was a kind, caring man.

If he said he loved me, he did.

That right there was why I wanted him to be the father of my child.

My heart was racing and I opened my mind. I could lie and say I hadn’t been lonely or that I hadn’t missed the touch of a man who knew me, who genuinely cared about me. Hookups are not the same thing.

This wouldn’t be a commitment, but it was a relationship. This would only expand on the connection we already had and would give us both exactly what we wanted.

“I…” For some reason the words got stuck in my throat.

God, he was right. I wanted a dominant man. I wanted him to tell me. I wanted him to take me.

---