by Jackson Kane
“Jump on him, Romeo, he deserves it.” I locked the door to my apartment behind Trisha. It had been an extremely long night. Day? Time seemed to lose its meaning.
The police were finally gone and there was nothing left to do until the lawyers called us. Between everything that happened with Dad and quitting the film, it was time to finally relax and recover from the crazy last few days.
I was beyond exhausted.
“I leave him in your care for less than a day and you've turned him into an attack dog.” Bastien shot me a half smile and a knowing look.
Attack dog, hardly. Romeo was stretched out on his back soaking up as many of Bastien’s tummy-rubs as he could.
Leave it to Bastien to be so casual about thirty-seven stitches, three cracked ribs and enough bruising to make an overripe banana jealous.
The built-in apartment phone rang, startling me.
I looked at it dumbfounded for a few seconds, how were people calling me on that?
I didn't even know I had a landline, let alone what the number was. I guess that's how crazy the media was getting over what happened with us last night. I guess it wasn't that surprising, really.
They were just as bloodthirsty as any illegal fighting crowd, probably even more so. Bastien and I had just turned our phones off, we both knew what was coming and neither of us wanted to deal with it.
“Alright, Romeo, let Bastien get some rest. Doctor's orders.” I extended my hand to lead Bastien to the bedroom.
The doctor also ran a few blood tests on Bastien, just in case. Who knows what kind of diseases he could have been exposed to in that filthy place? Miraculously, they all came back negative. He was completely clean!
Aside from looking like he’d been hit by a truck, he was in great shape.
“You're that eager to get me into bed, aren't you?” He groaned with exertion from climbing the stairs.
It was truly amazing how tough Bastien was. I couldn't even begin to imagine how anyone could survive what he put himself through. I closed the bedroom door behind us to keep Romeo from jumping on Bastien while he slept.
“In the shape you're in?” The thought of him fighting back against all odds, all coiled muscles and testosterone, although scary, was incredibly hot. “You couldn't handle me.”
“That so?” His eyes flashed as if I'd issued him a challenge. Bastien peeled off his shirt.
His hard body was a patchwork of tattoos and bandages. The sight of him half naked had heat climbing up my scalp. Even like this he was gorgeous. He balled up the stained and useless shirt, and tossed it across the room. Then he grabbed me and pulled me onto the bed with him.
“Stop it. I don't want to hurt you!” I protested, but he wasn't hearing it. He flipped me onto my back and rolled on top of me. If he was as hurt as he looked he didn't show it.
“I can take it.” The concept of me being able to hurt him, made him smile. “I can take everything you got.”
“You still don't deserve me, you know.” I teased.
“I know exactly what you deserve.” He bit my ear, his hot breath made me shiver.
“And what's that?” Suddenly my heart pounded, all my built-up exhaustion drained away. Bastien's hand slid under my ass and squeezed, as he worked his mouth down my neck. I moaned what I hoped were words. “What do I deserve?”
“A girl as famous as you?” His hand tucked up under my shirt and cupped my breast over my bra. His fingers traced my nipple through the thick fabric, then pinched it. The pressure made me squirm with arousal. “You need a hard cock to make you scream until your voice gives out.”
“Fuck.” I didn't swear often, but Bastien seemed to always find something primal in me and tear it out. He made it harder and harder to think when he talked like that and touched me. How had I been able to resist this so long?
Bastien slipped my bra out of the way so he could be as rough as we both wanted him to be. My body began to ache when I felt his cock fill out the inner thigh of his jeans. His tongue found my nipples, then his teeth. The slight pain flooded my senses, washing away my exhaustion and thrilling me.
“I have six years of getting you off to make up for.” He sat back, trapping my legs and grabbing my waistband. Bastien grunted from the wounds he'd suffered, but that didn't stop him. His strong arms flexed, easily tearing the front of my pants open all the way down to the crotch. More ruined clothes, I thought with twisted pleasure. I hope he destroyed all my clothes this way. “Six years of feeling you come against my cock.”
“You better get started then.” I popped the button and worked down his zipper. My brain was so drowned with lust, he had barely touched me and I was already climbing the edge of an orgasm. I pulled out his massive cock with a slight moan and worked my hands over it.
“I've dreamt about that wet pussy of yours.” Fingers slid between both pairs of my lips, I sucked and crushed them. They curled in my pussy, like only he could do. “I can't even tell you how many times I've jerked off to the thought of looking down and seeing you wrapped around my cock.”
“Fuck me, Bastien.” I couldn't stand it anymore, I felt like my limbs were all going to shoot off. I needed him to touch me, to feel all of him inside me. I needed him to fuck me.
“Where's your condoms?” He asked.
I sighed angrily. We'd run out and I forgot to pick up more!
“You're lucky I love the way you taste.” Bastien slid off the bed carefully and pulled my pants and panties off. He went to go down on me when I stopped him.
“Not this time.” I grabbed his cock, slipping his fat head into my mouth. When I heard a low moan, I stopped and looked up at him. “Is this what you dreamt of?” I switched positions and laid on my back before him, bent legs hanging off the bed. I glided his cock over my wet clit. “Or was it this?”
“This is your one chance to stop me.” Bastien groaned, warning me. The tip of his cock hovered threateningly, glistening with pre-come. “Otherwise, you're along for the whole ride. And I'm going to fuck you raw.”
I knew I wasn't thinking straight, but I didn't care anymore. Whatever happened after this, I knew he'd be around for. To hell with the media and my father. We won. We deserved this. Fuck everyone who thought otherwise.
I bucked toward his throbbing cock. He cracked the mischievous smile I'd come to find intoxicating and gave me a look that said, 'you asked for it.’ Bastien let out a low guttural growl as he pushed into me.
I closed my eyes and traced the lights bursting behind my mind. It was amazing how different that thin layer of latex made sex feel. I felt every ridge and vein of his cock as he pumped into me.
He grabbed my thighs and roughly pulled them into him. The angle got him so much deeper inside of me. I tried to call out, but I couldn't pull in enough air to make any noises that weren’t moans and squeaks. He felt amazing.
I screamed and came hard, but he wouldn't stop.
Six years worth of orgasms and I could barely survive a single one. Bastien's cock was going to be the death of me, but I couldn't think of a better way to die. So many half thoughts rattled around my head, but the only thing that came out, over and over again, was one word: “More.”
And that was exactly what he gave me.
I lightly rubbed my clit, letting the waves of pleasure crash over me like the tide. I've never come more than once during sex with any of my other boyfriends, sometimes not even once. I didn't even think it was possible for a man to give me more than one. But with Bastien... I came so many times that my voice was hoarse from screaming.
“Come for me,” I moaned. My brain was mush and my body was wrecked from so much pleasure. I never wanted to leave this bed ever again.
Bastien slumped forward over top of me, on the edge. He was breathing heavy and went to pull out, but I stopped him. I wanted all of him. His cock exploded inside of me, warm seed filling me up, body and soul.
“Bastien, your shoulder—” I looked up at a trickle of blood. The exertion popped a few of his stitc
hes, I felt terrible. What was I thinking? If nothing else, I should've been on top!
Bastien, panting and dripping with sweat, glanced at the wound and chuckled. He hadn't even noticed. “It's just a little blood.”
He wiped the blood away, then placed my hand over the tattoo on his chest— my heart pendant. I loved that a part of me was tattooed on his skin.
He leaned down and kissed me.
I cleaned us both up and laid down next to him. We were both tired, filthy and beat up. I hugged him tightly as we finally drifted off to sleep.
He wasn't Bash and I wasn't Olivia, we were just two lovers that had found our happy ending. The whole world outside might hate me, but right here and now, this room was my world.
And it was full of only love.
My Bastien finally came home to me.
Epilogue
Two and a half years later
Bastien
“I still can't believe you're real sometimes.” I picked up my two-year-old daughter, Aleesa, and held her out at arms length, looking her over.
It'd been about three years since I came back to be Olivia's bodyguard, and knowing that we made this little monster together still blew my fucking mind.
Sometimes I had to just look at her, to convince myself that she was real.
Aleesa had my black hair and big nose, unfortunately, but she had her mother's piercing blue eyes and beautiful face. I couldn't help but smile whenever I saw her cause a little trouble. It drove Olivia nuts...
Which made me smile more.
“Oh thank God!” Trisha rounded the backstage corner of the theatre. She placed a hand over her chest in relief. “She certainly takes after you, running off halfcocked like that. Aleesa nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“She's just keeping you on your toes, grandma.” I smiled as my mother eyed me. She was still as graceful as she'd always been, but with Delvin now in prison, some of that fire had returned to her eyes. They were as pretty as I’d remembered.
“Mommy,” Aleesa excitedly exclaimed, seeing Olivia on the stage behind me. I pulled her close and made all the right noises to quiet her during Olivia's rehearsal. Olivia was almost done for the day so I figured we'd all surprise her for dinner.
“Are you sure we can be here?” Trisha side stepped some of the bustling human traffic. “I'd hate to get kicked out of a Broadway show.”
“I'd love to see them try.” Olivia was their show's lead actress at the Palace Theatre in one of their biggest plays. They weren't going to kick her family out of a rehearsal.
Now that we had Aleesa it was impossible to go to all of Olivia's rehearsals, but I still never missed one of her actual shows.
I turned and watched Olivia flit around the stage, hitting her marks and delivering her lines with crisp perfection. It was hard not to fall in love with her every time I watched her perform. She radiated talent and passion like she had when I watched her in high school. She seemed so much happier now that she was done with film. Stage acting had always been her real passion anyway; Delvin just forced her to do otherwise.
Olivia had overcome a lot to get to where she was now—the hottest new talent in the theatre world. Between the viral video of Olivia kissing her bodyguard in an illegal underground fight and the news of Delvin's arrest and eventual conviction, the media wasn't too kind to the Ward legacy.
The craziest thing was how fast it all went away.
For two whole months, Olivia was crucified in every major outlet, then it all disappeared. The news moved on to the next scandal, then the one after that.
Weirdly, Olivia began getting this cult following that loved her new bad girl image.
In the end, it actually helped solidify Olivia as the 'Broadway Bad Girl.’ She wasn't cinema's young adult sweetheart anymore. Her hair was no longer dyed, but the side of her head was shaved for her current roll as a villain.
Her fan base changed completely, but the new edge in her image allowed her to audition for all the roles she always wanted to play.
I guess it was true that there was no such thing as bad publicity.
We never could find out much about John Warwick aside from the affair he had with Olivia’s mother. He was always a secretive guy even when I was with him. He seemed to keep the world at arm’s length. It was something I understood far too well. Knowing that in the end he died alone, ultimately unknown by those closest to him, really hit home for me.
If it wasn’t for Olive, that could’ve been me too.
It scared me and made me incredibly grateful all at the same time. She saved me in so many ways that I might never be able to articulate.
But at least I’d have the rest of our lives to try.
“Down!” Aleesa declared, wriggling impatiently in my arms. Even at two years old, the little monster had me wrapped around her finger. Despite being an undefeated fighter, Olivia was the one to lay down the law for Aleesa.
I'd save my menacing scowls for the boys Aleesa brought home when she was older.
“Bastien, grab her!” Trisha reached out toward Aleesa and shouted. Aleesa ducked between my legs, then beelined out on stage to her mother.
Olivia
“Mommy!” The most adorable voice in the world caught me by surprise. I pivoted and saw my beautiful daughter barreling straight for me.
Aleesa tripped over her own feet and flopped onto her stomach like a sack of potatoes. She had inherited my grace, that's for sure. Aleesa was already crying when I scooped her up. She calmed down when she realized she wasn't actually hurt.
“You ok, Monster?” I asked Aleesa. She didn't answer. She just squished me as hard as she could. I never thought I could love anything as much as I loved Bastien, but I was wrong.
He still came in at a very close second.
I told the rest of the cast that it was a wrap. I'd kept them all there too long as it was and the scene was already starting to take shape, so we were looking good for our opening in a few weeks.
I looked past Aleesa to Trisha, who mouthed that she was so sorry. Bastien wore an amused smirk and casually shrugged. I shook my head at him, but was secretly glad that despite a few hard years some things never changed.
Delvin’s career and legacy were both destroyed by the spectacle of his sentencing. I couldn’t think about that without feeling a pang of regret. I didn’t regret what happened to him of course. He was a horrible person and deserved what he got. I regretted not knowing that I had another father out there, a real father, until it was too late.
Olivia Warwick.
After countless months searching through records and talking to known acquaintances of John Warwick I still never got a good sense of who he was. He seemed every bit as elusive as the media made him out to be. While searching one of his offices I came across a hair of his and had a DNA test done. The test confirmed that I was indeed his daughter.
I couldn’t imagine not knowing I had a daughter for eighteen years…
Maybe she was too afraid of what her husband might do, but I got the impression that Mom never told John that she was pregnant with his child. I had no idea how he found out, but the man was a billionaire after all. There probably wasn’t much he couldn’t find out if he wanted to.
If Mom had survived my birth and ran off with John I might’ve never met Bastien or had Aleesa. The regret of a life that could’ve been never lasted too long though, and for as hard as it was to have the Ward name growing up I was glad I had it.
All things change and in the end, Bastien was right. I looked down at the tattoo that ringed my finger. Giving up the Ward name lifted a massive weight from my shoulders. I carved my own path now.
I'd always be thankful to Bastien for that.
Traditional wedding bands couldn't ever be worn on stage, so it made sense to get something that could always be covered with makeup, but never taken off. It might be hidden, but it was always there, like the tattoo of my pendant on Bastien's chest.
I loved the idea that the symbol of our lo
ve could never be lost or stolen.
So many other things had changed in the past few years with me and my career, but surprisingly it was Bastien that changed the most.
He donated all the money he’d received from John Warwick. It was the biggest donation from a single person in history, not that Bastien accepted any of the credit despite him being the one to go through with it.
For a little while, giving up all that money made me extremely nervous, especially because technically it was my inheritance. I didn’t hold it against Bastien. He was only honoring John’s last wishes. Besides once I saw how much good that money was going to do in the charities that Warwick had picked out I knew in my heart that it would’ve been wrong to keep any of it for ourselves.
When all the bills and debt started to stack up, I was ashamed to say that my previous convictions wavered a bit. I’d just found out that I was pregnant and my film career was over. The future looked really difficult for us.
Bastien always had faith I’d bounce back and that we’d be ok.
To make ends meet he jumped right back into the fighting world, but this time as a coach for a small gym in Manhattan. He never got back into the ring as a combatant, but his experiences gave him an infamous reputation, and soon he was the go-to trainer for all the best up and coming MMA fighters.
I’d drop in occasionally for lunch to see him and his students. Bastien was a surprisingly patient teacher!
Aleesa was exhausted. By the time I made it back stage, she was almost asleep.
“You want me to take her?” Bastien asked, holding his hands out.
“Nope, she’s all mine.” I turned my back jokingly, then kissed my husband. He wrapped an arm around me and we watched Aleesa doze off.
“Who needs an Oscar, when you have an Aleesa?” Bastien whispered in my ear.
It was a corny joke, but he was right.
All the crazy events that tore us apart, then brought us back together, culminated in this one toddler. Aleesa was living, breathing proof of what unrelenting love could accomplish.