by ANDREA SMITH
“Please sit down. Make yourself comfortable,” I offered, showing her into the living room.
She took a seat on the sofa. I took a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs across from her. I pulled my robe tighter around me, feeling as if her eyes were boring through me.
“I understand that I have a grandson,” she remarked, waiting for my verification.
“Yes,” I stammered trying to paste on some kind of smile. “Yes, you do. His name is Weston. He’ll be a year-old in just over a week.”
“I see,” she replied, already showing disinterest.
I started to tell her that I had pictures of Weston if she wanted to see them, but Easton came through the door at that moment. As the look of recognition crossed over his face at seeing his mother, I was stunned into immediate silence.
“Darcy,” he said with slow deliberation, “I would like you to go and finish getting dressed in our bedroom, please.”
Something about the tone in his voice along with the quiet intensity of it, sent me scurrying to do as he asked, without looking back at either one of them.
I closed the door to our bedroom, waiting for the storm that was brewing between these two people to be unleashed. I could hear bits and pieces of both of their voices, Easton’s controlled and edged with steel, hers more resonant, and at times, condescending.
The only time I heard either of their voices raised was when she commented that it appeared he had married a Bianca Templeton clone. That had set Easton off, his voice instantly authoritative as he told her to leave in no uncertain terms, and that his attorney would draw up the papers for the transfer of something or other to her account. I heard nothing after that and presumed she had left.
When I finally peeked out into the hallway, I could hear nothing from either one of them. So, I crept out into the living room and it was empty. I looked around the entire suite, finding it empty.
What the hell…?
I spent the day by myself, holed up in our suite, trying to figure out what the fuck that had been about.
Finally, towards dinnertime, Easton returned, and he was fucking smashed.
“Hey, love,” he said, with a drunken grin. “I’m sorry about that earlier. I didn’t think I’d be gone all day from you. I went to see Colin and well, we put some pints away, I guess.
“I can see that,” I replied, eyeing him warily. He was still in his sweats from his morning work-out.
“How about a shower, Easy-E?”
“Only if you’ll come with me,” he replied, coming towards me.
“I think I’d better,” I said, wrapping my arm around his waist.
Once we were both underneath the warm spray of the shower, I found the courage to bring up the topic of our visitor.
“Why did she come here, Easton? How did she know where you were?”
He was lathering his hair up, letting the soapy water cascade down his face and neck.
“She has her people,” he shrugged. “Don’t worry, love. She won’t be back. I promise you.”
“That’s not why I’m asking, babe,” I replied softly. “I want to know that she can’t hurt you anymore.”
He looked down at me, one eye closed to keep the soap out. “She can’t hurt me anymore and she knows it,” he stated simply. “She realizes how much I love you and how much I am loved by you. It’s stronger than she is and she knows it.”
“Is that why she came here?” I asked, puzzled. “Did she want to see that for herself?”
“Partly, I’m sure. She also wanted to hit me up for money. Seems she’s gone through all of hers. I’m deeding her Greystone Manor. I hope you don’t object.”
“Easton,” I said, totally confused.
“If it’s an issue, babe, I’ll buy you another. Anywhere you choose.”
“It’s not that,” I stammered. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about what you gave her, but is she blackmailing you somehow?”
He reached over, his hand lifting a wet tendril of hair from my face, pushing it behind my ear. He cupped my chin with the same hand, lowering his lips to mine. He kissed me softly, tenderly taking his time to work my lips gently with his.
“I love you,” he breathed against my mouth. “I love you so fucking much Darcy. How can you love me is my question?”
“Don’t,” I snapped, causing him to stop kissing me and study my reaction. “Don’t you fucking let her come into our world and make you doubt yourself ever again! I mean it, Easton Mathews. You’ve shared enough of your past with me for me to understand why you were the way that you were. That was then. That’s not you now. You deserved love when you were a child, the same way that we love Weston, baby. Don’t you get that? Now, tell me why you gave her a multi-million dollar piece of property. Is she up to no good or not?
“Not,” he said, starting to lather his torso. “She’s dying. She’s exhausted her funds by hiring quack doctors all over the globe to find a cure for something that there is no cure for, I’m afraid. She has six months to a year left. And, as much as I despise her, I couldn’t let her die in some filthy pauper’s ward. I will see to her comfort financially until she’s gone. I gave her my word.”
“Oh Easton,” I said, throwing my arms around him. “Oh baby,” I whimpered into his chest.
He pulled me against him, tilting my head back so that his lips found mine, but with a savage fury this time. I moaned against him as he crushed me in his embrace.
“Turn around,” he said, releasing me suddenly. I did as instructed, flattening my palms against the glass door of the shower as he lifted my hips up, tilting me forward so that he could bury his cock deeply inside of me.
I moaned loudly as he took it to the hilt. Resting my head on the steamed glass, I felt him pull back only to drive himself right back in. My hands balled up at either side of my head at the sheer pleasure/pain of it. He continued to thrust in and out of me, as I mewled with feminine satisfaction from his rough fucking. He needed this and I now knew why.
“You’re fucking mine, Darcy. Forever,” he rasped as I felt him slide in and out of me, my hands now braced open-palm against the glass for the next full thrust.
“And you’re mine, Easton,” I murmured, whimpering in pleasure as I quickened my hips for him, our orgasms coming fast and hard.
Later, as we both lay naked, our limbs intertwined with one another’s, I traced my finger around his nipple, loving that it got an erection the same way that mine did when he touched them.
“There is one thing that bothers me, Easton. I’m not gonna lie.”
“What is it, wife?”
“Why is Colin the one you go to when you’re out of sorts with your mother or some other major thing? Why isn’t it me?”
Easton was thoughtful for a moment, his hand lightly caressing my back.
“I guess it’s because Colin knows about all of the ugliness from my past. My mother, my fiancé, the whores I was with and my dark side. He was there during a major portion of it. I suppose I’m more comfortable letting Colin witness my weaknesses than I am having you see them. It’s my insecurities, once again.”
“Easton, we love each other unconditionally. Just because I didn’t see the ‘darkness’ first hand, doesn’t mean I can’t understand it, or that you’re some weak person when you’re troubled by stark reminders of it. Like today. Please don’t do that again to me.”
“I won’t, love. I promise.”
“How about we skip dinner and order in, husband?”
On the tenth day of vacay my true love gave to me:
A promise.
chapter 11
On the eleventh day of vacay…
~ Lindsey ~
Tomorrow we would be docking back in Miami. It was the end of our cruise and life would return to normal once again. I was ready for that. So was Taz.
“Hey, baby girl,” he whispered against my hair as we lay curled around each other. “That was some fucking fantastic mak
e-up sex, you know?”
“Yep,” I sighed, giving him a dazzling smile, and kissing the tip of his nose. “And it could’ve happened a whole lot sooner if someone hadn’t been so damned stubborn about offering an apology.”
I got a crooked grin out of him as he unceremoniously flipped me over onto my belly. “I got your apology hanging, girl,” he teased, rubbing his hardened-once-again cock against my still-wet-from-the-last-fuck slit.
“Taz, baby, can’t we give it just a little break? You’re wearing my ass out.”
“Okay babe,” he said, flipping me back over onto my back and stretching out on his side, his head propped up on his fist. He traced his fingers around a nipple, teasing it into an erection.
“So sweetie, are you glad to be going home?”
“I am,” I admitted. “I mean this cruise was certainly…entertaining, but I miss the babies. What about you?”
“I’m good anywhere that has you in it,” he replied.
“Oh Taz,” I crooned, snuggling up against him. “I love you, babe.”
“Right back at you, baby girl.”
“You know we really should be getting up and getting ready to meet everyone for the seafood fiesta Darcy planned.”
“Yeah, I know,” Taz sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I’m just not all that hungry yet. I mean…for food. They really wouldn’t miss us, you know?”
“The hell with dinner,” I said with a giggle. “I say that break is over,” I continued, grabbing his cock and running my hand up and down the length of it. “And it’s dealer’s choice.”
~ Sammie ~
I’d just finished doing my hair and make-up, getting ready for the seafood fiesta buffet that we were going to on the last night of our cruise.
Slate hadn’t enjoyed “batching” it with Taz the last couple of days, so he’d come back to our suite once Taz had apologized to Lindsey, and they made up. Eric was still being fairly prickly to me.
Whatever.
I still held to my assertion that he had no business getting involved in their squabble, particularly using deception as a means of expediting some sort of resolution, especially since it had been so self-serving. My God! It wasn’t like it would’ve killed him to go without sex for a night. We’d been on a daily marathon, with the exception of his brief bout with motion sickness, this whole cruise.
I wasn’t sure if Slate even planned on going to dinner with me. We hadn’t said more than a handful of words to each other all day.
As I went into the living room to see what he was doing, I caught a glimpse of a gorgeous arrangement of red roses in a crystal vase on the coffee table.
My God! There were two dozen perfect, red roses intermixed with baby’s breath. I looked around for him, but he wasn’t in the room.
I went over and pulled the card off of the plastic stick, opening it and immediately recognized Slate’s familiar scrawl:
Roses are red,
I know I’m an ass.
If you can forgive me,
You’re quite the lass.
I broke out into a grin at the poet inside of my G-Man. Slate had never been real big on romance. Protectiveness and controllership were his attributes in the relationship. Yet I knew how much he loved and cherished me because of those same things. And I knew just how much I loved him, stubbornness and all.
“Are you ready to go to dinner, babe?”
I turned around and saw him standing there, a smile on his face showing off the dimple that I loved so fucking much.
“Oh Eric,” I said, launching myself into his strong arms. “Thank you so much for that!”
“They’re just roses, babe,” he said, his lips grazing my hair.
“I meant the poem,” I whimpered. “I mean, I love the roses, but that poem, well, it just…”
“Hey, hey,” he cautioned me. “Don’t go getting all emotional on me, okay?”
He tilted my chin up so that I was looking into his gorgeous blue eyes and I saw the emotion there; his love for me was always evident in his eyes, and in the way that he looked at me.
“Slate,” I whispered, “I think we’re going to be late for the second seating. They’ll just have to start without us, I guess.”
He smiled again, pulling me against him, fisting my hair so that my face tilted up, his lips finding mine.
“Let’s fuck, Slate,” I said, “right here, right now.”
“You’re the boss, babe,” he whispered, taking my hand and pulling me towards our bedroom. “I can’t refuse you anything.”
~ Ronnie ~
I stretched out on the bed, waiting for Colin to finish up in the shower. We were supposed to meet Slate, Sammie, Taz and Lindsey for dinner tonight at the second seating. I wasn’t in the mood to go and Colin understood. I felt terrible for always bringing him down with my blues after my period showed up, marking yet another month without conceiving.
He came out of the shower, drying his damp hair with a towel, another one wrapped around his hips.
“Baby,” he said, coming over to the bed. “I can stay in with you if you’d prefer it. I don’t like leaving you alone when you’re not feeling like yourself.”
I sighed, sitting up in bed and reaching for his hand. “I know, Colin, but I feel so bad for bringing you down with me. Besides that, what will Easton and Darcy think?”
“I’m certain they’ll understand that you’re feeling a bit under the weather and I wanted to stay in with you. Aside from that, I’m not so sure Easton is in any condition to show up for dinner.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“His bloody mother showed up at his suite. He got a bit tanked this afternoon after she left.”
“You’re kidding me!” I gasped, eyes widening. “How in the hell did she know he was here? Better yet, how in the hell was she able to come on board?”
“Are you serious? That woman could wheedle her way onto the space shuttle if she had a mind to do it.”
“So, why was she here?”
“She was able to coax his whereabouts out of Darcy’s father at Baronton-Sheridan. She flew to Miami, and took a shuttle plane here. She had a matter of grave importance to discuss with him. Seems the bitch is seeing the last of her days on this planet. And she’s broke.”
I knew enough about Easton’s mother just from the bits and pieces Colin had shared with me over the years. She was a despicable creature, and that was the kindest thing I could say about her.
“So, she hits Easton up, huh? I hope he told her to rot in hell!”
“No. As a matter of fact, Easton was quite generous with her. He committed to seeing to her comfort until she passes. He’s deeding Greystone to her.”
“Seriously? Well, I suppose once she dies, he’ll inherit it back anyway.”
“I really don’t think he cares,” Colin replied with a shrug. “Easton’s a better person than his mother. He always has been. I suppose it took being loved by someone like Darcy for him to figure it out.”
I reflected upon what Colin had said, and I realized it was true for Easton, and it was true for me as well. I was a better person because of Colin. My past, though not one of wealth or privilege, had had some very dark moments. Colin knew all of it and loved me in spite of it.
“You know, Colin,” I said softly, taking his hand, and putting it to my lips. “Since you’ve decided to stay in this evening, how about you crawl under these covers with me?”
He quirked a brow at me, a slow smile lighting his face.
“Do tell?”
“Yeah, baby. I kind of want to show you just how much I love every part of you,” I whispered.
~ Eli ~
I took another sip of my second Margarita, looking across the long table at Cain. He was munching on another piece of shrimp, dipping it into the cocktail sauce.
“What do you think?” I asked, looking down at the long span of empty place settings at our table.
Cain gave
me a grin, licking cocktail sauce from his bottom lip. “I think we’ve been stood up, Eli,” he replied.
“So, do you really want to stay here and do this seven-course seafood fiesta by ourselves?”
“Well,” he said, grabbing another piece of shrimp, “we do have to eat, right?”
“True,” I said, joining him by taking several shrimps onto my plate. “How about this? We finish with this first course, and then bag the rest and go for a walk on the beach. We haven’t been out of our suite for two days, and this is our last night of the cruise.”
“I’m down with that,” Cain replied, giving me a wink.
Later, as he and I walked hand in hand along the edge of the water, letting our toes sink into the warm, wet sand, Cain and I made a very important decision about our relationship. We were going to stay together and continue working on it. Because at the end of the cruise, and at the end of the day, we knew we loved one another more than anything.
I had never known some of the things about Cain that he had just shared with me over the past couple of days. He had kept things from me—important things that he’d been afraid to tell me.
Oh, it wasn’t anything like cheating or being unfaithful to me. Yet, there were things that tempted Cain and had for quite a while. Things that piqued his curiosity and appealed to him. He had shared those thoughts with me to see what my reaction would be.
I would like to think that I’m a liberal person. I don’t judge anyone’s lifestyle and never would. Still, some of the things tempting Cain had some appeal to my curiosity as well, once he had brought them to my attention.
We had decided we’d go through couple’s therapy and explore these hidden desires of his to see if somehow they could ever fit into who we were as a couple. Most importantly, we knew that total honesty and open communication had to play a major part in growing the relationship that we had with one another.
I pulled Cain to me, and kissed him on the lips.
