Erica nods. “Gerald has always supported being an organ donor, Peggy, and you of all people know that.”
Erica’s right about Peggy, who runs one of the most influential charities that fund regional and national organ donation drives as well as hospital programs.
“And you know Gerald wouldn’t want to go out like this,” Peggy protests.
The doctor raises a hand to stop them both. “Take a day or two to decide, Miss Buchannan,” he says to me, probably to reinforce that Peggy has no say in the process. “You should go home. Get some rest. Perhaps get his affairs in order. We’ll contact you if his condition changes. Once you decide, just speak to the admitting nurse and we’ll go from there.”
He clears his throat. I can tell he’s wrapping up this chat by the way he straightens up, lets the patient records tablet computer hang at his side, and slides his free hand into a pocket of his white coat.
“Thank you,” I say as he turns to leave. I don’t mean it. I’m not grateful. It’s not the doctor’s fault, but in a way, with the news that he’s just given me, the man is more like my father’s angel of death than a savior right now.
“I’ll take Cherry home,” Jace says to Erica.
“I don’t want to leave him,” I tell him.
Erica squeezes my forearm. “I’ll be here, honey. Joseph said he’d stay too. We don’t all need to wait around at the same time. You can cover for me tomorrow morning.” She looks up at Jace. “Take her home.”
With a conceding nod, he kisses the top of my head, and we walk down the hallway to gather our things in the waiting area. Peggy insists she’ll be here the night, which is cause for alarm, because she is used to getting her way. As Erica and Joseph are staying behind, I have some reassurance that no decisions will be made on my behalf while I’m gone. Kiki must have left earlier. The rest of us—Jackson, Dahlia, Vanessa, Dylan, Jace and I—clear out, with plans for me and Jace to take the morning shift.
We’re all silent as we take the elevator to the parking level. The mood is somber. Everyone exchanges embraces before heading off to their respective vehicles. My dad’s driver, Vernon, waits dutifully beside the town car. I tell him to go back to Dad’s house and wait for news, and let Jace take me back to his place. He’s gone through the loss of a parent, so I know I can lean on him.
God knows I can’t be alone tonight.
21
Jace
Cherry cries in the car for the entire ride home. It breaks my heart that I can’t do anything to help her father. Gerald may not be on good terms with our family or Knights capital, but he’s still one of Dad’s oldest friends. Business is business, but he’ll never stop being like family to us. It kills me to feel this powerless to help Cherry as he approaches death. I’ve been there, with my mother. It’s one instance I can say I know exactly what she must be going through.
No matter what, I’m here for her.
“I have no one,” Cherry says to me as we get to my place and head up to my bedroom. “I feel so numb…so empty.”
The pain in her eyes causes me to pull her tight to my chest for a few moments, then pull her handbag from her shoulder and back her up to the bed, giving her shoulders a shove to make her sit.
“You know better than that, kitten,” I growl. “Once you cross that threshold, there’s no talk, no resistance, nothing but what I tell you.”
“Yes, but I’m so…this can’t be happening—”
“Stop. Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she breathes out in a whisper, staring up at me with those blue-green eyes that have more power over me than she’ll ever know.
“Then no more talk…not unless I say.”
She nods her understanding.
“Good.” I fold my arms and give her a moment to settle down. “I know what you’re going through, Cherry. But you don’t have to worry. In here, and now out there, I’m your daddy now.”
She nods with understanding.
“Say it,” I order, squaring my stance.
“You’re my daddy now. Please. Please help me forget.”
“That’s right,” I tell her, gently running the back of my hand down the side of her sweet face. This is where gentle ends and rough begins. Because she needs to feel it rough now more than ever. “I own you, kitten.”
“You do…you own me.”
I tilt her head up and bend forward, gripping her strawberry blonde locks and wrapping a handful around my fist. She moans as I crash my lips to hers for a kiss she won’t forget anytime soon.
“And I’ll protect you,” I rasp against her lips. “But first, I’m going to have you. Whichever way I want. As rough, as dirty as I please. And you’ll take it. You’ll do as I say. You won’t be numb after I’m done with you. I’ll make you feel again, until you’re so sore you won’t remember what it’s like to be numb.”
I bend forward and kiss her on the cheek. As my lips touch her skin, I pull her to lean all her weight against me. This is one night she needs to know she doesn’t have to handle anything alone. There’s an audible exhale she seems to have been holding in all evening, and when I cover her lips again for a more tender kiss, I take all of that away. Cherry ends the pretense that she’ll be strong for me, for everyone including her father. Every muscle in her body relaxes against my chest as I reach my arms around her and lift her up toward me.
Soon she starts to get into what’s right in front of her, pressing her tongue past my lips for more. I’m no one’s distraction, but for this moment, I’ll be anything Cherry needs me to be. I deepen our kiss, craving more of her than she’ll know, urgently needing to consume her the way I’m sure she wants.
I pull from our kiss but leave my mouth hovering less than an inch from hers.
“Get on your hands and knees, kitten,” I whisper, and she moans with desire.
She leans back for a second, studying my face. Pressing her hands into the bed, she lifts her ass in the air and balances her weight on all fours for me.
My hands travel across her body to her midsection, feeling along the waistband of her skirt to find the zipper. With a tug, I peel away the fabric, taking her panties with it until they form an inhibiting bundle at her knees. I shove her shirt and bra up her body in the same way, pushing them past her head until they too restrict the movements of her arms at her wrists.
Fuck. She’s gorgeous any way I look at her, from the round curves of her ass to her slim waist, to her full, round, soft breasts that I can never get enough of. Cherry bends at her hips, angling herself so she can look back at me. Her mouth parts and she slowly glides her tongue over her top lip, like an invitation for me to touch her sweet wetness.
Fuck
I’m hard as slate from that one suggestive move. My aching cock can’t wait to get up inside of her, but I take a moment to part her ass cheeks with my thumb, my dick throbbing as I admire her bright pink center for a moment before I drive my tongue inside her. She pushes her ass back into my face, whimpering through her pleasure. I can go on tasting her like this all night if it weren’t for the fact that Cherry needs her rest tonight. She’s had a long day, and I’m sure she’ll want to get back to the hospital the second her eyes open in the morning.
Then she moans out a plea for me, begging me to take her hard.
I can’t get my dick out fast enough as I pull my belt off and pants down. Our needs have long been a two-way street, but it’s at times like these that I get that reminder.
“Tell me what I want to hear, kitten,” I growl, positioning my rigid erection at her ass.
“I need you, Daddy. Please fuck me,” she softly says.
Her sweet, submissive tone sets me off. I’m like an animal working on instinct as I grip her hips and sink every inch of my cock into her in one sharp thrust. Cherry hisses out from desire, her entire body jerking forward from the force that I enter her. My fingers dig into the tender flesh of her hips as I push her apart from me most of the way, then drag her back to me, burying deep inside of her he
at.
This time she calls out my name in a whimper as her hips roll, driving up the friction each and every time I pound into her. My hands travel down the outside of her legs, and back up past her waist to the swells of her breasts as I piston in and out of her. I want every thrust to drive her reality of tonight further away, and for every inch of pleasure to remind her that she’s all mine and she won’t ever be alone again.
Cherry’s breathing changes to short, sigh-like cries, which tell me that she’s about to cum. I plow into her from behind, burying my whole length inside of her, pumping into her and out again with a bed-shaking force. I slide one hand up to the back of her neck and push her head down to the bedsheets to adjust the angle the way I know she fucking enjoys.
The result is almost immediate.
She lets out a muffled yelp into the mattress, and her body begins to shake from deep in her core, rippling out to her thighs and legs. She cums with a wicked force, her channel clenching around my shaft in a way that practically milks my own orgasm from my cock. A few aching pumps later, my teeth clench, my fingers flex, and the pressure behind my balls is too much to hold back as I cum too.
As our shaking and heavy breathing begin to subside, I stretch out our bodies and we lie sideways on the bed, her back against my chest. Cherry turns just her head back to me, silent but mouthing the words “Thank you,” before resting her head on the pillow.
Cherry.
My kitten.
“I’m here for you,” I groan at her ear, wrapping my arm around her waist to pull her closer. “You know how much I love you. That won’t ever change.”
I nuzzle my nose against her neck and she sighs. “I love you too, Jace.”
We drift off to sleep, but it appears like this is the night that’ll never end. Cherry gets a late-night phone call from Vernon. The time reads one thirty on my clock on the night stand phone as I force my eyelids to open.
“Vernon, is something wrong?” she asks into the phone after clicking the call answer button. “Hang on, let me put it on speaker.”
“Apologies for the rather late phone call,” Vernon says to her. “There’s something you should know. Miss Kiki is here. One of the cleaning ladies who liked her while she was married to your father must have given her the alarm system codes, and Miss Kiki let herself in.”
“What is she doing there?”
“She’s in Mr. Buchannan’s office trying to open his safe.”
22
Cherry
My father hasn’t left this world yet, and the vultures are circling already. On the one hand, Peggy wants to take the reins and do the decision-making about my father’s care. On the other, Kiki is making best efforts to take what she can while everyone’s focused on Dad. Thankfully, Erica has all the contacts and legal footing to get them both off my back. Erica doesn’t leave my father’s side all night long, but makes a few calls. She advised Peggy to back the fuck up, or all the funds for her beloved charities will dry up before Dad takes his last breath. After Peggy takes a step back from her control-freakish bent, Erica arranges for a security firm to dispatch two of their staff to monitor the grounds at Dad’s house.
By the time I arrive at Dad’s place, the security guys report to me that they found Kiki there with a moving team. The opportunistic bitch had the nerve to try and steal from my father. But she didn’t just make a play for his regular belongings. Her guys were busy working to remove the wall safe from his office. It seems like Kiki thought that she could take her sweet time to get a professional to crack the goddamned combination when it was safely off of the premises. When Erica learned about what happened, she took it up with Kiki on the phone, promising to press criminal charges to make sure the skinny bleach blonde ex-stripper bitch wouldn’t try it again.
All is well again, but as Jace and I are already at the house, we go inside. I have a couple of days to make this crucial life or death decision about Dad. The least I can do is take a few of his things to him. We have no way of knowing the extent of his awareness. He can at least be comfortable. Jace waits down in the foyer while I head upstairs to look for the satin smoking jacket and plush leather house slippers I’ve seen Dad wear once or twice around the house.
Stepping inside his bedroom is strange. I look over at the slightly dated yet classic master bedroom room, taking in each area. The black button-back floor-to-ceiling headboard of his king-sized bed is just his style. Brown and cream linens cover his bed. Those colors dot all the accent pieces and armchairs around the room. A couple of plush cream rugs provide just enough light against the rich brown painted walls, and dark-stained flooring to keep the room in balance. The two tall, ultra-modern lamps beside the nightstand must be new. I’ve never seen those before, but then again, the last time I was in here, I was probably still in high school.
I can’t help feeling that I’ve invaded his privacy.
Sucking in a deep breath of air, I step inside his walk-in closet.
Jesus.
I freeze.
My heart just about stops, and it takes everything in me to keep my legs from giving way under me. It’s all there, on an entire backlit shelving unit on one wall of his closet. Every certificate, trophy, award, gift, medal and keepsake that I’ve ever given to him. They’re proudly placed at a safe distance from one another, out for show. Just for his eyes only.
In the very middle shelf, there are three large, gold, framed photographs. One is of him and my mother on their wedding day. I’d recognize this picture anywhere, because it’s the one I carry in a pocket of my wallet. The next is one of me and Dad outside the house. I’m wearing my high school cap and gown. I remember, this picture was taken long after the graduation ceremony because he couldn’t make it in time. He looks so proud, with one hand cradling my shoulder. I don’t remember that part, but I guess he did embrace me at least once in my life. The last picture is one that I’ve never seen before. It’s my mother, all by herself. She’s glowing. By the loving expression on her face, I’m sure Dad took the photo. She has on a fitted royal blue dress, and looks about eight or nine months pregnant. With me. I pick it up and look more closely. The dress brings out her big, round aquamarine eyes, which are just like mine.
Replacing my mother’s photograph, I pick up the one of their wedding day.
Christ. I wish I had seen this shelf before tonight. I’m so full of regret for resenting Dad’s coolness toward me. From this wall, a stranger would probably believe he adored me.
He probably did.
I just wish he knew how to express it to me.
“Oh Daddy,” I cry, and let the tears fall as my body heaves from the powerful sobs that I can’t control. With my hands gripping my parents’ wedding picture, I drop to the floor and clutch it close to my chest. “I miss her so much too,” I cry between heart-wrenching sniffles that refuse to stop and take me to the point of nausea. “Soon you’ll be gone too…and I’ll have no one…”
It takes me a long while to pull myself together, but eventually, my tears dry up, and the weeping ceases. A knock on the outer bedroom door gets my attention and brings me to my feet.
I forgot. Jace is here.
“I’ll just be a minute,” I shout through the closet door, wiping the tears and snot from my face with one of Dad’s folded hand towels. Smoothing out the front of my clothes, I go to him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. I’ll grab a few things and meet you downstairs.”
“Sure, but your phone rang,” he tells me. “And well, given what you’re facing, I took the call. It was Erica. You dad’s condition just changed.”
“What? What happened?”
“She doesn’t know. The doctor wants you back at the hospital. Tonight.”
“Let’s go.” I push past him and hurry across the long hallway, ignoring the wave of nausea that hits me again as I make it to the front stairwell. Thank goodness I haven’t eaten in hours, or I’d be bent over the porcelain by now from the stressful evening
I’ve had.
“Don’t you want to get his things that you were looking for?” Jace asks, following close behind me.
“No,” I say sharply. His house coat can wait. If these are my father’s last moments in this world, I need to get back to his side. “I’ll get Vernon to find them. Or I’ll come back later if I have to. I need to see my father.”
23
Jace
I rush Cherry back to the hospital to find out what happened while we were gone.
“Are you okay?” I ask her for probably the tenth time since we left her dad’s place.
“Yes. I’m fine,” she answers dismissively.
The repeated question is probably getting on her last nerve, but I can’t help myself. I can tell that she was crying. Her eyes are red and puffy. It’s been a long, tough day, though, so I don’t push the issue. We’re all tired.
Erica’s the first person we see as we walk the halls to get back to Gerald’s room.
“Have they told you anything?” Cherry asks.
Erica shakes her head. “No. You have medical power of attorney. They won’t release new information except to you. I made sure of that.”
“Okay,” Cherry answers.
Erica places her hand on Cherry’s forearm to stop her. She squints her eyes to narrow slits, staring into Cherry’s face. “Honey, are you okay?” Erica asks, then looks at me. “Is she okay? She doesn’t look too good.”
I don’t disagree. I’ve been worried since we got on the road.
“I’m right here, Erica,” Cherry says. “And yes, I’m fine. It’s the middle of the night. We’re all going on barely any sleep. I’ll be all right.” She pats Erica’s arm and takes a polite step back, glancing up at me. “I’ll look for Dr. Morgan to find out what’s going on.”
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