by M. O. Kenyan
Twenty? Reno realized that DJ and Rhyne were the same age and that meant Dennis senior was seeing both his mother and Issadora at the same time. He was probably married to Issadora when he got Kono pregnant the second time. “When is your birthday?”
“February second, why? Do you want to get me a present?” he teased.
But Reno could not share his amusement. His chest constricted as he realized that his father was a double dealing bastard. Rhyne’s birthday was also on the second of February and the only thing left for him to ask to cement this revelation, was the time he was born. It wouldn’t have shocked him if they were born at the same time too. He bit back an oath as he tried to rein his anger in. He was about to stand up and leave when he spotted Daniela heading his way, tagging a teenage boy in shorts and a T-shirt behind her.
“Here comes prissy princess and her meathead,” DJ groaned.
“I am going to teach you a lesson on how to handle girls. Even if they are related to you, they still fall under the same principle,” Reno whispered.
He got to his feet to greet the boy, introduced to him as Brian, and urged DJ to do the same. Reno invited Brian to sit with them and he listened to Daniela talk about their relationship. It was then he realized his little sister wasn’t that different from Lisette. She chatted on as Brian sat quietly twiddling his thumbs. Reno sent Daniela away for a while and waited to see if Brian would reclaim his voice.
“She’s pretty determined isn’t she?” Brian said.
“That she is,” DJ scoffed.
“So tell us about your relationship with Daniela.” Reno reminded himself not to call Daniela his little sister.
“I love her, but I don’t want her to sacrifice her dreams for me. I already got a couple of scholarship offers but I am afraid to tell her. I don’t want her to get mad or anything. I wouldn’t mind her coming with me, but I want to go pro—”
“And you want to focus on your football and your girlfriend might get in the way?” Reno finished. He could understand his plight. He wanted to ruin Dennis Senior but Lisette had been in the way since the beginning. If he blindly went forward with outing Dennis as the creep he was, he risked losing Lisette.
“I just don’t want to lose her, or make her feel like I don’t appreciate her. I don’t think she will understand if I tell her I need to practice instead of hanging out with her.”
Reno nodded in agreement.
“So what do you think?” Daniela appeared from nowhere, the squeal in her voice an octave higher than it should be.
“I like him, he’s a good guy,” Reno said and shot DJ a look that asked him to back him up.
“I agree, great guy. He’s got a bright future.” DJ cleared his throat and went on. “The two of you should do what is best for each other, when it comes to this college thing.”
Reno brought his hands to his ears when Daniela squealed once more. He watched as the football player was dragged around by his tiny sister.
“Your trick is to be agreeable?”
“Yep, if you don’t resist and put up a fight, sooner rather than later they will come to their senses. It’s the forbidden fruit trick.”
“Did you do that with Lisette?”
“No, I always do what Lisette tells me. It’s much safer.” Reno smiled as he watched his brother laugh at him. Somehow these few moments with his siblings made up for the years they were apart, and softened the disappearance of Rhyne.
* * * *
“Where is your family, Reno?” Rosalinda asked.
Reno was taken aback by the question. He chanced a glance at Dennis and they locked gazes. They are here. He wanted to shout, but he didn’t. Instead he decided to tell the truth and watch Dennis squirm when reality slapped him in the face. “My mother died a few months ago, my sister disappeared when she was two. Actually she was the same age as DJ and they even have the same birthday.” He watched as Dennis tugged on his polo collar. “My father abandoned us when I was six and my sister was two. I have been alone ever since then.”
He heard Daniela say, “That’s so sad.”
“I’m strong because of it.” Reno gave her a reassuring smile.
“If you want I can talk mum into dropping DJ off at an orphanage and you could be my new big brother.”
“I’m too old to be a ward of the state, princess.”
Reno laughed as he watched Daniela and DJ go back and forth. When he felt Lisette’s hand squeeze his thigh he turned toward her and realized two things—she had once again gone unnoticed when he was in the presence of his siblings and she would always be there for him.
“I think I like you even more, with every passing second.” He brushed his lips against her ear as he whispered to her. With one arm he pulled her in to his side and kissed her temple.
“You’re growing on me,” she said with a smile as she looked up at him.
“If Brian is staying, he and Reno cannot be on the same team tomorrow.” Catalella pulled him out of his love bubble.
“Why? Do you play?” Brian asked excitedly.
“I do.” Reno tried to block out the pride Dennis had when he brought up football.
“I think we should wait to draw up teams when AJ gets here tomorrow,” Adrian said.
* * * *
He was back in that small stinky apartment. The air was thick and stagnant, the smell of smoke and alcohol septic in the air now. Reno could hear someone calling him from afar. It was a small tiny voice that sounded so much like Rhyne.
“Rhyne?” Reno scrambled out of bed. He shot a glance at his sister’s bed in the far corner of the room. It was empty. Jumping out of bed in a mad dash he followed Rhyne’s desperate cries.
“Reno!”
“Rhyne!Rhyne!” Reno called out as he tried to make his way around the sparse furniture in the thick darkness. “I’m coming Rhyne, I promise, I’m coming!” Desperately he yelled out. The thick feeling of dread weighed his heart down sending it crushing into his stomach.
Reno’s feet froze; he stood rooted to the ground as he watched the darkness shaped like a man, pulling his sister with him. “No!” he shouted. “Let go of her!” Reno launched his body into the dark figure and all his tiny hands could grab was a thick cloud of smoke. He landed on the ground head first, and when the darkness subsided, Reno watched as his sister was dragged outside and tossed into a waiting car. Pushing his battered body to his feet, he begun to ran after the car. But no matter how fast he ran or how hard he yelled out for their mother’s help, it was useless.
Reno woke up at the darkest hour of the night, drenched in sweat, and the bedding pulled out of their neat corners as if someone had been thrashing around in the bed. Although it was just a dream, his body seemed to be working just as hard as his mind. He got out of the bed and headed to the kitchen for a glass of cold milk. Staring out the glass doors, he saw the light shimmering and bouncing off the waves of the calm ocean. How he wished he could be so tranquil.
Reno sat on the grainy sand beach looking out into the still waters, hoping he would be able to absorb its peacefulness. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, how he would get his revenge from Dennis without hurting and alienating his siblings, or how he would find Rhyne. As thoughts bombarded his mind, a voice of reason echoed through the chaos in his mind. What if he just told Dennis the truth and asked him to help Rhyne? But why would Dennis want to help now—he had spent all these years absent from his children’s life. Why should Reno believe that Dennis had grown a sliver of decency that would compel him to do right by his children?
Reno let out a defeated sigh and lay back in the sand. But instead of the dark sky littered with spots of shining stars, Reno’s eyes looked up to a pair of tanned legs, under a robe. He quickly shut his eyes. “I didn’t see anything.”
He heard Lisette let out a throaty laugh and a smile crept on his lips. He kept his eyes closed even when he felt Lisette’s weight ease down on his body. She lay on top of him, her head snuggling on his chest. Reno let out a pur
r when he heard Lisette sigh in content.
“I don’t mind,” she murmured.
“Of course you don’t.” Reno opened his eyes and stared into the midnight curls spread out on his chest in waves. “You are the girl who asked me to take her virginity under a bridge.”
“The bridge was there, we were there, and besides we would have done the horizontal rumba in the back of my car,” Lisette murmured again before trying to stifle a yawn.
“You are sleepy and tired, why don’t you go back to bed.” Reno combed his fingers through her hair, his actions speaking volumes in contradiction of what he had just said. He didn’t want Lisette to ever leave him. He felt complete like this. Her tiny body seemed to fill the void left by his past. With his free hand he trapped Lisette where she was, pressing her body closer to his.
“You say one thing but your body demands another,” she chuckled.
“Well, I am a man, and a beautiful girl is lying on top of me. You can’t blame me for not wanting to let her go.”
“Oh? This girl is beautiful you say?”
“Very.”
“If this girl asked you to kiss her what would you do?”
Reno let out a low growl as his groin responded to Lisette. He didn’t want to frighten her, or make her feel obligated to help him ease his uncomfortable erection. With one fluid move he rolled Lisette on her back and positioned himself over of her, so that she wouldn’t bear his weight or feel his need for her.
* * * *
“I would kiss her,” his lips whispered over the surface of hers.
Lisette’s breath hitched in her chest. Inhaling deeply she caught the scent of him, strong, male and seductive. She stared into his eyes as his lips brushed against hers. As her mind anticipated the touch of his lips on hers, her body wondered when his hands would explore her. Not willing to wait any longer for contact, Lisette’s hands roamed his hard muscled frame and her body shuddered and relaxed at the same time.
She felt Reno stiffen, and then his lips came down on her, lust ignited like a match to a naked flame. Their mouths locked into an erotic dance as Lisette’s hands took its feel from his body. She wanted everything from him, her mind was made up, she was ready and if Reno would have her he could take her on the open beach under the moon light.
“Please,” she moaned when his lips found her neck, his fingers kneading into her breast. Lisette didn’t think he had heard her, so she arched the lower half on her body into his. She gasped in shock when she came into contact with his groin. The lust quickly turned into fear, but her curiosity was not deterred. With her hands she reached in between his thighs and felt his long, thick hardness. There was no way she could fit all of him into her.
Lisette was pulled out of her curious inspection when she felt Reno’s mouth encircle her naked nipple. How the hell did he get there so fast? That was the only thought her mind could compose before his greedy suckle turned her into knotted nerves of lust. The fear was gone and now all she needed was for him to fill her.
“Please, Reno, please.”
* * * *
Lisette’s gasping breath tickled his ear, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t force his muddy mind to comprehend what she was saying. He needed more of her. His impatient hand sneaked under her robe and smoothed over her thigh searching for her center. He found her velvet lips, and her wet core. He didn’t spare a thought before his fingers dug inside her, his thumb teasing the responsive nub.
Reno could feel Lisette’s body begin to tremble under his touch. It wouldn’t be long before she climaxed. His mouth and fingers worked feverishly toward the finish line.
“Please, Reno, I want you inside me.”
Somehow his fuzzy mind understood what she was asking. What was he doing? Reno rolled away as he took a deep breath to clear his mind. He couldn’t just take her without any concern. He promised to make her first time special and this wasn’t it. He chanced a glance at Lisette. Her hand was over her eyes, the other grabbed fistfuls of sand as her body shook from the interrupted orgasm.
A fist of regret squeezed his heart. He couldn’t just leave her like that. Once he thought he had his hormones under control, Reno moved to the lower part of her body. He bent her knees and pushed her legs to her chest. He needed her open to his wanting eyes. As if she understood, Lisette held her knees to her chest, her dark lustful eyes watching his every move.
“You can’t touch me, if you touch me I won’t be able to stop.” Reno looked into her eyes to make sure she understood. “Your first time will not be a quickie. I want to take my time with you, make sure you know how much I am honored you chose me for your first. Right now I’m just going to give you release and nothing more.”
Nothing more, he chanted as he stared at her glistening center. It wouldn’t take much to make her come. He licked his lips as his mouth descended on her. He smiled when he heard Lisette sigh, but as he went on with his ministrations he heard her breathing quicken, her moaning grow louder and wild. He didn’t stop, even when he felt her body stiffen and stretch and tasted her orgasm. Even if he could only have her in this way, for now, he wanted to milk every orgasm he could from her.
Reno’s hands tightened around her thighs and held her firmly in place, when she tried to move away from his mouth. He could feel her body grow weak from the intensity of her orgasms, but he wanted one more.
* * * *
Lisette let out a scream as her body slumped back on the white sand. She couldn’t take it anymore. She closed her eyes as her body tried to recuperate from Reno’s punishing mouth. She sighed in relief when he pulled her robe down and lay next to her. Pulling her into his arms, he let out a low laugh that rippled along her nerve endings.
“Is it always going to be that…intense?” she gasped out.
“It’s going to be better. When I’m inside you, it will be like a piece of heaven.”
“Why didn’t you do it now? I wouldn’t have stopped you. I want you just as much, if not more.”
“I want to take my time with you. As beautiful and exciting as it would be making love under the moon, the last thing I want is for your father to catch us. He’s going to kill me.”
“You are right.”
Lisette and Reno lay there for a while, listening to the gentle crushing of the waves. She had followed him out to ask him what was wrong but was quickly sidelined. Now she didn’t know if it was appropriate to pry after what he had just done to her.
“Reno?”
“Mmmmh?”
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
A cloak of silence settled over them before she spoke again. “I saw you come down here. You looked like something was bothering you.”
“It’s in my past, and I would rather just concentrate on the beautiful woman in my arms.”
Lisette let out a defeated sigh. They had crossed the sexual part of their relationship, but it was obvious to her that trust between them was still nonexistent. “Sit up. I want to tell you something.”
“What is it?” Reno looked at her with a worried frown.
Lisette was about to share her past with Reno. She thought that was the best way to establish trust. Maybe he would confide in her after she told him her story. Once she had Reno’s full attention, Lisette grew frightened and unsure.
“You know you can trust me with anything you tell me.”
Lisette gave him a nod, before she begun. “I wasn’t born in the U.S. My mother and I lived in Mexico before we moved here. Actually we didn’t just move, we were running away—”
Lisette could remember her mother’s screams as they pierced the night air. The daily pleadings and begging was something she always kept with her. Rosalinda was the traditional catholic girl. She didn’t believe in divorce, she always hoped and prayed that her marriage would get better. But then, it seemed each one of her prayers hit the ceiling and came back down. There was no way of taming the evil monster that her father, Ricardo, had turned into, back
into the loving man she had met. So Lisette decided to help her mother pray, but she didn’t pray for her father to change. She prayed for her mother to grow a backbone and take them out of there. She was five years old and yet she seemed to have grown wise to the ways of the world.
Lisette turned away when faced with her mother’s purple swollen face, or her father’s drunken demands of affection. Until this day the picture of alcohol and violence had kept her sober. There was no way she was going to try that bottled evil, she had vowed to herself. That was when she believed that alcohol was the root of all evil.
It had taken her father’s untimed punch that had got Rosalinda back to her God given senses. Her father had planned on hitting Rosalinda but instead caught Lisette in the jaw. The ferocious weight of the pump was too much for her little body to bear. All Lisette could remember was the pain that was followed by a cloud of darkness engulfing her. When she woke up she was in her grandfather’s truck and they were heading away from home.
Lisette had resented her mother for a while after that. She didn’t speak but respectfully did as she was instructed. When they crossed the border into the United States, she thought everything would be better. It didn’t matter where they went; the evil of Ricardo followed them. Lisette remembered feeling safer when her mother started working in Adrian Ross’s house. Rosalinda kept Lisette out of sight and all she had were books that helped her learn English.
She had watched the motherless boy grow attached to Rosalinda all the while Lisette was supposed to hide. But one day she was fed up with it. She went into the gigantic kitchen and began making herself a meal. That was when Adrian Ross walked in. Lisette was obviously scared, but she was too stubborn and hungry to run from him. Adrian watched her for a second before sitting at the dining table with her. They ate in silence, a silence that was quickly disrupted by the sound of a plate breaking. Lisette turned to find Rosalinda behind her, shattered ceramic at her feet and her hands trembling over her lips.