by JJ Giles
Slowly, he rose and took the plate to set it aside. He rolled to his side and pressed the hard flesh of his abdomen against her sex. Carefully, his hands took her breasts and pressed them together, the better to kiss them both at once.
“I’m proud of what you do. I know what you’ve done for my son. I certainly know what you’ve done for me. I also know that you don’t fall in love with any of them, although I know you have fallen in love with me. I know that I’m expecting the signed papers no later than a week from Wednesday at noon. If I don’t have them, I will go to fucking war with that bitch. Regardless, she has to be moved out of the Mansion and out of my life by that time. As soon as I have those papers in my hand, you and I are gonna do some serious talking. But I want you to know right now how proud I am that you can do what you do for people. I don’t have a problem with that, Morgan.” He crawled up her body a little further, his hot moist cheek against hers. “But you will belong to me.”
“Jerry.” So easily she acquiesced to his strength and command. So easily, she slid down his body, his hands tenderly directing her. Her tongue stroked at the chocolate there, still further pulling her into him. But needing all of him now, her fingers parted his flesh behind to slide into him.
But he was already filled, her phallus blocking the avenue of entrance into his soul. She merely wiggled it a little, pushed it yet deeper. With insatiable hunger, she bit down.
The pain was sharp, intense, the feel of her teeth, her hunger overwhelming and he gasped as his abdominal muscles flinched. She gnawed on it as if it were a bone whose marrow she needed to survive. She twisted his balls as if they were merely the reservoir of sustenance and she could force that nutrition out of him into herself.
His hands clutched at her head and forced her further. Like an infant at a teat, she pulled every bit of the love fueling his heart out of him and drank it down.
And then suddenly, she lurched and straddled him, her gaze fixed to his. Her arm dragged over her mouth to wipe away the chocolate, but her expression exuded a certain fear.
Her tongue stroked over her lips and barely moved as her eyes narrowed their gaze. “The penis belongs to me.”
“Yes.” Deeply, he connected with her, the penis a weapon in her hand now. “But it’s only because the heart that sustains it is yours and yours alone.”
She seemed angry as her dark stare penetrated his soul. In control of the penis, she rubbed the soft glans against her clit. “Do you know what will happen to you if you’re less than honest with me?”
He nodded, knew exactly what would happen. “I’ll be forced to live without you in my life and wantonly expire from the lack of you.”
“And all those other women?”
“No women, baby. Only you.” You jealous little thing.
“And the penis?”
“Wherever you want it, baby. Boys, girls, whatever you need.” He raised his hands to take possession of her breasts. With an uncommon strength, he crushed the nipples in his grip. “Just come with me...please, Morgan.” His resolve stiffened like never before, her boiling clit digging into the glans.
With the strength of a boa constrictor, her fingers wrapped around the penis and dug in. Her hips swirled to sustain the stimulation there. She leaned forward a little and rested against his strength at her chest, her vision still attached only to him. It was the most erotic thing he’d ever experienced, her soul boring into him, her body pulling him out of himself and he no sooner exploded again than she cried out, her features twisted into something so passionately intense it forced tears through his eyes.
Her entire body went limp as if she suddenly died. Easily, she fell on him, her lungs panting to sustain her. But he only wrapped her tightly, the better to feel her heart throbbing against his. “God, I love you, woman.” Adamantly, he crushed her to him, knowing now he would certainly and wantonly expire without her love.
* * * *
He left her quietly only to get the wine and light the candles. He drew the sheers around the bed and wrapped her up again. “I want you with me,” he commanded, his voice low but no less insistent. “My brother is going to Washington for a few days and I want you with me.”
Yet she hesitated even as she nuzzled to his shoulder. “Why don’t we just see what happens next Wednesday,” she whispered. The truth was, she didn’t expect anyone to be in love with a murderess.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Daddy!” Jerry listened on his private line and was greeted with something so beautiful.
“Cherry, baby, how are you?” A wonderful warmth spread through him.
“I’m good. And I’m coming that way...gonna spend the weekend with Morgan if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. She mentioned it.” Maybe Morgan could help Cherry, too.
“So the question is if I cut out of here now, do you wanna take your baby to dinner at the Club tonight?”
“I absolutely do, sweetheart. And unless you have some objections, I’ll ask your brother if he can join us.”
“Sounds great. It’s been too long since we’ve all been together.”
“Just call from the car and we’ll come down and meet you.”
“See you soon.”
Jerry hung up and sat back and smiled. What wonderful good fortune that his family could be together tonight.
* * * *
“Hey, chick,” Brian said happily as he slid into the seat and bumped up against Cherry. “It’s been awhile, baby.” Roughly, his arms tugged at her a moment.
“You look like you need a good meal,” she insisted.
“I’m alright.”
“Alex,” she said happily. “Good to see you.”
“I’m so happy to see you, precious,” he said tearfully. Without hesitation, he leaned forward and kissed her tenderly on the cheek.
“Sooo...” she started a little shocked. “I don’t think we’ve all ever been together like this.”
Filled with warmth, Jerry said: “Your uncle got talked in to moving into the penthouse and he’s taking care of me. He’s filling the place up with music and flowers and gut-wrenching aromas from the kitchen.”
Horribly flattered, Alex rolled his eyes affectedly. “Who’s taking care of who here? Your father, so filled with gallantry, is still protecting me. Put that wretched Charles into bankruptcy court.”
“Oh, really,” Cherry said, terribly amused. “What’s going on?”
Wiggling a little, Alex said to Jerry, “You tell them.”
“No, hell no. If your desire is to expose me, then do it with your everyday flamboyance.”
Foppishly, Alex waved his hand. “Eighth grade, darling, we we’re in eighth grade. That nasty old Michael...what the hell was his name?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Insipid little bastard called me a fag. Said I should be up at the girl’s school because this was an all-male academy. Was going around telling everybody that Jerry was messin’ with me. Oh, you should have seen your father! Took that boy’s head and jammed his face into the locker! Oh my God. The blood and the tears. Broke his nose. While he was lying on the floor just sobbing like a little girl, your father stepped on his throat and said...in front of all these boys... ‘I’ll screw who the fuck I wanna screw, including you, if I feel like it.’
“Oh, precious, you should have seen it. All of those boys just backed up to the walls and melted into the woodwork like roaches.”
Cherry and Brian burst into laughter. “Earned yourself a reputation that day, didn’t you?” Brian asked.
“Yes, I did,” Jerry said. “I got suspended for a week and beat up pretty bad at home, too. But nobody ever again screwed with Alex.”
For a long moment, Cherry studied Jerry and Alex. Her only comment was, “Huh.”
The easy conversation continued as they moved through the front doors and down the corridor toward the staircase. Seated at Jerry’s usual table, Jerry’s usual waiter approached with a smile.
“Evening, George,” Jerry said hap
pily.
With a broad smile, George stared. “Alex...Brian...Cherry even. Goodness, Jerry, what’s going on?”
“Cherry came in for a little visit and Alex moved back in with me, so life is definitely improving for the Abernathy family. And my son...” Jerry winked at Brian.
“That’s wonderful,” the old waiter mewed. He was only a few years older than the twins and remembered fondly how they ate here together quite often. How close they were and then weren’t. “This deserves champagne...on me. I’ll be right back.”
“So what brings you to town?” Brian asked Cherry.
“Just a visit,” she said. “See some friends. I used to live here, you know. Take a break from all that tedium of the white-sand beaches of the Caribbean, all that partying all the time. What about you?”
“Working. I scored a couple of huge contracts this summer plus all the other shit we do. Paying out too much in overtime, but if I hire more guys, I gotta pay unemployment because I can’t keep ‘em busy in the winter. I’m thinking about sending some of them to welding school so they can replenish our stock of wrought iron furniture and railings during the winter, but then there’s the set-up cost I don’t have and I hate being in debt. I don’t know.”
Pleasantly surprised, Jerry turned to Alex and smiled. Brian might be a little better at business than Jerry gave him credit for.
The pop of the bottle’s cork resounded and spritzed the aromatic fizz into the atmosphere. The first toast to “The Abernathy Family,” Jerry offered with all sincerity. The crystal rang like a heavenly lyre. As Alex sipped, he suddenly choked and then fell against Jerry. Jerry looked up to see Cheryl standing across the room, her blatant stare trained on the lot of them.
Brian glanced in that direction and then turned and bowed his head. Cherry was less astonished and quite angry. “Mother,” she snarled.
With the measured gait of a lioness, Cheryl moved steadily toward the table, her expression filled with anger. She stood at the end of the table and took inventory of everyone gathered.
“When did you get in town?” she sneered at her daughter.
“About an hour ago.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I had no intention of taking your time away from more important matters,” Cherry said dryly. Capriciously, she tossed her head toward the corner where her ‘date’ remained.
“And you.” She ran her fingers through Brian’s hair and twisted it tightly in her fingers. “This is what I get?”
Brian jerked away and glared. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. My father invited me to dinner with my sister and my uncle. You want me to sit by myself back at the Mansion while you’re out doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing every night?”
The viscous slashes of her eyes trained on Jerry now. “You’re gonna pay for this.”
“I know, baby. The problem is there’s just not a whole lot left you can squeeze out of me.”
“We’ll see about that. These are my children.”
“Mother,” Cherry hissed. She was certain that Cheryl was about to reveal to Alex Brian’s parentage. She shoved at Brian and Brian stood to let Cherry out of the booth. Filled with aggravation, Cherry dragged Cheryl to the ladies lounge.
Brian fell back to the seat and gulped the champagne. “That is one difficult woman.”
“Yep.” Jerry sighed with relief for his son’s assessment. But it was Alex’s hand clutched to his thigh under the tablecloth that was soothing just now. “I’m sorry, Brian.”
Brian refilled his glass and drank it down. “I don’t know what the hell to think anymore. You got any advice?”
“No. I want you to come to your own conclusions. The woman wants to make me pay because I’m spending some time with my kids. You figure it out.”
Without will, Brian took Cherry’s glass and finished it, too. Just then, Cherry returned snarling, “That insufferable bitch.” She shoved at Brian again and Brian only slid deeper into the booth. And then she snapped her fingers at the waiter and pointed at the empty champagne bottle.
“What’d she say?” Brian rasped.
“Baby, you don’t want to know what she said.” And then she turned to her father with a bitter smile. “I’m sorry, Dad. It won’t be me who can talk some sense into her.”
“It’s not your responsibility, Cherry. The woman is fifty-three years old and it’s safe to say that if she doesn’t have any sense now, she never will.”
Cherry drew in the cigarette smoke and let out a hot breath. Filled with rage she peered across the room at her mother, who was snuggled up with what looked like a teen-ager compared to Cheryl. And Cheryl was laughing too loudly.
“Don’t be afraid, honey,” Jerry whispered to reassure her.
“Yeah, well, I’m scared, okay. If I don’t get with it, she’s gonna hunt down the baby I gave away for adoption and tell him who his mommy is.”
“You can’t be serious,” Brian gasped.
Tears filled her eyes. “Dad, I don’t think I can handle that. To look a kid in the face and tell him I gave him away.”
Jerry remembered the day she gave birth at the tender age of nineteen because he was with her. How they took the baby away and she never even got to hold her son. “Honey, I don’t know what to say. There may be a day when you have to face up to it whether you want to or not. It may be your mother who turns the story inside out, it could be him that comes looking for you. I hate to say it, but it could be Randi Collins who wants to meet his son someday.”
“She’s gonna do it, I know she’s gonna do it. He’ll be fourteen next month and may not even know he’s adopted.”
Filled with horrible aggravation, Jerry turned to Brian. “You gettin’ this, son?”
“Yeah, I’m getting it, Dad.” Angrily, Brian drummed his fingers on the table, grateful now that his mother never moved into Morgan’s house to destroy that relationship once and for all. How stupid he had been to even consider it. “The question is, how do we put a stop to it?”
Sadly, Jerry shook his head and turned a little toward Alex, hearing Cheryl’s pernicious laughter across the room. “If only I knew.”
* * * *
Still filled with an overwhelming rage, Cherry kissed her father at the penthouse elevator. “I’ll call you Sunday afternoon before I leave.”
“Or take Monday off and spend Sunday night with us here, baby. I know exactly what you’re feeling right now.”
“Yeah, I think I will.”
He pushed her into the elevator and rode down with her. “Morgan said something to me not too long ago and it makes sense. Your mother is playing her usual games with all of us now instead of just me. You can only imagine what Brian’s going through living there again. But it takes two to play. If you’re not playing, she doesn’t win.”
A sarcastic smile split her lips. “Yeah, but...”
“No. If it has to go down, you let it go down and then you walk away from it. If you get angry and you try get back at her, then you’re playing with her and you might not win. Walk away from it, baby.”
“But it’s not just me, here. Renee came down a few months ago and her dad is aching bad for her to have a baby. If he finds out she already has a baby out there...”
“Then Renee might have to own up to it, too. You didn’t get pregnant by yourself. She’s gonna do what she’s gonna do, honey. How you respond to it proves who you are.”
“It scares the hell out of me.”
“Okay, you’re frightened. I am, too. But I’ll always be here for you...and Brian. And there’s a little saying left over from medieval times: The best revenge is living well.”
A wicked smile twisted her mouth. “That’s what had her so fucked up, isn’t it? To see the four of us enjoying each other.”
“Absolutely. And she hates Alex because Alex knows she’s a prostitute. Alex could really fuck up her life and there isn’t anything she can do to him because everybody knows everything there is t
o know about him. But I can also tell you that your son is living well, too, with people who love him desperately. I never told you who adopted him because you never asked. Neil Cochran loves that child like you wouldn’t believe.”
“God, he’s raising his grandson?” Her tears were profuse.
Patiently, Jerry nodded and hit the hold button to stop the elevator. “Honey, I’ve agonized over this for years. Neil would have been happy to take you and raise you. And you might have had a much better life if I’d let you go.”
“No. No, Dad. I’m glad you decided what you did.”
“Well, we can’t know how things could have been different for you now. I can say all of Neil’s kids seem to be happy, well-adjusted people so you can imagine I lay awake at night thinking about it. And I know I encouraged you toward adoption, you and Renee both, because I didn’t see you two getting along together on a long-term basis to get a child raised.”
Animatedly, she shook her head.
“So when you agreed to the adoption, I called Neil. He said unequivocally, without hesitation that he and his wife wanted that child. At that point in my life I still had the misguided notion that it’s better to live with family and for the boy it has worked out well. Neil knew he would have to tell the boy he was adopted because his wife is Japanese and all of his kids are half-Japanese and look alike and someday there would be questions. But he also promised he would never reveal your identity without your permission.”
“Oh, shit, this is a mess.”
“And I made damned sure your mother doesn’t know where that baby is. Right now she’s just yanking you...and succeeding. The baby was in the hospital for a week because he was a little early and then he was taken on a private hospital plane by a nurse to Japan. I paid for all of it and I made damned sure the security was tight.”
“Oh, Dad.” A fresh flush of tears poured through her eyes.
Tenderly, Jerry took her into his arms. “And now you know I would have been very happy to take that child and raise it and now you know why I couldn’t.”
