CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE FIRST DINNER invitee announced their arrival by ringing the doorbell after Calind had finished setting the table. Wearing a devil may care grin, he slipped his hand into mine and tugged me toward the front door.
A tall and lanky man with rich dark skin rivaling my own and a gleaming smile greeted me and gave me a brief hug. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Van, Calind’s brother.”
As I glanced between Calind and Van, I couldn’t help showing my excitement. “It’s nice to meet you, too.” There was enough jubilation in my voice to make me sound like an eternal optimist who moonlighted as a cheerleader for life.
“You’re welcome,” Calind whispered in my ear.
While examining the two men, I couldn’t spot a resemblance. Different fathers couldn’t explain the drastic dissimilarities in appearances and race. Calind must’ve been adopted.
“Regan, this is Cyan, my wife,” Van introduced the woman trailing him and it soured my mood.
“We’ve already met,” I said, my disdain for the woman seeping into every word.
Cyan appeared ready for a night of clubbing and finding someone to take home instead of a semi-casual dinner party. She rarely rested her eyes on Van for more than two seconds. She didn’t pay much attention to me, either. No, Cyan couldn’t help gawking openly at my husband.
I was prepared to indulge in a moment of pettiness with Cyan until I discovered who else had expanded the list: Deidre and Tana. It annoyed me that Calind thought inviting my stepsister and stepmother to tag along during my first time meeting a member of his family equated to a good time.
I grabbed the cheap bottle of wine Deidre offered and disappeared into the kitchen to dump it out into the sink.
“What a nice thank you for such an expensive bottle of wine.” Deidre, my father’s widow, stood in the doorway of the kitchen with a glower to match her sardonic tone.
She’d upgraded her style after she married my father. Frumpy floral dresses with blazers used to be her mainstays. Now, it’s tailored suits and a sleek, asymmetrical bob. I didn’t find a reason how she could have snagged my father. He was a handsome man, who dated better women than the average-looking and bitchy Deidre.
I tossed the empty wine bottle in the recycling bin and grabbed the wine from Calind’s family vineyard off the counter. “I’m not drinking anything that comes from you. It could be poison.” I pulled the cork from the wine with a corkscrew. “What do you want, Deidre? I know you didn’t come here to play family.”
“You were absent at the funeral and the will-reading. You have things to hand over to me and your sister.”
“Tana is not my sister.” I poured more wine and swirled it around inside the stemless glass. Pausing for a minute, I tipped it to my lips and gulped the sweet liquid until the last drop and refilled my glass.
“Raymond changed his will. He left you with nothing,” she informed me. “You have no one to blame but yourself for this.”
“Being that I have nothing of his anymore, I have nothing to hand over to you. Do you want my house? My car? You’re asking for things that don’t belong to you, and can’t be willed to you. They are going to my husband when I die.”
“They are all things you received from working for your father.” The corners of her mouth curled upward. “I could get a lawyer to say otherwise. Your marriage happened under very suspicious circumstances. You have cancer, right? Who knows if you were in your right mind when you took your vows or changed your will.
“If you were nice, I could find a temporary position for you in the company. Tana has way too much on her plate, and she can’t run the company alone.”
I shook my head, turning my back on her. Why anyone thought Tana could thrive in any position with responsibility was beyond me.
“We won’t be at this dinner for long.” Deidre continued to make my skin itch with the sound of her voice. “You’re more than welcome to schedule an appointment so we can discuss your options.”
I twirled around and stared at the woman, my dislike for her cutting into my unblinking glower. I shouldered her hard on my way out of the kitchen.
In the dining room, Jake, a nervous and recent arrival, flitted around the dining table unwilling to sit in his designated chair.
Tana, seated across from Calind, was in the middle of a grilling session with him. She batted her eyelashes and threw her head back to release a ear-splitting laugh.
Cyan appeared to be annoyed with Tana’s behavior.
“How did you meet Regan?” Tana spoke over Van and Calind’s new conversation with her eyes dead set on my husband. “I never thought of Regan as one to settle down, so I’m shocked you married her. I don’t think I received an invitation to the wedding. Must’ve gotten lost in the mail.”
“We ran into one another.” Calind interrupted his conversation with his brother to answer Tana. “A more formal meeting commenced at her father’s home.”
“You would call that formal?” I asked, frozen in the memory of Calind’s perfect wet body.
Calind’s smiling eyes trailed to mine. “Regan made me chase her. Hard.”
I swallowed a few drops wine and made my way over to Jake. “Hell, is there anything you don’t go after until you own it?”
“You’re the only one I ever cared to chase.” Calind’s crooked grin deepened one of his dimples. He pulled out the chair next to him and his eyes darted to it, silently ordering me to sit.
I took my time in complying.
“There’s talk that my stepfather’s death had involved foul play,” Tana said out of the fucking blue and much to her mother’s visible satisfaction. “Because it was assumed Regan would’ve inherited his wealth, many think she’s the one responsible for the coma and then his death.”
“That’s a lie!” I protested, rising from my chair. “As much as you think I’m capable of, I can’t create and implant cancer into my father.”
“Maybe he didn’t have cancer. We don’t travel in the same circles, Regan.” Tana kept up her annoying, calm demeanor. “You haven’t heard what I’ve heard.”
“He left me with nothing, according to your mother,” I said. “What would I gain by killing a man who hated me?”
“You didn’t know he left you with nothing until today, right?” Deidre stated more than asked. “I’ve mentioned Tana’s concerns to a few people. Word spread, I suppose.”
“According to Helga, you were the last one to see him alive,” Tana added.
I had to leave, or I’d make good on my impulse to kill Tana, with her mother next in line. I grabbed Jake and a cigarette. We ventured out to the pool from the doors in the living room.
“I need a light,” I told him.
“I don’t smoke.” Jake glanced back through the glass door of the patio.
I retrieved a lighter from the tempered glass table next to the lounge and gave it to him. “Congratulations, you’re useful.”
He lit my cigarette. “You should’ve said something about your husband. Why didn’t you?”
Rolling my eyes, I exhaled a plume of smoke. “Take off your clothes and get in the pool, or I’ll push you in.” I tugged at the hem of his shirt.
“Can you answer my question?”
“Calind is my brother, husband, father, lover, partner, friend, comrade, or coworker. Pick whatever makes you feel good and go with it.” I kicked off my shoes and pulled my dress over my head, dropping it to the ground. I gave him my naked back to view and dove into the pool while topless.
Jake looked dumbstruck when I resurfaced and waded in the pool. He paused, shooting a furtive glimpse at the open patio door again. Shrugging, he whipped off his shirt and pants before he dove into the water.
Once I had him within spitting distance, I submerged myself in the water and removed his boxers before he could protest. As I resurfaced, I wrapped my arms and legs around him.
“Someone might see,” he hissed, reluctant in caressing my body.
“It’s dark. Don’t be a pussy. I know you want me.”
“Not like this.”
“Your dick is poking holes in my panties,” I whispered in his ear and bit it. “We’re way past modesty.” I writhed my crotch against his groin to excite him further.
Jake startled at the sight of Calind watching us from the doorway leading to the house. Profuse in his apologies to Calind, Jake yanked himself away from me.
My manic laughter flooded the backyard.
Calind stepped to the edge of the pool, wearing a devious grin. “Jake, if I were you, I’d take this opportunity to leave since you missed your chance to fuck Regan like she obviously desires. Believe me, you lost the only opportunity you’ll ever get to do so.”
Jake leaped out of the water, covering his erection with his hands.
Calind retrieved Jake’s clothes from the chair and threw them at him, hard enough to make Jake stagger. “The next time you enter my home without a direct invitation from me…” Calind’s eyes narrowed as they focused on Jake with a simmering intensity.
“Of course, sir,” Jake mumbled. Giving Calind an apologetic nod, he ran toward the front of the house.
“Quickest exit I’ve ever seen.” I giggled, waving my arms back and forth in the water to keep myself afloat.
“Wipe the smirk off your face, sweetheart. You’ve gained what you wanted.”
“And what did I want, Calind?”
“My attention.”
He settled into the patio chair and eyed me with an unwavering purpose. “Our guests have left, and will likely need a bribe to return. Not the first impression I’d hoped you would make on my brother.”
“I was happy—no, ecstatic about meeting your brother, and then you fucked it up. If you expected me to laugh it up with my stepmother, or the stepsister who thinks I magically gave my father cancer, put him in a coma, and killed him—I’d tell you to go fuck yourself.” I tipped my head back to soak my strands and cast my gaze to the night sky.
“It isn’t the time for unfounded grudges. Forgiveness and redemption require two receptive individuals to succeed.”
I couldn’t believe he’d suggest I should’ve kissed and made up with Tana or Deidre. “You’re trying to play life coach and forcing me to make amends with people I hate before I die? Fuck that.”
His dark eyes cut at me. “Your tally of things to do to piss me off is already high, sweetheart. Would you like to run that by me once more?”
I rolled my neck, trying to rein myself in and avoid getting spanked again. My ass wasn’t ready for another thrashing. “Take off your clothes and get in here.”
When he didn’t comply, I swam to the edge of the marble tile, hoisting myself out of the pool. I ran my hands along my hair, ringing it out on the patio as I sauntered toward Calind. His expression teetered between anger and arousal as he eyed my naked breasts for a while.
“If you’re pissed about Jake, nothing would’ve happened, even if you hadn’t interrupted. I was having fun.”
He stood body-to-body with me, his expression turning menacing. “Never play a game with me as your intended target. You’ll lose.”
“Don’t know about that.” A smile stretched my lips. “I made you jealous, huh? I would laugh if I wasn’t so pissed at you.” Calind jealous? The man was so cold I didn’t think I could even circle around the neighborhood of envy, or rouse anything other than Calind’s sexual interest.
“I’m serious about reprimanding you.”
I pushed my breasts against his chest. “My ass is still sore from the parking lot. I know you’re not kidding. Maybe I’m trying to provoke you.” My fingers touched his jutting jaw, his tapered sideburns, and slid into the hair that threaded through my fingers like fine silk.
He lowered his eyelids as though my fingers became a tempting aphrodisiac.
He snapped out of it instantly, removed me from his path, and headed inside the house. After removing his shirt, he placed it on the back of the chair and cleaned up the dining and kitchen areas.
I plucked up his shirt and placed it on my damp body. Bringing his collar to my nose, I inhaled the lingering scent of his cologne.
I padded over to the stereo installed inside the wall and waved my hand over the sensor. Scanning through the options, I tried to find the perfect music to set a specific mood. I settled on Miguel’s “Valley.”
I approached Calind in the kitchen, and looped my arms around him, resting my palms on his rock hard stomach, disrupting his attempt to clean. “Come dance with me.”
He spun around with reluctance and twirled his fingers around my wet curls. “This song is for fucking, not dancing.”
I pulled his hands, coercing him to move into the living room. “Exactly.” I placed his hands on my waist and swayed to the beat. Gliding my palms on his chest, I traced the ripples and skips on his sculpted upper body.
I grabbed the waist of his trousers before unbuckling his belt. Sliding the belt from the loops in his pants, I threw it behind me. His trousers slipped downward, revealing his V-muscle and the band on his boxer briefs. The need to make up for leaving him earlier forced me to pace myself instead of ripping off his clothes and mounting him.
He twirled me away and brought me back to him. I pushed my back against his chest as he wrapped his hands around my torso. Swaying and sashaying my hips, I undulated my behind against his hardening cock.
I bent over and touched my toes before standing upright. My hands reached up to the side of his face until I could comb my fingers through his hair. He closed my hand and brought it across his lips, kissing my knuckles.
I turned around and writhed against his body. My thumb traced his mouth, taunting him.
He slanted his neck and caressed my mouth with his own, kissing me in a way he hadn’t since Singapore. Kissing in a way that made me wet, leaving me burning for him.
He picked me up by my thighs and walked toward the wall, trapping me with his body. His mouth fell open, along with my own. Our mouths performed a dirty dance of their own.
I unhooked his trousers, reached into the pocket of his boxer briefs, and freed his perfection. He grabbed my hands and placed them above my head with one hand. He moved my panties to the side and rubbed the tip of his erection against my damp slit.
I moaned and wiggled under the pressure, wanting him inside me.
His eyes studied me while he slipped his entire length into my wet, waiting canal. Motionless, he watched every subtle and pronounced, needy reaction. The constant throb of his cock worked to stretch me. He clasped his hand across my neck, encompassing my entire throat.
“Don’t make me wait for it, baby.” I tugged his bottom lip with my teeth. “Fuck me.”
His eyes changed, and he plunged into my pussy hard and fast, punishing with each thrust. My spine slapped against the wall with violence. One hand gathered my wrists and pinned my arms above my head. I wrapped my legs around him tighter, bracing for the rocky ride.
My gaze froze on his dark eyes as he manipulated me physically and emotionally. He hit a pleasure point within me only he could reach. Forceful shivers emanated from my spine. The burn between my legs evolved into a torturing sizzle. My body relented to the ecstasy.
“Fuck yes.” My voice divulged my sex-drugged condition.
Before I could relish in a ride to my orgasm, Calind closed his hand around my throat. He rolled his hips at a painstakingly slow pace, resembling an exotic dancer in a stripper revue. In an abrupt move, he withdrew from me, leaving me to fall onto the floor in a quaking heap, aching and unfinished.
He tucked his waning erection back inside his boxer briefs and zipped up his pants. Using my hair, he pulled me upright and tugged me toward the table, where he bent me over the cool wood. “Don’t move.”
His steps padded away, and the house grew silent for a minute. He returned and spread my legs with a harsh jerk. Lifting his shirt off my ass, he tore my panties from my body. Taking the olive oil from the table, he drenched the cleft of my ass with it. A soft bulb penetrated my ass.
I sucked my teeth, shocked.
“You are to remain here until I’m ready for you. Understood?”
“Yes, Calind,” I said with bridled anger.
He rounded the table. Using my hair, he pulled my head up to meet his eye level. “You’re not helping yourself, sweetheart. Address me with compliance, not an attitude.”
I swallowed back the anger, saying the words again without a confrontational tone.
I remained hunched over the table like a good little bitch while Calind cleaned.
Now and then, the soft bulb stuck inside my ass expanded. Focusing on my breathing and keeping the object inside of me made the time crawl. I counted the minutes because I had nothing else to keep me sane.
At two hundred and sixty minutes, Calind had finished cleaning and my asshole stretched beyond its limits.
Calind returned to the dining room and sat in the chair at the head of the table, leaving a fair space between it and the table. He beckoned for me with his fingers. “And make sure you keep it inside of you on your way here.”
I ignored his demand and angled my gaze at the ceiling.
He leaned forward. “Come here,” he demanded in a tone that got me to do everything he wanted.
Moving awkwardly, I stood up and padded to stand in front of him.
He grabbed my hips and spun me until I faced the table. As he stood, his body slid against me. He clutched the crown of my hair and pushed me until I bent over the table. My breasts and the side of my cheek mashed against the glossy, dark wood.
Calind sat behind me. His palms grasped either side of my ass cheeks and pulled them apart. The touch of his lips on the crack of my ass made me stiffen.
When his tongue whirled around my tight opening, I grasped the table to brace myself and moaned. His tongue teased my asshole, circling the outside of the toy. He removed it and replaced it with his tongue, darting in and out of my hole.
I shivered and gasped, nearly sinking my teeth into the table. His fingers probed and opened me. I jerked in response. He pressed his palm against my spine, constraining me. A second finger joined the first, thrusting gently inside, spreading what I assumed was more oil inside of me.
He withdrew his fingers for a moment. I felt a rush of wind as the sound of rustling clothing rang in my ears. He pushed against me, revealing his nudeness and upright position. His cock throbbed between my ass cheeks as he pushed his erection slowly into my ass.
I winced and sucked my teeth, clamping onto him at the fierce pressure.
Anal sex was always an acquired mood, and I never found myself in the mood. Today was no exception.
He pushed all of his length inside me.
“Aye,” I yelped, my lips quivering and my eyes watering.
He reached around me, allowing the pads of his fingers to manipulate my clit while he stroked inside my nether opening.
Pain moved to pleasure and radiated across my body.
“You’re not allowed to come,” he hissed, jarring me and the table with each slam of his hips crashing against my fleshy ass. “You don’t deserve to come.”
“I’m sorry.”
He fucked me harder, removing his hand from the spot that made me high and left me with nothing but an odd feeling near pain. “You use those two words too much. They mean nothing to you. What you should ask is how you can please me again.” He withdrew his cock from inside of me and slapped the swell of my ass, hard. Still sore from the parking lot punishment, the slap stung more than normal.
When I yelped, he continued to slap my ass in various places. Each impact fell harder against my flesh than the first. The harder the hits, the firmer he gripped my hair, keeping me still.
“How am I supposed to please you?” I shouted out, restraining against breaking apart.
He slapped me so hard on my sore cheeks that the pain made my teeth chatter and eyes teared up.
“How may I please you, Mr. Glace?”
“Better.” He released me.
I moved to slip off the table, but he shook his head and positioned my body to rest flat on the table with my head facing his groin. I took his erection into my mouth and moved my hands to join. He grabbed my wrists and pinned them against the small of my back with one hand.
“Make me come,” he said in a breathless whisper.
I sucked his cock, trying through sheer tenacity to pleasure him.
He slipped his finger between the separation in my ass. Another finger inched inside my aching wetness. He swung my body around to better access me and added a finger to both openings. They glided inside me, in unison, manipulating the wall that divided them.
The tingling electricity vibrated through every nerve. I fought hard not to come and became his good little bitch, waiting for permission.
He groaned and released my hands, riding my mouth. Softly, he muttered my name. A gush of sweet, thick liquid filled my mouth. I swallowed every drop.
He jerked my head back by way of my hair. With a nod, he gave me permission to give into the torturous feeling he elicited between my thighs. My body ached and convulsed as it climbed an orgasmic rollercoaster.
He turned me around and spread my legs. Hunching over my body, he placed his head between my thighs. Wrapping his mouth around my clit, he sucked it with the perfect pressure. His fingers moved inside of me again.
From down my body, his gaze pulled at me with a palpable thirst latent in his ebony eyes.
The internal sensation cracked at me harder than a whip. “Oh, fuck. Calind!” I arched my back as the chilling rush consumed me. I came so hard my body tensed up and locked in place. Thinking or moving was impossible. I could do nothing other than rest on the table and take what he gave me.
He wiped his dick off with a table napkin and pushed my legs into the air.
Pressing my knees to bend, he shoved himself forward, piercing me hard and deep with his cock. He slid his hands up my body, stopping at either side of my head, and pulled me up to meet his position.
He rode me hard, pinning my legs in position between us and was merciless in fucking me.
Entranced with his eyes, the thrall hit me the hardest it ever had before. The orgasm kicked me into another gear.
His name was a scream on my lips as I convulsed so hard my muscles grew fatigued and sore.
THE CLOCK ON the nightstand indicated that Calind had fucked me into soreness for at least five hours. My body was covered in perspiration, and the sheets clung to my skin. I hadn’t yet caught my breath.
Calind shook off the exertion as though he hadn’t set my body on fire for a good part of the night and stood by the window in our bedroom, staring beyond the black tint.
Grabbing a cigarette from the nightstand, I lit up and slid out of bed. Wincing as I walked due to my raw but satisfied pussy and ass, I stood next to Calind.
He plucked the cig from my dangling fingers, took a few puffs, and then handed it back. I rested my cheek against his dry and naked back, along the curve of his spine between his shoulder blades.
“Sorry,” I forced myself to say, feeling like sewing needles were stuck into my tongue. “I complained about you being all closed down and mysterious, and you tried to let me into your world last night. I screwed it up by ruining the night.”
“You didn’t ruin the evening. I promise, it will be the last time you have to deal with those members of your family.” He swiveled around and wrapped me up in his strong arms. “I want to continue to allow you into my world, Regan. I want to fulfill every desire you’ve ever had, even if what you want is the one thing I’m reluctant to give you.”
I blinked out of the surreal moment and cast my eyes elsewhere. His words and his touch left me speechless for many minutes. The things he said were very unexpected. “You can’t say things like that,” I said, my tone inaudible.
“It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“Not if you don’t mean it. Maybe I don’t know what I want. Maybe I think there’s nothing keeping me here, and if you keep letting me in…”
His eyes turned bleak, as though he had things other than me on his mind.
“Can we talk about what else is bothering you?” I asked, forlorn over what I might’ve screwed up by inadvertently telling him it was okay to keep being evasive and secretive. It was the last thing I wanted. “I know your anger wasn’t about me.”
He cast a look of disbelief my way.
“Well, all about me, anyway.”
He grimaced and turned back to the window. “My brother’s condition has become grave.”
“Which reminds me—were you adopted?”
“By Van’s mother? In a way. Most of the life I knew was in Alexandria. I was born to no one. Van was born in Los Angeles.”
“Born to no one? What does that mean? And you were born in which Alexandria?”
“Egypt.”
I’d met a few natives, and none of them touched Calind’s occasional accent. “Wow. Would you take me someday? I’d love to see where you grew up.”
He shut down before my eyes. I could virtually feel a wall build between us.
“Your brother seemed fine.” I dodged what he didn’t want to converse about and opened him back up to what he looked willing to discuss.
“He’s not. He’s given me the reins to the vineyard in the North. The vineyard I handed over to him to control.”
I savored the little grains of truth about Calind’s life. I knew there had to be much more, and this was only the tip of a very large boulder. “Is that why you agreed to come back here? Because you think Van’s dying?”
“I had many reasons. My concerns about his health were secondary to the most important one.”
“The injections don’t work for him?”
“They would have if he had taken them. It’s too late for him now.” His eyes held me. “Why aren’t you asking for my primary reason?”
Because I already knew what it was. “I’m tired. Can we go back to bed and forget about my sickness for one night?”
He kissed my forehead and picked me up, carrying me back to bed. Lying flat on his back, he placed his forearm behind his head. I wrapped myself around him, resting my head on his chest to listen for a heartbeat.
Oddly enough, his heartbeat was the most erratic thing I’d ever heard. If I knew no better, I could’ve sworn I heard two very distinct, quiet beats.