Her lips found mine again and we stayed latched that way while she started to raise and lower herself in a hypnotic rhythm. Each time she pulled me all the way in, she squeezed on me, and a grunt huffed out of me. She moaned into my mouth and the vibration of it sent a wave of chills down my spine.
“I love you,” I said to her again, looking up into her sparkling eyes.
There were tears in them. “I love you too. I missed you so much.”
I squeezed her even closer. “I missed you too.”
As if intended to make me lose the little bit of control I had, Cherri sat all the way down and then started to rock her hips back and forth. I dragged along every part of her inside, pulling even sexier noises out of her.
“Shh,” I said. “We’ll be heard.”
“I don’t care,” she said.
Finally, I had no choice but to dig my fingers into the milky flesh of her ass and hang on as she dragged me closer and closer to the edge. The gentle rocking got faster, the friction got more intense, and the steam whistle inside me started a low hum. Cherri alternated between rocking and moving up and down, and eventually that whistle started to blow.
“Shit, Cherri,” I growled.
The beautiful woman on top of me exploded, her moisture drenching me in a firestorm of pleasure. She clenched down on me and shuddered, and the power of it finally pulled a finish out of me. The noise that came out of me was something between a moan and a roar, and as Cherri pushed on, continuing to pleasure herself on top of me, my entire lower half started to tingle.
She expired, going limp against me. I leaned back in the chair, taking her with me, and did the best I could to catch my breath. I smoothed my hands over her skin, halfway afraid that she was going to disappear exactly as I’d feared, but she remained beneath my fingertips. She was soft, and warm, and real. If I had my way, we’d continue to stay that way forever.
We settled for a few more hours.
There wasn’t a piece of furniture in the room that we left unsoiled by our antics. We were insatiable, and even though I still didn’t understand how or why she was there, we never had enough of a moment to discuss it. We rolled into each other again and again, until it felt like we were going to start losing our ability to walk or talk.
Then we went into the shower and did it once more.
When we finally left the bathroom, I was exhausted but happy beyond measure. I wouldn’t let her more than a few inches from me, before pulling her back and kissing her more.
“I know,” she said. “I want more too, but we probably should show our faces to the others. Even if there’s no hiding what we’ve been up to anymore.”
“Others?” I said, tilting my head to the side.
She smiled. “Yeah. I only brought a couple with me, but I bet everyone’s arrived by now.” She grabbed my hand and led me out of the room.
We went down the stairs and I was immediately met with a murmur of voices. We walked into the kitchen and my heart jumped up into my throat. Felicity was standing in the kitchen, chatting away with a few women that I recognized as Nikita, Colette, and Avery from The Royal Court, and Alistair, Kyle, and Brayden were sitting at the kitchen table, chatting over a plate of pastries and coffee, but standing directly across from me, with smiles rising to their faces when they saw me, were two other people I’d missed more than I was willing to admit. My best friend Sicily…
…and my brother, Nathan.
24
Deon
When Cherri and I entered the kitchen, all eyes turned to us. Across from me, and much to my surprise, Nathan looked like he was on the brink of tears. Everyone’s glances bounced between us, and even as uncomfortable as it made me, I had to admit it was good to see him. He took a step forward and so did I. He shook his head with a little chuckle and held his arms out for a hug.
And then Sicily jumped in front of him and threw his arms around me.
“Deon!” he whined. “It’s really you! I’ve been dreaming of this day!” Even though there was damn near a foot between us, he squeezed me tightly. “I kept looking for you! Your best friend never gave up.”
“I heard,” I said, finally managing to wedge between us to push him back a few feet, but I set my hands on his shoulders. “Thank you. You took care of Cherri, you never gave up on me. You really are the best friend a guy could ask for.”
What I’d learned about Sicily in the limited time that we had to develop a friendship was that he didn’t do emotions very well. He was a natural jester, and when his feelings started to get the best of him, he did what any good jester did—he played it off with a joke. His feelings about being reunited with me must have gotten the best of him, because he started out kidding, but in the wake of my earnest statement, I watched all of his inner jokester fade away.
“Deon,” he said in his serious tone, an octave lower than his usual jubilant tone. “You’re like, the first real friend I ever had, and as much as I hated thinking you were out there in a ditch somewhere, if that hadn’t happened…” He looked past me to Cherri. “I wouldn’t have made the second real friend I ever had.”
Cherri stepped forward and slid between Sicily and me to pull him into a big hug. When she released him, I pulled her back so her back was against my stomach and put a hand on Sicily’s head. “You’re the first real friend I ever had too. When I went missing, you looked after the most important people in my life, my queen…” I looked across at Nathan. “And my brother.”
In an instant, Sicily turned back into the class clown, and his typical tone was back. “Oh! He called me his friend! Nathan did.” He looked back at him. “Tell him.”
Nathan nodded. “I did say that, and I’ve regretted it ever since.”
Everyone chuckled a little, then Cherri stepped aside and dragged Sicily with her. I finished crossing the kitchen, and doing something I honestly never thought I’d do, I pulled Nathan into a huge bear hug. I closed my eyes and breathed in the moment—actually bonding with a brother I hated. We had something that bonded us more than anything else ever could.
The manipulation of Connor Loche.
“So,” Nathan said, pulling away. “How about that dad of ours?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see him as my dad.”
Nathan nodded. “Oh good, I don’t either.”
Colette raised her hand. “Don’t you have to acknowledge that he’s your dad to some extent? Otherwise you wouldn’t be brothers.”
“No,” Nathan and I said in unison, and it brought that concept to an end in a flash.
“He’s done all he needed to do in making us brothers by spreading his seed,” Nathan said.
I nodded. “And now it’s time to stop him so he can’t bring that level of harm to anyone else.”
Cherri and I were understandably hungry given our torrent for the past few hours, so after Felicity made us a full breakfast each, despite it being nearly lunch time, we all adjourned to the much roomier living room. I took my normal armchair, and when Cherri tried to sit on the floor in front of me, I pulled her down in my lap instead. Nathan, Nikita, Colette, and Jaxon all squeezed on one couch, while Kyle and Brayden sat next to one another on the other, with Felicity in her regular spot at the end of that one. Sicily sat on the floor and Avery and Alistair joined him, though they quickly curled into each other as expected, and I noticed how close everyone else seemed.