Page 17 of Vaquero
Chapter Six
Meg eyed the two men across from her. Craig and Julio were awfully quiet. Too serious. Her heart thudded to a full stop. Those were tears in Julio’s eyes. No. Had Dom died? Was that why Julio looked like he was—
She jumped to her feet, her heart pounding. No child in her care had ever died. Dom wasn’t the first, was he?Oh, please, no.Not my sweet little baby.
Stumbling in her haste to get to him, she bumped someone’s drink when she grabbed onto the end of the table to keep from falling. Liquid flew everywhere. She went down to her hands and knees anyway.
“Craig. Julio,” she called out. “Is he…? Is Dom…?” She couldn’t say it. Couldn’t bear to think it.No, no, no. He’s too little, too sweet to die.
Julio’s head jerked up. His eyes were red. Those were definitely tears streaking his sad, dirty face. He looked away, as if he couldn’t bear to tell her. Damn it. Dom was gone. It had finally happened. That sweet little guy had died and she hadn’t been with him.
“No,” she ground out as she crawled to her baby’s side. Her heart was ripped apart, yet it urged her to run to him when it knew damned well that was the last thing she could do.
“Meg, my good heavens, let me help you up,” Marta called out as she eased Maria off her lap.
But by then Craig had lifted to his feet and was headed Meg’s way. “Up you go,” he said as he took hold of her elbow and held her steady, allowing her enough time to shift her weight onto her right foot and catch her balance.
Finally on both feet, she asked Julio, “Is he…?” She couldn’t bear to say the word. “Did he…?”Please, just read my mind and say no.
“He’s eating,” Julio murmured very quietly. “Dom’s finally awake and eating, Meg. You did it. You saved him.”
“He also seems to like the guy you brought home with you,” Craig announced, slapping Julio’s broad back with a resounding smack. “Guess I’d better make more bread.”
Julio never flinched, but his lips thinned as if there were more he wanted to tell her.
“Then why are you crying?” she yelled at this stoic, emotionless man. “How could you do this to me?” By then she was on the ground next to him and all but sitting on his lap, her need to see Dominic so strong she could’ve torn Julio’s shirt off to get at that boy. “I th-thought…” She choked, her poor heart still recovering from what might’ve been. “You guys were so quiet, and I thought—” Her words caught in her heart.
Julio shook his head, the tender light in his eyes gone as hard as flint. “Don’t even think it, Meg. Dom’s a prizefighter. He’s tough and he is going to live, damn it. Say it with me. Dominic will live. I damned well know that he will.”
She burst into tears. “Dominic will live,” she repeated, then said it again. “Dominic will live. He’s going to make it. Right?”
Nodding, Julio parted his unbuttoned shirt and peeled one side of it back. “See for yourself.”
Aww, there he was, her tiniest orphan, laying comfortable against Julio’s taut, but orange-stained belly. Looked like Julio had given him some bread dipped in that sticky breakfast drink. There were orange crumbs stuck in one corner of his lips and his chin.
Dom blinked up fiercely, trying to see Meg against the blinding light of the first day of the rest of his life. He didn’t say anything, and he looked like he still had a long recovery ahead of him. But he’d eaten, and he looked better, somehow. Or maybe it was the magnificent wall of muscle his tiny palm rested against. Or the smattering of crisp, black chest hairs beneath his head.
Meg couldn’t help but breathe in the masculine scent cocooning her youngest child. Was that what made a difference in Dom, all those wonderful alpha-male pheromones surrounding him? They were working on her.
She drew in another deep breath, then reached into that protected hideaway and let her hands melt all over that smiling baby boy’s body. And Julio’s. She kind of melted all over him, too. But he didn’t seem to mind when her fingernails scraped his skin as she lifted Dom to her lips and kissed his forehead.
Julio’s arm snaked solidly around her, his other still carefully holding Dom steady while she fell apart and cried.
Something sparked between Julio and Meg then. They were so close. Too close.
Somehow, her hungry mouth found Julio’s. Lightning sizzled. Thunder flared. That strong arm held onto her as Julio lowered his head and kissed the bejesus out of her. All lips. No tongue. But her heart screamed with fire for more. For everything!
Everyone else and the kids were still gathered out there somewhere, but right here in this moment, in this intimate bubble, there was only one strong man, a very frightened, but eternally thankful woman, and her littlest angel.
“Dominic is going to live,” she mumbled through her tears and around Julio’s warm, sensual, but tightly sealed lips.
He took a breath and whispered back, “Dominicwilllive. Say it again.”
So she did. Like a couple of idiots, they told each other again and again that, “Dominicwilllive.”
Finally spent, she bowed her head and broke the tender connection with a guy she didn’t really know. What just happened? It was hard to swallow or catch her breath. Something was stuck in her throat. Felt a lot like her heart.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered for his ears only. “I… I…” Why couldn’t she form intelligent words around this man? “I don’t know why I did that.”
