Delectable Benefits

Twenty Six

Two damned days.

It took Nick and his daughter two damned days until they were able to take off. He and his daughter decided not to go back to Chicago and fly straight to Italy. But since it January and it was snowing heavily in some areas, problems could occur.

The only good thing he saw in it was Dimitri's e-mail about his wife and threatening him. She was safe and distraught and a crying mess. He also received an e-mail from his wife's father and is asking for a partnership or merger. He didn't know what he should feel about that but he replied politely that he will be flying over with his daughter to discuss the merger with his wife first. Quickly, his father replied with one word:

Fair enough.

The men his mother hired to keep an eye on Anya told him his wife was in the shopping center with her cousin and friend. When they got there, he found his wife asleep in another man's arms and he hoped this was the cousin.

He immediately saw red. If it wasn't for his daughter standing solemnly next to him, he would have punched the man out. He approached them and let his daughter approach her mother first.

"Mommy?" The little girl whispered.

Anya moaned and burrowed deeper into the other man's arms. Nick saw the smile, this was not the cousin.

"Mommy, please wake up. I don't want to miss school."

Instantly, Anya was awake. She sat up and looked at her daughter. Nick saw she was a little disoriented. And looked as though she was ready to fall off her chair. The other man pulled her to safety but Anya resisted. She was looking at her daughter as though she was seeing a ghost.

"Mommy?"

"Nicolette?" Anya said in recognition. She reached out and touched her daughter's face. When she came in contact with solid flesh, she jumped back, and pulled her daughter into her arms, and inhaled her scent deeply.

"Anya," Nick whispered and suddenly, the two other adults were looking at him.

"Nick," Anya said in a whisper. Her gray eyes were now silver with her tears. He reached out and pulled her to him. He buried his face on her neck and was glad that the other man's scent did not rub on her. He rubbed his hands on her back and kissed her softly on the cheek then on the lips.

"Daddy, you're in public," Nicolette reminded her parents.

Nick lifted his wife in his arms and the woman didn't protest. She wrapped her arms around her husband and whispered. "If this is a dream, please don't wake me up."

Nick smiled and gently bit her ear in which she squealed and tried to get out of his arms. He laughed and spun her around. He had to stop when she told him she was going to be sick. "How about we go home? You're drawing a crowd," Nicolette said with a smile.

"Anya, we're still here," her cousin said is Italian.

Anya pulled herself from her husband's arms. She saw Carlos with a bereft look on his face to Nina's laughing eyes. She realized Carlos was willing to marry her just to get the restaurant off her shoulders. She still had no idea why Nick was in Italy but she was happy. She went to Carlos and embraced him, "There is only one Nick," she whispered. "Thank you, Carlos." She kissed his cheek and was promptly hauled back to her husband's arms.

"That's enough, Anya. Your kisses only belong to me. They are not to be given away." Nick said gruffly in Italian.

Anya looked at her husband in surprise. "You can speak Italian?"

"It was a language I learned while you were away," he said his eyes hot with desire.

"Eww... Too much, now, cousin-in-law, I am Nina, and these, belong to Anya. And these are for you." Nick was given Anya's Victoria's Secret Collection that Nina bought while Anya was in the fitting room and the rest of Anya's clothes and shoes that were in the other bags.