For Love and Vengeance (20 page)

Jason
trailed the fingertips of one hand down her neck while the other, at the back
of her head, held her exactly where he wanted her, his mouth devouring hers,
then he retreated. She followed, only for him to pull her even tighter against
his body. His mouth returned to hers stroking more firmly, going deeper with
each successive pass. Sucking, pulling and licking at her mouth.

Aviva
wanted to rip his clothing off, crawl all over him, touch him, and feel his
skin against hers. She wanted to feel him buried inside her. It had been too
long and she needed him. She ran a hand over his chest, over his powerful arm,
along his side and found a way beneath his t-shirt, loving the feel of his warm
skin as her fingertips. Kneaded the hard muscles that were so much a part of
him. The hand buried under his shirt ran up his chest and Aviva felt Jason shudder
at her touch even as he pressed her more tightly against him. When this wasn’t
enough, her hand sought another prize as it began to move downwards.

“I
don't think so, Angel,” Jason said, halting her wandering hand just before it
reached one of the hardest erections he had ever had.

“What...why?”

“Because
you’re too loud,” he whispered in her ear.

Aviva
stiffened, and whispered, “Was I making noises?”

“Umm...sort
of.”

Mortified,
she buried her head in his chest and scrunched up her shoulders. “Do you think
they heard me?”

“Umm...nah.
I'm sure they didn't, they're probably all asleep by now.”

“You
are such a liar, Jason King.”

“Yeah,
I know, but did it make you feel better?” Jason asked with a dimpled smile.

“No,
it did not!”

“What
can I say, I tried.”

“You
didn't try hard enough. You should have stopped me,” Aviva said, punching him
in the arm for good measure.

“Hey...I
did stop you.”

“Not
soon enough, what must they all be thinking!”

“Who
gives a shit what they're thinking. I don't and neither should you. The only
reason I stopped you is because I know you, and I won't have you embarrassed.
Which you would have been the next time you faced Jackson.”

“Oh,
Lord.” She groaned.

“How's
your back?” Jason changed the subject before he laughed out loud because as far
as he was concerned, she was overreacting. They had only been kissing, for God
sake.

“Fine,
thank you,” Aviva said, her angst of a moment before forgotten. He was right
and she wasn’t going to worry about something as natural as the expression of
her love for this man. Deciding she wanted to sleep exactly where she was, she
snuggled deeper into his arm and made herself comfortable as his strong arms
surrounded her.

“Good...and,
Angel, the next time you start something with me...you better be ready for me,
all of me.” Aviva’s head popped up to look at him, hooked by the seriousness in
his voice. Gone was the twinkle in his eyes, replaced by a look of such
intensity, Aviva's temperature that had just began to cool, instantaneously
spiked.
Lord have mercy, this man is hot!!

Chapter 24

They
had been back in the Kingdoms’ New York home for three days and Jason was
driving her crazy. He'd ensconced her in bed, and refused to let her get up
except to shower or use the bathroom. He had also flown in a burn specialist to
have a look at her back and hand. The doctor explained that Aloe Vera was one
of the best natural ingredients when dealing with second degree burns which she
had tried to tell him but he refused to listen. It would take a while but
ultimately they would fade.

Aviva
didn't hear the bedroom door open so she was caught out of bed, rummaging
through the bags of clothes that had been delivered for her from
Bathed in
Beauty
. She even had on one of the long flowing cover-ups that had been
altered to fit her smaller size. With luck, he wouldn't notice.

“What
are you doing out of bed?”

Stuff
this for a laugh, Aviva thought. She was through lounging around. She felt
fine, and she was going to let him know she was going to bloody well do what
she liked, and that meant no more bed rest.

“I've
been going through these bags and trying on clothes. After which I am going to
get dressed and go downstairs.”

“Okay,”
Jason said as he threw himself down on the bed, crossed his legs and folded his
hands behind his head.

Aviva
was braced and ready for the mother of all fights, so it took a few moments for
his short response to register.

“Okay?”

“Yes,
okay. Did you expect me to say something different?”

“Yes...no,
it wouldn't have mattered what you had to say. I was going to do exactly what I
wanted.”

“Good.
I like a woman who knows her own mind, yet has the good sense to obey me when I
deem it necessary,” Jason told her with a straight face.

Oh
no, he didn't just go there. Drawing in a deep breath, Aviva got ready to tell
him what he could do with his
obey me,
when he held his forefinger to
his lips, closed his eyes for a brief moment and hushed her to silence.

“Really,
you need say nothing more. Your adherence to my dictates is enough gratitude.
Come, wench, your reward awaits you.” Sweeping his hand down his body, Jason
indicated that
he
was her reward.

Aviva
was in shock. “I'll give you reward.” she said as she rushed him, launching her
much smaller body at him.

Jason
popped up as she flew through the air and snatched her around the waist,
flipping her down on her back, pinning her with his legs.

“I
didn't know you could fly, Angel. God I love it when you get all amazon on me.”
Jason laughed, enjoying himself.

“Get
off me, you numpty.”

“What
the hell's a
numpty
?”

“It
means, idiot, so that means you,” Aviva said going slack under him.

Her
relaxed body was at odds with the heat in her voice that Jason relaxed his hold
and pushed himself onto his elbows to get a better look at her expression.

Sucker
, Aviva thought. In a flash, her fingers went
to work. This huge man was the most ticklish person she had ever known. So she
attacked with a vengeance. She learned that his sides were his most sensitive
area and went for them, somehow managing to get her fingers under his t-shirt.
She ran her fingers relentlessly up and down his skin.

He
didn't try to stop her. He just rolled over onto his back writhing on the bed.
While trying to protect himself, he inadvertently trapped her hand against his
side. By the time he realized his error, he was laughing so hard his eyes
sparkled bright green with tears of mirth.

Still
working on him and showing no mercy, she could see he was nearing his breaking
point. “Who's the boss?” she asked, attempting to hold in her laughter at the
look on his face.

“You're
the boss...you're the boss...just stop.”

“What
do I get if I stop?”

“Anything,
you can have anything!” Jason promised, puffing short breaths out of his mouth.

Coming
to a stop, Aviva looked down at her beloved man, so much strength and power was
contained beneath his skin and yet he allowed her to play with him in this way.

“Well,
okay. Then, how about the vacation you keep promising me.”

“I'd
take you to the ends of the earth if that's where you wanted to go,” Jason
replied, all traces of laughter fading from his eyes as they started to darken.

“Jason
King, you say such wonderful things to me.”

“I
say them because I mean them. You know that, right?”

“I
know. I love you too.”

At
that moment, the telephone on the nightstand rang, causing Aviva to jump and
their moment of intensity to be broken. Reaching out, Jason answered the phone
with a curt hello. Listening to the caller without comment, he finished with an
okay, before hanging up.

“I've
got a surprise for you. Change out of that thing and then come downstairs.”

“You
don't like it?” Aviva asked as he got up from the bed.

“I
like it well enough, but I don't want to have to be slapping Josh around the
head because he likes it too. In case you haven’t noticed, that thing is see
through… So what do you call that?” Jason asked, his eyes running up and down
her body.

“It's
a cover-up.”

“You're
kidding, right?”

“Honestly,
it's a beach cover-up,” Aviva repeated, unsure of his skepticism.

“Angel,
the irony of that
name
for that
garment
is not lost on me, I can
assure you of that!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Changed
and refreshed, Aviva made her way downstairs. She could hear the low rumble of
voices as she approached the family room. Opening the door, she quietly stepped
inside and screamed.

Conversation
ceased at the noise she made and everybody turned to look in her direction.

“Kenzie!”

“Vee!”

Both
women said at the same time as they made eye contact and rushed towards each
other. Flinging their arms around each other, they held on tight, and Aviva
burst into tears.

“Vee,
are you alright?” Mackenzie asked when she was met only with continued tears
and a death grip, and she saw red.

“Okay,
what the hell's going on here? One of you oversized lumberjacks had better
start talking, and I mean now because none of you want to see me lose my
temper!” she shouted at the room at large.

Extracting
herself from Aviva's clinging arms, she pushed her shorter friend behind her
back and stared down the identical men standing before her with identical looks
of shock on their faces.

The
door burst open and MacKenzie saw two more men enter the room. One older and
one younger. They all looked enough alike for her to know they were all
related.

“Don't
worry, Vee. I'll get you out of here. I should have known all that BS about you
being his girlfriend was a load of dodo. If one of you takes so much as one
step closer, so help me God, there's gonna be a murder up in here, and if none
of you have ever seen a red headed black woman unleash, you better watch out. I
knew there was something wrong about you the moment I set eyes on you.”
MacKenzie gave Jake the evil eye as she backed up. Her eyes darting from side
to side, looking for an escape route.

“Mackenzie,
it's okay,” Aviva spoke from behind her back.

But
she wasn't listening. She didn't like their stillness. They all just stood
there, staring at her with their arms folded across their chests like she was a
mad woman. And what the hell was up with that eyebrow thing? They looked crazy,
big and crazy.

“Mackenzie...ouch!”
Aviva said, sitting down hard in a chair with MacKenzie landing in her lap.

“Oops,
sorry, babe, you okay?” MacKenzie asked, looking down at a sprawling Aviva
beneath her.

“I'll
be fine once you get your behind off me.”

“Okay,
okay, in case it slipped your attention, I was attempting to save you from
those hulks over there,” MacKenzie said, all of a sudden very aware that she’d
taken her eyes off the enemy. Whipping her head around, she was confronted by
one of them standing right in front of her. In the process of lifting her
weight off her friend, his close proximity startled her and she sat down again
– hard.

“For
God sake, Kenzie, move your arse!”

“Alright,
alright...but as you know, young lady, there is never a need for rudeness, and
you, Aviva are being extremely rude.”

“Madam,
get off her, and do it now before I move you myself!” Although Jason could see the
comedy in the situation, the woman looked as though she were settling in for
the night.

“Jason!”
Jake warned, walking towards them.

Jason
turned to confront his twin. As he turned his back, MacKenzie reached down for
Aviva's hand and pulled her to her feet, making a break for the door. Realizing
that the two other men stood between them and a clean get away, MacKenzie
hesitated. Jackson bowed to her while Josh opened the door, grinning at them as
they made their escape.

“Wow,
that was close! Should we head out or go to your room?”

“Room,
follow me.”

“I
was hoping you’d say that because, girl, you are not leaving this house with
those rough looking braids.”

“Whatever,
MacKenzie, just come on,” Aviva said, sucking her teeth at her friend.

“You
better hurry up. I need to use the bathroom, like five minutes ago.”

Aviva
looked at her as though she were crazy. Then she recalled that she was supposed
to be pregnant. She didn't look three months pregnant. In fact, she had lost
quite a bit of weight.

“Move
it, Aviva!”

Leading
the way up the stairs, Aviva entered the bedroom she shared with Jason and
pointed towards the bathroom she had been using at the other side of the room.
Taking a seat by the window, she awaited her friend’s return.

As
MacKenzie emerged from the bathroom and began to make her way towards where she
sat waiting, she was able to give her friend the once over. The woman looked
fantastic. They met in college and right from the word go, they had hit it off.
They realized very early on that they shared the same sense of humor and
neither took themselves too seriously.

MacKenzie
nearly got the nickname Red in school because of the tone of her skin which
carried red undertones, and the deep auburn color of her hair which was so
abundant she always kept it slicked back from her face, and braided in a long
thick plait that stopped just below her shoulders. The first person who had
called her
Red
to her face had been the last. She cussed the poor boy
out so badly he’d slunk away and Aviva could never recall seeing him again.

MacKenzie
was five-foot-eight but always seemed taller due to the way she carried
herself. She was a proud woman who knew her self-worth and never let anyone
forget it. Her eyes were a sherry brown, and her nose and cheeks were covered
in freckles. She had always been a well-built woman who loved to cook and eat.
That’s why Aviva had been taken by surprise to see how much weight she had
lost, even more so in light of her pregnancy.

MacKenzie
sat down beside her and Aviva got a closer look. It was only after this close
scrutiny that she detected the tiredness buried deep in MacKenzie's eyes.

“What's
going on, Kenzie?”

“I
missed you...being able to chat to you. Knowing you'd get me.”

“What's
going on are you okay? Where have you been? Is everything alright between you
and Carlos?”

“In
answer to your questions: I’m fine. I booked into a hotel in Napa Valley for a
while, I just needed some time alone to think and regroup. As for Carlos, he’s
fine. He's doing all the right things, saying all the right things, like a good
little marionette. I met his mother, you know.”

“No,
I didn't know that.”

“Yeah,
she doesn’t like me and the feeling’s mutual. Prune-faced bitch!”

“What
did you do, Kenzi?”

Jumping
to her feet, MacKenzie walked over to the dressing table. She picked up a comb
and plonked herself down on the loveseat at the bottom of the bed. Pointing the
comb at Aviva, she indicated the floor between her legs and sat waiting.

“I'm serious,
Vee, those braids need to come out.”

Getting
up, Aviva walked over and sat down on the floor while MacKenzie set to work on
her hair. She sat in silence until MacKenzie had released two of the twelve
braids that kept her hair secure.

“What's
going on with you, MacKenzie, and why didn’t you return any of my calls?” Aviva
asked into the silence that now surrounded them.

“Honestly,
nothing much is going on, and sorry about the missed calls,” MacKenzie said
with an apologetic smile. “I'm twelve weeks pregnant. I puke from 8:00am till
9:30am, not continuously, you understand. After which I get a reprieve until
11:30am. But I don't eat anything. I got suckered in the beginning, thinking it
was safe, and
bang
!”