Loving Jared: A Mafia Romance Novella Read online

Jenna came over to reassure them that she would make sure the girls and Teagan were picked up from school. Jared nodded his gratitude and told Jenna to do whatever he she thought was right in the situation. Amy was in no condition to make any decisions. His heart broke for her, for her present and her past. He vowed that he was going to make sure nothing like this happened again in her future. After everything Amy and her siblings had gone through, they deserved the best of everything for the rest of their lives and he was going to make sure they got it.

  Jared rushed Amy to the hospital where she was told that she had a hairline distal radius fracture. She was treated with a short cast on her forearm that would stay on for six weeks. Jared told the doctor to check for smoke inhalation, but Amy was declared perfectly healthy, except for the fracture, and able to leave.

  When they returned home, it took the fire department two more hours to completely extinguish the fire in Amy's house. Though they couldn't tell her much, they did tell her that the house probably wouldn't be salvageable. Amy cried over the loss of her home, the few things that had been left inside, and all the memories, good and bad, forged inside that home.

  Several hours later, once Amy calmed down, Jared was sitting with her on the couch, running a soothing hand down her back and massaging the spot just above her butt where she tended to carry tension.

  "Is there anything I can do?" Jared asked her.

  She twisted around to look at him, her beautiful eyes still swimming in tears. She shook her head. "No, we'll get over it. We'll move on. It just hurts… you know?"

  Jared gathered her against his chest and smoothed a hand down her hair. "Yeah, I get it. Enough is enough. No more death, no more fires."

  She nodded miserably. "Exactly."

  Jared tipped her face up so that she was looking at him, so that she could see how serious he was. "I promise that I will never let anything like this happen to you again."

  She gave him a watery smile. "You can't make a promise like that. It's impossible to predict the future."

  Jared smiled down at her. "That's where you're wrong, baby. I got your future all mapped out and I can promise with absolute certainty, nothing bad is gonna happen again."

  She looked at him seriously, the smile fading from her lips. Then she nodded. "Okay, I believe you."

  Twenty

  "Let me take care of the Ghost situation."

  Jared was on the top floor of one of the job sites, wearing his hard hat and directing the rest of the project.

  Jared turned as Enrico spoke. "You have a plan?"

  "Yeah, sort of. I know the sister of one of the bikers. Think I can get to her."

  Jared frowned because he hated the idea of women getting mixed up in their business and Enrico wasn't exactly known for his gentle touch. Jared didn't have a lot of choice though. He had to keep the legitimate side of the business running and he was too busy dealing with the fallout of Amy’s situation to work on any more problems.

  Finally, Jared nodded his assent. "Run your plan through Vince first, but I'm sure he'll be good with it."

  "Yeah, he’s not the soft touch you are. He won't mind if I use some biker chick to kill the heart of our problem."

  "And that's why I have a sweet thing in my bed and you don't," Jared couldn't help but point out. The guys were always ripping him up for his soft spot toward women and children.

  Enrico snorted. "You don't know what I got going on in my bed."

  “And I don't want to."

  Jared was satisfied that Enrico could handle the Ghosts. The only reason he wasn't running his own crew was out of loyalty to Jared and Vince. Maybe that was his plan. Get rid of the few troublemakers left over from their biker days and then start up his own club. Jared would be happy to back him. In fact, they could use the business. Having a valuable contact on the biker side of things could only help.

  Later that afternoon, Jared finished up early, as was becoming his new habit. He dropped off some paperwork at Vince’s office and rode his Harley back home. He’d pretty much given up the SUV to Amy, preferring she have a mode of transportation other than the bus. At first, she refused him, saying that the use of his SUV was too generous. Then he threatened to buy her a vehicle of her own. She’d given in gracefully and agreed to drive the SUV.

  When Jared arrived at the house, he found a note on the kitchen counter telling him that Amy and the kids were at the baseball diamond around the corner. The note asked him to come and join them. He grinned and took the stairs two at a time up to the top level. He took a quick shower and then changed into his gym shorts and a basketball shirt. It had become somewhat of a habit to meet Amy and her siblings at the park before supper, where they played sports and got in some exercise.

  Jared couldn't help grinning to himself as he walked over to the baseball diamond. His life had become about as perfect as it could be and that was all thanks to Amy. Not just Amy, but the instant family she'd given him. In the month since her house had burned down and her father had been taken back to prison, life had settled into a strangely wonderful routine.

  Even Teagan had decided to move in with them, saying that he preferred the space in Jared's basement over his friend's house. Jared got along well with Teagan, probably because Jared was able to understand some of what the boy was going through. It wasn't easy being seventeen, but it especially wasn't easy being seventeen and having an older sister for a mother and a murderer for a father.

  Millie and Sarah treated Jared like a combination of an older brother and father figure. Jared embraced the role wholeheartedly, especially enjoying the moments where he got to play with them and be a big kid. He was discovering some pretty cool things that he'd missed out on as a child, like water fights, tea parties, dress-up, and getting his nails painted. It was rare these days for him to have naked nails. He didn’t mind; every time he looked at the shiny paint he was reminded of his instant family.

  Jared jogged the rest of the way to the park, eager to spend time with Amy and the kids. When he arrived, he was surprised to find that Amy wasn't in the park. He quickly discovered her siblings though and another surprise waiting for him.

  Vince, Jenna and their two kids were also waiting for him. Jared jogged towards them and slowed down when he saw a giant red heart staked out in the ground in balloons. In the middle were the words, "Will you marry us?"

  Jared stopped next to the heart, his throat filling with emotion as he imagined all the possibilities. He asked the first question that came to mind, "Where's Amy?"

  Teagan nodded past him and pointed. Jared turned to discover Amy walking slowly towards them, her eyes glued to the heart. It was clear from the expression on her face that she had no idea what was happening either.

  She stopped next to him and looked up at him with love in her eyes. "Did you do this?"

  Jared shook his head. "No, I got home from work and found a note telling me to come here."

  "Millie and Sarah said they wanted hamburgers for supper so I went to the store to pick up some frozen patties and buns. Teagan texted telling me to come here before going home."

  Jared turned back to look at Teagan, his brow raised. Teagan nodded towards his sisters, who each stepped forward with a piece of paper in their hands.

  Millie spoke first. "Dear Jared, we want to thank you for all that you've done for us and invite you to become part of our family. We appreciate everything you've done, and we love you with all our hearts."

  Amy sniffled next to Jared and he looked down at her. She was looking at her sisters with an expression of intense love. Jared felt choked up as well.

  Sarah stepped forward, her voice quieter than her sister’s, but still strong with conviction. "Amy, you have been everything to us. Mother, father, sister, teacher and more. You've done an amazing job, but it's time to share that responsibility. We would like to invite you to invite Jared to be an official part of our family by marrying him."

  Amy lifted a hand to smother the laugh that burst through her lips. She
blinked rapidly, but the tears started to flow anyway.

  Teagan stepped between his sisters, placing an arm around each one and looking at Jared and Amy. "You two can't keep your hands off each other and you refuse to stop being all lovey-dovey disgusting around us, so we have no choice but to ask you to get married and make us an official family."

  Jared felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest and he had to blink back tears as well. He looked down at Amy to see what she made of her sibling’s proposal.

  "You guys… this is so sweet… but you can't just propose to him for me." She let out a watery laugh and shook her head. "We've only been dating a couple of months."

  "Yeah, but we've known him for like… ever," Teagan said, rolling his eyes. "You two need to quit messing around and go get married."

  When it became clear that Amy was going to protest again, Jared took her by the shoulders and turned her until she was facing him. Her face was flushed with embarrassment and he thought he understood. She didn't want him to feel pressured into marrying her because it was what her siblings wanted. But Jared suspected that Amy wanted the same thing as her brother and sisters, the exact same thing that he wanted too.

  Jared sank to his knee in front of her, holding onto her hand as though it was a lifeline. She was so much shorter than him that his head nearly reached her shoulders. He was reminded of the first time they spoke to each other, in his driveway, when she came over for a cup of sugar.

  "Amy, they aren't saying anything that isn't true. I love you, with every fiber of my being. I love your siblings. I want to marry you." He thought about it for second and then added, "I already have the ring. I was just waiting for the perfect moment, but these guys picked it for me. Will you marry me?"

  Amy didn't even hesitate before she flung her arms around him, nearly knocking him off his feet, and shouted, "Yes, please, I want to marry you!"

  Millie and Sarah joined them, throwing their arms around them in a group hug. Teagan sidled up to them and joined the hug when Amy flung an arm out to catch him around the neck and pull him in. After the group hug dissipated, Jenna and Vince gave their congratulations and invited everyone over to their house for a big barbecue celebration. Apparently, the entire thing had been set up mostly by Teagan, with some help from Vince and Jenna.

  Vince and Jenna took the children, while Jared and Amy followed in their SUV. Amy couldn't keep her hands off Jared and the feeling was mutual. As they drove, Jared wrapped his hand around her knee, and she ran her fingers up and down his arm.

  "I can't believe this all started with a cup of sugar."

  Jared gave her a wink before returning his gaze to the road. "Now you can have all the sugar you want, baby."

  Amy leaned across and kissed him on the jaw. "No, now you can have all the sugar you want. You can have a lifetime of it."

  Epilogue

  "You know you're my favourite client, right?" Amy said in a smooth sexy voice.

  She closed her eyes and ran her hand over her breasts and down across her thigh.

  "Want to know what I'm wearing?" she asked in a husky voice. "I bought it specially for you."

  The deep voice on the other end indicated he wanted to know what she was wearing. "Well, to be honest, it's not much. Just a lacy red thong with a see-through top that my breasts barely fit in. I couldn't afford enough fabric to cover everything."

  She played with the fuzzy edge of the teddy where it pressed against her breasts. "Oh… you want to be my sugar daddy? Wow, what an opportunity. How could I possibly turn such an offer down?"

  The voice growled that she better not turn him down.

  She giggled. "Tell me what you want to do with me, and I'll think about it."

  He started speaking, telling her that he wanted to touch every part of her from her perfect nose to her neck, to her full breasts, to her plump little pussy lips. He told her that he wanted to follow those touches with his tongue, tracing everything until she was wet and wanting.

  Amy moaned into the phone, her hand drifting down her body and touching everything he mentioned. Her skin felt prickly, like it was on fire. She longed for the kisses that he was promising her. She opened her legs, pressing her knees against the sides of her chair and dipping her fingers between her legs.

  "Now I'm going to tell you what I want to do to you." She ran her fingers down the edge of the thong, moving it to the side and touching herself. "I want to go down on my knees in front of you, I want to look up at you as I take you in my mouth. I want to see your eyes as I suck on that big beautiful veined cock. I will worship it while you watch, while you decide what part of me you're going to come on."

  He groaned out loud and she could tell that he was touching himself the way she was touching herself. "I'm touching myself, thinking about you. I want to come. You gonna let me come, sugar daddy?"

  He told her to come and she took him seriously, dipping her fingers into her vagina, spreading the wetness around and polishing her swollen clit. She moaned into the phone, making sure he could hear every second of her pleasure as she drew it out. She could hear him as well, as his hand stroked up and down his cock, hard as a rock, while he was thinking of her.

  Amy saw stars as her pussy clenched around her fingers and an orgasm rolled through her. It was so sweet, so strong, that the waves continued to crash. She detailed what was happening in breathless exclamations.

  She could hear him as he came, shouting her name. She pictured the semen on his cock and his thigh and told him that she wanted to lick it off.

  "I'll be home in an hour, you can lick it off then."

  Amy grinned and hung up. Jared was her last and best phone sex customer. After he'd arranged for her to leave her job at the factory, they discussed her other job. While it turned him on to think of her turning on other men, the hours took up a good chunk of their time together, and that was something Jared couldn't approve of. So, they'd agreed that when Amy had the urge, she would sharpen her phone sex skills on her new husband. He didn't seem to mind.

  Amy stood and pulled on her sweatpants and T-shirt. She ran upstairs and took a shower, then went back downstairs to work on homework until Jared came home with her promised treat. She’d started classes a few months ago. She was taking English literature, a subject that she'd excelled at in high school. She’d been nervous to go back to school, thinking the few years she had away would put a dent in her ability to learn, but the past few months had proved her wrong. She was having the time of her life, making new friends and acing all her classes.

  In the evenings, Amy, Millie, Sarah and Teagan did their homework together. Jared often cooked for them, which was a special treat since he was best at barbecue. All in all, Amy couldn't be happier. She smiled and touched her stomach. And now, with a new little secret on the way, she didn't think life could get much better.

  THE END

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  Excerpt: Loving Vincent

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" Vince snarled.

  He stood slowly from behind his desk and shot Jared the type of glare he reserved for people that knew they truly screwed up. Usually the life expectancy that followed was extremely short. Of course, he wasn’t going to off his business partner and best friend just because his plan wasn’t going smoothly, but he was going to make the other man deeply uncomfortable for a few minutes.

  Cracking his tattooed, scarred hands he placed his knuckles on the top of his desk, which was littered with papers, and growled, "How exactly did things not go according to your plan? You told me to trust you with this. That you would make sure Enrico would get the information he needed to make the hit. Now you’re telling me it won’t go down as planned? Am I getting this right?"

  Jared nodded his big, shaggy head and looked grim. "That about sums it up. There were unforeseen c
ircumstances."

  Vince breathed in through his nose, trying to call up some patience, a quality he wasn’t known for. "Tell me."

  "The girl refuses to cooperate."

  He frowned, trying to recall a girl. He hadn’t actually been briefed on many of the details. It hadn’t been necessary. That’s what he had people for. He just needed the hit done, so the fucker that cut off one of Vince’s suppliers was taken out and used as a message for anyone else that thought prison was a safe haven from his wrath.

  "What girl?" he asked impatiently.

  "The health nurse that oversees Enrico's insulin shots," Jared explained. "We’re using her to get a message to him. Enrico’s gang-affiliated, same as the rest of us. The prison locks them down tighter than a nun’s ass. No visitors, no calls. She's the only one he sees regularly."

  Vince nodded absently. He knew how the prison dealt with gang; he'd had the displeasure of experiencing their local penal system himself. It’d been a risky move putting any of them back in the pen for that reason. It had been Enrico’s idea to go in because he had a minor outstanding warrant, meaning he wouldn't be in the prison long. And Enrico’s need for health care gave Vince a way to send messages. Except apparently their nurse wasn’t bribable.

  "How much did you offer her?" Vince asked. Fuck, anyone could be bought. Jared hadn’t gone high enough.

  "I ended around five hundred large, just because she was pissing me off."

  "Jesus fuck," Vince exploded. "Half a million! Who the fuck does this bitch think she is? A trust fund baby?"

  Jared smiled grimly. "That’s just it, she lives like a damn beggar in a shack in the old army barracks on the edge of town. Place should be condemned."

  "I assume you went to plan B when bribery didn’t work?"

  Jared didn’t say anything, refusing to make eye contact. Vince swore the giant enforcer would’ve rubbed the toe of his booted foot on the carpet if he thought he could get away with it. What the fuck?