His abs rippled and flexed as she sucked him, dancing along to the sound of the moans that floated from his parted lips.
Veda’s head bobbed softly at first, then faster every second, letting the sounds of pleasure leaving him drive her until he was writhing in the chair. Until he was so overcome with ecstasy that she felt herself become overcome too, so much so that she let him fall from the warmth of her mouth with a plop, looking up and meeting his eyes.
“Make love to me,” she whispered.
A lump moved down his throat as he gave a heavy swallow, and it took him a moment to find words. “But we still have a few more days, don’t we?”
She shook her head. “I already had my checkup. I just wanted to wait until I could get waxed… but I guess that’s out of the window. Plus… Grace will be back tonight. This might be our last chance for a long time.”
They smiled at each other, but Gage’s grin was the first to fall as he leaned forward in the chair and caught her bottom lip between his in a soft kiss. He pulled away for only a moment before diving in for more, tilting his head and spreading his lips wide to take the kiss deeper. His moan filled her mouth when she returned the embrace with just as much passion, all while stroking his dick, now slippery with the attentions of her lips and tongue.
For several minutes they disappeared into the softness of each other’s lips. The butterflies coursing through their stomachs as the kiss continued, growing deeper. Even when they both believed it wasn’t possible for the kiss to shake their world any more, it did, until they were both on their knees on the floor, so consumed with the taste of each other they didn’t even realize they were moving as one. Moving blindly. Lips battling as Gage laid back on the floor and dueling still as Veda threw one leg over his hips, straddling him. Their hearts never left the bright, warm, beautiful world a simple kiss could take them to, holding them hostage until the darker, more carnal corners of their bodies and souls nudged their way in to join the party.
Veda broke the kiss and pressed her forehead to Gage’s, her eyes locked to his as he reached between their bodies and guided his hardness between her splayed legs, circling her soaked entry with the tip before abandoning it to cup her cheeks.
“I love you,” he whispered, just as the head sank inside her.
“I love you,” she replied, leaning her forearms on his solid chest, giving him all her weight while clutching her fingers around his shoulders, unable to keep her eyes open as her body spread for him for the first time in six long weeks. Her mouth fell open to thank the Gods but only a sharp breath escaped, and when he’d filled her to the hilt, the sensation was so incredible she couldn’t even move her bones.
So Gage moved for her, still clutching her cheeks, holding her steady as he pulled out until just the tip remained before slamming back inside. They cried out together as he propelled in and out, his thrusts picking up speed every second, more powerful with each strike, the slapping of their skin nearly overpowering their moans of pleasure.
Still frozen, defenseless to the blasts of light shooting through her, all Veda could do was take everything he had to give: the slam of his hips against hers making her ass clap as he took her, the scrape of his teeth against her nipple as he sucked one into his mouth and the hot warmth of his tongue as he drew slow circles around it, the unbearable feeling of him letting it plop from between his warm lips and back into the nippy air, only to capture the other nipple and give it the same love.
The feeling of the sensitive nub getting assaulted by his strong tongue and the power of his dick stroking her and lighting fire to her slick pussy broke something in Veda. It snapped her out of her trance and drove her to new realms of need. Before she knew it, she’d braced her hands on his pecs, using his strength as leverage, and begun a slow, languid bounce on top of him.
Gage collapsed onto the floor, happy to let her take over, a deep frown having grown across his face during his time bringing her toward the edge.
Apparently, he’d been guiding them both toward that edge because in what felt like an instant they’d both whispered they were close, and their eyes remained locked as they came. Slow and soft at first, but a little harder every moment until both of their bodies were twitching and convulsing. Clenching and unclenching against the orgasms that ripped through them, their bodies both begging for more and unable to take another hit all at once.
As Veda collapsed on his chest, she realized no hit of Gage would ever be enough.
She’d be addicted to him until the day she died.
She’d take every hit with glee and wild abandon until she finally overdosed.
Then she’d take ten more.
3
Though they’d been too overcome with passion to make it upstairs on the first round, Veda and Gage had eventually found their way up to the master bedroom of their home, having each other as many times as they could before the real world came crashing back in. A “real world” whose inevitable arrival had caused the rest of the night to go by in a flash, leaving them fast asleep under the plush ivory duvet on their king sized bed.
Decorated in all white, the bedroom was almost as ethereal as the moonlight glowing into the double doors of the balcony, which they’d left open, allowing the cool night air to waft inside, compelling them to savor the warmth of the heavy duvet and sheets they were curled under.
The real world was back, but that night, sleep had come easy. That night, it had stayed for a while.
Longer that it had in six weeks.
So when Veda’s cell phone suddenly buzzed to life on the bedside table, the dull hum wasn’t enough to draw her from her deep sleep. It wasn’t until the call was seconds from going to voicemail that her eyes flew open and a gasp flared her nostrils.
As her sleepy eyes reached across the dark room and landed on the phone glowing on the bedside table, dancing across the top as it vibrated, waking her from the first real night’s sleep she’d enjoyed in over a month, she should’ve been angry.
Furious even.
But instead, as she stared at the phone gleaming with a call from an ‘unknown’ number, its bright light cutting into the darkness of the bedroom almost as powerfully as the moon, she shot out of bed and snatched it off the table. From the corner of her eye, she saw the time on the bedside clock.
3:45 am.
Abysmally early, but again, the anger didn’t come.
Clutching the phone, she kicked the sheets and blankets off her body and stood from the bed. Her red silk nightgown fluttered down her thighs. She peeked over her shoulder at Gage—still fast asleep on his stomach with his head turned away—before she hurried out of the room and answered the call, placing the phone to her ear. As she entered the long hallway, her heartbeat pummeled her ribcage.
“Hello?” Her voice was soft but rushed. Hasty.
Desperate.
Silence.
Even as no response came from the other end of the line, she could still hear signs of life in the background.
And that was enough.
“Is that you?” she whispered into the phone, her bare feet pattering on the marble floors as she made her way down the long upstairs hallway. She ran the tips of her fingers over the white railing as she moved. The railing that lined the second story and overlooked the first floor on either side—showcasing both the foyer and the living area down below. When no answer came, she carried on, “I know it’s you.”
As she spoke, she continued down the hall, making the blind trek she’d made a million times before. A trek that she could make with her eyes closed. A trek she had made with her eyes closed, on several occasions, when she’d been woken at an equally ungodly hour.
But it had been a long time since her phone had woken her in the middle of the night. Too long. Ten months ago, she could expect it to buzz to life in the dead of night at least once a week. Sometimes twice.
This time, however, over a month had gone by.
She covered her heart with her hand as she finished her
journey down the hall, turning into the room that sat one door down, the silence on the other end of the line still dominating.
“It’s been over a month since you…” She took a deep breath when she realized she couldn’t waste time on conversation that didn’t matter, knowing the call could end at any moment. Her eyes ran the room she’d just entered, where the all-white furniture, soft baby blue wallpaper, and bright colorful toys that scattered the floor fought to be seen in the blackness.
“It happened.” She crossed the room, tightening one hand around the phone and the other around the white wooden bars she’d just approached, coming to a stop in front of the crib. “I’m actually someone’s mom… Six weeks old. Can you believe it? God help him, right?”
Her eyes fell into the crib, wondering if she’d ever be able to look down at the sleeping bundle in the middle of it and not have to fight the urge to burst into tears of pure, unadulterated joy. If she’d ever be able to look upon his protruding belly—rising and falling gently in his slumber—and not fall to pieces with the deepest love she’d ever felt. If she’d ever be able to look at his ten tiny toes, hidden away under his footsie pajamas, and not playfully gobble them up, covering them with furious kisses because they were the cutest ten toes on Earth.
She reached into the crib and covered his chubby belly, knowing that if she dared wake him up, he’d be awake for the remainder of the night. But she couldn't help squeezing his soft stomach, rising and falling under his white onesie pajamas. She couldn’t help letting her touch travel down to his tiny feet, which she squeezed between her fingers, and then up to his hands, clutched in two tight fists on either side of his head, which was cocked to the side, away from her. She couldn’t stop herself from brushing the baby-soft wisps of jet-black hair on his head, breathing deeply at his beauty.
“You ready for this?” she whispered into the phone, keeping her voice low in order not to wake him. “We named him Lincoln.”
She was sure she heard a sharp inhalation on the other end of the line but was equally sure that she might’ve imagined it. Desperation had the power to make one hear and feel many things, even when they weren’t real.
“Lincoln Blackwater,” she said, still stroking Lincoln’s hair. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about the Blackwater part, but… hopefully, we did you proud with Lincoln.” She smiled softly.
Was he smiling too? She hoped so. Her fingers began to tremble as she said a soft prayer that he was. That he was happy. Smiling. Some part of her, however—perhaps the more cynical part, understood that one-sided phone calls in the middle of the night—phone calls where she just spoke into a vat of white noise—didn’t exactly spell peace and tranquility.
Her stomach rolled in dread, but she made a silent vow to herself that she’d do everything she could to make these short moments as light as she could for him. “I swear that he changes ethnicities everyday. Everyday, he looks like someone else’s kid. When I gave birth to him, he was Chinese. When we brought him home, he was Greek. Now, looking at him, I’m honestly getting Dominican vibes. He’s all over the map, man…” She adjusted Lincoln’s onesie, her fingers trailing over the black-and-white design that had been stenciled onto the front. “He’s wearing a onesie that Grace bought for him. It has a Straight Outta Compton logo on the front, but instead, it says Straight Outta Mommy.” She chortled, clapping a hand over her mouth when it caused Lincoln to stir. She waited to make sure he wasn’t going to wake up before dropping her hand and clutching the crib once more. “Your mom’s awesome. She even took him off our hands all day today so we could have some alone time. He really loves her.”
Silence, but again, she was sure she heard a deep breath. A sign of life. A sign that she was being heard.
She pulled the phone away from her ear and checked. The gleaming screen informed her that the call was still active. The timer clock that continued ticking confirmed it.
She knew it could stop ticking at any moment.
That thought drove her to clap the phone back to her ear. “I’m not quite Veda Blackwater yet, but… getting there. We were thinking… destination wedding. Somewhere far away. With no extradition.”
Silence.
“Things have quieted down a lot around here,” she said. “No Blackwater Cruises. Murder rates at an all time low. Fewer missing person cases. The bureau’s investigation is still going strong, so the island’s crawling with feds. Not exactly an appealing place to run a trafficking operation, so it’s all just… gone to dust. I’d almost use the word… nice. It’s like a whole different world.” She chuckled, her eyes softening into the crib. “I’m actually excited to raise my son here.” Her smile faded. “And that’s down to his uncle. It’s all because of you—”
Veda’s heart skipped a beat because, in the midst of her sentence, she knew she heard something. A rustle? A sniffle? Maybe even a swallow. Her wide eyes danced back and forth in the darkness, hungry for more.
But nothing came.
“I’m really glad you called. I was beginning to worry that… that you’d stopped needing this. Stopped needing it as much as I do. As much as we do.” She drew in a deep breath as the quiet stretched on, both painful and soothing all at once. “Wherever you are… We love you. We miss you—”
“I want to talk to him.”
Veda’s eyes flew over her shoulder at the sound of Gage’s voice, just in time to see him barreling into the nursery wearing only black boxers, his arm outstretched for the phone.
“I want to talk to him,” Gage demanded.
She gasped when the phone suddenly clicked. She didn’t even need to pull it from her ear to know what would greet her when she looked at the screen. The two dreaded words that had broken her heart, time and time again, over the last ten months: Call ended.
She showed Gage the screen of the phone that now trembled in her hand with a soft shake of her head. “He… he hung up. He just hung up—”
“Damn it, Veda,” Gage breathed, eyes still swollen with sleep as he bent forward at the spine, making claws with his hands. “You promised you would wake me up.”
“I know, baby. I’m so sorry.” She looked down at the phone as if it was a voodoo witch doctor who’d forced her to move against her own wishes and beliefs. “I just got so excited…”
Gage sliced his hands into his hair and turned away from her, huffing. A few moments passed before he swung on his heel, motioning to the phone with arrow-sharp fingers. “You know he only calls for a few precious minutes—”
“I know.”
“God only knows how long it could be before he calls again—”
“I know, Gage. It was selfish of me to take the phone and run out of the room. I’m sorry, okay?” She watched his shoulders slump at her apology, knowing she’d defused him. “The good news is that he’s okay, right? We know he’s still okay… wherever he is.”
Pressing his hands on his hips, Gage gave a soft nod. “He’s okay.”
“And speaking of good news.” Veda nodded over her shoulder at the crib. “This little monster hasn’t woken up once tonight.” She held her arms out at her sides. “Eh? Since when? Whose kid is this?”
Gage searched her eyes. She could tell he was trying to fight a smile but lost the battle, dropping his arms to his sides and approaching her. He took her waist and swung her around so her back was to him, facing the crib, walking her forward until they were at the very edge looking down at Lincoln. He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed tight, resting his chin on her shoulder as they took him in.
“He’s perfect,” Gage whispered.
“God, he so is.”
Brows bunching, Gage’s voice grew playful. “Does he look Pakistani today?”
“I’m getting more of a Dominican vibe?”
“I see it.”
“I wonder what ethnicity our son will be tomorrow.”
“The possibilities truly know no bounds.” He took a deep breath, and then his voice came again, suddenly strained. �
�You should’ve woken me up.”
Veda swiveled on her heel and cupped his cheeks. A part of her wanted to berate him for continuing to make her feel bad even after she’d apologized, but another part saw in his eyes what she felt in her heart.
“Let’s go downstairs,” she said. “I’ll make us some peppermint tea.”
——
Minutes later, Gage and Veda lay curled up on the red chaise lounge in the living room, facing the silver Christmas tree nestled into the corner. Its white Christmas lights glimmered and winked at them from every branch, from the base of the tree to the tip, reaching all the way up to the top of the vaulted ceiling. Gage lay on his back, staring vacantly at the sliding glass doors that led to their expansive backyard. Beyond the lush backyard, as well as the tall cliff that their home sat on top of, the Celeste sat abandoned on the black ocean waters in the far distance. She hadn’t seen a passenger in nearly a year—utterly neglected. Even as her massive white body soared into the starry sky, she still seemed somehow… hollow. Abandoned. Forgotten.
Gage took a deep breath, causing Veda’s body to rise and fall with his from where her cheek was cuddled into his bare chest, and her leg slung over his body. Two steaming teacups sat on the small glass table next to the chaise, still too hot to drink. A baby monitor sat alongside the cups, its green indicator light glowing into the dim living room.
With one hand slung around Veda’s waist, encouraging her to cuddle closer, Gage twisted his steaming white teacup with the other.
The deep bass of his voice echoed off the vaulted ceilings and tickled Veda’s cheek as he spoke. “All I want to do is speak to my brother for the first time since finding out my brother was my brother.”
“That’s fair.”
“He knew all that time and he never…” He sighed heavily, running a hand down his face, his voice higher when he spoke again. “Why didn’t he tell me the moment he found out? Why did he keep it from me? Why did he just up and leave without saying a word?”
Rouse (Revenge Book 7) Page 21
