His mood swings were just bizarre.

The backs of my legs hit the bed, he stopped us and his mouth moved to my ear.

“Mamita,” his voice was rough with what sounded like laughter and something else altogether, “you think you could handle my mouth between your legs without freakin’ out?”

The legs he wanted to put his mouth between turned to water.

“What?” I whispered.

His head came up, his eyes were burning into mine (now, in a different way) and my breath caught at the sight.

“I gotta have a taste of you and I gotta watch you come, I don’t…”

My fingers at his waist dug in and at that second if he let me go I’d collapse in a puddle at his feet.

“Your mother is downstairs,” I breathed.

Hector’s mouth came to mine. “The walls are thick.”

“She’ll wonder what we’re doing!”

“No she won’t,” he returned.

“I won’t be able to concentrate.” I kept trying.

I felt his mouth smile against mine. “Mi corazón, you won’t need to concentrate.”

Oh my.

That got a stomach pitch.

Even so, I kept at it. “I can’t, not now. Maybe later.”

His mouth moved away an inch. “Yeah?”

Oh my God!

What had I done now?

I had to keep at it. My hands went to his shoulders, my heart skipped a beat, I ignored my heart and nodded.

Before I could go back on my promise, he kissed me quickly and muttered, “Pack a bag, you’re spendin’ the night again. We’ll try it, you can’t deal, we’ll stop and watch a movie.”

“Okay,” I said but my stomach was twisting, my heart was in my throat and I was having difficulty breathing. This was partially panic but it was also partially anticipation and I wondered which one would win that night.

Hector watched my face and his arms got tight. “Sadie, seriously, you can’t deal, you tell me, we stop,” he repeated in a way I knew he meant it.

The partial panic disappeared and before I thought better of it, I leaned into him, tilted my head back further and smiled.

His face warmed, his mouth descended, he gave me one of his slow, sweet kisses (with tongues), my toes started curling, we heard a muted, “Hola! Anyone home?” and Hector groaned his frustration in my mouth.

His head came up briefly but he leaned back in, gave me a quick kiss and told me, “Get dressed, mamita, that’s my sister Rosa. Gloria’s been busy.”

I did not think this was a good thing and the look on Hector’s face confirmed it.

He let me go, I watched as he grabbed some clothes and then left the room.

I dressed but while I did so I heard two more “holas” (one male, the other female) and I searched for my Ice Princess thinking maybe just a hint of her would get me through breakfast with the Chavez Family.

My Ice Princess was feeling lazy so by the time I was dressed (all but my shoes, barefoot was the only way to go or I’d look like a snooty, Rich Bitch Freak), I knew it was just me, Sadie, who was going to face Hector’s family.

And she was just going to have to do.

Chapter Thirteen

Agent Chavez, oo, Agent Chavez

Sadie

It was mid-afternoon and I was in Art.

Sitting on the edge of my counter was Daisy, legs crossed and mouth shouting her ideas (or, more honestly, her orders) at Ralphie and Roxie. They were both arranging paintings on the floor in the positions they would take on the walls when Ralphie and I installed them on Monday for the opening that evening.

I was behind the counter with Shirleen and Ava, the three of us were leaned forward on our forearms pouring over the final catering menu I had to sign off and fax by three o’clock.

* * * * *

That morning I had breakfast with Hector’s very loud but very sweet family, all three younger sisters, Gloria, Rosa and Elena, and his older brother, Carlos. Carlos brought his girlfriend, Maria, and Eddie did a flyby mostly to show his face, pour warm coffee into his travel mug and he also gave me a one-armed hug and a kiss on the side of the head like he’d known me for years, not days (no kidding!).

During breakfast, I found out that Hector’s Dad had died a few years ago, that Blanca was not happy at the snail’s pace of Carlos and Maria’s relationship (this somewhat alarmed me as they’d only been together two months and Maria was moving in with Carlos that weekend) and that Blanca and Jet’s mother Nancy had made some decisions about Eddie and Jet’s wedding that needed a Reunión de la Familia. Hector explained (by whispering in my ear which, by the way, felt nice) that this was a family meeting and that Blanca called them often.

After they left, Hector took me home and Ralphie was waiting to take me to the gallery. We were going to open late but I didn’t mind. The morning with Hector’s loud, loving family in Hector’s crazy, jumbled house was something I’d never experienced before in my life.

And I liked it. I liked it enough to take the time to memorize it so one day, later, I could take out the memory and savor it.

Before he left, Hector told me he needed to give me something and I waited in the hall while he jogged back out to his Bronco.

I found I was nervous as to what he might give me. He hadn’t had any time to shop; it wasn’t like he was going to produce a bouquet of red roses or anything.

He came back in, stopped in front of me and held up a device. My eyes grew round with excitement.

“This is a –” he started but stopped when my hand whipped out and I snatched it from him.

“It’s a stun gun!” I cried, so excited I was being nearly as loud as his family. “Veronica Mars has one of these!”

I lifted happy eyes to him and saw he was grinning. “Yeah, mamita, but be careful with that.”

“Is it for me?” I trilled happily.

His hand went to the side of my neck and slid up, fingers in my hair, thumb at my hairline.

“Yeah. Keep it in your purse where you can get to it. It’s got fresh batteries. You turn it on, touch the prongs to your target, a one-second touch causes an incapacitating jolt, three seconds it’ll take someone down.”

I lifted the stun gun between us, stared at it in awe and murmured, “Aces.”

I came out of my stun gun euphoria when I heard his soft laughter and my eyes went to him.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

His fingers wrapped around my wrist, pulled the stun gun from between us and he closed in, his other hand sliding to the back of my head.