Syd awoke with Emiliano's arms wrapped around her and his firm body against hers. "Em," she murmured. There was no response and all she felt was his breath on her neck and his hardened member poking into her backside. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the clock on the wall read 11:17AM. "Em," she repeated, this time louder, but still no response.
Syd groaned and went to push his arms away, but when she tried, he pulled her in tighter. "So you are awake?" She sighed.
"Where are you going?" He mumbled, the sleepiness still in his voice.
"Me? You mean we. You're supposed to take me to meet with Sean in like two hours and you know how bad Manhattan traffic gets."
Emiliano placed kisses on Syd's neck and shoulder as his hands began to wander. "Even with traffic, it takes me less than an hour to get to Sean's from here."
"Okay, but don't you want to grab breakfast? We barely ate yesterday."
When she tried to pry herself away again, Emiliano pulled her back and pressed his erection against her. His hand trailed down to her core and teased along her slit. "But my breakfast is already here..." He breathed into her ear.
"You're insatiable," she giggled.
Emiliano turned Syd on her back and propped up his head to look at her with a raised brow, still moving his fingers around her folds. "You're the one who woke me up in the middle of the night for another round."
"Yeah, and then who turned it into another one after that?"
"You can't ride me like that and expect me not to return the favor." He dipped a finger inside of her. "Besides, it feels like you're ready to go again." His lips met hers and he got on top of her before his kisses began to trail down her body.
"Em... I'm sore."
"Then let me kiss it better," he whispered, already between her legs.
Syd chuckled at his response. "You are so corn-" Her words were cut off by a squeak when she felt Emiliano's lips latch on to her sensitive core.
His tongue moved softly against her clit and his fingers were gentle as he moved them in and out of her. Whimpers escaped Syd's mouth before they turned to moans. Although Emiliano's immediate urge was to intensify his movements with the way Syd's sounds emboldened him, he was cautious to continue treating her delicately. He knew his excitement overcame him when he was finally able to have her last night, causing him to be rougher than he intended.
Syd's right leg started to shake as she neared her release and Emiliano only slightly increased his movements to push her over the edge, and as he did all night, he took in everything she gave him - her taste was like it was made for him.
Once she gathered herself, Syd got out of bed and started heading for the bathroom. "Shit! Sean is definitely going to know we fucked. I can barely walk straight," she groaned.
***
"Simone!" Sean wrapped his sister into a tight hug as soon as she entered the apartment. "I know it's been two days, but I had so much shit to handle and I knew Em and Luca would take care of you..." Sean pulled away when he heard her sniffles. "...Simone?"
Syd's eyes were filled with tears, her sobbing was uncontrollable, and she couldn't speak. Luca and Emiliano had been distracting her from the mountain of emotions that had piled up from her tumultuous birthday night. But now that she was alone with Sean, it all came pouring out.
"Simone... what's wrong?"
She walked further into the apartment, trying to get control of her breathing. "Everything!" She blurted. "Why did Hector betray me like that? What did I ever do to him for him to constantly go out of his way to hurt me? And why the fuck was I stupid enough to go back to him?! I'm so fucking dumb!"
Sean walked up and placed a comforting hand on Syd's shoulder. "I know all the shit I talked before... but you weren't stupid. You were in love. And people do a lot of shit when they're in love."
"But I should've known! I should've paid attention or something! Even if not the Santiago stuff, he was still constantly flirting with other women and making me feel like shit about my body! What the fuck!?"
"He what?!" Sean tensed up and his bruised hand tightened into a fist as he started pacing. "Simone, you didn't tell me about that part. You said he was treating you better."
Syd looked down, tears still pouring from her eyes. "I tried to convince myself that he was..."
"I can't wait to put a bullet in his fucking head!" Sean barked. "As soon as we get the information we need from him, he's fucking done!"
Syd pulled herself together as best as she could. "When can I speak to him? I'm probably our best bet at getting him to talk."
"Let's give it a couple days because right now, I want to kill that piece of shit more than I did Saturday and your emotions are still too raw."
"Fine," she said glumly. "Why do they always seem to target me?"
"Honestly?" Sean took Syd's hand to lead her to the kitchen table. "Because you're still trying to be Syd Johnson and Syd Johnson is an easy target, especially for someone of your status."
"I'm not sure I follow." Syd looked at him baffled. "I've come out publicly as Simone Davidson. I have security following me around. I've been handling business for almost a year now."
"I mean you still have the mindset of Syd Johnson. Syd Johnson is more trusting, no one is out to get Syd Johnson. Syd Johnson is just a photographer living an average life, and as a result, it makes you soft."
"Continue..." Syd's tears had dried and she crossed her arms as she raised a skeptical brow.
"Think about the way you interact with people as Simone Davidson versus Syd Johnson. Would Simone Davidson have taken back Hector? Would she have trusted someone who'd betrayed her before?"
Syd shook her head.
"Sis... I'm not going to tell you to become a completely different person, but I am going to tell you to always be mindful that you are Simone Davidson - even if people do keep calling you Syd. Now that both worlds know you're Simone, they will treat you as Simone. You don't get the separation anymore."
Syd nodded and put her finger to her chin as she pondered his words. She didn't feel that Simone Davidson and Syd Johnson were that different. They were still her, but she could admit that when she was in Syd Johnson mode, she was a lot more trusting of people and even with the knowledge in the back of her head that she could be being watched, she wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder.
She let out a deep sigh and sharpened her gaze at Sean. "Now that that's covered, we need to talk about you and Lali... Sean, that's my best friend and she's married. What are you doing?!"
"What happened to us not telling each other who to fuck? You ain't hear me bring up you fucking Em. I peeped you limping."
"Ughhh," Syd let out a frustrated groan. "But what about Chris?"
"Sis... None. Of. Your. Business. Unless you want me to bring up you and Em fucking. Are y'all a couple now?"
"No, no." Syd shook her head. "Em is a sweet talker and we're good friends, but I'm not naive enough to expect anything more from him. I know how men like him operate."
"What if you're wrong?" Sean knew his sister was wrong, but he didn't think it was his place to tell Syd how Emiliano felt about her.
"Well, if he wants me in that way, I feel like he'd tell me. Either way, I'm not in any condition emotionally to jump into anything with anyone regardless of how I feel-" Syd cleared her throat. "Whatever, this is the last thing we should be worrying about."
"Yeah, but we definitely need to pick things up with Dmitry and Santi. This is their second attempt on you and we need to get their asses back. Let's see what we can get out of Hector in a few days and go from there... Also, you'll need to stay with me or the Rossi brothers until you get a new apartment near one of us. You're too far uptown for any of us to get to you."
"I'll stay with you," she responded without hesitation. "I need to get my mind right and this is the best place to do it."
+++
A/N: Thank you for reading!
This book hit 10K reads and I wanted to do something special because this is the first piece of creative writing that I've ever put out and I'm excited about the reception it's gotten so far! 😁
I wanted to do a third update this week (next one is coming Friday or Saturday), but I'm not far enough ahead to do that (I keep rewriting this exchange in a chapter I have planned for next week 😅). Anyway... Since that's not ready, I decided to post the first chapter of an experimental story (also mfm, but who knows... could end up reverse harem because why choose one when you could have boffum or alluem) if you want to check it out. It's called "The Last Petal" and it's paranormal.