Venus rising boxset, p.90
Venus Rising Boxset, page 90
He wasn’t yet ready to join her, craving the need to see her, to look into her face as much as he’d desired to see her on her knees. Pulling out of her, he swiftly flipped her onto her back and pushed back in before she had time to readjust. Her body bowed, and she cried out, her nails scoring his skin down his chest. Legs wrapped around his hips, heels digging into his thighs, and Liam rocked against her.
The pressure on her clit had Hilary thrashing again, and an entirely new kind of orgasm spilled through the remains of the one he’d already driven her to.
“Liam... LIAM!” She chanted his name over and over, sobbing it into the air as he pulled her hands up to wrap around the back of his neck and began to thrust into her, hard and steady. Her body was burning for him, small fireworks rocking her as he filled her, her throbbing clit bursting with a chain reaction of orgasms.
She clung to him like a rock in the middle of a storm, her rock that would keep her from being completely swept away. Blinking through the tears clinging to her lashes, she moaned uncontrollably as his pace increased, taking her with long, hard strokes, drawing out the spasms of her pleasure.
She heard his groan, felt the throbbing, wet heat of his orgasm, and she tightened around him in a final burst of ecstasy. They rubbed and rocked together, clinging to each other until their pulses began to slow, and their breath came a little more easily. Liam dropped kisses onto her soft mouth, no longer demanding, a sweet benediction as he ran his fingers through her hair, and they held each other closely.
“I love you,” he murmured, the tender emotion making him feel like his chest was going to crack open, as if his heart had somehow become too big for it. Strange how emotion could have such a physical acknowledgment.
“I love you too.” Soft, brown eyes smiled up at him, full of genuine emotion, shining with happiness.
And damn if his heart didn’t feel like it got even bigger in his chest.
Chapter 14
At the rate she was going, Jessica would be moved in with the guys by Thanksgiving next week, everything but the furniture. Although for the moment, she was inclined to leave everything in the common rooms for Hilary’s use. She wasn’t going to need much of it, anyway; she liked the way Chris’ furniture fit in the house, and she didn’t see much use for most of her own other than her dresser, the end table she’d always loved which had belonged to her grandmother, and maybe a bookshelf or two where she kept her DVDs.
That’s what she was packing up right now, fueled by nervous energy as she waited for her dad to show up, giving her something productive to do. She was sorting through the DVDs and separating which were hers and which were Hilary’s, and boxing hers. They’d put their initials on all of them, which made it easy, thankfully, although she was getting a good idea of how many DVDs she was going to have to buy now that her collection was no longer intertwined with Hilary’s. She’d have to see how it added to Chris and Justin’s movie collections first, make sure they didn’t have any duplicates. Although she seriously doubted either of them owned 27 Dresses or Ella Enchanted. She grinned as she pictured herself trying to talk them into an Anne Hathaway night, something she and Hilary did at least once a year.
Well, at the very least, she was sure they wouldn’t mind her having Hilary over to do so. That’s why they’d set up the basement as a secondary entertainment center. Not just because Chris didn’t want to get rid of all of his stuff, but with three of them living in the house, an extra television and room for hanging out was just smart.
The way they were working everything out made her extremely happy. Even though not all of her stuff was there, she already felt like it was her home. Despite usually wanting to do things his way, Justin never made her or Chris feel like the house wasn’t theirs as well. They all came to a compromise during any disagreements, and not once had Justin tried to take control by saying the house was his. Which it was, since it was in his name, although Chris had already contributed to pay the mortgage check for this month. So far, Jessica wasn’t being allowed to help pay for anything since she wasn’t technically living there, but she’d insisted on taking over the utility bill once she moved in since neither of the guys seemed inclined to let her chip in toward the mortgage.
She wanted to pay her own way, although living with them was going to be cheaper than sharing the apartment with Hilary. Well, other than the grocery bill. She grinned. They were going to be sharing the expense, so that was okay. Boys ate a lot, and Justin liked a lot of prime ingredients, whereas Jessica had always tended to buy whatever was cheapest. It was going to take some adjusting, for all of them, but she found she was looking forward to it. Changing things up in to accommodate the men she loved and have them accommodate her felt nice.
They’d even ended up compromising on tonight. Both of them had argued against her talking to her Dad on her own. They’d wanted to be there to meet him or even hang out in her bedroom until her talk with him was done. Jessica didn’t want them around at all. It was going to be hard enough to face her Dad again, and going from what Hilary had said, he hadn’t come around on her dating situation at all, and he wanted to see her alone. Considering it had taken him so long to come around to talk to her, she wanted to honor his request.
This way, even if she and her Dad got into a major argument, she wouldn’t have to worry about the guys bursting out of her bedroom to protect her if she got upset.
The compromise had been she would call them the moment her dad left to let them know how things went, then she would come home—home being the house, not the apartment where she was currently packing up her things. A smile crossed her face. The more things she moved over there, the less she felt like being at the apartment.
If events went well, Hilary would be living with Liam soon. Jessica knew things were moving fast with her friend. She found it amusing they’d reached this sudden turnaround in their lives where Jessica was the one taking risks and putting herself out there, while Hilary was more cautious. Then again, they’d both changed a lot since Jessica went to the Venus School, and they both started going to Stronghold—grown, figured out more of what they wanted out of life… and love.
She didn’t blame Hilary for wanting to take things slowly, it made sense. If the guys had asked her to move in after only two months, she would have been just as hesitant. Heck, it’s not like she gave them an immediate answer; they’d had to wait for her to get majorly pissed off at her parents and decide to take the reins of her life into her own hands.
It wasn’t about proving anything to her parents, not after that first day. It was about her love for Justin and Chris, about wanting to spend every night with them, and wake up with them in the morning, wanting to join her life to theirs.
Knocking at the front door knocked her right out of her dreamy reverie about the rosy future, tension zooming in and taking up residence in her stomach. Bile filled the back of her throat as she got to her feet and headed to the door. A quick look into the peephole to confirm it was her father, and she opened the door.
The way he was standing in was not encouraging—shoulders slumped, hands shoved into his coat pockets. Justin had been teaching her about paying attention to body language, and right now, her father’s body language was screaming he was uncomfortable and defensive—kind of funny since she should be the one on the defensive.
They looked at each other for a long moment, hazel eyes meeting hazel eyes, and Jessica drew a long breath in through the tight band around her chest.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Yay, they’d gotten through the greetings civilly.
“Come on in.” She opened the door wider and let him step through, taking his coat and hanging it up while he went to sit down on the couch. Nervously, she followed after him, standing awkwardly between the couch and the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink? Eat?”
“No, thanks.” Sitting on the couch, he was looking up at her, studying her. When their gazes met, he shifted uncomfortably and looked away, eyes sweeping around the room. He tensed when they came to rest on the box of DVDs she was packing. “Still planning on this foolishness of moving in with those.... men?” He said ‘men’ as if it was dirty.
Jessica told herself to stay calm, not to let him run her over. She walked over to the armchair and sat down before answering him.
“Yes, most of my stuff is there already. At this rate, I may be moved in by Thanksgiving rather than Christmas.”
They stared at each other. Jessica clasped her hands in front of her as she leaned on her knees, her fingers moving nervously. Her Dad rubbed his hand against his thigh, obviously trying to think of something to say. Since she hadn’t risen to the bait he’d set out to start an argument, he seemed to be at a loss.
“Why, Jess? Just... tell me why,” he said finally, looking forlorn, and she felt her heart go out to him.
“Because I love them. And they love me.”
“But... how did this even come about?” He looked skyward for a moment as if the answers might be written on the ceiling. “How did you end up in a... with two of them? Was it something your mother and I did?”
“No!” That came out sharper than she’d intended, and Jessica bit back the rest of her retort, struggling to get a hold of her anger before she spoke again. “This has nothing to do with you and Mom. I don’t see anything wrong with my relationship. As for how we ended up together... well, I started dating both of them, and they promised they wouldn’t get jealous, no matter which one of them I chose, but I found I couldn’t choose. This is what I wanted. They didn’t pressure me or trick me into it or anything like that. I just fell in love with both of them.” All of which she’d told him before, but she still wasn’t sure how well he’d actually listened when she’d shown up to confront him and her mom. He could be so stubborn sometimes. Well, so could she. Now, he seemed like he really wanted to know the answers. It had to be obvious by now, this wasn’t just a stage she was going through, that she was serious about the guys and her life with them.
The story sounded a little strange when the Venus School was left out, but there was no way she was discussing the school with her dad or anyone in her family… way too weird.
“But... but it’s not right. It’s not normal.”
“What’s normal?” Jessica asked, spreading her hands wide. “It used to be normal was a white man and a white woman, or a black man and a black woman, and any intermixing was wrong. It used to be a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, together wasn’t normal. Society’s definition of normal is always changing, and I don’t think I should have to sacrifice my happiness to what society thinks, anyway. I’m happy in my not-normal relationship. We love each other, respect each other, and communicate better than any single guy I’ve dated... and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Shouldn’t normal be whatever makes me happy?”
“How can you be happy?” her father burst out, no longer slumping. Everything she was saying, even though it made perfect sense to her, was obviously only incensing him. Which, in turn, made her more frustrated. “People are talking about you! You told your mother and me that you’re being harassed, people are texting you and calling you a slut! That you had to shut down access to your Facebook. How can you be happy when you’re being treated that way? And it’s all those two... those men’s fault.”
“How can you blame them for the way other people are treating me?”
“Because if you weren’t in the relationship, people wouldn’t be saying those things to you. Or about you. How can you not see they’re bad for you?”
Her father was on his feet, voice raising, and Jessica found herself surging to her feet as well.
“It’s not their fault! Or it’s just as much my fault as it is theirs. I chose this, I wanted it, and I will deal with the consequences. If people don’t like me dating two guys, they can deal with that on their own time. I won’t be spending any with them!”
“You’re going to lose friends over this. People who you’ve known for years aren’t going to want to talk to you anymore. And what are your mother and I supposed to tell our friends? What are we supposed to tell the rest of the family?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jessica said hotly, clenching her fists at her side. She didn’t know the last time she’d been so angry... maybe when Sean had shown up to the Halloween party, but this time she wasn’t going to be running away. “I didn’t realize my relationship was about you.”
“Of course, it is, it affects us. It affects people’s perceptions of us. They’re going to look at you and this... thing you’re doing, and they’re going to think your mother and I are terrible parents!”
“What, because I’m happy and successful, people are going to think you’re a bad parent? People need to mind their own goddamned business!”
“Don’t curse!”
“I’ll curse if I damn well please! And I’ll have two boyfriends if I damn well please! I’m not going to make myself miserable just to make other people happy!”
They stood staring at each other, red faced, then her dad slumped again and sat back down. Adrenaline was still running through her veins, but she was used to her dad’s quick runs of temper, even if her anger tended to last longer. She forced herself to sit down, trying to slow her heart rate and breathing.
“I want you to be happy,” he said softly, staring at his hands, resting on his knees. His head was down, chin tucked in, and she felt the rest of her anger melt away. He looked so small and vulnerable suddenly.
“I know, Daddy.”
“I just don’t see how you can be happy with them. If they truly cared about you, they wouldn’t allow you to be in a relationship with them when it’s going to make the world think the worst of you.” The stubbornness in his tone said he wasn’t giving up yet.
Jessica sighed. “Dad... do you remember when those cheerleaders I had gym with were making fun of me in high school? The ones calling me fat? Was it my fault they were making fun of me?”
“Of course, not!” His head swung back up, surprised and confused why she was bringing this up.
“Why not? I was overweight, so hadn’t I set myself up for that? They weren’t saying anything but the truth, even though they were extremely judgmental and cruel about it.”
Her father’s lips thinned as he got the point she was trying to make. “It’s not the same.”
“It’s close,” she said gently. “Justin and Chris can’t do anything about how other people judge us. Neither can I. What we can do is be happy, despite them. Love each other, despite them. Make our relationship work despite them. I’m happy, and I want you to be happy for me.”
She stared directly at her father, watching as he fidgeted and sighed a few times, fiddling with one of the buttons on his shirt. Finally, he seemed to accept she wasn’t going to say anything more until he did.
“I’m not sure I can do that, pumpkin,” he said, hazel eyes almost the exact same shade as hers looking at her sadly. The lines on his face seemed more pronounced, and Jessica felt her heart ache a little. “I just... I can’t approve.”
“Then don’t. Just accept,” she pled. “Don’t shut me out. Don’t avoid me. Don’t make me feel like you’ve stopped loving me.”
“Of course, I love you!” Her father sat up straight, looking absolutely horrified. When he held out his arms, Jessica flew into them, settling on the couch next to him so her Dad could hold her tightly. “I’m sorry, sweetheart… I didn’t mean to make you feel like I don’t love you… I just… I can’t…”
“I’m not doing anything I’m ashamed of, Dad,” she said into his shoulder, squeezing him around his waist. It was a lot squishier than Justin or Chris’, but no less comforting. “I know you don’t agree with my relationship, but it’s my life. My choices. And you don’t have to approve, but I hate that you walled yourself away from me just because you don’t like what I’m doing. I know it’s unusual, but I don’t think that means I’m a bad person or a bad daughter.”
There was a long silence while he hugged her close, his cheek pressed against the top of her head.
“You’re right,” he said gruffly. “I don’t like it. But I don’t like the way things have been between us either. I thought I could just wait it out, but it doesn’t look like you’re going to be changing your mind any time soon.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” Jessica said, full of heartfelt relief. She turned her head and craned upward to kiss him on the cheek. “Does that mean you and Mom will come to Thanksgiving? I want you to meet Chris and Justin.”
He groaned. “Do I have to?”
Unfortunately, he wasn’t joking, he was truly asking, and Jessica sighed. The battle with her dad wasn’t over yet, and she doubted he would allow himself to be won over the way they were winning over Jay or even charmed like her Mom had been. Jay was a different generation, one which was already more open-minded, and her mom was accustomed to being a peacemaker, no matter the situation. While her dad was fairly moderate in his politics, he was staunchly conservative when it came to his only daughter, and she didn’t think meeting the guys was going to change that.
But at least it was a start. At least it was something.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I want you to meet them. And to be polite.”
“I’ll try,” he grumped
Well, that was all she was going to ask for at the moment.
They hugged for a few minutes longer, then Jessica sat back and asked how his job had been going. Her dad slowly relaxed as the conversation shifted to topics he was more comfortable with. It felt good to catch up with him, a return to normalcy as if nothing had ever changed between them. She even slipped in the information about Justin and Chris meeting her friends into the conversation, which tightened the expression on her dad’s face for a moment before he smoothed it away and changed the subject.
She could tell it disconcerted him to find out some of her friends were accepting the relationship she’d chosen, not all of them were dropping her or harassing her. Although she didn’t mention Erik or Laura—n o point in opening that can of worms. Erik had eventually called her and apologized for Laura’s behavior, but he hadn’t suggested they hang out again—whatever. It had hurt but not as much as she’d expected, maybe because their group of friends had already gotten used to Erik choosing Laura over them. Laura was her friend circle’s version of Jared’s girlfriend, Marissa.
