Chapter 47.

*****

I let out a breath as I turned over but my eyes opened when my arm landed on a pillow. Where is he?

"Morning." I looked up and saw Sergio seated on the edge of the bed smiling at me.

"How long have you been up?" I asked as I sat up. He leaned over and gave me a kiss quickly.

"Long enough to notice that you chew in your sleep and mumble stuff about tigers." He chuckled giving me a look that asked why I was mumbling about that particular thing.

"I like tigers..." I mumbled, "That's creepy, Sergio..." I said half joking and half because I felt like it was since he had just been sitting there watching me sleep.

"Some would say it's romantic." He said.

I laughed. "Some are pretty weird." He laughed as I spoke, "What do you know about romance, Sergio?" I asked.

He smiled shrugging. "There is a lot of me you haven't seen, Alexander." He said. I was once again reminded how much I loved when he said my full name.

I leaned forward and placed a kiss on his shoulder. He smelt nice, somewhere between watching me like a creep he had showered. "I've seen quite a bit of you." I whispered into his ear. He chuckled turning to kiss me before he got up.

"So, breakfast or –"

"You owe me lemon meringue." I cut him off glancing at the floor to see that he had already cleaned up the mess.

He laughed.

"I was getting there!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, since you destroyed the last one you owe me breakfast as well."

"I'll make us breakfast, if you help me."

I snorted and he raised his brows.

"You don't want my help, believe me you don't." I said.

"Believe me I do. Now, come on." he chuckled.

"Suit yourself. I have to get dressed first."

"You don't have to." he smiled suggestively. I laughed.

"Get out." He shook his head at me but listened. He was wearing a pair of purple shorts and he shot me a glare when I laughed.

I got cleaned up and decided to throw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt before I made my way downstairs. I found Sergio whisking something at the table.

"Shouldn't Rhonda be back by now?" I asked.

"She was here. She left to have brunch with some friends." He said.

"Oh." I glanced at the clock. It was eleven.

"Alright, you're going to make us some eggs while I finish making my epic French toast." he said.

"Epic?" I asked.

"Ma and David agree. I was messing around on mother's day once and it turned out incredibly well." he grinned. I chuckled.

"Okay." I said before adding, "I doubt it's THAT epic." In a mumble that I made sure he heard. He shot me a glare and I chuckled. I grabbed the egg carton and almost dropped it. His brows rose and I grinned back before I turned to the stove.

I put a pan on the stove and added in some oil before I grabbed a bowl and cracked an egg into it, I never did this straight into the pan because unlike Jordan, I had not mastered the art of cracking eggs without breaking them. I fished out the shells before I added another and then fished out those shells as well.

"You're not supposed to smash them together." Sergio laughed.

"I didn't smash them." He was exaggerating.

"Sure," he rolled his eyes.

"I'll make juice." I said.

"Not orange." He grimaced as he said it. I chuckled.

I began making the juice – or trying to. I was trying to juice some apples but I didn't really know how to use the machine. I had been at it for a while before I froze as it made a weird noise and then seemed to stop working. I hit it a little.

"What are you doing?" Sergio asked.

"The thing just..." I drifted sniffing. "What's that smell?"

"Smells like oil... The pan -?!" I turned around and my eyes widened seeing flames.

"I got it!" I ran over with a cloth.

"Alexander, don't –"

I let out a shout as the cloth caught fire and I threw it from my hands. My heart stopped as it fell onto the floor engulfed in flames. Wait. Wooden floor...

I stepped back as water was poured onto the towel before the pan was removed from the stove and thrown into a sink full of water. Sergio shook his head looking at the smoke that filled the kitchen.

"My word... I should have believed you." Sergio whispered running his hands through his hair before I looked at me, "This is the last time I let you near anything flammable." He said seriously.

"Hey, it's your fault." I mumbled.

"You broke the juicer." he pointed at it.

"There were no instructions on it." I said.

He looked at me and began laughing. I chuckled as he pulled me into a hug.

"Get out before you burn this place down." he shoved me into the hall, "I've got breakfast." he shook his head.

I gave him a glare before I knelt down to pick the cloth up but I looked up hearing a gasp.

"I-I would but it's just way too early in our relationship." I tilted my head at Sergio.

Oh.

"Are you hinting?" I asked deciding to turn his joke back on him.

"No, it's just that I love being with you because of your money and I fear that once we wed it will be harder for me to cheat on you, you know, for the thrill of it."

I stood up frowning and just shook my head at him. His brows rose, "I'll be outside." I muttered walking by him as I pushed the cloth into his arms.

This wasn't usually what I did. When something upset me, I told the person it upset me. I hated when conflicts were dragged out because you had to guess what was wrong with the other person, but this was one thing I didn't want to talk about. I wanted to bury it. I knew he was just joking around but that hit pretty hard. I was sure after a few minutes outside I would head back inside and be able to act like nothing happened and I hoped he would ignore my sudden change in mood and not pry into it.

I walked outside and was reminded that I was barefoot when I felt leaves crack under my feet. Getting shoes now would be too much work. I made my way down to the lake and waved at Mr McCay seeing him outside. He lifted his spade using it to wave back and we both laughed.

Ah, he was never going to let me forget what happened...

I sat down and grinned staring at the water. When I was younger I adamantly believed it had sharks in it, the same went for our pool at the mansion. I used to freak out when my father would just dive in and one day he got me to follow him promising no one would get bitten. I pretty much fell in love with swimming after that. I could count the times I had swum since he died.

"Alex." From his tone of voice I knew I wasn't going to get what I wanted, even though I was pretty much over it now. I looked up as he came to a stop behind me and leaned down balancing himself on my shoulders. "So... uh... I'm sorry."

"For what?" I asked.

"Being insensitive... Was it James? He cheated on you?" He asked sounding the name out annoyed.

"Uh... it's cool." I smiled.

"Obviously not." he scoffed.

"No, it is. I was being lame earlier –"

"No, you were hurt... scared? James is a piece of shit, Alex. I don't think you've actually dealt with what you feel about what he did to you, but I would never do that to you – to anyone... I would be mad at him but I'm really glad he fucked up." he smiled.

I blinked. "You're glad he cheated on me?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah. From how upset you're about what he did, I would pick up that you two were pretty serious. How could I compete with your first love?" He frowned before he smirked, "That. That's how." I laughed as he grinned. "Come on, I finished breakfast."

I got up and we made our way into the house before grinning as I spotted food on the dining room table.

"I think most of the smoke is out of the kitchen." Sergio smirked.

I chose to ignore him as I sat down and grabbed some toast. Sergio stared at me as I took a bite and waited as I chewed.

"It's pretty epic." I admitted smiling.

"At least we won't starve one day. We might lose our house, but I'm sure I could cook on it while it burns down – hey!" He laughed when I kicked his leg from under the table.

"Be quiet, I'm trying to eat." I smirked.

He chuckled.

"Why do you never take that off? I saw a quite others in your room but I've never seen you wear them." I asked.

He turned his wrist so he was looking at his watch. "Those are for special events and stuff. This has these numbers on the back." he unstrapped the watch and shoved me the back, "It's half the password the safe in my office." he said.

"You have a safe in your office?" I thought about it. I had not seen anything that resembled a safe.

"It's not behind the paining if that's what you're thinking." We chuckled.

"Where's the other half?" I asked. He shrugged strapping the watch onto my wrist. I stared at it. "This costs more than my tuition, doesn't it?"

"It actually does." He said. "Clyde thought it was a nice gift for my twenty-first birthday."

"Clyde?" I smiled.

"He's been putting up with me for a while." He mumbled.

"I'll put up you." He smiled.

We fell into conversation about what to do for the rest of the day while we ate and joked around.

When we were finished he helped me wash the dishes because I asked him really nicely. No, not really. I owed him.

We swam for about an hour and a half before we came back into the house and I showed him the attic. It had a window that faced the lake. It was a nice place to read since there was a daybed right beside the window and on either side of the daybed there were shelves of books. I sat there immediately and let Sergio have the bed across the room.

"It doesn't look like it's used much." he was lying on his stomach with his chin on his hands as he looked around.

"We're always outside when we come out here; it barely rains when we visit." I said.

"We can pretend it's raining now, I don't want to go anywhere." he said hopping off the bed. I grinned as he joined me by the window and laid down so his head was in my lap. "I'm fine right here with you." he smiled shutting his eyes.

I chuckled kissing him softly before I leaned back against the shelf behind me as I brushed my fingers through the hair on his forehead pushing it back.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Sure." He didn't open his eyes.

"Your mother's lovely..." He grinned nodding, "And from what she's told me; you had a great family growing up." I said.

"We did." He said.

"So how does someone from a home like that, with a great family, end up with a basement full of guns, over a dozen drug houses and factories and so much blood on their hands?" I asked.

I felt him sucked in his breath and bit the inside of my cheek regretting asking. I opened my mouth to tell him he didn't have to answer but he spoke.

"Well, what Ma didn't tell you..." He said before he stopped. "Well, like she told you, David, Anna and I had a great childhood. Our parents were madly in love, showed us so much love and they had a decent amount of income so we had a decent living. But just before Anna could finish high school, that all ended." He said.

I looked down at him; he still hadn't opened his eyes. I felt like he didn't want me to see them.

"I was thirteen. I remember waiting for David to finish soccer practice so we could walk home, he was such an athlete. Anna told me she had to rush home and she left early... but uh... she never got home..." he cleared his throat and I ran my hands onto his chest, he took my hands in his, "When Dave and I got home, we found out she had been hit by a car not too far from our house, the driver didn't even stop, he just left." He gave a dry chuckle, "She died. It devastated all of us. It was the first time I realised how quickly something could change, how quickly - and easily - someone could be gone forever." He licked his lips and drew a breath.

"My father shut us out, he wouldn't speak to anyone. She was daddy's little girl, they were so close... On the day of her funeral, before we buried her, he disappeared. Not a word, not a call. No goodbye - not even in the fucking letter. That, added to Anna's death was enough to drive Ma over the edge. She dove into depression, spent nights drinking, completely ignoring David and I. She lost her job and just like that, we had no income... We had to sell the house because she owed some people, she used the rest of the money for more alcohol, we had to move to live with my Abuela, halfway across the country. We lost everything. Even though we now had a roof over our heads, she was too old to work so we were living on her retirement money.

"When I turned fourteen, I looked at my mom. She was wasted. She loved us, but she loved drinking. She was addicted. I needed to help her. And David, despite everything, was the top student in his class – of course, I was the opposite," he gave a laugh and I shook my head even though he couldn't see me, "he wasn't even in high school yet but he knew what he wanted. He wanted to go to varsity so he could make enough money to buy us out of everything, but I knew there was no way he would be able to pay for university, even if he got a scholarship there would be so many other things he wouldn't be able to handle, hell, we didn't even have a clear way to pay for school. Abuela was drowning in the debt she made for us. To keep us fed, to keep us in school. So... I found solutions. I worked a part time job, but that wasn't enough.

"And then I met a guy called Ricky. He gave me a way to make a lot of money and I took it. I dropped out of school, but I made lots of money. Sent Ma to rehab. Helped Nana. Gave David everything he asked for - which wasn't much. Fuck, I bought us a house! When they asked where I was getting the money, I made up a bunch of jobs. Modelling, car washes, sales, stuff like that. Meanwhile, I grew in the business. When Ma found out about school she was livid, but I wasn't going back. I used the fact that she became an addict against her, told her it was her fault I had to do what I did... I know she still blames herself now.

"Eventually I became too much for Ricky's boss Omar to handle, it was me or him. I... I killed him. I was twenty. Took over his business and here I am... I've got Dave doing that Engineering degree he always wanted. I've got Ma a lovely house on a beach with Abuela... and I'm... filthy rich." He opened his eyes and I felt flooded by the emotion in them.

I stared at him. "Wow..." I whispered.

"Mmm." He turned and I shivered as he brushed a kiss onto my thigh where my shorts had ridden up my leg.

"'Filthy' rich." I said emphasising the 'filthy'.

"You can't get where I am in this business with your hands clean, Alex." He said.

"I know that." I said. "But you can't get where you are without it threatening the ones you love either... It's not that easy to clean your hands... How are you going to get out of it, Sergio?" I asked biting my lip.

He sat up letting my hands go and turned to me.

"I've got this, Alexander. My family are kept safe. That's my first priority." He shrugged.

I bit my lip glancing out at the lake. He smiled at me as he lifted his hands to my face.

"You're safe too." He said.

"I don't care." I mumbled looking into his eyes as he pulled away.

"I know. I love and hate that about you." He said frowning, "And trust me, your family is safe too. What happened to Ezra will never happen again. Not to him or anyone else. I promise. I will not let them get hurt." He said.

I smiled and nodded. "I know."

"Now... about you owing me..." he smirked.

I chuckled kissing him.

"I would like money. About 30 grand, I want it paid in tens." he said seriously.

"Shut up." I chuckled shoving him back.

"Whoa." he looked at me surprised.

I leaned down on him and began kissing his neck softly. I grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head before I trailed kisses down to his shirt. He tried to sit up but I shook my head.

"No." I said sternly before I brought my mouth down onto his nipple. I grinned hearing him moan, his chest moving faster as his breathing increased. Suddenly he grabbed my thighs and got up.

I chuckled as he carried me to the bed and the put me down as he keened over me. He looked into my eyes and smiled.

"I love you." my heart skipped. I was seriously beginning to fear that this relationship would lead to my death...

"I love you too." I smiled. He leaned down but I lifted my hand to his chest. "The window."

"I don't care." he smirked. I laughed as he kissed me.

"Alex?! Sergio?! You guys home?!" I dropped my head back as he groaned dropping his face into the side of my neck.

"No." his growl came out muffled.

"I think she guessed." I said laughing as he groaned.

*****