A Family Reunion (38 page)

He shook his head, grinning, wanting so much to kiss her. “Oh, yeah, you’re my girl all right.”

She wanted to kiss him, too, but out of the corner of her eye she saw nosy Cuzin Sophie watching them. Rae’jean decided that she would make time for them to go someplace private and kiss—and maybe do some other things—later. “Come on; let me introduce you to my family,” she said, taking his hand and leading him to the backyard. “I may as well warn you that they can be a rowdy group.” She thought she should at least warn him, since she wasn’t sure if he knew what antics went down in a large family, and hers could take the icing off the cake.

“Really? How rowdy are they?”

“Oh, you’re about to find out.”

Rae’jean cast her eyes to the man sitting in the car beside her. “Thanks for bringing me back to the hotel, Ryan.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, holding her gaze. The hotel’s neon sign reflected off the shine in his eyes.

Then were was silence. Simmering heat. Swelling tension. It had been like that between them all day. Even with her family around she had felt his eyes on her every movement, and whenever she had looked up to meet his glance she had felt the desire and the hunger within him. It had been there all through her family’s friendly game of volleyball, all through the seafood they’d consumed, and all through her family’s nosy questions and pointless inquisition.

And it was there now and it was affecting her big-time.

She had never felt this way before, this hot, this keyed up, this intense, this filled with desire and wanting. She was very much aware of him. She urged her gaze away to look at the beautiful landscape of the building. “Do you want to come up to my room for a drink?” she finally asked to break the silence.

“I’d love to.”

She then waited for him to get out of the car and come around to open the car door for her. “I forgot to ask what hotel you’re staying at,” she said as they began walking up the sidewalk to the entrance of the Marriott Hotel.

He smiled and it increased the hunger growing inside of her. “This one.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Oh? What a coincidence.”

“Not really. I knew you were staying here.”

She nodded, tilting her chin toward the ground. “Due to your investigative skill, right?”

“That’s right.”

She smiled and glanced back at him. “You’re good at it. Was it hard to find me?” The thought that he had gone through all that trouble to see her had touched her.

“No, mainly because I was determined to find you. I wanted to see you, although I wasn’t sure how you would feel about seeing me. For all I knew, you could have made the decision that you didn’t want any type of relationship with me. I took a chance in coming.”

They walked in silence until they reached the entrance to the hotel. Then they stopped walking. They stood facing each other, their gazes locked, each hearing the unsteady beat of their own hearts. They knew their relationship would change once they crossed over the hotel’s threshold and needed to make sure this was what they wanted. They had already decided earlier that day that they wanted to have a relationship, one that meant more than an assuaging of overworked hormones.

“Ryan, I—”

“Shh, it’s OK,” he said softly, reaching up and gently stroking her lips with his thumb, holding her silent. “It’s a big step for me, too. We don’t have to if you aren’t ready for it.”

“Are you ready for it?”

He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her gaze to meet his. “I think I’ve been ready for it since the first time I saw you, standing that day at your window. But I knew you were off-limits. But that didn’t keep me from wanting you, thinking of you often.”

He skimmed his palm against her throat. “And then when you showed up at my office that day, I was thrown for a loop. After finding out you were no longer engaged, it seemed like fate had intervened, but I didn’t want to believe it. The pain of my ex-wife’s betrayal had gone deep, and another serious involvement was what I didn’t want. But I couldn’t stay away from you, Rae’jean. I had to accept the fact that even without my knowing you intimately, you’re in my blood. There’s this thing between us that won’t go away. It’s been there since the first time we set eyes on each other. Making love won’t get rid of it; it will only intensify it, strengthen it. I think you should know that up front. This has to be your call.”

He continued to watch her watch him. He wanted her more than he had ever wanted a woman. He wanted to possess her mind, body, and soul. He wanted to brand her his with his passion; he wanted to show her how special he thought she was. He had felt honored that she had shared her family with him today, a family he’d never really had. Even with the questions her grandfather had asked outright, regarding Ryan’s intentions toward his granddaughter, he hadn’t felt pressured or been made to feel like an outcast. After just meeting him, the Bennetts had included him within their close-knit fold.

“So, it’s my call?” Rae’jean finally said, breaking the heated silence. “Then I suggest we call it a night. There’s no need to pay for two separate rooms when I think one will suffice; what do you think?”

He thought he wanted to kiss her right then and there, under the moonlit sky. “I think you’re right. I’ll move my stuff to your room in the morning.”

Reaching out, Rae’jean took his hand in hers as they walked through the entrance of the hotel. They stepped into the elevator and stood on opposite sides. Rae’jean tried to take her mind off just how much she wanted him.

“Rae’jean?”

She looked up when Ryan called her name. Her gaze met his. “Yes?”

“I think you have a super family. You should feel blessed.”

Her smile widened as she thought about her family; even nosy Cuzin Sophie had some good in her at times. She knew every family had someone like Sophie; that couldn’t be helped. “I do. I feel extremely blessed.”

The elevator came to a stop on her floor. “What floor are you on?” she asked Ryan as they stepped out.

“This one.”

For some reason, Rae’jean wasn’t surprised. Moments later she blew out a trembling breath when she couldn’t get her key to work in her room door.

“May I try it?” Ryan asked.

“Yes.”

He expertly opened the door with no hassles, then stood back to let her enter. As soon as she heard the door closing and locking behind him, she turned back around to face him. He stood leaning against the door, watching her.

“I’m safe,” she said, releasing a deep breath. “I had a physical a few months ago. And I’m still on the pill.”

He nodded. “I had my annual physical last month and I checked out fine, too.”

Rae’jean nodded; then an involuntary shiver touched her body. “I’m not used to this, Ryan. I’ve never wanted the passion before, but now I want it so much I can’t think straight.”

He eased from the door and walked over to her. “I don’t want you to think at all. I just want you to feel. After tonight you will know my body as well as I’ll know yours,” he said, his voice hoarse, barely above a breath. “After tonight there will never be any doubt in either of our minds that this is what we want and that being together is our fate.”

He pulled her against him. “Feel, baby. Just feel.”

And she did.

When he brought his mouth down on hers, she almost felt her knees buckling. Without breaking the kiss Ryan picked her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed. His hands then went everywhere, all at once, as he removed her shorts, top, and underthings.

Ryan broke off the kiss long enough to undress himself, but Rae’jean refused to just watch. She had a vested interest in this and intended to participate. She rose up on her knees and began fumbling with the button and zipper of his jeans. He accommodated her by pulling them down over his hips, and her breath caught in her throat when he stood before her wearing nothing but a pair of the sexiest briefs she had ever seen on a man. Her gaze scanned the hardness of him, the length of his erection clearly outlined.

Then something happened to her that had never happened before. She felt needy. She felt greedy. She felt totally, unequivocally aroused. She felt driven with a voracious hunger she had never felt before.

And all for this man. She felt undiluted passion. Reaching out, she began stroking him, wondering how she had gotten so bold, so wanton, and so filled with desire.

Ryan drew in a deep shuddering breath with her touch. “Rae’jean, let me take my briefs off.”

She relented and watched, fascinated, as he removed the last barrier of his clothing. Then she felt herself heating up all over again.

Coming to the bed, he lifted her into his arms and sat on the side of the bed with her in his lap and kissed her into sweet oblivion. Then when she couldn’t stand it any longer he placed her back in bed and covered her body with his. “I want you,” he whispered as he continued to touch her everywhere, her breasts, her stomach, her thighs, and the very center of her being, as he prepared her for him.

Rae’jean’s entire body felt over the rim brimming with excitement, wanting, passion.

Passion. The kind she had thought she didn’t need or want. Ryan was proving otherwise in a way that ignited every nerve in her body. And when she felt the length and thickness of him ready, waiting, poised at the entrance of her womanly core, she shimmied her hips upward, against him, anticipating being a part of him.

Wanting it. Needing it.

And within seconds, Ryan gave her what she wanted as he slowly and gently eased inside of her, letting her feel his hard, male thickness, claiming her, branding her, and even now growing harder just for her.

When she tried lifting her hips to meet his some more, he grasped her hips and held her in place. “No,” he said in a raspy voice. “Don’t move. At least not yet. I want as much of you as I can get. I want to go deeper. I want to stay in longer,” he whispered in a husky voice. “I want you burning for me like I’m burning for you.”

“I am burning, Ryan,” she was able to say, barely. The feel of him inside of her was too much. It felt too good. So right.

Unknown to Rae’jean, her long, shuddering breath aroused Ryan even more, and he continued pushing inside, determined to go to the hilt. And determined to share with her something he had wanted to share with her from the first.

Passion.

And he took her hot, tight, and enticing womanly core there. Almost pulling out, then pushing way back in. Deeper, timelessly, rhythmically, he made love to her, giving her all of himself, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. Every cell in his body was primed for her total satisfaction. For her passion. And he was demanding it from her in the most elemental way. The most primitive way.

He heard her keening cry of pleasure. He felt her fingernails brand his back and felt the tiny bites she was taking off his shoulder. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He was home. Inside of her was where he belonged, giving her what she needed, what he wanted, maintaining a steady rhythm as he moved against her in sharp, hard, pumping thrusts as the scent of their heavy lovemaking saturated the sultry air.

“Ryan!”

“Not yet, baby,” he whispered in her ear. “Hold on; don’t go there yet.”

Ryan tried to stay in control as he continued to take her over and over the edge of mindless passion. Over and over until neither of them could hold out any longer, finally giving in like there would be no tomorrow.

“Now,” he murmured against her lips as he surged into her one final time, holding himself in deep, hard. “Now!”

Her body exploded when the long length of him found the center of her most erotic point, making her shatter into a million pieces of glowing, fulfilling passion. At first she made a little sound at the back of her throat before letting out an earth-shattering scream, which Ryan’s kiss immediately absorbed. Her body erupted and continued to explode when she felt his body jerk and felt the hot molten liquid of his release shoot deep inside of her, joining with her feminine juices at the most exquisite point. The feeling was unexpected, consuming, breathtaking, powerful.

She tightened her legs around him, wanting, needing, to feel every hard, throbbing inch of him that was still exploding inside of her, deep within her body. Their connection complete, and somehow she knew it was permanent. “Ryan…” Her voice was barely above a whisper, strangled.

He must have read her thoughts, because he continued to hold her hips to him, determined to give her every last drop of him. She was shaken to the core by what they had shared and how he had made her feel. And to think that for a long time she’d thought she’d needed the quiet, peaceful, and serene type of lovemaking. Ryan had just proven her wrong, and a part of her knew there was more between them than good sex. In her heart she knew it. In her soul she felt it.

Ryan lifted his head to look down at her. At that moment, words between them weren’t needed. As he continued to look at her he felt his body renew itself with desire.

With him still inside of her, Rae’jean felt it, too. Without any hesitation, she reached up. “Again,” she whispered before bringing his mouth down to hers.

One Year Later

“I, Ryan Jamaal Garrison, take this woman, Rae’jean Elizabeth Bennett, to be my lawfully wedded wife.”

Ethan Allen Bennett, who was sitting in the front pew of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia, couldn’t help but smile. He hoped that his deceased daughter, Colleen, was just as happy as he was today. Her only child was committing her life, before God, family, and friends, to the man she loved and who loved her.

It had taken nearly every bit of physical strength Ethan had had to walk his granddaughter down the aisle, but he had done so. He was glad Rae’jean had understood his need to walk at a slow pace and had graciously slowed her walk for him. The walk had probably taken longer than usual, but she hadn’t seemed to mind. In fact, no one in the church had.

He didn’t have to glance around the church at the guests to know who was there. Alexia and her husband, Quinn, along with their five-month-old twin boys—Bennett and Blake—had arrived at the beginning of the week. Taye and Michael had driven into town last night to partake in the wedding rehearsals and dinner party. Taye was expecting a little one but was barely showing. She claimed that according to the doctors she was having a boy, whom she intended to name Ethan Henry Bennett. Ethan had been tickled pink that she would want to do that. She and Michael had built another house in Atlanta, a larger one, for the three girls and new baby. Taye had finished college and had landed a job working for a huge accounting firm.

Brandy had arrived last night and had brought along a man whom she introduced as her fiancé. Like the last one, the man wore those long braids on his head. Ethan shook his head. His granddaughter evidently had a thing for men who didn’t believe in getting haircuts.

Rumor had it that Victor Junior and Evelyn were on the verge of getting a divorce, which wasn’t a surprise to anyone. In fact, Ethan knew that a lot of the family members were walking around chanting, “Good riddance.” Rose had finally left Victor Senior, and as far as Ethan was concerned, it was about time she wised up. Everybody knew he’d been whoring around with Valerie for years.

Ethan had been surprised to see Rae’jean’s ex-fiancé, Grady, show up for the wedding. He had even brought his wife and their new baby. Even Rae’jean’s sister, the one she’d found somewhere in Texas, had come to the wedding. Twice he had approached her thinking she was Rae’jean. They looked that much alike.

The preacher’s words recaptured Ethan’s attention.

“By the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.”

Ethan smiled broadly as he watched the couple kiss. He figured it wouldn’t be long before they began increasing the Bennett–Garrison line.

After the couple had kissed and began strolling out of the church with their wedding procession following behind, Ethan, like everyone else, stood.

Today was a good day and he knew his Idella was up there rejoicing.

Six Months Later

Poppa Ethan walked through his house and turned off all the lights. Feeling somewhat tired tonight, he moved slower than usual.

Taye and Michael had visited him that day, bringing their new little one for him to see. Ethan Henry Bennett was such a little thing, but the boy had a strong grip and a good appetite.

Rae’jean had called earlier in the day to say that she and Ryan were having a baby, which didn’t surprise him, and he’d seen Alexia on TV last night getting an award for having the best song of the year. It had almost brought tears to his eyes when she had stepped onstage to receive the reward and, after giving respect to God, thanked her grandfather, Ethan Bennett, and her grandmother, Idella Bennett, for encouraging her to pursue singing when she was just a little one. He knew Idella was up there as proud as could be.

Brandy had called a few minutes ago to say that she had accepted a job somewhere out of the country, but he’d forgotten just what country she’d said. He shook his head. He was forgetting a lot these days.

Ethan made it to the bed and sat down on the side of it as he glanced around the room. A lot of things were still as Idella had left them, and he preferred it that way. He knew that whenever he came into this room, which for so many years had been their bedroom, where all of their children except for one had been conceived, her presence would always be in here with him.

For some reason he felt her presence even stronger tonight. He supposed she was just beside herself in happiness—just like he was—that their family was doing fine and the majority of the grands were married and successful. Cousin Agnes was already hard at work planning a family reunion for next year, which everyone was looking forward to. A decision had been made to have a family reunion every two years, and he was glad for that.

A moment later, after removing his house shoes, Ethan lay down on the bed and rested his head against the pillow and closed his eyes. In the morning Joe and Otha Mae were coming by to pick him up for church.

As sleep overtook him he saw, as he’d been doing a lot lately, a vision of his Idella. But this vision was different. She was wearing a different kind of smile on her face, and the robe she had on was whiter than ever before. It was so white it almost glowed. And her skin appeared soft, with a smooth translucent color of honey brown.

And for the first time, she was holding her hand out to him. He felt his heart rate increase when she spoke.
It’s time, Ethan. It’s time to come join me on this side. You are leaving behind a legacy we can both be proud of, and now the two of us can be together again.

Ethan Allen Bennett took Idella’s hand and smiled happily the same exact moment he felt himself slipping away.

He was going home to be with his beloved Idella. The next family reunion would be without him in body but not in spirit. He knew in his heart that the Bennetts would forever carry on.

Idella was right. He was leaving behind a legacy he was proud of.