Brutal Discoveries (18 page)

“My pleasure,” he growled.  He was between my legs before I inhaled sharply, then I felt his breath on my flesh.  He kissed my lower lips softly, teasing me more than ever before.  “You’re so swollen and wet, baby,” he murmured appreciatively. 

“I want you so bad.”

When his tongue came out to swirl around my aching clit, I bucked against him and wished my hands were free so I could hold his head while he ate me.  I was already on the verge of release from his earlier teasing so it didn’t take long until I could feel my body readying to explode.

“Aden,” I moaned.  “Oh, god, yes,” I cried as he speared his tongue inside me and then flicked it over my clit.  He sucked me and licked me, devouring me with every swipe and plunge of his tongue.  “Aden,” I moaned again, this time more frantic, feeling my release racing toward me.  “Don’t stop!  I’m going to come.”

The instant I said the words, he tore his mouth away from my pussy.  A strangled whimper ripped up my throat.  “Please,” I begged.  “Aden!”

“Want your cunt clutching my cock when you come, Scarlett,” he told me sternly.  My entire body tightened at his words.

“Please, give me your cock then. 
Please.
”  I wasn’t above begging profusely.  I needed him inside me, filling me so full I couldn’t think of anything but him.  So full I couldn’t
feel
anything but him.

Before I had a chance to think, Aden had untied my legs and was flipping me over.  I spread my legs wide for him and he positioned himself between them.  I felt the blunt head of his cock as he lined himself up and then with one sharp thrust, he impaled himself inside of me.  Gripping my hips with his hands, he pumped in and out of me with precise abandon.  His grunts mingled with my whimpers in a beautifully erotic melody.  His body slapped against my own in a punishing rhythm that had my orgasm rocketing toward me without warning.

When Aden’s palm connected with my ass cheek, I exploded.  As he soothed the sting from his hand, I came harder than I have ever come in my life.  Aden’s relentless thrusts didn’t falter, he kept right on fucking me, and I found my orgasm rolling into another one before the shudders of the first one had even left my system.  His palm slapped my flesh again and I moaned, deep and throaty.  The sting from his hand and the warmth its aftermath left, had my body craving the burn.  I pushed back against him, greedy as ever for more pleasure and pain.  I didn’t want him to ever stop.  My body was slick with sweat, my voice hoarse from crying out, my teetering on the edge of exhaustion and avaricious desire. 

“One more,” he commanded.

“I can’t,” I breathed, but my body was already rippling with anticipation.

“One more,” he repeated.  One hand went to my clit, where he began stroking it, while his other hand went to my nipple.  He twisted my over-sensitized flesh as he bucked his hips into me, never losing his rhythm until I was moaning through another overwhelming orgasm.  It was then that he released a guttural growl and stilled as he emptied himself inside of me, biting down on my shoulder as he came.

Exhausted, he collapsed down beside me on the bed and deftly removed the ties from my wrists and the blindfold from my eyes.  He rolled me over and curled me into his side before kissing me, sated and lazily.  With a sigh, I closed my heavy eyes and listened to the fast thumping of his heart, and as I did, I thought perhaps I’d make it my mission to pick a fight once or twice a day so makeup sex would be a regular occurrence…

One Month Later

It was the morning of Christmas Eve, and by nightfall, my parents’ house would be exploding with bodies.  Jen, Georgia and Mitch, Danni and Hank, and their three kids were all joining mom, dad, me and Aden for Christmas.  Aden and I had driven down last night, and this morning after breakfast, Dad and Aden had left the house to go fishing out at the lake.  So, Mom and I sat across from each other on her bed, and anxiety clouded her eyes, and I knew my own looked exactly the same.  Between us on the bed was a folded copy of a letter Aden had given me a few weeks ago.  A letter from Damon Salt.  Beside the letter was a small wooden box with a gold latch.  I hadn’t opened it.  I wanted to see the contents with my mom beside me for support, so I had waited.  But, now was the time. 

I took a deep breath.  “You should read the letter first,” I told Mom.

“Okay,” she said shakily.  I had told her I’d received a letter from Damon the morning after Aden had given it to me.  With her and Aden’s encouragement, I had contacted a kind, older gentleman named Barnaby Straus, and asked him about the box Damon had referred to in the letter.  He had hand-delivered it to my bakery the following week.  So even though Mom knew all the details, I still wanted her to read the letter.

Tears filled her eyes as she moved over every line written in Damon’s scrawled handwriting.  When she reached the end, her watery eyes found mine.

“That was,” she paused to clear her throat.  “Honestly, that was beautiful.  Not what I was expecting, and he does seem very apologetic.”  My mother was such a strong woman.  It took guts for her to read a letter written to her child from the man who made her, a man who was a convicted criminal, and for her to say the words he had written were beautiful.  Eliza Everett was a woman who loved deep, so deep, and she loved me the deepest.  If I’d doubted it before – which I hadn’t – I’d have known for certain then that her love for me flowed through the marrow of her bones.

“I’m scared about opening the box,” I admitted.

She reached over and clutched my hand.  “Everything will be okay, darling.”

With her support, I knew I could face anything, so I touched the gold clasp on the box.  With another tentative breath, I flicked it up.  Now all I had to do was flip the lid and whatever was inside would be exposed.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but the minute my eyes focused on the contents, I burst into tears.

“Oh, love,” mom sighed, leaning across to wrap me in her loving arms.  “Don’t cry,” she soothed me.  When my sobs had receded, Mom took out the picture on top – the one that had me crying.  It was me at about one-year-old, a tuft of blonde locks blowing wild in the wind, held in the arms of a grinning Damon Salt.  My diaper-clad butt sat securely in his arm, my chubby little hands holding his jaw, a huge grin stretched my cheeks.  His free arm was wrapped around a woman who was looking up at us, smiling brightly.  I stared and stared at the picture, unable to believe that was my life.  For all his faults, all his crimes, all his wrongdoings… the love shining in that picture was
blinding.
  And it surprised me more than anything.

“Oh, look at this one,” mom choked out as she handed me a picture of me as a newborn, wrapped in a hospital-issued blanket, held in Sandy’s arms, her beaming smile directed with pride at the camera.

We went through every one of the twenty or so pictures in the box with tears in our eyes and a renewed sense of peace in our hearts.  The final photo was of me, sprawled on Damon’s chest, both of us with our eyes on the television.  ‘101 Dalmatians’ was playing.  I looked happy and relaxed.  Safe and loved.  In not one of the pictures did my eyes show that I was scared, unloved, unhappy, or afraid. 

Checking the bottom of the box, I noticed one last thing.  It wasn’t a photo, but a small, dainty gold bracelet. 
Scarlett
was engraved in swirly script on the top with a tiny diamond right about the ‘S’ in my name.  I clutched it in my hand and imagined myself wearing it when I was a little girl.  In that moment, I wished I could remember something –
anything
– from that time in my life
.

“Are you okay?” Mom asked.

I nodded.  “Yeah, Mom, for the first time in a long time, I can honestly say that I’m okay.” I smiled warmly at her and she enveloped me in a loving hug.

“Are
you
okay?” I asked her.

“As long as I’ve got you, everything is perfect in my world.”

“You’re the best, Mom.”

“It’s the people around us that make us who we are,” she responded sagely. 

“Sounds like Dad and Aden are home,” I mentioned, hearing the door open and close, followed by the men talking about their catches.

Mom smiled and touched her lips to my cheek as Aden and Dad stopped at the bedroom door.  I invited them in and showed them the pictures and the bracelet.  I also let Dad read the letter, since Aden told me he had already read it before he agreed to hand-deliver it to me from Damon.  It was about an hour later that I packed up the box and we made our way out into the living room to wait for Aden’s family to arrive.  I was excited, knowing the kids believed in Santa Claus and the magical spirit of Christmas would be surrounding us all.  I couldn’t wait to see Izzy’s, Miller’s, and Asher’s faces the following morning when they saw the exorbitant amount of gifts that would be waiting for them under the tree.  I knew both my mom and I had gone a little crazy in the buying department, but I wanted to spoil them, so despite Aden shaking his head and sighing every time I returned from a shopping trip with bags and bags of toys and books for his niece and nephews, I did it anyway.

***

“SANTA’S BEEN HERE!” Izzy screeched as she jumped up and down in the living room.  Miller and Asher stumbled into the room, their eyes bleary with sleep, their hair a mess, but when they spotted the gifts under the tree, they were wide awake and ready to get opening. 

Since the kids were only five, four, and two, they had slept in later than the adults.  This meant we were all awake, sipping coffee, anxiously wanting the kids to wake for about an hour before they actually did. 

I watched the kids tear into their presents with wide eyes and huge smile on my face.  I had meticulously wrapped each gift, yet it took them mere seconds to rip open the colorful paper and expose the goods inside.  The room was filled with happy smiles, delighted screams, and cries of joy.  When the kids had finished opening their presents and were contentedly playing with their shiny new toys, the adults exchanged gifts.

“Mom and Dad, this is for you,” I said, as Aden handed Jen her gift.  “You guys need to open them at the same time,” I told them.

“Ooh, I wonder what it is,” Jen said excitedly as she shook the small flat package.

“Open it then, Ma,” Aden encouraged.

Unsure of what to buy them, Aden and I had decided to splurge and send the three of them on an all-expenses paid eighteen-day cruise.

“Oh, my gosh!  This is too much!” Jen cried.  “Hawaii?” she squeaked.  “Six different islands?” she squeaked again in amazed disbelief.

“Jen’s right, you two.  This is too much,” mom agreed.

“It’s done. You’re going.  Enjoy it,” Aden stated.

Dad stood and shook Aden’s hand before bringing him in for a hug.  Then he turned his attention to me and hugged me tight before smacking a kiss on my cheek.  “Love you, kid.”

“Love you, too, Daddy.”  He smiled so softly down at me I thought my father might cry.  He swallowed the emotion down, though, and let mom and Jen fuss over us for a moment before we continued the gift giving. 

By the time every present was opened, the living room looked like the gift-wrapping room at the North Pole had exploded.  It was a marvelous sight and the kids were overjoyed.  Danni and Georgia were discussing how to spend the perfume and clothing gift certificates they had received, when Mom and Jen stood and said they would begin making breakfast.  Dad, Hank, and Mitch began cleaning up the trash, while Aden took my hand and led me to our bedroom.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, thinking I should be helping clean up or prepare breakfast.

“This won’t take long, baby,” he assured me.  He closed the door behind us.  “On the bed,” he stated.

“We’re not having sex under my parents’ roof,” I hissed. 

He chuckled throatily before pushing me gently toward the bed. Sit down, sweetheart.”

I sat down and watched as Aden looked out the window into the yard and then took a deep breath, his large chest expanding with the inhale, before he released it slowly.  His eyes came back to mine and my mouth fell open as he dropped to one knee.

Oh.

My.

God.

His face turned blurry as tears clouded my vision.

“Never thought the day would come when I’d find a woman who I never wanted to spend a moment apart from.  Then, you came into my life and turned me inside out.  Turned my world upside down.  The love I feel for you is a love I never knew existed.  When I think about my future, all I see is you, and it’s the most beautiful sight I’ve ever imagined.  I want you forever, Scarlett.  Want you growing my babies inside you, want you falling asleep every night beside me, and waking up the same way, for the rest of our lives.”

I let out a hitched sob at the sweetest words I had ever heard, and then he topped them when he said, “Marry me, sweetheart.”

With tears streaming down my cheeks and a smile so big my cheeks could split, I laughed out, “Yes!  Yes!  Yes!”

Aden slid a gorgeous –
huge –
diamond on my finger and the tackled me onto the bed, kissing me deeply until I was breathless, yet still smiling like a lunatic. 

“You want to have babies with me?” I asked, delirious with happiness.

He nodded and waggled his brows.  “Want to get started now?”  He pressed his erection into my core and I gasped as pleasure spread through my veins like wildfire.

“So badly,” I whispered.  “Maybe we’ll take a walk later.” I winked.  Aden shifted and I thought he was going to stand up, but then he whipped my pants off my legs before I had a second to protest.

“Aden!” I hissed.  “What are you do –,” my question was cut off as his mouth closed over my pussy as he began to suck.  “Holy shit,” I moaned before grabbing a pillow and crushing it over my face.  He worked me with his tongue and his fingers.  Sucking, licking, nipping, playing my body like an instrument with his mouth, until I was bucking against his face, grinding myself against him, and crying out his name as my release flowed through me.  He licked every last shudder from my body before he slid my pants back up my body and pressed his lips to mine.  I tasted my arousal on him and the flavor ignited the smoldering fire in my stomach. I desperately wanted him to take me there, and then fuck me hard and fast against the wall, or slow and soft on the bed.  Just as I was about to throw caution to the wind, I heard Asher mumbling to himself as he walked down the hall.

Aden groaned and dropped his forehead to mine.  “Tonight,” he said like a promise.

“Tonight,” I agreed softly.

“Come on, let’s go tell the family the good news.”

I beamed and followed him out into the kitchen to share our engagement excitement with our loved ones.