If she ever found out… if Reggie ever told her what he knew…
Val’s breathing hitched. It wasn’t enough anymore. The fear of Zoey learning the truth was no longer enough to keep him away. He couldn’t finish out another day, or breathe another breath, pretending that he didn’t love this woman with everything inside him. He did.
He always had.
Zoey’s heart suddenly swelled. He was right. If Val had told anyone ten years ago what he was telling her right now, somebody would’ve had to go, and of course it would’ve been her. Tony and Bette would’ve had to send her away to god-knows-where, and that would’ve shredded her. Val had known how much that would hurt her, and he’d kept his mouth shut accordingly. For ten long years.
“Oh Val,” she whispered, tears coming to her eyes.
“I wanted to tell you… I tried. I tried so many times, baby…I just couldn’t do it.”
Zoey sputtered. “I always thought love at first sight was just a fairytale.”
“I thought that, too. Then I met you,” he breathed. “It isn’t.”
“I never believed it was real.”
His eyes grew naked with emotion. “It is,” he whispered, passion lacing his voice, his eyes, every inch of him. “Baby I want to be with you. I’ve wanted that since I was seventeen. And I know the way I’ve treated you over the years, and what that did to you, won’t go away overnight. All I’m asking you is to try. Try to understand why I was the way I was, and give me a chance to make it right.”
Zoey was in complete shock.
“Don’t be with Reggie, Zo. Please. Please, be with me.” He covered his heart with trembling hands.
She finally gave up trying to talk and made her way over to him. With a smile, she took the bottom of his shirt in her hand, and tugged. “Come to bed, Val.”
***
“This is crazy,” Zoey said, later that night, as she lay face to face with Val in her bed. They hadn’t made love. She’d refused to until Val told her just what it was that had driven him to her doorstep that night. Driven him to say all of those beautiful things.
Now she knew what’d had him so emotional and upset. He’d just finished telling her the entire story about Roman. How he had stormed out crying, and how his parents had told them all everything. Roman was not their biological brother, but a product of an anonymous donor. After Val finished telling her the story, Zoey was upset too.
“Oh my god, this is absolute insanity. Poor Roman,” she breathed, covering her heart with her hands when she felt it swell with pain for Roman. Immediately, she rolled over, and snatched her phone up from the bedside table.
“Don’t bother,” Val said. “He won’t answer. We’ve been calling him all night.”
“I’m still going to call,” she said, dialing Roman’s number. “Even if he doesn’t answer me, I want him to know that I tried.”
Val nodded, understanding that. He reached out to touch her bare thigh, just to be sure this was real. He’d told Zoey he was in love with her, and she hadn’t thrown him out. She’d taken him to bed and laid him down, wiped his tears, listened to him vent.
And he understood now, more than ever, why he’d been madly in love with this woman for as long as he had.
Zoey sighed when she went straight to voicemail. “His phone’s off. We have to make sure he’s okay. We should get in the car and go looking.”
“You know Rome,” Val whispered. “If he doesn’t want to be found… he won’t be.”
Zoey pulled her knees up to her chest, tucking her chin into them. She felt Val’s hand come up to rub her back from behind.
“I guess now I have my answer,” he said. “The doctor said infertility could be genetic.”
“I just don’t understand, though. So Roman is the only brother who isn’t Tony’s biological son?”
“Yeah. When they told us the whole story, they said Ma got inseminated with an anonymous donor’s sperm, because her and Pop didn’t think they could have kids. The doctors told him that his sperm count was so low that he had zero chance of ever getting Ma pregnant. They were so desperate for a family that they were willing to do anything. So she got inseminated, and they had Rome. They gave him a DNA test when he was born, just to be sure he wasn’t Pop’s, and he wasn’t. They carried on having unprotected sex and then, a year later…. surprise—”
“Twins,” she whispered.
He nodded, thinking of Leo, before laughing, almost bitterly. “And then, if that wasn’t enough of a miracle--”
“Surprise--”
“Gary.” He finished. “Yep. They told Pop it was impossible, that it would never happen in a million years, and then he made three.” Val held up three fingers. “Three kids. With no hormone therapy. No freezers. No doctors. No help whatsoever.”
“Wow!” she puffed. “Wow, wow, wow. Fucking wow.” She had no idea what else to say.
“It just goes to show that in situations like this, nothing is ever impossible.”
“So does that mean we should stop? You and I? If Tony and Bette could beat the odds, who’s to say that you can’t?”
Val was now rubbing her back slowly, his eyes boring into hers. “I’m good with this,” he whispered.
Her mouth dropped ever so slightly, and she blushed. She hoped the relief that had come alive inside of her wasn’t obvious on her face.
“But I’m not good with our son--”
“Daughter.”
He didn’t dignify that. “I’m not good with our son not knowing… or calling you Aunt…” He swallowed thickly. “The look in Rome’s eyes today… I’ve never seen him look like that.”
She reached for him when he looked just as pained as she imagined Roman must have looked during that life changing blowout in the kitchen.
“I don’t ever want my kid to feel like that,” he said.
She nodded.
“I would want him to know that you’re his mother.”
Zoey took a deep breath.
“Are you okay with that?” he asked, worry clouding his eyes.
“After tonight… how could I not be?”
Leaning forward, he kissed her forehead before pulling her body to his, letting her cuddle up close to him.
***
Zoey awoke in the middle of the night with Val’s arm curled around her, and she turned to look at his sleeping face, stopping short at the surprise of finding him wide awake and staring intently at her.
“Val, how long have you been awake?”
He was leaning on a pillow, cradling his head in one hand, twirling her hair around his finger with the other. “Awhile,” he whispered.
“Did you try Roman?”
“Every ten minutes.”
“Still no answer?”
Val pressed his lips together, and shook his head. “I can’t get the look on his face out of my head for two seconds. I can’t sleep thinking about it. I just want to be able to forget for two fucking seconds.”
“You haven’t slept at all?”
“I slept for a minute, but then…” He’d had a nightmare about Roman an hour in, and he’d been awake since. Reggie had popped into his head soon after, ensuring that not even an entire bottle of Ambien would get him to sleep now.
“Mmm.” She pushed herself into a sitting position, and his hand stayed glued to her hip, sliding slowly around to cup her ass appreciatively as she braced her arms on either side of his body, pressing her lips to his.
He immediately took control, wetting her bottom lip with his tongue before taking it hungrily between his. He released it slowly, gingerly, before moving to the top lip, tasting that one as well, until control left him and he was pushing his eager tongue inside. As she tasted him in return all he could think was how badly he wanted his tongue somewhere else.
She pulled away, running the tip of her nose along his. “Do you want me to put you to sleep?” she whispered.
“I wanna come inside you,” he whispered back, desperately, cupping her face in his
hands. His body hummed with warmth, a bubbly mix of blind love, and pain. The one woman who he had the power to hurt the most was the only one who had the power to put him to sleep. He thought about telling her everything right then, everything that Reggie had blasted him with earlier, but realized she would never forgive him. She wouldn’t. The shitstorm it would cause would be beyond comprehension, and he’d be taking a lot of people down a path of dark destruction, including her. He couldn’t take that chance, so he bit his tongue. “All I fucking think about is coming inside you, Zo.”
“Yeah?” she asked. “Inside my pussy? Or my mouth? Or maybe that other place… your favorite place…”
He answered with a forceful kiss, eliciting a groan out of her as she climbed onto his lap and released him from his boxers, pumping her small hand along his throbbing member. She sighed against his lips.
She didn’t even take off her underwear, too voracious in her need to feel him, opting only to push them to the side, just enough to give him entry. The head slipped in, and she threw her head back. “Oooh, yes.”
“God, Zo.” He clawed at her waist as her walls encircled him in that sweet, dewy canal.
“Does that feel good?” she asked, taking his face in her hands as she rode him, lifting her ass into the air, just high enough to keep the tip inside, before sinking back down, over and over, feeling him twitch inside of her as he filled her to the hilt once more.
“Yes, it feels amazing.”
“There’s something I never told you.”
He choked out a response. “Yeah?”
“Mmm, those nights, Val… those nights you used to come hold me in my room?”
He pulled her flimsy camisole down past her breasts, and gasped his appreciation before cupping them, and taking one hard pebbled nipple in his mouth. He drank in the sounds of her pleased moans, before moving to the other.
“Ahhh.” She rocked as slowly as she could stand, fighting back the urge to get hers, to grind against him blindly, thoughtlessly, give in to the animal need to make the pleasure slowly shooting through her all the more powerful. But she kept her pace slow, enjoying the feel of him as she took her time. “I used to take my panties off before I went to bed, knowing that you would come in an hold me.”
“Oh god.” He looked at her from where he still held her breasts in his hands. “A little heads up would’ve been nice, baby,” he smiled gently, before taking a nipple between his lips, again.
She threw her head back, enjoying the sensation of his warm lips and tongue teasing her pebbled nipple, before looking back down at him with a smile. Her voice had grown horse with ecstasy. “You were a horny seventeen year old. I was sure it was only a matter of time before you’d try to slip your hand under my nightgown, or sneak your dick inside me, maybe just the tip… I would’ve let you… but you never did.” She cupped his cheeks as she finally gave into the pleasure and picked up her pace, whispering fiercely. “I’ve wanted this just as long as you have. Deep down I always knew it. I’ve waited for this moment since I was fourteen.”
“Me too, baby.”
“Mmm, I love how tight you make me feel, like I might come completely apart every time you’re inside me—fuck--” A hushed cry stole her words as he hit all of her weakest parts. “No man has ever filled me this deep. It’s so… so good.”
“Baby, I’m gonna come,” he whispered, unable to hold out when she was speaking in the filthy way she was right then.
She felt him swell the moment he said the words, and sighed as his warmth filled her, allowing him to hold her down hard against him as he came.
Val groaned out his orgasm, holding her still, not ready to leave. Not even when the last shot was expelled. He wasn’t ready to leave her.
His eyes rose to hers, and he realized he never would be. “I love you so fucking much, Zo.”
Her eyes searched his, smiling sweetly. “I love you, too,” she said, just as a dark shadow suddenly loomed over them.
Zoey looked over her shoulder, with Val’s dick still planted inside her, and gasped when she made contact with the bright green eyes she knew so well.
“What the fuck?” Gary screamed.
Eleven
Zoey rolled off of Val with a shocked yelp just as Gary lunged at him. She wrapped herself in a sheet, bouncing uncontrollably as Gary climbed all over her bed to get to Val, who was already flying out of the room in nothing but his boxers. In a flash, Gary stormed out after him, grabbing the doorframe for balance as he blazed around the corner and out of sight.
Zoey could hear their heavy footsteps thundering against her floors as she hobbled out of her room with the sheet wrapped around her, moving down the hall as quickly as her legs would take her. As she circled into the living room, she found Gary on one side of her couch, and Val on the other. They were watching each other with an animalistic gleam in their eyes, both bobbing back and forth from one leg to the other, each ready for the other to pounce.
And pounce Gary did. He leapt over the couch with a startling quickness, but Val was too fast, zooming around the couch and straight up to Zoey. She took him around the waist, spinning in a full circle before putting her body in front of Val and holding a hand out to Gary as he came flying.
Gary slid to a stop, his Jordan’s screeching against her wood floors as he did. His dark hair had fallen into his eyes, shading the anger that was rapidly taking over his green orbs, but Zoey could still see hints of it peeking through. She could see the tight clench of his fists, the out of control pant of his chest, his bared teeth. He was ready to kill Val. He almost surely would, if Zoey hadn’t been standing in between them.
“Gary,” she gasped, as if she were the one being attacked. “Please don’t.”
“Please don’t? Zoey, are you serious? This is fucked up!” Gary’s eyes met Val’s from over her shoulder. “You have no idea how fucked up this is! You have no fucking idea.”
“Gary I love him.” When those words seemed to calm Gary down, she placed her hand over her heart, adding, “He loves me.”
Those three words sent the anger roaring back into Gary’s eyes. “He can’t love you. He can’t love you, Zoey!”
Zoey looked back to Val, and saw the feeling in his eyes from where he was watching Gary desperately from over her shoulder. His eyes pled in a way she’d never seen, and when she looked back to Gary he was looking at Val in much the same way.
“Why can’t he, Gary? Huh? Am I that unworthy of love in your eyes?”
“Of course no—it’s—he’s…” Gary was suddenly stumbling, as if reconsidering his words with every second he spent looking at Val. Finally, his gaze went back down to Zoey, and his voice calmed considerably. “Of course you’re worthy of love…I just… I guess I overreacted.” His eyes went back to Val.
“Okay.” Zoey nodded, reaching out to take Gary’s arm in her hand. “That’s okay, Gar. We figured that the family would find this all a little… shocking. That’s why we wanted to wait to tell everyone.”
Until we passed the first trimester. Zoey knew better than to say those words out loud.
Gary suddenly pointed to the door, appearing to have entered another world. “I’m gonna leave,” he announced, his mouth curling.
“Wait!” Zoey chased after Gary as he made his way to the door. Gary turned to her, and looked down at her with what looked to be a mix of sadness and shock. “Please don’t tell anyone, Gary.”
“I wont,” Gary said, looking to Val once more. “I’m really great at keeping secrets, Zo. Val knows that.”
Without another word, Gary stalked to the door and threw it open, slamming it closed as he left.
Zoey turned to Val with her arms out at her sides, catching the sheet in the nick of time when the action almost caused it to fall off her body. “Well I don’t know about you, but that went way better than I thought it would!” she beamed, nodding as she approached Val. “One down, four to go, right? That’s assuming Gary keeps his mouth shut.”
Like Gary
, Val seemed to be off in his own world, but as she came up and pressed a kiss to his lips he did manage to mumble a far away, absent, “He will.”
***
A few days later Gary stepped into the one-bedroom apartment he’d been frequenting all month, and met eyes with Leo, who was standing at the apartment’s large bay windows, taking in the view of Central Park. The apartment was the smallest unit in the building, so the view was the selling point. It had all of the original fixtures, and exposed brick on every wall. The unit’s old charm was downplayed by the décor, which consisted of modern furniture in bright, girly colors. Whites, pinks, and purples flanked the room, but somehow didn’t overpower it.
Leo looked completely out of place in that apartment. He turned and met Gary’s eyes. “This view is unbelievable. How is it possible that this place is half the price of mine with a view like this? Do you know what I have a view of? The back of an Indian restaurant. My place constantly smells like curry. I feel like I got had.”
Gary didn’t smile as he pushed the door closed.
“You tried Rome today?” Leo asked, turning back to the window.
“Yep, no answer.” Gary said. “It’s better this way, anyway. He doesn’t need to be around right now.” He thought about finding Val balls deep in Zoey the other day, and his stomach curled. “We need to put this place back on the market.”
Leo turned to him with a knowing smirk. “Zoey ripped you a new one, huh?”
Gary squinted. “Something like that.”
“I told you there was no way in hell she’d go for you buying her this apartment, man. How many times has she told you that?” Leo shook his head, and looked back out of the window. “It’s a shame though. It’s beautiful. Totally her style, too.” He looked back to Gary. “Did she even see it in person?”
Taming Val Page 16
