by Brook Greene
Her body heaves again and she turns, making it to the toilet just in time. I race to kneel beside her retching body and lay a hand on her back. “Baby, are you okay?”
She pushes me away, nodding her head. “Roman, just go, please?”
“Hell no.” I move to retrieve a cloth and wet it before handing it to her. “You think you caught a bug from one of the kids?”
She spins her body around and leans it against the vanity cabinet, looking up at me. “No, it’s just my nerves. All this wedding talk and I can’t get you working with him out of my mind.”
I frame her pale face with my hands. “You worry about marrying me, I’ll worry about everything else, understand?” I rub the pad of my thumb over the apple of her cheek, then stand. I bend down and pick her up to carry her to our bed. I lay us both down and pull her back into my front. She snuggles back against me with a sigh.
“How did I get so lucky?” she whispers.
I kiss her ear. “Babe, that would be me who got lucky. Sleep now, you’ll feel better in the morning.”
~~~~~~
Hollis
My belly rolling wakes me up, but I have the weight of Roman’s arm draped over me. Trying my best not to wake him, but moving quickly, I lift it and roll from under it and off the bed, making my way to the bathroom as fast as I can. I make it in just the nick of time.
~~~~~~
I feel him before he’s even against my back or his lips are at my ear. “Hey, I missed you this morning. I wanted to repay the favor from last night.” He nuzzles his nose in my hair, letting out a low rumble of need as he nips at my sensitive skin, making all the right parts of me come to life. I feel his hand rub around my hips and lifting up the T-shirt of his I wear to bed. He groans when he finds my panties. Pushing his fingers under the waistband to cup my pussy in his hand, his hot breath tickles my ear. “Oh, baby,” he says as he strokes a finger through the lips of my wet pussy. I brace my hands on the counter he has me pushed up against, as he pushes a finger inside of me. “So wet.” He pulls his finger back out. Tracing up my folds, he stops at my clit, rubbing gentle circles. I lay my head back on his shoulder as the waves of a quickly approaching orgasm overtake me.
He dips his fingers back inside of me, pumping them a few times. “Damn, your pussy’s so tight, Hollis.” He licks up the outside of my ear, and a full body shudder rolls over me. I feel his hard cock as I rub my nearly bare ass against him.
One hand mindlessly flies up, grasping at his wrist, urging him to go faster as the sparks begin to fly through my core. “Oh, Roman!” I scream as the tidal wave of pleasure washes over me. Had it not been for my one hand on the counter and his arm around me, I would’ve crumpled to the floor in a sated, satisfied heap. I lean my head forward and watch him pull his hand from my panties, then he spins me to face him as he shoves the two fingers he’s just had inside of me into his mouth, wrapping his lips tight around them, groaning as he pulls them out, sucking them clean. If I had it in me, I would‘ve come all over again, but as it is, the one I’d just had took everything out of me.
“Wow, that’s quite a way to say good morning.” I’m still trying to catch my breath.
He bends to give me a kiss.
“Coffee?” Is the only thing I can think to say, my mind still fuzzy from the ravishing orgasm.
“Sure.” He peeks around me at the pan I have his eggs cooking in on the stove. “You making me breakfast, woman?”
I laugh. “If I hadn’t already started, I definitely would be now after that,” I say, nodding my head at the counter he had me up against.
He laughs as he sits down at the island, and I hand him a cup of black coffee, just the way he likes it. “Thank you, baby.” He blows across the cup, making the liquid ripple.
Five minutes later, I sit a plate full of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon in front of him, taking the stool across from him.
“You’re not eating?” he asks as he shoves a mouthful of food into his mouth.
“No.” I wrinkle my nose at the thought and absentmindedly rub my stomach. “My belly’s still a little iffy.”
“Okay, what’s on your mind?” He tilts his head in question.
I shift uncomfortably under his scrutinizing gaze. I don’t know why I’m so nervous to touch on the subject of our wedding. It is our wedding after all. “Roman, yesterday when we were planning, Piper was asking me a lot of questions. Some I knew the answers to, but there were a couple I didn’t, and it made me realize we haven’t really talked about what you want in this wedding.”
He stops eating. “I don’t care, I just want to get to the wedding night so that I can fuck my wife.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me with a devilish grin on his wickedly talented lips.
I scoff and playfully slap at his hand. “No, I mean…okay, for instance. Do you want to go on a honeymoon, and if so, where?”
“Sure.” He goes back to eating.
“Okay, where?” Getting a straight answer from him is like pulling teeth.
He shrugs his shoulder. “I don’t care. Wherever you want to go is fine,” he mumbles around a mouthful of eggs.
I slap my palm down on the countertop in frustration. “Roman?”
“What?” He holds his arms out to either side of his body.
“Help me with this one, please?” I’m practically begging him.
He clears his throat as he lays down his fork and wipes his hands on a napkin. “Look, Hollis, I’ve been everywhere, seen most of what there is to see in this world. When I was a kid, my parents took me and Piper on extravagant summer vacations, winter ski trips, and shit like that. In the service, I was on the other side of the freaking planet.” I open my mouth, but he holds up his hand, stopping me. “Let me finish. The reason I left all this up to you, not giving any suggestions or making demands, is because I want this day to be all about you. Because you forget, I’ve known you when, forgive me,” he holds up his hands this time in a surrendering gesture, “you didn’t have a pot to piss in as a kid, wore thrift store clothes in high school, and when you were homeless in your twenties.”
I groan. “Thank you for that so sensitive recap of my wonderful life.”
“I didn’t say all that to hurt you, but to remind you that this is yours, for you to do with what you want. If you have us all dressed up in orange Dumb and Dumber tuxes and the girls in those hideous eighties prom dresses, that’s okay, I’ll roll with it, and so will everyone else because that’s what you want. And if you want to go to a salt and pepper shaker museum on our honeymoon, I’m down with that too.”
“There’s actually a salt and pepper shaker museum?” Not exactly the remote, exotic, romantic location I was thinking.
“Yup, in Gatlinburg.” He smiles as he picks up his now empty plate and places it in the sink.
“Who knew I was only two and half hours away from that kind of very important history?” He comes up behind me and spins me on the stool to face him.
“The point I’m trying to make is, baby, you choose where you want to go. We can go camping or to the island of Fiji. I’m leaving that up to you because I’ve done it and you haven’t.” I look up into his crystal blue eyes that have so much love in them right now, and they’re staring right back at me. I beam with the thought. He’s leaving this up to me, not because he doesn’t care or is acting like a man, but because he wants me to choose what do to. Things I’ve never experienced, and compared to Roman and the money his family had, that would be a big fat nothing.
I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t think I want to go camping. Glamping maybe, if we had one of those big ol’ campers, but no, no camping. I’m not an outdoorsy kind of girl.”
He slaps my ass before walking out of the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, “Fiji it is.”
“Hey,” I call after him, but he’s already upstairs and I can’t help but smile. What a fucking morning.
Chapter Twenty-One
Hollis
“So,” Piper starts, pen in hand and noteb
ook laid out in front of her. I have a feeling by the end of this month, we’re all going to take great pleasure in ripping that damn thing apart and burning it. “Did you by chance get a conversation in last night or this morning about a honeymoon?” They all look at me, completely captivated by what I have to say.
We’re having our usual Sunday afternoon cookout at the clubhouse, where the men are manning the grill and we’re at the picnic table.
“Well,” I twist my lips, not sure if he was serious or not, because when I’d gone upstairs after him, we’d ended up having honeymoonesque sex in our shower. “We did, but I’m not sure he was serious about the destination or not.”
“Anything will help to give us an idea.” Piper has her pen ready.
“He suggested a salt and pepper shaker museum.” I pause for dramatic effect and laugh at all their faces.
“He can’t be serious.” Emily looks at me, a little disgusted.
“No,” I say, getting my laughter under control. “He wasn’t, but then he said something about Fiji?”
They all stop talking and laughing to just look at me with their wide eyes and open mouths.
“What? I know where Fiji is, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting him pay for that kind of a honeymoon.” I dismiss their silent concerns. “I was thinking more along the lines of a resort in Florida somewhere, or maybe Myrtle Beach.” But who I’m I kidding? A trip to Fiji would be a once in a lifetime trip. Hell, I couldn’t dream of going in five of my lifetimes. The thought is fleeting and completely ridiculous, but a girl can dream.
Piper levels her eyes at me. “Small, huh?” She goes back to writing in her notebook. “Myrtle Beach, resort in Florida.” She punctuates her note by tapping the pen onto the paper a little harder than needed.
“Oh.” We all turn to Avery. “Tessa.” She shoves a few printed papers across the table to her. “I was talking to one of the obstetric nurses in the hall Friday and they told me this.” She looks happy with herself as she points to the papers laying on the table. “Read.”
Tessa smiles at her and picks up the papers. “Bullshit,” she exclaims. “This is crazy.” She jerks her eyes up to a very pleased with herself Avery.
“I know, right? So keep letting Matthew bend you over that couch, girl,” Avery says on a laugh. “It kinda pisses me off that I paid to have Pitocin through an IV in the hospital when I could’ve been getting it from Leo’s dick for free anytime I wanted it,” Avery exclaims.
“Give it here,” Piper demands, reaching for the papers in Tessa’s hand. Her eyes fly over the words on the paper. “Holy shit.” Piper looks up and hands them off to me. “It’s in the semen?”
I read them fast, with Emily and Josie eagerly jerking them out of my hand when I finish, and look up with my mouth hanging open in shock. “No shit, but why?” I look over at Tessa.
“I’m thirty-two weeks, and I want this shit over with.” She motions up and down her huge twin baby belly. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved being these babies belly momma, but being pregnant in general sucks.” Her voice is a little whiny.
And I can’t blame her at all, she looks completely miserable. Her feet and hands are swollen, she has to wear what can only be classified as a festive Hawaiian Mumu, and her belly is just short of being the size of the world’s largest watermelon.
“You’re thirty-two weeks?” I ask her.
“Yes, I thought you knew that, Hollis?” she asks, a little hurt.
“I did—I mean, I do.” I stop and let my shoulders fall, feeling like the shittiest friend in the world. “Piper, we’re going to have to wait on the wedding.” Everything stops around the table.
“No,” Tessa snaps, reaching out for my hand. “You are not stopping or postponing anything because of me.”
“But Tessa, you’ll be thirty-six weeks pregnant, and I’m not making you get all dressed up, stand on your feet and do all the pomp and circumstance shit with you this miserable.”
“Hollis.” She levels her eyes at me. “This is your day, and I don’t care if Matthew has to wheel me up to that alter on a damn gurney, you’re getting married in a month. These little boys will just have to wait till you sign the papers to make an appearance.” She leans back and pats her large belly.
“You bitch!” Piper screams. “You’ve known this whole time and not said anything?”
Tessa makes an oops face before breaking into the biggest smile. “Yes, I wanted to tell you, but,” she trails off.
“But what? You just let it slip your mind? Does Matthew know?” Josie looks over at the men standing by the grill and back to Tessa.
“Of course Matthew knows,” Tessa tells Josie.
“Oh my God, I love babies. Babies, babies, babies,” Emily chants while Avery has a Cheshire smile on her face.
“You knew?” I direct the attention to Avery.
She has the audacity to look innocent. “Well, I might have just-”
“Bullied your way in,” Tessa blurts out.
Avery rights her shoulders. “Yes I did, and I’m not ashamed at all.” She points to Tessa’s belly. “Those are my nephews and I wanted to know.”
“You didn’t know they were our nephews then.” Emily points an accusatory finger at her. Avery just shrugs and smiles.
“Okay, Tessa.” Piper levels her eyes at the woman. “There will be no having babies until after I get this planned. Shit, girl, we haven’t even had you a baby shower yet.” Her eyes fly wide as she turns to a clean piece of paper and begins writing.
I look over at a groaning Tessa. I reach out to pat her hand. “You’re welcome.” I give her a shit-eating grin. “If I have to, everybody has to let her plan things.”
“I’ll have to get my assistant on this,” Piper states.
“Assistant?” Emily looks over at Piper.
“Yes,” she answers, matter-of-factly. “Dalton hired me one so when I’m at the wedding, because I’m in it, she’ll run things.”
I look at her skeptically. “You’re going to let someone else run the show?”
“She’s my teaching assistant at school so she knows me, and we work well together,” Piper says as we all just shake our heads. “Okay, Ima’s taking care of the wedding cake.” I open my mouth to protest, but Piper holds her hand up, stopping me. “She insisted, Hollis, and once that woman has her mind set there’s no changing it.”
Avery leans over and whispers in my ear, “Remind you of anybody?” I snicker, and Piper catches us pointing her pen at the both of us.
~~~~~~
Roman
“I think that woman just cupped my ball sack, man,” Eno says, looking over his shoulder at the woman who has spent the afternoon measuring us for tuxes.
Leo smacks him in the chest. “She was just measuring your inseam, dumbass.”
“No, really. I mean, like,” he holds his hand up in a cupping position.
“Not everybody wants your nuts, Eno. She didn’t, get over it.” I roll my eyes at him.
“You’ll never convince me of anything different, full cuppage.” He rotates his head back and forth, and then runs his finger along the inside of the tight collar of the white dress shirt he’s wearing. “This monkey suit was so much more comfortable after Jo took it off me the night of the auction.” He looks over at us and smiles. “Hope I get that same action the night of the wedding.”
“Eno,” Leo growls.
“What?”
“Shut up.” Leo clears his throat as the seamstress rejoins us to start measuring him.
“Hollis’s dress is truly beautiful, and she looks gorgeous in it.” She talks as she runs the measuring tape up the inside of Leo’s leg. I watch the look on his face shift to surprise when she reaches the apex of his thighs.
Stifling a laugh, I watch her do his other leg and he grimaces. “I’m sure she does, ma’am. I can’t wait to see her in it,” I say, never taking my eyes off of Leo’s shocked face.
She stands with a wide grin on her face. “Arms out.�
� She holds hers out to her sides and Leo mimics her motions.
When she walks around to his back, he looks over at me, wide-eyed and mouths, “Oh my God.” He shakes his head as she runs her hands around his barrel chest with the measuring tape.
When she goes back to the counter to write his measurements down, Eno comes to a stop in front of him, smiling. “See? I told you.”
Leo just purses his lips and nods his head.
Its Cowboy’s turn next, and when she runs her hand up the inside of his leg, he moves his hips. “Watch the goods.” Furrowing his eyebrows, he looks down at her.
After we all spend two hours getting groped and rubbed, we walk out of the boutique and head straight for the clubhouse. “I feel so violated,” Eno says, rubbing his chest as he climbs into the third-row seat of Leo’s massive SUV.
“I think Piper had that shit done on purpose.” Cowboy lifts his big frame into the passenger side seat, looking back at me.
Dalton begins to laugh. “You know, I bet that crazy ass woman did.” He’s the only one who would think such a sick joke is funny.
“I need to go home and bathe.” Eno wrinkles his face as he tucks his hands between his legs, holding his own balls.
“Pregnant Tessa would have tripped balls on that poor woman if she would’ve came today like she wanted to,” Matthew says, barely being able to stifle his laughter.
Leo looks at him in the rearview. “Oh yeah, getting to those massive amounts of pregnancy hormones now, are we?”
Matthew shakes his head and holds one hand up in the air, the other over his heart. “I swear to God we’re either fucking or fighting, or she’s asleep or crying. I can’t win for losing, and I breathe too loud.”
Leo barks out a laugh. “Avery would scream at me because she swore she could hear me fucking thinking.”
“I remember when Emily was pregnant.” Cowboy’s comment shuts us all up. When he notices, he looks around. “I can talk about it. She would eat pickles and Cheetos constantly. I was running out to the store at three and four in the morning for that shit. Oh, and she loved to give me head,” he says with a satisfied smile. He throws his meaty hand up and points at us. “You tell her that I told you that second part, and I will kill you all in your sleep.”
