“And that won’t bother him?”
“Not one bit, as long as I’m married to a woman and promise him babies.”
“And he won’t think Becca too old to give you babies?”
“I am not too old for babies!” Becca protested. “I can have a baby right now if I want. Well, not exactly right now. I mean in nine months.”
I peered over at the back seat where she was sulking. “Stop being sensitive. You know what I mean.”
“He didn’t say anything the last time we met,” Lucas responded. “In fact, they got along quite well. Almost forgot that I was at dinner with them, but that’s quite fine. Once his attention is off me and what a failure I am in not being a part of his real estate business, he’s happier.”
I didn’t get to ask him anything else as we slowed at the front of the sprawling steps leading to the front door. At the foot of the steps was a valet dressed in formal attire and a top hat.
“Oh great,” Lucas muttered. “My father’s pulled out the valet, so this might be fancier than I’d thought. Let’s brace ourselves. Some important people may be hanging around.”
We got out of the car, and he handed over the keys to the valet for parking. I started taking his hand before I remembered and dropped it. Becca claimed his right, his arm at her back to present the picture of a couple. The closer I got to the door, the sicker I felt, but when Lucas glanced at me, asking if I was okay, I mustered a smile and nodded.
The devil himself met us at the door. His father was even more imposing than I remembered. I sidled as far as I could behind Lucas’s back, to avoid being spotted immediately. He’d been rude to me before, and I’d been rude right back. We had been on Lucas’s turf back then, but now we were on his, and I had to be tough enough to take whatever he dished out.
“Son, I’m so glad you could make it,” Lucas Sr. remarked, hugging his only child. He released him and turned to Becca. “And Rebecca, looking as lovely as the last time I saw you. If you ever decide to dump my son here, I’m worth more.”
I felt Lucas stiffen before me, and I wished I could reach out a hand to soothe him, but it wasn’t my place. Becca didn’t seem to notice, laughing in that flirtatious way of hers and outstretching her hand to Lucas Sr.
“Oh, Mr. Senior, a moment earlier and I would have taken you up on the offer,” Becca answered on a laugh.
“It’s not too late until you make it to the altar,” the older man said.
“Nice try, Dad,” Lucas remarked, slipping his arm around Becca’s waist. “You’ll have to get your own woman.”
“I may have to do just that. Well, come on in. Some of our guests are already here, but I’m still waiting on some of my golf buddies.”
I had no choice but to move forward with Lucas and Becca. I’d begun to think maybe Lucas had changed his mind and he didn’t really need me there, when he clasped my arm and brought me forward.
“Dad, this is Becca’s son, Jason,” he introduced me. “Since we want our wedding to be an intimate family affair, we thought it best you get to know him and get acquainted with him.”
My heart pounded in my chest as the man’s eyes landed on me for the first time. His smiling face fell away. He glanced from me to Lucas, then Becca. His gaze landed on me again.
“Your son, you say?” he asked, leveling the question at her.
“Yes, Jason’s my only child,” Becca replied. “I had him when I was quite young, and we’re very close. All of us. Jason has known Lucas for almost as long as I have known him.”
“Is that right.” Lucas’s dad said it more like a statement than a question. “He looks familiar, but I can’t readily place him right now. Come, let’s go to the ballroom for cocktail hour. In half an hour we should be seated for the meal.”
I moved forward with Lucas and Becca to a spacious room with the most exquisite chandelier I had ever seen in person.
So this is where Lucas is from. Old money. The guests who were in attendance looked just as old money as the father himself. They turned to survey us when we entered the room.
“Go mingle and introduce yourselves,” Lucas Sr. stated. “I’ll show your son around, Becca, and ensure he’s enjoying himself.”
Lucas remained by my side. “That’s not necessary, Dad. Jason can come with us.”
“I insist.” The older man’s hand landed on my shoulder, gripping me too tightly. He turned me to the right, not giving me a chance to protest. “We won’t be long. Just taking your son for some refreshments.”
“It’s fine,” I said when Lucas opened his mouth to speak. “Go on, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“See? He’s fine,” Lucas Sr. remarked. “Don’t worry about him. He’s in good hands.”
He walked off, hands still clamped onto my shoulder, and I moved along with him. A bar was set up on one side of the room, and he ushered me toward it. He didn’t speak and didn’t ask me what I wanted at the bar either. He ordered us two glasses of scotch and handed me one. I took it because I needed to do something with my hands.
“Thanks for the drink,” I stated to break the silence.
“So, you’re sleeping with the man your mother’s about to marry,” he said without preamble. “How do you feel about that?”
“I— It-it just happened the one time,” I replied, glancing about the room to locate Lucas and send him a distress signal.
“Let me tell you something, kid,” he remarked. “I’ve waited for the day my son would marry a woman since he became twenty-one years old. Now that it’s about to happen, I’m not going to let even that woman’s son ruin this for me. Do you understand?”
“I’m not ruining anything, sir.”
“Then what do you call sleeping with your mother’s fiancé?” He spat the words at me.
“A moment of madness,” I answered. What else was there to say? I couldn’t tell him the truth, and there was no excuse out there that was good enough to negate sleeping with your mother’s fiancé.
“Just so we’re clear,” he finally said, “I don’t give one damn what you two do in private, but you better ensure that sweet woman he’s marrying doesn’t get wind of it.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lucas
“I have to say, son, you’ve got some balls.”
“Why did you request my presence here, Dad?” I asked my father. I sat across from his desk in his office. Dinner had thankfully come and gone without a hitch. Jason had been unusually quiet, and I just knew it had to do with whatever Dad had said to him earlier. I hadn’t been able to catch him by himself all night to talk to him.
“You’re sleeping with your fiancée’s son?” he asked, chuckling. “I bet she doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“It was a onetime situation,” I lied. “She doesn’t need to know about it.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything,” he replied. “After getting you to commit to a woman, the last thing I need is to have you mess this up. I don’t even give a damn if you want to keep that boy dangling on your cock. Just do it discreetly. Your mother was happy while she was alive, and she never suspected a thing about all the women on the side.”
I clutched the arms of the chair, wanting to tell him that he was despicable and I was nothing like him. I didn’t cheat on my partners. Not even when Ralph did. I had no intention of cheating on Jason either. Just the thought alone made my heart ache.
“I’m happy Mom never knew the lying cheating son of a bitch that you really are.”
Instead of taking offense, he reached for the box of cigars in his drawer, bit off the end, and lit up. “Now is that any way to talk to the man who’s digging you out of the hole you’ve found yourself in?”
I rose to my feet, reaching the limit of my patience with him. “No, Dad. You should remember that you need me as much as I need you, or are you planning to spring for another child right now at your age?”
“You can’t tell me you don’t want kids.”
“You made me loathe the idea. It
’s the only damn thing you were interested in.”
“That’s right,” he agreed, blowing smoke from the corner of his mouth. “You keep up your end of the bargain. Marry Rebecca and get her pregnant. By all means keep that plaything if you want to, but I don’t see him fitting in. He will fold under the pressure of our kind. He isn’t one of us, but I’ll tolerate him for Rebecca’s sake, not yours. If I were ten years younger, why I’d…” He trailed off, leaving me to wonder what he really meant to say.
“What did you say to him?” I demanded.
“Oh, the usual. If he causes problems by interfering with the wedding, I’d cause problems for him.”
“You threatened him?”
“I’d call it more of a warning,” he replied.
“You have no right to threaten him!” I snapped, my fist crashing into his desk as I leaned forward to stare directly into his eyes, unflinching. “You leave him the hell alone, Dad. I mean that. I know you think I’m caught between a rock and a hard place right now, but I can make things very difficult for you.”
He removed the cigar from his mouth. “Are you threatening me?”
“No, I’d call it more of a warning,” I mocked his earlier words. “Jason has nothing to do with the agreement we made. I’ll get married. I’ll even give you your damn heir, but for God’s sake, you walk a wide berth around him when you see him.”
I stalked toward the door and clutched the handle, hating that I had to talk to my father this way for him to understand.
“You love him,” he said quietly in the room, his words stopping me in my tracks. “We’ve always argued before, but you’ve never stooped to threats. You love this boy.”
“When have my feelings ever mattered to you, Dad?” I hit back at him before leaving the office, slamming the door.
I hurried along the hall, following the chatter and music back to the ballroom where everyone had moved right after dinner. I roamed the room, trying to find Jason, but didn’t see him anywhere. Spotting Becca swaying back and forth to the music while she talked to one of my father’s friends, I cut a path in between the guests to get to her.
“Becca.” I tapped her on the arm, and she turned around.
“Honey, there you are!” she cried and leaned forward to kiss me, but I was hardly in the mood to be amused.
“I need to speak to you a minute,” I told her, walking her away from the gentleman without a proper farewell.
“What’s the matter?” she asked softly. “Your father suspects what we’re really up to?”
“No, he thinks I’m screwing you over and playing with your son while marrying you.” I spat the words, disgusted that I had been able to read him so well.
“Good. Then our plan is still working.”
“Have you seen Jason?” I asked her.
“He mentioned he was tired and going for some fresh air.” She pointed to the doors that led out to the patio. “He went through there.”
“Okay, thanks. I’m going to get him, and then we leave.”
“So soon?” she asked. “Your father throws a good party. I can’t tell the last time I’ve had such fun. Oh, and there he is now. I simply must pay him my compliments.”
I frowned at her and the way she was behaving like a high-society trophy wife. I let her approach my father since she could distract him while I searched for Jason. Slipping out without being stopped turned out easier than I’d thought. Everyone was busy chatting up each other, and the reality was that these people were my father’s friends. Not mine.
The patio was empty, but I followed the flagstone walkway around to the poolside. The pool house was dark, and the moonlight reflected off the water in the pool. Jason lay on one of the lounges on his stomach, his head turned away from me. An empty glass was on the ground beside him.
“Jason?”
He didn’t respond. I sat on the nearest lounge chair to him and sighed. He had to be pissed if he was ignoring me.
“Jason, you were right,” I told him. “I shouldn’t have taken you here and subjected you to my father. He’s a hateful man, and I don’t know exactly what he said to you, but he’s mistaken. You’re not just some side piece to me.”
No, he wasn’t. By God, dad was right. I was in love with this young man who had blessed me with such laughter and joy in my life. His devotion and selfless love were next to no one else I’d ever been with.
I loved him.
“Sometimes I think I’m going about this the wrong way,” I stated when he still didn’t respond. “I shouldn’t be marrying Becca. Not when I feel this way about you. Not when I love you. I just wish there was another way, but unless I find one, I don’t know what else to do. What kind of daddy can I be for you, Jason, when my life is a mess? By right I should let you go so you can find someone else who can love you and provide all the things you deserve. You deserve so much more than I can give. All I have is my love, but that won’t make our problems go away. It won’t.”
Silence followed my confession. I couldn’t even remember ever telling Ralph that I loved him. Our relationship had been different than my relationship with Jason. Ralph and I had lived together, shared a bed together, but we’d never said those words. At the time I thought it was because we both already knew it and didn’t need to say it. Now I realized I never said it because I never felt it.
Not like the way I felt about Jason. Just the thought of giving him up and losing him made my heart ache in my chest.
“Jason?”
What the hell? I cocked my ears and listened again to what seemed to be a snore coming from him. He was asleep?
“Jason?” I called his name again, and he didn’t twitch. I focused on the even rise and fall of his back. We went to bed late last night, and then we’d been up and about all day. No wonder he was tired. All the more reason for us to go home.
I shook him gently. “Jason, wake up, baby.” I couldn’t believe I’d poured out my heart to him and he’d slept through it.
He finally squirmed and stretched, moaning as his eyes blinked open. “Daddy Luke?”
“Yes, it’s me.” I couldn’t resist kissing his forehead. “What are you doing out here?”
“Here?” he asked, grunting as he turned over and sat up on the lounge, checking around him. “Oh no. I remember coming out here to hide a bit. I must have fallen asleep.”
“Yup, you did,” I replied, sitting beside him on the lounge chair. The chair wasn’t big enough for the both of us, so I picked him up, lay back and pulled him half on top of me.
He nuzzled my neck. “I was getting a bit overwhelmed in there.”
I stroked his back. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to sit with you. I think my father deliberately arranged the seats so you would be the opposite end of us.”
“He really hates me,” he groaned, tugging my shirt out of my pants.
“Who gives a damn how he feels? I don’t hate you.” I opened my mouth to repeat everything I had said to his sleeping form, but the words wouldn’t come.
“I don’t hate you either,” he said softly, and I chuckled. Maybe now wasn’t the right time to tell him how I felt. Besides, should I saddle him with my feelings right now when I was about to marry Becca? What would that achieve?
He ran his hand up my chest, caressing me before dipping between our bodies to cup my groin. In a matter of seconds, I was stiff as a board at him massaging my cock through my pants. He kissed my neck softly, his lips caressing whichever spot they landed on.
“Jason,” I protested half-heartedly when he found my belt and worked it loose.
“Shh, nobody is out here except us,” he said.
“But that can change quickly.”
“I’ll get on with it, then.”
I almost asked him “get on with what?” but then he slid down my body, made light work of my pants, and plucked my cock out of my underwear. He wasted no time in sucking the swollen tip of my cock into his mouth, moaning as he licked around the head. I hissed, my hips jerking upward at
the way he slowly claimed more and more inches. Halfway down, he allowed me to pop out of his mouth before he swooped back down for the kill.
“Jace,” I grunted, clutching the sides of the lounge.
His response was to suck me harder, deeper into his wet mouth. I closed my eyes, head resting on the back of the lounge as I allowed myself to just feel. It was the only thing I needed. I saw him in my mind, imagined him doing everything I felt. The lick of his tongue, the dribble of his saliva, the way he chased after it.
He burrowed a hand into my pants and cupped my balls, caressing and pumping them gently. His head bobbed as he sucked me faster. I was near the end. I anchored myself to the lounge and thrust upward. He gagged, and my eyes flew open. He didn’t retreat but took more, the dim light around the poolside casting a warm glow to his face.
“You love sucking on Daddy’s cock, don’t you, baby boy?” I gasped, thrusting into his mouth. This time he was prepared, and there was no gagging.
He nodded, his eyes confirming what I knew. He craved me as much as I craved him. I almost blurted out to him that I loved him, but I couldn’t do that during sex and expect him to believe me.
“Fuck!” I gasped, my ass cheeks clenching, legs stiffening a couple of seconds before I came. Jason held my cock firmly, stroking me and opening his mouth for my cum to spray inside. When it stopped dripping, he dipped his head and sucked on the sensitive glans.
“Come here.” I clutched his shoulders and pulled him up my body. He straddled me, leaning over to kiss me. He never tasted better, a mingled flavor of food, peppermint, and my tart cum.
“Thank you,” I told him, releasing his lips. “I’ll return the favor after I drop Becca home and we go back to my place?”
“Sounds good.”
I kissed him one last time before we got to our feet, and I fixed my clothes. I picked up the glass and held his hand for the short walk back inside the ballroom. Before I dropped his hand, I squeezed it, hoping he got the reassuring message.
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