**Yes it's late again, but yes it's so worth it! Here. We. Go!!!**
Rory
Mortified. Ashamed. Horrified. Humiliated. Embarrassed.
These words don't come close to what I'm feeling right now.
As soon as Caden and I finally break free of our inhibitions and decide to have wild animal-like sex like we've wanted to for so long, my family just happens to pop in.
I mean it's sweet of them to drop by because I've definitely missed them. Spending time with my father really makes me appreciate the normal side of my family for sure. And I have to admit all that baby talk with Honey really made me miss my beautiful niece.
But I mean come on!
Is this some sort of sign from God for me to get my life in check? It just has to be.
It must be up there on a cloud or something shaking his head in disappointment. He's probably thinking to himself that I need to stop letting two men chase after me and just choose one already.
Adultery, cheating in general is a big no-no.
... I know better than that. Or at least I thought I did.
"Oh my Lord!" My mom shrieks covering her mouth.
"Holy shit!" Nate yells while simultaneously laughing.
"Aw for fuck's sake!" That one was Caden.
"Get out! Get out!" ... Well it's obvious who said that.
I can't even remember hearing the door open. All I could do was feel. Finally feeling everything at once. Caden's hands, his mouth, his body colliding with mine. His growls and groans of approval. His dirty smirks and lust filled eyes. His declaration of love as if he's said to me all his life. The way he commanded me to leave Jamal...
Crap...
Coming back to the present we all continue to scream at each other as the scene slowly plays out.
Caden lifts us both up and flips us over so he's on top of me and protecting my body from anyone seeing anything else. Mom stumbles back into Nathan whose holding little Ava causing her to start screaming. They both fumble with the door and slam it shut.
Finally.
Now to face the consequences of what I've just done. I can be honest in admitting that it was me who initiated this in the first place. I don't know what came over me!
Tears are burning my eyes but I will myself not to cry. Not again.
"Are you okay?" Caden's gruff voice brings me away from my inner turmoil.
I nod my head yes because I know if I speak I will be another blubbering mess. He adjusts his weight on me and ends up thrusting into me a little harder. Gasping out I wiggle underneath him and widen my legs slightly.
Dirty whore.
He thrusts again, this time deliberately and I wrap my arms around his neck and lock my legs around his back. Even though his eyes are burning with lust he's still cautious with his movements.
Slowly he thrusts again and again but he doesn't look certain about it. He looks more annoyed than turned on.
Pushing my heels into his back more hoping to give him the hint that I want it faster he does the opposite. He unhooks my arms from his neck and removes himself from me altogether. I watch as he adjusts himself back in his pants and picks up my shirt from the floor.
When he doesn't look at me as he hands it over, I know something bad is about to happen.
Again.
"Why did we stop? Do you not like it?" My questions make him chuckle but he doesn't look happy. I can't decipher the emotion on his face right now. It's almost as if he's trying to hide himself from me.
The thought hurts.
"I'm not doing this. Not like this. I thought I could but I can't. I hate myself for saying this but I want our first time to be more special than this Rory. I want it to be fucking fireworks, because that's what I feel when I'm with you. Fireworks, and lava and tornadoes. It's fucking havoc in me and I want that."
His words are the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. They speak to me so deeply that I can't help the tears that slowly trickle down my cheeks.
"Oh Caden. I want that to. I want us to have a first time and then an every time, every day. I want to come home to see you wearing that stupid apron I bought you and I want to eat with you–"
"I'd love to eat you out." He says smiling again.
My heart feels so damn full seeing him smile like that.
Lord I love him so much it's almost inconceivable. How did I end up with Jamal? How did all of this end up so wrong so quickly?
"Cut it out Caden I'm trying to declare my love for you."
He comes back to sit beside me and kisses me full and hard on the mouth. I kiss him back just as hard and before we know it both of our shirts are off and we're back to mauling each other again. Our hands are roaming all over our bodies and we're grinding against each other in perfect harmony.
His face starts to lower down my body and my hands are guiding his head. But again he stops us.
For someone who said he doesn't have much restraint he's doing a lot of holding back.
"Fuck you're hard to pull away from."
"Then stop pulling away." I don't even recognize my voice but it comes out of my mouth so I guess it's me.
The tension building in Caden wounds him up so tight that I decide it's best if we really stop now.
"Sorry."
"Aurora Jasmine Byrony how about we quit fucking around and just admit that we're meant to be together. I mean look at us right now. The attraction between us isn't just physical. It's more than that. And your asshat of a fiancé shouldn't be in our picture any longer." He says proudly.
"Caden I want to be with you but I don't know that I can leave Jamal."
"Then don't leave him. Fuck it I'll do anything it takes at this point to be with you. If that includes being your man on the side then I'll take it." We're both stunned by what he says.
"Are you serious?"
"Dead serious. I was in your pussy for a total of twenty-three seconds and they were the best twenty-three seconds of my life. I want more however I can get it." His face is deadpan. He's not joking.
"No. No we can't do that. I can't do that. I need to think this–"
"Rory there's nothing else to think about. You think he's cheating on you. I want you to be with me forever. You have your answer. I mean shit I don't believe in God but this just has to be a sign."
"And what do I say to Jamal then? Hey since I think you're cheating on me I'm calling off the engagement."
"Is there anything else to say other than that?"
"What if he isn't cheating?"
"Tell him you're in love with another man! Tell him you want to stay in Houghton because even though the town is shit everyone you love is here! Tell him it was a mistake to rush into an engagement when you finally got a taste of freedom. Tell him if he doesn't let you leave then I will find his ass and beat him to a bloody pulp until he gets the damn picture!" Caden's breathing harshly and snarling as he says this.
He speaks words that have been in my mind since the Halloween party.
"Caden I don't thi–"
"Sweetheart is it safe for us to come in? Nathan needs to feed Ava and I don't want him doing so in the hallway." Mom says softly.
Caden shrugs his shoulders and puts his shirt back on. I grab my own shirt and slip it on as well. When we both look appropriate again I stand up and stare at the door.
"Are you going to leave?" I ask him biting my lip. His eyebrows raise and he laughs.
"That's a joke right? I've never met your family yet. Why not meet them now?" His lack of conviction is so hot.
"Alright then." I open the door to the apartment and see my mom and Nate standing awkwardly at the entrance.
Both of them walk in, a now quiet Ava looking around at her new surroundings with little interest. Mom looks to sit on the couch but goes for the dining room chair instead and Nate follows quietly.
"So we want to apologize for walking in on you like that. We weren't expecting that." Mom voices.
"He's not Jamal. I mean I've met the prick once but I know for a fact that you are not him." Nate says glaring at Caden.
"Name's Caden Maddox. I'm a friend of Rory's." He says standing to shake their hands. They both do so apprehensively.
"You do know my sister is getting married right? Or did that planet on her finger pass your eye?" Nate's getting angry. But surprisingly Caden isn't rising to the challenge like I thought he would.
He's calm.
"Yes I know she's supposed to be getting married."
"Supposed to be?" Mom echoes curiously.
"She's not going to marry that dick. I won't let her." And now the aggression makes an appearance. His stance is relaxed but his words and eyes are hard.
"Why does your opinion matter? If she wants to get married she will get married." Nate instigates further.
"Because I love her and she loves me. I live for this woman and I know what makes her happy and what doesn't. That man doesn't make her happy. He may have before but not anymore. She's marrying him out of some twisted obligation to her father and I'm about to cut that shit down right now."
The eerie silence that passes over us is beyond uncomfortable. How does Caden know anything about my father other than the fact that I don't like him? What does he mean I'm marrying Jamal out of obligation?
"What are you talking about?" I ask looking directly at Caden. He shrugs his broad, strong shoulders and smiles easily.
"Spoke with Bones about it. He told me your father's a racist dick that has something against white people. It makes sense that when you make the decision to move away from his tyranny that he'd find a way to tie you down to him for as long as he can."
"No. NO. I met Jamal at his restaurant. I gave my compliments to the chef and he came out and thanked me in person. And then he asked for my number and we went out a few days after that. My father had nothing to do with it."
But even as I say that I remember what Jamal said about if it weren't for my father we wouldn't be together...
I didn't want to believe what I was hearing but...
"Rory the man cooks at a five star rated and three Michelin star granted restaurant. You mean to tell me when one random, albeit it beautiful, woman gives her compliments this would be the one time he would come out to say thanks?"
As he says it, it really does sound stupid.
"I... I don't know." I admit sadly. He groans and pulls me into his arms with my mom and Nate watching the interaction quietly.
"I don't know the specifics of your father's involvement but I know he was involved somehow."
"How do you know that?" Mom asks finally speaking up again.
"Because of this." He takes my arms gently and pulls down my sleeve to show the bruise and cuts. "And this." He pulls up the side of my shirt and shows the bruise on my hip as well.
"Rory? How did you get those? And you better not lie to me." Mom's voice holds the authority it had when she was trying to make me tell the truth about stealing cookies from the bake sale at school.
"Father did it when I went to see him a few days ago. He draped me up because he knew about me kissing Caden." I confess quietly. Everyone stares at me and then Caden who's silently seething.
"I wasn't sure if Bones was over reacting when he said your father used to hit you. I was hoping it would have stayed in the past but the moment you opened your door and I saw that bruise I put two and two together."
"How would he have known that you kissed this man if even we haven't?" Mom continues to question.
"I'm pretty sure Jamal told him."
"WHAT?" Nathan says banging his hand on the table and waking his sleeping daughter. She opens her eyes to see her father before slowly closing them again.
"He didn't actually tell me that but how else would he have known? I don't even know why I went to see him in the first place. All he did was patronize me like he always does."
I join them at the table so I can give my wobbly legs a rest and Caden follows like a shadow and sits beside me.
"So you two kissed then? And now you two were just–"
"The kiss was a spur of the moment kind of thing and just now... Well that... That was–"
"That was us acting on our need for each other. Let's stop trying to find a reason for why loving each other is wrong and call it like it is." Caden asserts calmly.
"You love my daughter and yet you'd encourage her to cheat on her fiancé more than once?"
Caden shrugs and puts his arm around me.
"I won't lie and say I'm a good person because I'm not. I'd spent my life avoiding relationships because I couldn't be bothered to bear the pain that losing someone you loved would cause. I didn't want the same fate as my parents. Both of them loved each other like nothing you'd ever seen. They met while on separate high graduation vacations to Europe. They fell in love and got married. A couple years later they had me and my siblings and lived a happy loving whimsical life."
"They go camping one night, their anniversary night and while my dad is off taking a piss my mom gets raped and ends up getting killed because she wouldn't cooperate. Dad comes back to see the man leaving the tent and attacks him in a rage. He didn't know the man wasn't alone and it ends up being four on one. He died that night." Caden confesses bitterly.
I wonder to myself how he could know all of that if he wasn't there but I don't question it. It's not the right time.
"You think I wanted to love someone after that? Think I wanted a relationship where someone had the leeway to play with my heart? Play with my head and my body, my money, my family? No thanks. Too much work and way too much pain. So I stayed away. Even when I met Rory I forced myself to stay away but before I knew it, before I could realize what the hell was happening I was falling for her. So hard and so fast I couldn't keep up. So yeah. I love her. I love her to death. I'll do anything it takes for her to be with me. If that means that I have to make her see that we're meant to be together using some... animalistic measures than I will."
"Caden... That's horrible." I say covering my mouth..
"That's life." He answers shortly. I take his hand in mine and make him look at me.
"Yes life does have death, and yes there are some horrible points in life as well but there's more to life, more to love than that and you know it." He looks at me as if he's just realizing I'm here and smirks.
"I know that now."
"Alright then let's get back to dad. What are we going to do about that?" Nate asks putting Ava back in her car seat.
"We aren't going to do anything. This is something Rory is going to have to handle on her own." Mom says taking my hand.
"Like hell she is. That man bruised her perfect skin. I'm not letting her near him again without me." Caden declares squeezing my hand.
"This is not your battle to fight." Mom says gently.
"She's my woman–"
"Right now she's still with Jamal. So no she's not your woman. Aurora has never liked confrontation but she has to deal with this now. You cannot get married to a man you don't want to be with. I don't want you to be stuck in a loveless and miserable marriage like I was. The only good thing that came from that man was you two. Don't do that to yourself."
Everyone stares at me pointedly and I sigh. As usual my mom knows me best. That's probably why I had avoided telling her the whole truth of my situation because I knew I'd hear something like this.
"You're right. I know you are. I just don't know where to start. There's so much."
"Start with something simple. Break off your engagement with Jamal." Nate says smiling. Caden smiles with him and they both fist bump each other.
"How is that simple?"
"It's not simple but it has to be done. Come on Ror from the moment the guy said he didn't want kids that should have been the biggest sign that you two weren't meant to get married." I nod at Nathan's answer.
"It is true–"
"I just want to be clear that I do want kids. I want a lot of kids that look like Rory so they will always be beautiful." Caden says out loud.
My heart practically sings for him.
"Bonus points for sure." Nate grins.
I find it funny how angry he was with Caden not ten minutes ago and now the two of them are acting like they're the best of friends all of a sudden.
"Sweetheart. Do you want to marry Jamal? Right now, later, in ten years. I don't care about when I just want to know if you want to." Mom's question is simple and concise.
And for once I have a straight answer.
"No... No I don't want to marry him. I feel like when we were first together it was fun but while the sex was great–" Nate makes a gagging noise at that and Caden snorts. They are such guys, "–that's all there was. He dictated our relationship all the time. Now that he's told me the truth as to why he's doing it I... I do feel something real for him but I feel like it's too late. And besides if he has cheated–"
"Hold on what about cheating now?" Mom interjects. If she were a wolf her hackles would have been raised so high right now.
"Um... Well I don't know if he has cheated. Honey told me she saw him and his ex at her husband's birthday party and they seemed inseparable. And then they disappeared for a bit and when she found him Tasha was gone for the night. Now that woman is a bit of a gossip but when it comes to those close to her she takes these things seriously." Mom and Nate are quiet but their faces look absolutely pissed.
"You need to confront him. Like right now. Have you two put down any deposits for the wedding?"
"Not yet. We've been looking at venues and we have a date but that's it as far as I know."
"That's good at least no one will be losing any money–"
"Just wasted years." Caden comments lightly. Nate breaks out in laughter and high fives him.
"Like I was saying. This can be a clean break. You will have to do this in person and not over the phone. It's better that way. Nathan can go with you to pack your remaining things–"
"No. I'm going with her." Caden says firmly.
"Listen I know you care about her but–"
"The kid has a newborn and honestly he's a little scrawny. He needs to be with his family. Rory is mine. I'm going to make sure everyone knows it."
"With you going it's going to paint Aurora in a bad light."
"I won't do anything unless she asks me to. I'll even stay at our hotel until she's finished if that's what she wants." He says forcefully. Mom taps her finger on the table while still staring at Caden.
"It's fine. Caden will come with me. I know even if I told him to stay here he wouldn't."
"I'd probably give you a day's worth of a head start."
"I'll book you guys a flight. I have enough air miles to fly anywhere in the world four times over." Nate gloats while taking out his phone.
A sense of ease settles around the table as Nate gets to work on booking our flight. We give him all of our information and he focuses on his phone. Ava wakes up again and starts to cry so mom gets up to check on her. She rocks her gently and coos at her, tickling her little nose and peppering her face with light kisses.
All the while I see how Caden watches them with longing. Every little movement my niece makes he sees and analyzes. I don't think he knows he's watching them so hard in the first place.
He wants kids. Badly.
When he catches me staring at him he grins hugs me into him.
"As soon as all of this shit is dealt with I'm putting a baby in you immediately. Is that understood?" I giggle and kiss his cheek.
"I'm on the pill so no not immediately. I'd like to be married before I have kids." He growls and kisses my head absentmindedly while pulling me into his chest so my back is resting against him.
"Then I'll propose." He gives me a cheeky grin causing me to roll my eyes.
"Let's go on a date first okay?"
"Fine. We'll take it slow. But I hope you know I'm not against having sex on the first date."
"I hope you two know I can hear everything you're saying and I'm completely grossed out." Nate mumbles. Caden laughs and I hide my face in my hands.
Mom comes back to the table with Ava and hands her to me. The moment I feel her in my arms the tears come back again. She's so beautiful, and tiny and perfect. I want so many kids. I want a basketball starting line-up. I want my house filled with crying and laughter.
Jamal could have taken that away from me.
"You look good with a baby in your arms." Caden says seductively in my ear.
"I'm sure you will too one day." I reply kissing him softly. Mom clears her throat and we pull apart.
"I think until you are officially single you should cease with that." She suggests strongly. Conviction hits me in the gut and I nod.
"You're right." I reply giving us a little more space.
Caden grunts and mumbles something about wanting to get some privacy again before he speaks up.
"That flight better be booked for tomorrow." Nate raises an eyebrow at him and scoffs.
"It's booked for this weekend. It will give Rory enough time to think through what she's going to say and take the days off at her work. Did you need time off of work too?" Nate leaves the question open ended because they have no idea what he does.
... I don't know what he does outside of the Sins.
"The community centre doesn't need much notice." He says nonchalantly.
"Community centre?" I ask completely lost.
"Yeah I teach art there. It's a nightly thing and it's like three times a week. When I'm not there I'm working at my tattoo shop or I'm customizing cars with Tiny."
Oh my God he's a teacher. He's a really hot bad boy teacher. I think I had a mini orgasm.
"Wow... That's really nice." Mom says smiling. He nods like he doesn't care but I can see the spark in his eyes.
"Always wanted to go to an art school but after my parents died lost track of that. Had to deal with the government taking our house, separating me from my siblings and us trying to figure out where the hell to get money and jobs... It's why I joined the Sins. They helped to fix everything for me. I'm forever in their debt for what they did."
"You mean that motorcycle gang that hangs around here?" Nate asks trying to hide his distaste.
"Yeah that motorcycle gang. I'm the sergeant at arms for that motorcycle gang and damn proud of it too." His voice is tight as he answers and I turn so I can give him a small smile.
"Hmm how do you have a job then?"
"Don't have a criminal background."
"Doesn't mean you haven't done criminal things does it?"
"True. Doesn't mean I've been caught either."
Nate and Caden stare each other down before they break into grins.
"You better be careful with my sister. She's a thrill seeker for sure. While I got away from our dad early she's been stuck with him all this time. Being cooped up with him for so long can do things to one's mental state." He teases, even though we both know he's being completely honest.
"My eyes and hands will be on her at all times."
The entire table laughs at his innuendo.
"Alright well mom and I just came to check up on you. I need to get back to Nadia. You're tickets are booked and I've emailed the information and boarding pass to you Ror. I'll call you later okay?" He gets up and I give him back his perfect little girl.
"Of course. Mom are you leaving too?" She nods and stretches her back.
"Yes I need to go home and change. I have a date with Luke." She smiles when she says this and I can't help joining her. "Remember what I said about the space." Mom points her finger at the both of us and my smile disappears.
"Yes mom." I get up to give her a big tight hug and the same for Nathan.
What surprises me is when they both turn to Caden to give him the same.
"The moment I saw the way you looked at my daughter I just knew you were family. It's an unconventional and disrespectful way to start but when everything has been handled appropriately I know you will make her happier than she's ever been." Mom squeezes Caden tight and he embraces both of them before they leave with a smile.
"I don't know about you but I am not keeping my hands off of you for another minute." He leans down to kiss me but I put my finger to his lips.
"You've waited six months you can wait three more days." His eyes blaze and he grabs my face to kiss me deeply. When he pulls back we're both breathing hard.
"If I have to wait then we're both going to be so fucking needy for each other that when we get to that hotel room no one is going to stop me from taking you all night long. I'm going to be sexting you nonstop and teasing the shit out of you."
"You and me both." I say smiling seductively.