by Emerson Rose
“That’s sad, man. They’re teacups, how can you be too old for teacups?” Tito asks taking a drink of his lemonade.
“They make me feel like puking. I want seafood for dinner, and I don’t need to be sick to my stomach.”
He grunts taking a seat on a bench where I have planted my ass. “You are old. You gonna have dinner at 4:30 and be in bed by 7:00?” he asks chuckling.
“No, I’m eating at 6:00, and I’ll be having sex with my future wife around 9:00 if you want to know.” I lift my leg and rest my ankle on my knee stretching my arms out on the back of the bench behind us.
“Okay, you got me there. When are you popping the question?”
“I’m not sure. I’d do it right now if I didn’t think it would spook her. I don’t want to scare her off by asking too soon.”
“Just ask, she’s crazy about you, and I think she’s a lot stronger than you give her credit for.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, this place got a jewelry store?”
“Probably, they have everything else.”
“Buy her a ring and ask her.”
“I’ll go to Tiffany’s tomorrow, can you keep her busy for a couple of hours?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.”
We sit in silence for a while watching the tourists until Tito speaks. “I can’t believe you’re getting married.”
“I can’t believe I’m at Disney World instead of Europe.” He chuckles.
“Of all the players I know, you were the last one I ever figured would cave and get all domesticated.”
“I guess that goes to show it can happen to anyone then, huh? You better watch out, Mrs. Right could be right around the corner ready to make you fall in love and put a ring on it.” I glance over at his horror-stricken face and throw my head back laughing.
“I guess if he were as bad ass as Sasha, that wouldn’t be all bad,” he says.
“Nobody’s as bad ass as my Sasha. And don’t be getting any ideas, she’s mine.”
“I know man, wrong team, remember?”
“I remember. But, you know if you’d let me fix that nose of yours and give you a little nip here and tuck there, I bet you could find a hot forever guy .”
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to be a pretty boy, and this nose is like a trophy. I had to beat up a lot of assholes to make it look this great.” His nose is strangely great. It’s strong and masculine, and even though it’s crooked as hell, it suits him.
“You’re right. No sense in messing with perfection.”
He sits up straighter and nods his head agreeing proudly.
“We going back to my place soon?”
“Yeah, I’m beat. We can come back tomorrow if they want to.”
“They’re gonna want to, no doubt.”
Sasha and Tori rush toward us laughing and breathless. “I could do that all day,” Tori says. Sasha nods in agreement.
“I think we should head out for now. We can come back tomorrow if you want to.”
“Yes!” they say in unison with equal enthusiasm.
“I could use a swim, how about you?” Sasha asks.
“Sounds good to me.”
“Me, too. Can we go to the ocean? I’m gonna forget how to surf.”
“No, not tonight, but I promise we will drive to the ocean so you can surf before we go home.”
“Drive?” Tori asks. She’s not accustomed to being more than a stone’s throw away from the ocean.
“Yeah, it’s two hours away from here to the gulf and one hour to the Atlantic side,” I explain. “Not everybody is as lucky to live right by the ocean as you, bug.”
“That’s sad.”
“I agree,” Sasha adds.
We walk to the parking lot, shuttle to our car and home where Zion is waiting with dinner on the patio. Sasha was quiet on the ride home, and she excuses herself to go upstairs and shower. I follow.
She pushes the door open to our room. I catch her arm and pull her against me. “Hey, you okay?” I smooth her hair from her face with both hands and kiss her mouth softly.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“You were quiet on the way home, you sure?” She glances away, and I’m sure something’s on her mind.
“I don’t know why, but I keep thinking about Enrique.”
“Babe, you watched your ex-husband get killed. That kind of thing doesn’t just go away. Maybe you should see a therapist when we get home?” I cup her cheek and move her eyes back to mine.
“That’s another thing… home. What’s going to happen when we go back to California? Zion is back to work, and Enrique’s gone. There’s no need for me to be hiding out at your house anymore.”
I’m confused. I thought we had this all cleared up before we started hiding out, but I was wrong. “Sasha, you don’t have to be hiding out to live with me. I love you. We are a couple. You’ll come home, and we will pick up where we left off except you won’t be looking over your shoulder all the time.”
“I can’t just live there without a job. I’d feel like a freeloader.”
I guide her backward to the bed and sit her on the edge kneeling between her knees. “Okay, I’m going to try to make this as clear as possible for you. I want you in our lives, not as a nanny, not part-time, not as an employee, but as my wife and a mother to Tori. I was going to wait until I had a ring to do this, but I think it’s the only way I can make you understand how much I love and want you in my life.” Her mouth falls open, and I scoot back still on my knees taking her hands in mine.
“Sasha Liana Rivers, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She releases a breath with a strangled cry of what I hope is joy and slides off the bed into my arms crying. “Yes, yes, yes,” she repeats against my ear.
My heart expands, and I breathe a sigh of relief that her insecurities didn’t keep her from accepting my proposal. I know she believes we are too different, that we come from different worlds, but the truth is none of that matters at all. What matters is she makes my heart beat faster every time I see her. My spirit soars when I’m with her. She makes me laugh, and she loves my daughter like she’s her own. That’s what life is all about. It’s not about important college degrees, the balance in your bank account, or how perfect your nose is. It’s about love.
Sometimes all you need is love.
Epilogue
Xander
Five years later.
I slide my cock in one last time with a powerful thrust that makes my wife grip the countertop so hard her fingers turn white. Her back arches, and she cries out when we climax. I dig my fingers into her hips and feel her walls pulsing around me.
I lean down over her slick back and whisper in her ear, “If that didn’t do it, I don’t know what will.”
I feel her smile against my cheek. “I’m feeling especially lucky today.”
“So, can I call your mother and tell her we’re expecting?” I ask pulling her up off the counter and sliding out so I can turn her around and look into her beautiful silver-blue eyes.
“Um, I said I’m feeling lucky, not psychic. If you do that, you know she’ll be on the next flight out here to live with us until the baby’s born just like she did with Bellamy.”
I lift her up onto the counter and settle between her legs. “True, she was pretty excited, wasn’t she?”
“I think fanatical is more like it, but it’s been three years, maybe she will be more chill this time around.”
“Maybe. Do you think it’s a boy?”
“Sure, if we are imagining that I am already pregnant, like one minute along, then why not have it be a boy?”
“I want a boy. I mean, I’ll be happy with another girl, of course, as long as she’s healthy, but a boy…”
“Okay now, how about we come back down to earth, Dr. Sullivan? The kids will be home from school soon, and Zion’s check-up only takes a few minutes, so she will be here soon, too.”
“It’s so nice to h
ave the house to ourselves for a while. I wish we could go skinny dipping.”
She pats my chest. “Maybe next time,” she says like the mother she is.
“You have to stop doing that.”
“What?”
“Talking to me in your mommy voice after sex.”
Her body shakes with laughter, and I smile. There is nothing in this world I’ve ever wanted more than to make this woman happy. Over the past five years, I have done little else.
“I love you, you know?”
“I do. I love you, too, but…”
“But, we have to put clothes on and act like adults, right?”
“Yes. I have to be at the restaurant in an hour, and you’re on Daddy duty tonight so Zion can play cards with her friends.”
Sasha took some college business courses and opened her own restaurant two years ago, and it’s the talk of the town. Anybody who is anybody wants to be seen at Sasha’s, and food critics regularly hang out and rave about her new dishes. She’s never, not once, had a bad review. Sasha’s has something for everyone, but my favorite is still the chicken tacos.
“Anything special going on tonight?”
“Oh, you know, Anthony Bourdain is stopping by for dinner, no big deal,” she says flipping her hair over her shoulder.”
“What? Wow, seriously? I’m surprised you’re not upstairs trying on every dress you own.”
“Why would I be doing that when I have the opportunity to be home alone with my sexy husband?”
I lift one side of my mouth with a smirk. “Good answer, Mrs. Sullivan, good answer.” I push my cock against her, and she wags her finger in my face.
“No time. I’ll take care of that again later,” she says looking at my growing cock between us. “Although, I think I’m pregnant so if you’re tired of trying…”
“No! Never. I will never get tired of trying, even when you’re nine months pregnant and ready to pop.”
“Yes, I remember that well. Pregnancy doesn’t turn you off at all.” She kisses my nose and slides down to the floor. “Could you grab some Clorox wipes? I don’t want Zion to find an ass mark on the counter.”
“Your wish is my command, my love.” I slap her beautiful ebony ass when she turns to leave, and I watch her all the way up the stairs until she disappears down the hall.
Sometimes you get the best happily ever after imaginable.
This is one of those times.
The End
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Commanding Officer
By
Emerson Rose
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Description
Some rules are meant to be broken. Major Drake Valentine is one of those rules.
Just when I’m on the verge of having it all—I lose everything. Three years of waitressing and singing my heart out in audition hall after audition hall were flushed down the drain thanks to a wild New York night I can’t remember and one humiliating viral video.
Feeling like a failure and drowning in shame, I leave the city and move back home to Jewel Falls, North Carolina to live with my older brother until I can get back on my feet.
Our arrangement is simple—I can stay with him as long as I abide by his one rule at all times.
His one rule?
Stay away from his best friend and next door neighbor, Drake.
Easy enough. Dating’s the last thing on my mind, and I’d rather lay low for a while.
But then I meet the dominant and alluring United States Marine. And while I know he’s off-limits, I just can’t help but to wonder how his hands would feel in my hair, how his full lips would taste against mine.
Drake is commanding and guarded, but his heart isn’t the only thing he’s trying to protect. Major Drake Valentine has a secret. And there’s only a matter of time before his secret—and our budding relationship—is exposed.
And only then will I know the true reason my brother insisted I stay away from his best friend.
Chapter 1
Tiana
I make one mistake in twenty-five years and it ends up plastered all over the Internet. Well, I’ve probably made more than one mistake, but not one this devastating.
It’s Saturday morning and my bedroom is trashed. A multitude of potential clubbing outfits are tossed here and there, my makeup is strewn all over my vanity table and empty shot glasses pepper the dresser and nightstand next to my bed.
This was a bad morning, followed by an even worse night. Being chosen to sing on the world-renowned TV show Just Sing prompted a night of celebrating with my best friend and roommate, Suki. We didn’t wait until we got to the club. We started drinking while we dressed, styled our hair, and applied our makeup. We were well on our way to being inebriated before we even left the apartment.
New York city has been my home for the past three years. I moved here to get away from my overprotective Marine brother, Jayden. I love him to death but he was smothering my dreams of becoming a star.
I took off right after college and thought I would land in the Big Apple, have a couple auditions, get a great job, a recording deal, and be on my way to superstardom.
I was naive and dumb, but after all this time, my dreams feel like a possibility.
I auditioned for the show a month ago. After seeing the competition, I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of being chosen. Suki auditioned too, she’s an actress but she says she’s willing to take the long way around by singing if necessary.
I felt guilty when I opened the letter of acceptance. I shrieked and hugged Suki before even thinking about if she had received one as well.
She hadn’t. We auditioned on different days and I made sure to remind her of that, but another week went by and still no letter came for her. She was a good sport about it; she was genuinely happy for me which is more so than I would have been I’m afraid. She’s a good friend.
Suki and I met the first week I moved to the city. She was working at a nightclub called The Aquarium across the street from my seventh-floor walk-up apartment. I went for a drink on a Saturday night and she was my waitress. We got to talking and bam, I had a job as a cocktail waitress the next weekend.
I didn’t plan to work there for long, but a couple of weeks turned into months and months turned into years. A million auditions later, I was almost ready to give up when a custo
mer heard me singing to myself while I was cleaning up behind the bar after last call.
He was dressed to the nines in an Armani suit that probably cost as much as I make in a year, maybe two. He told me I had a unique voice and pressed a business card into my hand before he left.
I was skeptical but I figured, why not? What’s one more audition?
I had recently enrolled in beauty school after years of my brother telling me I needed to get a real job. As if being on my feet ten hours a night wasn’t real enough.
The idea of standing in one spot with my hands in someone’s hair all day long was not appealing but the pay was a step up from waitressing and according to him, it’s a profession. Jayden wants me to be able to say I’m anything other than a waitress wannabe singer, even if I’m miserable while doing it.
I shelved being a beauty school dropout right away when I opened my acceptance letter from Just Sing. But now lying in bed the morning after watching a video of myself doing things I would never have done under normal, sober circumstances. I’m thinking I might have to dust off that plan and grab my scissors after all.
I open my eyes just a slit, enough to see the mess I’m going to have to clean up later with this head-pounding hangover. Suki pads across the room and I feel the mattress dip next to me but I don’t move.
“Are you okay?”
I moan and turn onto my side into the fetal position. I cringe when I think of the video Suki just showed me from Facebook. I was dancing on the bar of one of the most famous nightclubs in the city nearly naked and sandwiched between two beefy, sweaty men. They were grinding against me and their hands and mouths were everywhere. Bile rises in my throat, but I manage to swallow it back down.
A shiver races up my spine at the thought of their hands on my breasts and their mouths on my skin, but it’s more than just that.