The Reconstruction of Cyprian

by Michelle Love

  “That cannot be my grandparents,” she says with a hushed voice. “I don’t even recognize them. It’s been forever. Quite frankly, I thought they were most likely dead.”

  “Nope, alive and sitting right there, waiting to see you and meet their great-grandson for the first time ever,” I tell her as I pull her along with me to meet them.

  “Wait!” she says as she stops and gives me a terrified look. “Did you tell them what I really am?”

  With a nod, I say, “I told them the truth. You’re a very wealthy woman, who owns an exclusive club in Los Angeles. They were more than proud to hear you’d done so well with yourself.”

  “You left out the fact it’s a strip club?” she asks as she holds her hand to her throat.

  “I did. I saw no reason to get too deeply into what it is you do. You own an established club. You should be proud of yourself for that accomplishment.”

  “It was given to me. I didn’t,” she says before I stop her.

  “You were given it by the man you gave a child too. And you managed it and made it what it is. You did that. All by yourself. Now, go and talk with the people who helped bring you into the world, Coco. Or should I call you, Delia?”

  A blush covers her cheeks. “They told you?”

  “They did. And they’re waiting to see you, so go and get reacquainted.” I give her a push to get her going and watch her go to her family. One she left behind so long ago, it seems impossible.

  With Cyprian and his parents on the right track, I go to see what my family thinks about all this. Joining my mother, father, sister, and brother at a table, I ask, “So, what do you think?”

  “I think your fiancé almost picked me,” Catarina says with a laugh.

  “I too was afraid that was about to happen,” I agree. “I was shaking in my boots.”

  Taking a seat between my brother and sister, I find my brother ogling a lovely young lady. “Do you think she’d say yes if I asked her to dance?”

  “I bet she would. But just so you know, I’m sure most of these women and maybe some of the men too, are paid escorts. So, don’t go thinking you’ve really hit it off with her. She’s paid to hit it off with you if you know what I mean.”

  His brows raise and he smiles. “Cool!” Then he’s up and going toward the young woman.

  “Mercy, I hope he doesn’t get himself into trouble,” my mother says as she watches her baby boy slip his arm around a prostitute’s waist, ushering her out to the dancefloor.

  “At least he’s a proper age to handle such things,” I say as I look around and can’t distinguish between who is paid to be here and who is not.

  Mixing with Cyprian’s family has mine in a place they seem to be a bit uncomfortable in. A place I had planned to keep them out of. But as time went on and I had it in my head to make us into a real family, it became apparent, mine would have to dabble a bit into their world, as they were expected to dabble in ours.

  Marriage is a delicate dance where things on both sides have to be meshed into place to form the new family that will be the new couple’s. Cyprian and I are on the cusp of making a brand new family to add to both sides of ours.

  Are we really going to be able to pull this off…

  Chapter 3

  CYPRIAN

  “An angel is what you are,” I tell Cami as I lie her down on the downy feathered mattress in our hotel room. “Finding some of my missing family on both sides. I never knew what it was like to know anyone more than my mother and father. It feels amazing. And I have you to thank for that.”

  Pushing her dark red dress off her shoulders, I pull it all the way off and toss it over my shoulder. The red bra and panty set are all that’s between she and I as I’ve already ditched my clothing as soon as we walked through the door.

  Her fingertip runs up my stomach. “So, you like knowing that you have more than a couple of people in the world?”

  “I do.” I kiss her forehead. “And now, you and I will make more people.”

  She giggles as I slip her bra off. Her arms go around my neck and she pulls me to her, taking my mouth with a hot, lust-filled kiss. “You had me worried for a moment when you held my sister’s hands.”

  “They were similar in shape to yours, my only love,” I tell her then kiss her again. “But only your touch ignites a fire.”

  She moans as I run my tongue around her nipple then suck it, gently. Her hands running through my hair, have me sucking harder. I run my hand over her other bare breast and feel my insides turning into molten lava.

  Before I know it, the animal in me has been set free and I’m all over her. Ripping her panties off, I throw them toward where I thought I saw a trash can. I move my body down hers until I feel the heat from her, taunting me to see if I can manage to get her even hotter.

  Pressing her bent knees to the bed, I spread her wide for me and stop a moment to appreciate the beauty she is. “Cyprian, you have my heart, you know.”

  “And you have mine,” I say then lean over to taste her sweet spot. Her groan makes me growl and it sends her body into a small quiver.

  “Yes,” she hisses as she tangles her hands into my hair. “Kiss me.”

  Using my tongue, I run it up and down the recesses that beg for attention. She keeps trying to pull her legs up but I hold them down, keeping her wide open for me.

  Her bud is swollen and ripening as I look at it. Her hips move up, lifting her body up to meet my lips. I give it a small kiss then watch her as she moves her hands out of my hair, to play with her tits.

  Small kisses I pepper her with until she’s gyrating, needing more. Once my tongue moves over the now very swollen pearl, I lick it and find myself needing more than a mere taste of the fruit.

  Sucking it into my mouth, I roll my tongue around it, kissing her intimately and deep. Her body is racked with pleasure as she growls, moans, groans, and screeches at times. I keep kissing her until her body arches and she cries out with a climax.

  With her sweet juices released, I move my mouth to taste what she’s released for me and find myself frantically licking her to get every last drop. Once I feel her insides slowing the squeezing they were doing, I move up her body and deliver a kiss to her, letting her taste herself on my tongue. Her kiss is ravenous and her legs wrap around me as she lifts her body up to mine.

  I force her back down and thrust myself into her hot, wet, depths of pure bliss. I moan as I fill her and feel her body close in around me. With a soft stroke, I make short pumps until I feel her quivering again and releasing more juices with another orgasm, giving me more lubrication to work with.

  Her body is completely aroused as she begs for more. Her nails move up my back and sting my skin as they cut into it. Taking her hands, I hold them over her head and pull my mouth off hers to look into the deep blue pools of her eyes.

  Hunger fills them as she arches up to meet my thrusts. Her lips curve into half a smile. “This will be the last time you take Camilla Petit, Cyprian.”

  My heart fills with the knowledge that at this time tomorrow, she’ll be my wife. Mine!

  “Then I better make it count, huh?” I watch her as I swirl a little and her eyes close with how good it feels.

  “Cyprian, how wonderful it is to know you and I will be together forever.”

  “Forever,” I echo as I grind into her until her body is shaking with another orgasm. “Open your eyes, Cami. Let me see you when your body releases for me.”

  Stormy eyes open as she looks at me. I can feel her insides pulling at me and her eyes see into me. I feel as if she’s an extension of myself. My body spasms as she takes me with her.

  Our eyes speak to each other. No words need to be said. It’s all in those eyes. The love, lust, need, all of it resides in our eyes. If we lost the ability to speak, we’d still know what it is we do for one another.

  Lying on top of her, I lean a bit to one side to distribute my weight. Letting her hands go, I stroke her stomach as we catch our breaths. The sounds o
f two people trying to regain composure after giving all they had to the other, fill the hotel bedroom.

  “We will be happy, won’t we?” she asks.

  “I’ll make sure of it,” I tell her then kiss her warm cheek.

  And I will too…

  Chapter 4

  CAMILLA

  “Why are my legs shaking?” I ask my sister as I get up after having my hair and makeup done.

  “You’re nervous,” she says like it’s so normal I should already know that.

  “But I have nothing to be nervous about. I love him, he loves me. We want the same things. Why am I shaking?”

  “Here,” she says as she hands me a small shot glass. “You need this.”

  “I don’t want to be slurring my vows, Catarina,” I say as I try to hand it back to her.

  “You won’t. Just take it down. It’ll calm you. And you also don’t want to stutter out your vows, either,” she says with a giggle.

  She’s right, so I take the drink and feel the burn all the way down to my tummy. “Ow!”

  “Burns, doesn’t it?” she asks as the ladies, helping me to dress, giggle.

  Stepping into the middle of the puddle of gossamer, silk, and satin, I’m perfectly still as the two women pull it up and start the process of binding it up in the back.

  The light blue is just a bit off from the traditional white wedding dress. My deep blue heels accent it perfectly, but who really cares, as no one will most likely ever see them under the full length and very poufy dress.

  Catarina picks up a necklace off the vanity and I ask, “That’s not something you wore to your wedding, is it? No offense, but that marriage was a bust. I don’t need anything jinxing my marriage to Cyprian.”

  With a scowl on her face, she shakes her head. “No! Of course, not. This was our great-great-grandmother’s on our father’s side. I got it from his sister, Aunt Dahlia. She said you could keep it, to hand down to your oldest daughter.”

  With the dress tied up in the back, securing me from having it fall away from my body during the ceremony, I turn, so Catarina can put the necklace on me. “So, this is my something old.” The other women are finished and silently leave the room.

  “It is,” she says and lays the gold necklace, with a set of two hearts as the pendant, on my bare chest. It ends right before my gown begins and adds to the look, perfectly.

  “I love it. And what a nice story I’ll have to tell my daughter someday about how it came to be hers.” I gaze in the mirror and think about how lucky I am.

  With my hair pulled into an updo that would rival the goddesses of Rome, I find Catarina pushing me to sit in the chair again as she reaches into a bag she brought and pulls out a sparkling tiara. “Here’s your something new. Cyprian gave it to me to give to you. He wants his princess to wear her crown.”

  Taking it from her, I look it over and wonder out loud, “Do you suppose these diamonds are real?”

  She takes the box it came in, out of the bag and the name on the box, Tiffany & Co. tells me it’s very real. “I’d say so,” Catarina says then puts the box back and comes to place the tiara on my head.”

  We both look at my reflection and she wraps her arms around me as I stroke her arm. “Thank you for being here for me.”

  “You’d have a hell of a time keeping me out of your wedding, baby sister.” She pulls off her bracelet, a gold band with a grape vine etched into the metal. “And this is your something borrowed. You’re wearing your something blue, so our bases are all covered.”

  “Great,” I say. “So, if everything is so perfect, why am I still quaking and shaking with nerves?”

  With a shrug, she says, “You need more of the hard stuff. Come on, I’ll do another shot with you.”

  I don’t argue this time as I think about walking down the aisle on my poor father’s arm, jittering like a coked-up monkey. Down the hatch, the hot liquid goes and I still feel like I’m freaking out.

  Maybe one more will help…

  CYPRIAN

  A knock at the door to my dressing room has my father going to open it. “Cyprian!” Cami cries out as she literally spills into the room. “There you are!”

  “Cami?” I ask as I get up and have to take her in my arms as she’s stumbling along and bound to fall. “How much have you had to drink?”

  “Too much. And I can’t do it, Cyprian,” she slurs as she holds onto me for dear life. “I can’t walk down that aisle.”

  “Not like this you can’t,” I say. “Bread and coffee, mother, please.”

  My mother heads out and I find my father frowning. “Poor girl.” He helps me get her to a chair then looks into her eyes. “Do you not wish to marry? It’s okay. You know I’m not about marriage. It’s okay to change your mind.”

  “No!” she says then her eyes roll up in her head, it falls back and hangs to one side.

  “Cami!” I smack her cheek lightly, then a bit harder when that doesn’t wake her up. “Not today. Of all days, not this one!”

  “She’s not ready, Cyprian. She might never be,” Papa tells me. “Look what’s happened. She was so nervous, she got drunk. It’s a subconscious sign that says she doesn’t want a marriage. Though she seems traditional, she’s not. Just look at her. How sad. You won’t hold her to a marriage, will you, son. How tragic that would be.”

  “Papa, are you crazy?” I ask him as I continue to pat her on the cheek. “Of course, I’m holding her to it! I’ve waited patiently for nearly a year. She just drank to calm her nerves. Hell, I have them too. I think it’s completely natural to have them. We’re about to make huge commitments in front of our families and the pressure is high.”

  My mother comes back in and sighs as she sees the state my fiancé is in. “Oh no! It’s too much for her. I didn’t see this coming. I thought she really wanted this wedding.”

  “She does,” I say as I take the cup of coffee from Mother and set it on the table. “She’s not a huge drinker. I’m sure whatever she was drinking was stout. It’s not a big deal. She’ll wake up and be ready to go. I know she will.”

  “I’ll get a wet cloth to see if that doesn’t bring her around,” Mother says as she leaves us again.

  As she opens the door, I see Catarina and she looks relieved. “Good, she’s in here. I lost her when I had to leave her, so I could use the bathroom. What did you do to her, Cyprian?”

  “I think I should be asking you that all-important question, Catarina. She was entrusted to you. What happened?” I ask her as she looks at Cami and pokes at her.

  “She was shaky. I gave her a shot or two or three. Maybe a little more than that.” She tugs at Cami’s arm. “Man, she’s out!”

  “I know that,” I say with an irritated tone. “Now what will we do?”

  “Um, uh, man, I don’t know.” Catarina puts her hand to one side of her mouth like she’s telling me a secret. “You see, I had the same amount of shots she did.”

  “I can smell that and see it. Catarina, shame on you,” I reprimand her then hand her the cup of coffee that will do no good for Cami as she’s passed out.

  “I’ll go see how long the priest will be able to wait,” Papa says, then leaves us.

  “I’m sorry, Cyprian,” Catarina begins to wail. “I really am. I’ve ruined your wedding. It’s all my fault!”

  “Don’t cry,” I say as I try to soothe her. “You’ll ruin your makeup and you’re her maid of honor. She’ll wake up soon. She’ll feel like hell but we’ll get the vows said and be married and then I’ll take her to our hotel room and she’ll sleep it off.”

  “But now she has to feel like shit at her only wedding. I mean I hope it’s her only wedding.”

  “I hope so too,” I say and find a magazine to fan Cami with. “Baby, wake up, please.”

  Settling into a pool of self-pity, Catarina takes the coffee and goes to sit down in a nearby chair. “Perhaps I did this inadvertently. Maybe I’m jealous that she found true love. The likes of which I’ve never known. Fir
st my marriage to Peter, then the thing with the cop, didn’t work out. I can’t find love to save my life and Camilla just happened to find a man, who walked into the store she worked at and they fell in love. Why can’t that happen for me?”

  “It’s not as if we didn’t have our trials. It wasn’t always so perfect. Nowhere near. And you’ll find love. Perhaps you should stop looking to get it from overbearing men, though. You see, you’re better than that. You’re smarter than the kind of women who need men like that. You should look for nice men. I just met a cousin last night. He kept looking your way. You didn’t even notice him, though.”

  “He did?” she asks as she wipes the tears from underneath her eyes, smudging her mascara.

  “He did. He’s a nice guy. That’s probably why you didn’t notice him. The man you were hanging all over was someone who was paid to be there. A gigolo.”

  “Crap,” she says as she puts the coffee down on the table in front of her. “I thought he liked me.”

  “He was paid to like you,” I tell her. “That’s how I grew up. With a bunch of women who were paid to like me. Paid to let me do anything I wanted with and to them.”

  “That’s terrible. So, this cousin, is he handsome?” she asks as she gets up and looks in the mirror. “Damn it, my makeup!”

  Taking a tissue, I dab at the black smudges under her teal colored eyes. “I can fix this. I guess you could say he’s handsome. I didn’t think he was ugly. I can make sure you two meet after the wedding if you want.”

  “Should I? He lives in France, after all,” she says as she looks into my eyes.

  “He’s just visiting,” I tell her. “He lives in New York. He’s an investment counselor there. Funny, huh? He’s in the same line of work I am. I’m thinking about seeing if he’d like to come to work for me.”

  “Introduce me. If we hit it off, then offer him a position.” She smiles and gives me a hug. “You’re going to make an excellent brother-in-law, Cyprian.”

  “If we can get my bride to wake up to make me one,” I say as my mother walks back in.

  She goes to Cami and presses the cloth to her forehead. “Camilla, wake up.”