“It’s two minutes until the start of dinner,” Lenora announced. “Get out of here, or dinner won’t be happening!”
“Okay, okay, but give me a second with her,” Thorne begged.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Yvonne and Saina answered at the same time.
Andre grabbed his arm and started dragging Thorne out of the room.
“Remember that I love you,” Thorne shouted just before the door closed behind them.
“Now y’all really need to tell me what’s going on,” Saina demanded.
“No time,” Yvonne said cheerfully as Saina’s father appeared in the doorway.
Saina was still arguing with her father when they came to a standstill at the top of the stairs. She looked down and was stunned by the transformation of the hall she’d walked through less than an hour before. Doors were swung open to allow the massive crowd of elegantly dressed guests to fit comfortably into a room easily the size of a football field. The crowd erupted into a thunderous applause at the sight of her. The sound shook the floor beneath her feet and walls around them.
She couldn’t have been more shocked when the sound of Luther Vandross’ “Here and Now” filled the air once the crowd went silent. If her father hadn’t been holding her arm, she would’ve crumpled to the floor. As it was, she was certain her knees wouldn’t allow her to take another step.
“Breathe,” her father whispered.
“Is this what I think it is?” she whispered back.
“He loves you, honey,” her father answered instead.
She stared at her father in stunned silence for several frantic heartbeats. “I’m still going to kill him.” She barely moved her lips when speaking to her father, having plastered a smile on her face for the hundreds of people who stared back at her.
“You’ll have to go down there to get him to do that,” her father teased.
Saina stiffened her spine and took a determined step forward. “Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to stop me from going down there and claiming him.”
Her father laughed the entire way down the stairs as he struggled to keep up with Saina’s hurried steps toward Thorne.
As soon as her feet touched the bottom stair, the crowd parted. Thorne stood to the end of a long aisle, which was already covered with white and red petals. Armed guards formed a wall along the aisle to keep the crowd away from Saina. She wasn’t surprised to see that Thorne would take this kind of precaution. They still weren’t certain that they’d been able to eradicate all of Anastasia’s henchmen from Calison. The laser that had injured Thorne was still out there somewhere. They had to always be on guard for that.
Saina walked the fifty-yard aisle, fully secure in the knowledge that Thorne had ensured that she and their baby were safe in this massive crowd. She kept her gaze locked on him and wouldn’t have known who was in attendance if her life depended on it. She had to force herself to walk to the rhythm to the Luther Vandross song. She wondered how he’d know that had been the song she’d always dreamed would be her wedding song. She had only confessed that tidbit to Amanda.
As soon as she stood before him and the song died down, her father placed her hand in Thorne’s.
“Just know you’re dead meat,” she mumbled.
“But you love me, right?” Thorne laughed.
The crowd laughed as she playfully punched him in the stomach and then sighed when he kissed her.
The ceremony was over in less than ten minutes after that, and only when Thorne let her go after their kiss did she turn to receive the well wishes of the many in attendance.
***
“You could’ve let me tell my parents goodbye,” Saina teased.
“It was either we leave then or everyone there would’ve been a witness to our consummating our marriage,” Thorne whispered directly into her ear.
She smiled at the memory of his frantic loving of a few moments ago. He’d only taken enough time to pull her panties from her and push up the hem of her dress to her waist. Then he’d fused their lips and slipped into her wet, quivering center. Despite his initial haste, he’d made love to her gently, slowly, savoring the incredible feel of the intense chemistry between them.
“According to this kid that’s doing somersaults in my stomach, we’ve done that already.” She laughed softly.
“Yeah.” He grinned down at her proudly. He caressed her naked stomach, trying to calm down the baby whose movement could be visibly seen. “I only wanted to give you a bit of tradition from Earth and arranged a first dance to open our reception. And then you rolled that damn ass for me, and that was the end of that.” Thorne tightened his hold on her wrists, which he had pinned on the pillow over her head. His hard thighs straddled hers, but he was careful to not transfer his weight onto her.
“Well, you surprised me with your song selection again.” She gasped as he pulled out of her and rolled to his side to lie beside her. Her body was still trembling from the recent orgasm he’d wrung out of her a few moments ago.
He turned her so he could unfasten her wedding dress from her. It took him a few tries to get the almost invisible fused fastening undone. She felt his uneven breathing and the slight tremble of his hand at her back. It was gratifying to know that he was as affected by their lovemaking as she’d been.
“How did you get that song?” She’d been shocked, and it seemed so was their audience as the song “Someone to Love” by Jon B started to play. She’d been overwhelmed by his open declaration of love for her. “As far as I can tell, there’s no such thing as Earth music and film on Parth.”
Thorne chuckled. “No, that’s something that Earth definitely has over us. It seems that when we exiled our felons, we exiled our artistic creativity. Our people spend more time exploring outer space and finding out what’s in the universe to protect ourselves. The people on Earth have no idea how close they’ve come to being extinguished. We’ve intercepted many hostiles over the years.”
“Yes, Tarik has shown me the data and the technology. It’s mind-blowing.” Saina sighed with relief as he succeeded in removing the gown from her. “You still haven’t told me how you came to have possession of the Jon B and Luther songs. How did you know to even select them?”
“The fact that you kept sending me messages with various songs to express your feelings, I knew how important music was to you. It wasn’t difficult to get Tarik to help steal some data from your Earth cell phone,” Thorne smirked. “Don’t blame me if he kept your music library. He loved what he heard and saw in some of the videos. He’s now badgering me to visit Earth.”
“I wondered why he was questioning me so much. I think he has something for Beyoncé.”
Thorne laughed. “Yeah, he kept trying to get me to select her songs.” He pulled her to lie back in his arms and wrapped his arm around her waist.
She wiggled to settle her head against his broad chest, her back against his chiseled stomach and her ass cradling his hardening cock.
He leaned over to trail kisses on her cheek, her lips, and then to ear. “Hello, my queen,” he said softly, tenderly.
“Hello, my king.” Her voice shook with emotion.
“I love you,” he mumbled with his face nestling her hair.
She laughed huskily as his cock pulsed hard against the crack of her ass. “I can tell,” she teased and pushed her ass harder against him.
He hissed as the warm cavity sandwiched and tightened around his thick length. Palming her stomach, he pulled her thigh to drape back over his hip and pushed her to an angle with her head no longer next to his but at the edge of the bed. “Where are my words, Saina?” He swiped the taut head of his cock over her slick opening.
She whimpered and tried to impale herself on him. Rubbing the sensitive flesh of her clit along the ridged column of his cock, she moaned sensually at the intense jolt of lust that reeled through her.
He stilled her action with a sharp slap to the che
ek of her ass. “The words, Saina.” He lessened the sting of his palm by rubbing her ass soothingly.
“What words, Thorne?” Saina grinned and pushed her ass deeper into his palm. “The last time, you were asking me to swear not to date my brother.”
He cupped her breast and pinched the beaded nipple. “You’re going to be in real trouble soon if you don’t be a good girl.”
“Well, I’m doomed for failure then.”
“Is that so?”
“Uh-huh.” She aligned herself on his hard tip and slid down on him. The erotic glide of his length deep inside of her made her shiver violently and moan out appreciatively.
“Saina,” he groaned. He held her hips and drove up into her.
Minutes later, after another orgasm that rocked her world, she finally gave him the words he’d been begging for. “I love you, Thorne.”
“I can tell,” he mumbled sleepily.
She laughed softly and fell into an exhausted sleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Saina was sorry that their honeymoon of one month was coming to an end. They had visited different parts of London, New York, Sydney, and Hong Kong. However, they spent most of their time on a private island that Thorne owned in the Caribbean. She was happy to see the carefree smile on Thorne’s face. Long gone was the worried frown he’d worn for years under the burden of his family’s welfare.
She knew he received briefs from Andre and other members of his administration in Calison daily, but except for some critical decisions only he could make, he largely left the running of the realm to his mother. And from all recent accounts, she seemed to be doing an excellent job of it.
Marisol had left right after the wedding but indicated that she’d return to be properly introduced to the new queen.
Saina didn’t know what to make of her smiling, sometimes hostile sister-in-law, but if Thorne loved her as she loved her brother, Tarik, she’d have to learn to live with Marisol’s fake-ass smiles.
“Can I take my purchases back to Calison?” Saina asked a suddenly distracted Thorne. He’d been on his communicator with Andre longer than usual this morning.
“No, leave them here,” he dismissed and went back to his conversation with Andre.
“What is it?” she asked on seeing a frown forming on his forehead.
He activated a button so Saina could hear the conversation.
“Your sisters arrived with their children yesterday,” Andre was now saying. “It seems that they’d been badly beaten.”
“Why? What has happened to bring this on?” Thorne asked.
“It seems that the King of Lokede has been missing for the past month. His sons are convinced that you are responsible.”
“That makes no sense,” Thorne scoffed. “If I had killed that fucker, I certainly wouldn’t hide that fact.”
“Well, I’m going to be glad when you get back to deal with this shit. I’m no good with all these women running around,” Andre grumbled.
Thorne chuckled. “What is Mother saying?”
‘That’s just it, man. She took one look at her daughters and decided to go on a trip since you’ll be back today,” Andre said in disgust.
“My sisters can be a bit dramatic. Make sure my mother has adequate protection and place a tracker on her.” Thorne looked at Saina thoughtfully. “I don’t know what game those bastards from Lokede are up to, but I’m not going to let her go missing too. We’ll be there in a few hours.” He disconnected from Andre and opened his arms to Saina.
She eagerly went into his embrace, understanding his reluctance to return to the chaos. “You’re worried again,” she told him.
Thorne hugged her closer to him. “I’m not so much worried, just not wanting you near this mess.”
“What do you mean?” Saina frowned. She had no idea where he was going with this.
“My nieces and nephews are a bunch of spoilt kids. And my sisters can be very vicious women when cornered. I don’t want you hurt.”
"You think they’ll hurt me?”
“Who knows? You’re a little over eight months pregnant.”
“Yes, I know. I have the waistline to prove it,” she joked.
Thorne smiled as she’d intended he would.
“I need you to be serious about this,” he admonished as she started peppering his face with kisses.
“I take this very seriously, but I refuse to be afraid to live. We’re about to embark on this exciting new part of our lives, and we can’t keep looking over our shoulders for an attack.” She pulled out of his embrace to rub her suddenly tightening stomach. It was uncomfortable, and she was forced to breathe in and out slowly.
“Are you okay?” Thorne frowned down at her.
“Yeah. Can we go home now?”
“We’re going home, but I’m taking a look at you as soon as we arrive.”
“Look away,” Saina muttered breathlessly. “Just make sure we get there soon. I didn’t think of it before, but you have to remember who your mother is.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it. If someone did to me what was done to her, what do you think I would’ve done?”
Thorne sucked in his breath and pulled her against him as he teleported back to Calison.
***
“Why would your stupid husbands think I have their father?” Thorne asked his sisters. He’d arrived in Calison less than ten minutes ago, and already Marisol was screaming at him to return her father-in-law. He might have felt sorry for them after seeing how brutalized their faces were, but it was clear that both women were more intent on blaming him for their husbands’ abuses.
“Who else would be able to remove the king with no one the wiser?” Marisol scoffed. “You’ve already proven that you can do it.”
“You’ve been drinking from the same stupid well I see. Why the hell would I want to kidnap Anders anyway? I could’ve killed that bastard when I took you guys out.”
“There’s no telling what lies Mother would’ve told you,” Marisol muttered.
“Mother wouldn’t lie.” Sharma spoke up for the first time.
“How have you survived so long?” Marisol frowned at her sister. “You never know what’s going on.”
“I know I want to go home,” Sharma pouted.
“How long has the old man been missing?” Thorne was fast losing patience with both women.
“Since the day after your wedding,” Sharma confirmed.
“Perhaps you should go find your mother, Thorne.” Saina grabbed his forearm to gain his attention.
Thorne was conflicted. Should he go after his mother and sort out the mess she’d gotten herself in, or should he remain home with his wife who seemed to be presenting with early labor signs?
“Would you go please?” Saina scolded impatiently. “I’m a doctor too, and I think I’d know if I’m about to go into labor or not.”
“Tarik will come by to be with you until we return.”
Saina rolled her eyes. “I doubt we need a babysitter yet, Thorne.”
“Humor me,” he muttered before giving her a swift kiss to her lips. Without acknowledging his sisters, who stood watching their exchange, Thorne followed Andre and a few his men out to waiting space cars.
He almost turned to go back when he heard Marisol’s catty statement to Saina. “Clearly you and Thorne have no respect for the sanctity of marriage. Could you not have waited?” Marisol asked scornfully.
“I don’t know, Marisol. Have you seen your brother? He’s damn hot.”
Thorne wanted to laugh when Saina went into a full-on list of what she considered hot about him.
Andre snickered beside him when he also heard Saina talk about his muscular ass.
“Not one fuckin’ word,” Thorne warned him.
“Wasn’t going to say anything,” Andre chuckled. “But I do have to wonder if our new queen needs a sight corrective surgery.”
“Kiss
my ass,” Thorne growled.
“I’d be honored to kiss that royal muscular ass.” Andre and the men around them roared with laughter.
After another heartbeat, Thorne laughed too.
In less than ten minutes Thorne and his men arrived at a small estate that his father had given his mother for her own personal use. While he knew he had to find out what was going on with his mother, Thorne was more than reluctant to enter the house Lenora had obviously retreated to. If he hadn’t insisted Andre put a tracker on her, it would have taken days to find her. His father had been very generous with his wife. His mother owned more than twenty properties throughout Calison.
It was what he didn’t hear that alarmed him most. As Thorne entered his mother’s property, there were no servants, no sound from the house, and no movement.
“I thought you sent soldiers with her?” He looked at Andre for confirmation.
“She refused any of the guards and only took a few ladies with her.”
Thorne accessed the house through an electronic door that opened from his retina scan. Again, he was struck by the eerie silence of the house. Not having a good feeling about things, he placed a hand on Andre’s shoulder to stop his progress through the house. “Wait here. I’m not sure what the hell is going on but let me check things out.”
He didn’t wait around for Andre to acknowledge his request and started to search each room in the house. He teleported to every room and still he saw no sign of his mother anywhere.
***
“What makes you so special that he’d do all of this?” Marisol asked. She flailed her hands around to indicate the castle around them.
Saina laughed softly. “Marisol, your brother is the special one. And he’s done what he’s done for our children.” She forced herself to act normally, but by her estimation, she’d probably been in labor for hours.
Marisol gasped. “Are you having twins then?”
“Somehow I don’t see you being happy for us.” Saina tilted her head and held Marisol’s gaze coolly. “Why is that, Marisol?”
“Our husbands will be here shortly for us.” Marisol glared at her. “Perhaps you may be so kind as to greet them?”
Inseparable Page 18
