The Counterfeit Bride

by Liberty Blake

  Her fingers began to untie the lavender ribbons holding the stockings up until he placed his hand over hers. “No, karthula mou. When the time is right I will remove them.

  “But, you didn’t, you know...”

  He watched in fascination as a blush rose from the curls where he had just feasted. The blush covered her pouting breasts, and ended with her face. Her entire body was aglow. He had never seen anything like it before. He would have to make Cassiopeia blush often when she was naked just so he could enjoy the light show.

  And those curls! It had been years since he had been with a woman dressed in her natural beauty. The curls wrapped delightfully around his fingers when he began his exploration of her body. He intended to make sure they remained exactly as they were, no matter what fashion decreed.

  He brought himself to a kneeling position between her thighs. “I will have my turn soon.”

  Before Theron could do anything else, Cassiopeia wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him forward. The leather of her boots was warm and hard on his ass. He wanted to enter her hard and fast.

  Cassidy had waited for this moment all her life. She was with the man she loved and she was finally being introduced to the sexual side of her nature. But the man was taking too long. She enjoyed everything he had done to her so far, but she really wanted him to hurry up and initiate her to the joys of intercourse!

  The suspense was killing her! She had to feel him inside of her. Now! If they went by his time table, she would be so nervous she wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. And according to all the women she knew, it could be very enjoyable. He was between her thighs and his penis was touching her, right where she wanted him. This was her opportunity to become proactive in this little seduction scenario he was working. She wrapped her legs tight around him and using the strength of her legs, she pulled him forward.

  Theron fell onto her body. His hands cupped her breasts and she wanted him to squeeze them, fondle them again. His lips a breath away from hers. His rock hard erection probed her opening like a heat-seeking missile. Cassidy knew she had taken Theron by surprise and she had to act while he was still stunned.

  She lifted her head until their lips were joined, her tongue sliding into his mouth. Her fingers dug into his hair, but gentled into a loving stroke on his scalp as his tongue played with hers.

  The impetus changed sides. Theron’s tongue took over the dominant role of seducer. His fingers pinched and stroked her swollen breasts. Cassidy groaned her satisfaction into his mouth.

  “You drive me crazy, agape mou,” he rasped into her ear. They both moved their hips. Cassidy wanted to grind into him. She raised her hips until the head of Theron’s cock pushed into her wet interior.

  He went all the way in.

  Cassidy inhaled a sharp breath. She had not expected to feel any pain, but it was there as her membrane was breached.

  Cassiopeia was so hot, so wet, so tight. Oh, so tight. Acting purely on animal instinct he threw away technique and pushed all the way in.

  He felt her stiffen beneath him right before he heard her gasp and felt an unexpected barrier tear open.

  “Theos!” He held himself still. How could this be? She had a child. How could she be a virgin? “Cassiopeia?” To minimize her pain he tried to pull out of her slowly. She clamped her legs tighter around him. The boot heels dug into his ass cheeks.

  “Don’t you dare!” She whispered.

  He nestled his mouth into the crook of her neck. He kissed the pulse that beat there. “Cassiopeia, did I hurt you?”

  “A little bit. Please don’t leave me.”

  “I do not want to hurt you, agape mou.”

  “It’s getting better. You just surprised me. You’re so big.”

  “Let me pull out. We can try again later.” He nibbled on her collarbone “There is no need for you to have to endure pain.”

  She wiggled her hips and he feared his cock would disown him if he stopped making love to her. “See, I am feeling better now.” Her hands wrapped around his face and pulled him to her for a kiss that shook his very soul. She flexed her hips. Theron’s groan shook through his body. His hips slowly moved in rhythm with hers.

  “We have to talk,” he said against her lips.

  “Later.” Cassiopeia’s hips picked up the tempo. His rose to meet the occasion, and joined her. They moved together without a thought in either head until her scream of release was joined by his shout.

  Chapter 25

  Theos! He had to move. He had collapsed on top of Cassiopeia. He had closed his eyes, nearly asleep on her. Theron did not want to move, but he did not want to hurt her any more than he already had. Christos! How could this have happened? It could not be true. Theron rolled to his side, taking her with him.

  Cassidy had never felt so wonderful in her life. Her eyes drifted shut.

  “First talk, then sleep,” Theron’s gruff voice penetrated the fog surrounding her brain.

  “Okay. Why don’t you go first?” She ran her fingertips along his side. She really hoped to distract him. Obviously he had discovered her little secret.

  “Do not start something you cannot finish, pyrotechnia mikros mou.” He grabbed her hands and pulled them away from his body. “As a woman with no experience you will be too tender for more love play tonight.” Theron brought Cassidy’s fingers to his mouth and began to leisurely kiss them. “Tell me how a woman who has been married, widowed, and is the mother of a son can still be a virgin.”

  Cassidy looked in his deep, dark eyes and realized there was no way out. She would now have to confess to what she did out of compassion, and what she didn’t do due to fear.

  “I married Enrico Vega at Dallas General Hospital on October nineteenth at eleven-ten in the morning. The marriage was witnessed by two Texas Rangers, an ADA...”

  A confused look crossed his face “What is ADA?”

  “An Assistant District Attorney. They are the lawyers who prosecute the bad guys. Rico’s personal lawyer, Moose, was there, and a justice from the Texas Supreme Court. After we were pronounced Man and Wife and we had signed everything that needed to be signed, the witnesses signed each copy. We had more witnesses than the law requires, just in case something happened to one or more of them. We wanted to make sure I would still have people who could testify as to the validity of our marriage.

  “One of the Rangers left with the lawyer and the Justice. I don’t know if what they did was strictly legal or not, but they did something to make sure everything was filed and ‘legal’.” She made air quotation marks.

  “After they left, Lynda brought Enzio in. Rico had wires coming out of everywhere and the doctors didn’t want Zio in there, but we knew,” she choked on a sob, “we knew Rico wasn’t going to make it. He had to see his son one last time. So I snuggled Zio into the only part of Rico’s body that hadn’t been blown to smithereens.” She blanched as the stench of Rico’s blood and the antiseptic hospital smells invaded her memory senses once again. “I stood there for hours holding Rico’s shattered arm around his son. Rico was getting weaker by the minute. The doctors threatened to throw me out if I didn’t send the baby away. So Lynda took Zio to a waiting room.

  “I stayed with Rico. Holding his hand. Painting pictures of Zio’s happy future for him.

  “Then he was gone. At nine-eleven that evening my best friend was dead.” Silent tears seeped down her face. “Rico had saved my life, my virtue, and my sanity over and over again. In the end he was still saving me. By sharing his son with me, he saved my life once again. Because, without Rico, I’m not sure I would have been able to go on. I’m not sure I knew how to go on alone, but because of Zio I had to.”

  He used the thumb pad of his free hand to capture her tears. He pulled her stiff body closer to his side. “Where is the child’s mother?”

  “I’m his mother.”

  “Yes, of course you are his mother, but you did not give birth to him.”

  “I won’t tell you his birth mother’s na
me. The knowledge alone could place you in great danger. If her family found out they would kill Zio and me. They are really bad people.” She knew fear stared out her eyes, but for once in her life she didn’t feel the need to put on a brave face. “Her family is part of a major drug cartel. When they found out she was sneaking around with Rico they locked her up.

  “She had been locked in a basement room for months. Barely fed, and not allowed to see anyone, especially a doctor. When Rico found her, he fought his way past her guards and brought her to me, but it was too late. She was too weak. I was with her when she had Zio. She got to hold him before she died.” The tears were sliding down his furred chest. “She begged me to take care of Rico and the baby.” Cassidy paused and tried to control the tears. “She begged me to pretend the baby was mine, so that her family would never be able to have a hold over him.

  “Zio is my son. He has been since the day he was born and he always will be.”

  She loved Theron, but if he could not accept Zio, now that he knew the boy was not her son by birth, then she would have to leave. She would never allow anyone to make her son feel unwanted.

  She was tense; as tight as a high wire. He ran soothing fingers down her spine. He repeated the action over and over again until she was on the verge of sleep. “Cassiopeia?”

  “Umm.”

  “Why did you not tell me all this before?”

  “I shouldn’t have told you at all. It’s too dangerous to trust anyone,” Cassiopeia’s voice was slurred and so faint it was barely there.

  It sounded like there were some very bad people after her. Theron knew the type. They had tried to intimidate their way into his company when he was starting out.

  “You own a bar. You live a visible life.” The story did not make sense when anyone could see how openly she lived her life.

  She giggled. “I’ve been hiding in plain sight. If you hide like a mole you forget what sunshine looks like and you become all suspicious and stinky. Both are dead giveaways. Besides, they didn’t know about me and Rico. He was undercover using another name. Zio and I will be safe as long as nobody knows who his birth parents were.”

  “While you are confessing, will you tell me why you are so afraid of heights?” He reminded himself to breathe. He already had a bad feeling about the reason.

  “Two months before my fifteenth birthday, I had gone up to read on the Widow’s Walk. I always went up there to hide from Jenkins, and I had a great library book to read. This time he followed me up there and backed me against the railing. When I refused to give him a, ah . . .” Her blush burned his chest. Cassiopeia cleared her throat. “He wanted me to perform oral sex on him and when I refused he threw me off the top of the house.”

  “Theos! He threw you off! Was he arrested?”

  “No, at first I was unconscious. When I came to he was in my hospital room. It was late at night and there was no one else in the room. Rico had just stepped out to go to the vending machines. Jenkins said if I didn’t tell the police I fell he would kill Grammie. I couldn’t tell anyone the truth.” Her nails were digging into his arm. “They didn’t believe my falling story. They thought I had tried to kill myself. After all, I was an unloved, unwanted child. Teenagers do crazy stuff like that all the time. I had to go to counseling.

  “Grammie knew me really well, though. She knew I wouldn’t do anything like that, because I wasn’t unwanted. She and Tia Maria loved me and I had Rico as a brother. Grammie was a smart woman. She put two and two together and figured out what happened. She told them they had to move out before I was released from the psychiatric hospital. Joe Jenkins killed her a few weeks later.”

  “Why is he not in prison?”

  “The authorities didn’t want to believe that he would do anything like that. It was too much work to prove it. They would rather believe that Grammie chose to stop living because she was ashamed of me.

  “I knew I would never be safe in that house again. So Rico came up with a plan. Rico saved my life.”

  Theron held Cassiopeia while she sobbed for the grandmother and brother who were gone. He wondered if she had ever had a chance to grieve for them before.

  She had lost her family and her home. But he had no doubt that her story was true. He had seen with his own eyes the kind of monster Jenkins was.

  As the tears slowed down and then stopped, her fingers began dancing over his chest. His guilt over taking her so roughly reemerged.

  “If you had told me you were a virgin, I would have prepared you better,” there was a note of sadness that Theron did not expect to hear in his own voice.

  “It’s not a pretty picture to tell.” She tenderly stroked his cheek.

  “It was wonderful when you made love to me.” Cassiopeia nuzzled his nipple through the hair on his chest. “You were wonderful. I wouldn’t change anything about our love making. I do a lot of riding. I didn’t think the hymen was still there.” She kissed him gently on the lips. “I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

  Theron held his bride tightly to his chest. “You did not disappoint me. No man could ever be disappointed with the gift you have given me. You are everything a man could wish for in a lover.”

  He was about to kiss her when another question popped into his head. “Cassiopeia, if you are so terrified of heights, how is it you can ride a horse?”

  “I love horses. They are warm, loving, and loyal. They have a spirit that heals wounded souls.” Her fingers were playing with his chest curls again. His erection was prodding him to end the conversation. “When I am on a horse, my spirit melds with the spirit of the horse. We become one. We are wild and free. I know the horse will never purposely hurt me.”

  Cassiopeia was the warm and generous woman he had never thought he would find. Despite his good intentions, Theron kissed her. He swore he could feel his soul touching hers. They made love again and again before Apollo’s golden chariot brought the sun over the horizon.

  Chapter 26

  Cassidy stood under the hot shower and let the water pound on her as she sang Faith Hill’s This Kiss.

  Theron had definitely marked her as his. She had several love bites and a whole lot of strawberry marks all over her body. If she had known sex was this good, she wouldn’t have held out all those years. Of course, she had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t be anywhere near as good with anyone else as it was with her new husband.

  She stopped singing suddenly when two strong arms wrapped around her waist. Theron nuzzled Cassidy’s neck for a minute before asking her to pass the shower gel. Her heart sank. She really wanted to have shower sex with her husband, but she was so sore from last night she was afraid she’d wince or cry out if he touched her down there.

  The most wonderful feeling overcame her reservations as Theron started to massage soap into her shoulders. “We will just wash each other’s backs, yes, agape mou? We will save our love making for another time. I fear I may have over-taxed you last night.” Pride showed in his eyes as he kissed her nose.

  When it was Theron’s turn to have his back washed, Cassidy gasped. His back was full of gashes; the bronzed skin ripped open.

  The shower gel slid through her shocked fingers and slammed onto the floor. “What did I do to you?”

  He turned his body to face her and raised her in his arms so that he could kiss her. “It is nothing more then the sign of our passion for each other.”

  “I can’t believe I hurt you like that!”

  “It is the passion between the two of us. It is very powerful. You did not know you scratched me and I did not feel you doing it. Our passion has taken me to heights I have never been to before, pyrotechnia mikros mou. I hope we will return there often, you and I.”

  Before she could reply he kissed again and then turned his back. “Please cleanse each scratch carefully, ghata mikros mou.” He grinned and repeated, “My little cat, I cannot wait to make you howl and stretch your claws again.”

  “Theron, these are more than just little scratche
s. I gouged you. Drew blood!” Remorse thickened her voice. “I’ll put on an antibiotic when we’re finished in here,” she said as she tenderly cleaned each wound.

  “That will not be necessary,” he said with a smile.

  “Yes, it is necessary and you will wear a white tee-shirt over it. After lunch I will clean your back again and reapply the medicine.”

  “Are all wives this bossy?” He asked as he kissed her neck.

  “Only the ones who care when they injure their husbands,” she answered solemnly. It might not be wise to let him know so soon that she cared for him, but she wasn’t an actress or a dissembler. She had big secrets to hide, but she was still basically honest.

  Chapter 27

  “I have to meet Ajax. We have some business which must be concluded. Why don’t you take your friend Lynda and my mitera out to lunch? I will take Enzio with me,” Theron spoke to her reflection in the mirror as he ran the razor over his bold chin.

  Cassidy felt a little pang that he could leave her so soon after last night, but she knew the wedding had been unplanned and life still had to go on.

  “I’ll be happy to have lunch with your mother, but we’ll take Zio with us,” Cassidy smiled at her new husband.

  “If that is what would please you.” He shrugged his magnificent shoulders. “I will meet you at mitera’s house after lunch. We will have to see Costas and present our marriage certificate to him.”

  Over lunch Rena confided that she went to AA meetings every day. She explained how she had been a raging alcoholic when Theron was a child and he had been left to his own devices most of the time. Once he started making money, he had sent her to a rehabilitation clinic. She worked very hard to maintain her sobriety, and they had developed a close relationship.

  “I hope you will allow me to be a part of your life and be a good yia-yia?” Rena asked over coffee.