Octavia glanced over at Jonathon, who was watching her with smoldering eyes. A chill fled down her skin as she held his gaze. “So, I did, and when Ayana showed up on my porch, I invited her to go to therapy with her grandmother’s blessing.” Octavia eyed everyone in the room.
“Honey, why didn’t you tell us?” Samiyah asked.
“That’s why you woke up screaming that night,” Selena said solemnly. “All this time, you never said anything.”
Octavia reached for a glass of water and took a sip. “I don’t care to talk about it. I didn’t even talk to my best friend about it. Not because I didn’t trust him, or want him to know but…” Octavia’s words trailed off. “More so because I didn’t want to be a burden.”
“Octavia…” Jonathon said, finally deciding to speak.
Hearing his voice was like having ice cream on a summer day. Exhilarating and satisfying. Octavia took her gaze back to him.
“Jonathon,” Octavia said, “I never meant to push you away.” Her eyes glazed with tears that didn’t fall immediately. “I want you to know that I never invited Steven over. It was a telephone conversation. Regardless, I know what kind of guy he is, and I wouldn’t put him or anyone else before you.” Octavia’s eyes dropped, and she wrestled with her next words. “I… I love you, and I’m sorry.” Tears streamed down her face, and the floorboard scraped as Jonathon pushed back his chair to stand. He rounded the table and made it to Octavia in two seconds. Bending down, Jonathon wrapped her up and pulled her out of the chair into a sealed embrace.
With the pad of his thumb, Jonathon wiped the tears from her face as he gazed into her stained eyes. “You love me, Octavia?” he asked.
Octavia’s heart beat rigorously against her breastbone. “Yes. I have for a long time.”
Jonathon sank his warm lips into hers, and their mouths savored the taste of their probing tongues. With warm moist lips, they tasted, licked and sucked on each other. Affectionately, tenderly and lubricated. Something like a growl thundered from Jonathon as he pulled Octavia so close their hearts were practically one, beating with the same rhythm. Octavia moaned into his mouth as her arms coiled around Jonathon’s neck. A fire raged in them both, out of control and filled with lava.
“Dayum!” Selena said, then quickly slapped a hand over her mouth as she apologized to Norma and the others with a pleading look.
“Son,” Christopher said, feeling like he needed to intervene before Jonathon made love to Octavia in front of them all.
Pulling away from her took pure cock-strong strength. His hands glided to her face as he tore their mouths apart. With labored breaths, Octavia and Jonathon stared at each other.
“I’m sorry,” Octavia chanted in a hushed whisper. “Please forgive me for pushing you.”
“Ssssh,” Jonathon cooed. Hugging her tightly, Jonathon pressed his lips against the side of her face, ear, and neck. He could smell her mango scent and having Octavia in his arms again had Jonathon’s heartbeat racing at an all-time high. She felt so right that it was hard for him to pull away. But he had to in order to say what he needed to.
Looking into her tear-stained eyes, Jonathon spoke: “I should’ve been there for you. Somehow, I got my priorities mixed up and it cost me.” He brushed his lips against her forehead, needing to inhale her once again. “Octavia, being apart from you almost drove me crazy, girl. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want to experience that again.”
“Me either,” she confessed.
“Let’s promise each other from here on out that we won’t rise to anger so quickly and instead we’ll talk things through.”
Octavia nodded as more tears slipped down her face.
“Sweetheart, I can’t take your tears,” he said, grabbing tissue from Norma as she’d manifested a box of Kleenex out of nowhere. Gently, Jonathon dabbed at Octavia’s face. “I have something that belongs to you,” Jonathon said, reaching into his pocket. The red box he produced made Octavia’s heart rock even harder if that were humanly possible. “With my brother’s blessing, my father gifted me my mother’s ring.” Jonathon popped the box, and everyone in the room gasped, including Octavia. A hand flew to her mouth and more tears streamed down her face. “He told me when I found the woman I wanted to marry, to make sure she understood the significance of such an important piece of jewelry and what it would symbolize in our life.”
Jonathon’s smoldering gaze ripped through Octavia as she fought to stop her tears to no avail.
“I know more than anything that woman is you. I love you with my whole heart, baby, so I’ve gotta ask. O, will you make me the happiest man on earth and spend a lifetime with me?”
Tears fell so fast Octavia couldn’t get her words together. She trembled as she nodded so vigorously that she was spinning. “Yes, Jonathon, baby, I’ll marry you.”
A mischievous smile crept along Jonathon’s lips. “I don’t want to wait, Octavia. I want you as my wife, right now. Will you marry me right now, baby?”
Octavia’s eyes rose in shock. “Right here?” she asked, looking around. Just then, the dim lighting on the deck illuminated as the backyard lit up in an array of Christmas lights that were wrapped around the house. Another gasp fled from Octavia as she took in the design of a makeshift wedding display. The yard stretched into a beautiful grove, where red and black chairs sat with roses outlining a walkway. At the end of it, a tall metal arch glowed from more lights that wrapped around it. Octavia looked back to Jonathon with her mouth hanging open.
“When did you have time to do this?” she gaped.
“Let’s just say, I’ve been at it all week. You didn’t think I’d spend Thanksgiving without you, did you?”
More tears sprang from her eyes, and Octavia shifted to look at Selena.
“You were in on this?”
With tears in her eyes, Selena nodded. “He sent me after you, girl.” Selena fanned her face. “You guys deserve each other.” That sent more tears down both of their faces.
“We would love to fill the open position you have and become your family,” Jaden said.
“Yeah,” Jonas said. “Consider us your brothers.”
Desiree lifted a hand, “And we your sisters!” she squealed, and they all laughed as Christopher approached Octavia.
“And I, your father.”
Octavia watched them all with a chorus of tears falling down her face. Turning back to Jonathon, Octavia continued to sob.
“So how about it, O, can we start forever right now?”
“Oh my God, Jonathon,” Octavia cried. “Yes, baby, yes!” she shouted with happiness.
The deck erupted with applause and whistles and boisterous stomping. Octavia through her arms around Jonathon, sinking her face into his chest as she cried. Jonathon kissed the side of her head and lifted Octavia off her feet. In a daze he walked down the deck of the steps into the yard headed straight for the altar. Waiting for them, a pastor stood with a smile. Following in tow, the family made their way to the seats that were prepared for their witnessing of Jonathon and Octavia’s matrimony.
Standing under the arch, Jonathon slowly sat Octavia to her feet, and his body scorched as her warm skin slipped down him. As they spoke their vows, the couple kept their gazes locked as a happiness unlike anything either of them ever felt wafted around them like a warm blanket.
The kiss was a capturing rapture of heat as Jonathon stole Octavia’s lips, sealing them together for all time. Swiftly, Jonathon swept her off her feet and walked purposefully to the guest house across the yard. Without breaking their kiss, Jonathon strolled through the house over a rose pedaled decorated hallway into a master bedroom. They couldn’t get out of their clothes fast enough. They pulled and tugged at one another, basking in the taste of their mouths, shoulders, and breasts. Once they were naked, Jonathon lifted Octavia in his arms, and his bobbing penis impaled her, sending his name in a coiling shout from her mouth.
With a grip on her thighs, Jonathon moved in and out of her, sen
ding pleasurable waves of quakes rocking through her core.
“Oh my God, Jonathon!”
Jonathon drove into her, pumping so furiously that they were sure to be sealed together. “I love you,” he said, stealing her mouth with his. Jonathon never gave Octavia a chance to respond as he branded himself inside her with a molded passion.
“Love you… love you… love you…” he whispered as they sailed from one heart-stomping orgasm to the next.
The End
Enjoying the Falling for a Rose Series? Grab the next installment which follows Adeline and Martha as they fight over who will win Christopher Lee Rose’s heart in this holiday special edition, She Said Yes!
Hey reading family, wow another wild ride with the Rose brothers! I hope you’re fanning the flames like I am writing their stories, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If so, take a moment and leave a review on Amazon. Check the next page for other books and get an exclusive teaser not found in stores when you subscribe to my newsletter!
XOXO - Stephanie
More Books by Stephanie Nicole Norris
Contemporary Romance
Everything I Always Wanted (A Friends to Lovers Romance)
Safe With Me (Falling for a Rose Book One)
Enough (Falling for a Rose Book Two)
Only If You Dare (Falling for a Rose Book Three)
Fever (Falling for a Rose Book Four)
A Lifetime With You (Falling for a Rose Book Five)
She said Yes (Falling for a Rose Holiday Edition Book Six)
Mine (Falling for a Rose Book Seven)
Romantic Suspense Thrillers
Beautiful Assassin
Beautiful Assassin 2 Revelations
Mistaken Identity
Trouble In Paradise
Vengeful Intentions (Trouble In Paradise 2)
For Better and Worse (Trouble In Paradise 3)
Until My Last Breath (Trouble In Paradise 4)
Christian Romantic Suspense
Broken
Reckless Reloaded
Crime Fiction
Prowl
Prowl 2
Hidden (Coming Soon)
Fantasy
Golden (Rapunzel’s F’d Up Fairytale)
Non-Fiction
Against All Odds (Surviving the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) *Non-Fiction
About the Author
Stephanie Nicole Norris is an author from Chattanooga Tennessee with a humble beginning. She was raised with six siblings by her mother Jessica Ward. Always being a lover of reading, during Stephanie’s teenage years her joy was running to the bookmobile to read stories by R. L. Stine.
After becoming a young adult, her love for romance sparked leaving her captivated by heroes and heroines alike. With a big imagination and a creative heart, Stephanie penned her first novel Trouble In Paradise and self-published it in 2012. Her debut novel turned into a four book series full of romance, drama, and suspense. As a prolific writer, Stephanie’s catalog continues to grow. Her books can be found on Amazon dot com. Stephanie is inspired by the likes of Donna Hill, Eric Jerome Dickey, Jackie Collins, and more. She currently resides in Tennessee with her husband and two-year-old son.
https://stephanienicolenorris.com/
A Lifetime With You (Falling For A Rose Book 5) Page 19