38. Jaxson
38
Jaxson
L auressa is clearly antsy on the ride from the airport to my father’s home. She’s dressed in an exact replica of the black dress I bought her months ago, complete with gold earrings and a smooth gold cuff necklace with shiny black pumps. Her hair is in a half up, half down style, and her makeup emphasizes her already striking features.
I carefully chose everything about the way she looks for presentation to my father. Everything except the purple streak still in her hair and the row of earrings along the cartilage of her ear. While she acquiesced to removing her nose ring, she wouldn't budge on dyeing the purple streak or removing her cartilage piercings. I could have pressed the matter, but I admire Lauressa's insistence on rebellion in even the smallest ways. My father will like it too. A work in progress will be more believable and less suspicious to him.
I reach over and take her fidgeting hand. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. Just remember what I told you.”
“You told me a lot,” Lauressa says, biting her lip.
“And I’m sure you took it all in,” I reply. I made sure of it.
I spent hours drilling her on basic rules of propriety, who she would be expected to meet, and how she would be expected to act.
Lauressa took it in stride, rolling her eyes and saying that if you know the rules of one cult, you know the rules of them all. Clearly, some of her overconfidence was just bluster. Regardless, I have full confidence that she’ll be fine. We’re only here for a week before we have to go back down to Georgia to finalize her family’s affairs now that the police have concluded their investigation and released the bodies for her to claim and plan a funeral.
“Question,” Lauressa says.
“Answer,” I reply dryly, but fail to bring a smile to Lauressa’s lips with my dry humor.
“You said the Sovereignty has dating rules. Technically.”
“Technically,” I confirm.
“Won’t everyone suspect that we haven’t been following them?” she asks.
“They will. None of them are stupid enough to believe I’ve been down there working with a woman as striking as you and didn’t lure you into my bed. But no one is so flagrant to break decorum and ask. Not even the Oracle. They would never potentially slander a woman I bring to the Sovereignty so shamefully,” I assure. I lean over, unable to help myself as I kiss her neck. “We’ll put on the show and appearance of a proper courtship and get married. Then we’ll get you off that birth control and get you stuffed with as many of my babies as your body can handle.”
“I only want two kids. And that’s depending on how much I don’t hate my first pregnancy,” Lauressa says. Though I can’t see her face with my face buried in her neck, I can practically hear her scowl.
“We’ll see.”
“Jaxson. I’m serious. At most, you’re getting three out of me.”
I make a noncommittal noise, even though I agree with her. I have no intention of having so many children that I hardly ever see them or can keep up with their lives. But it’s fun to get Lauressa riled up.
Lauressa continues, “And I haven’t forgotten what you promised. We’re throwing out all these stupid, harmful rules that you don’t need to maintain control and power as soon as you’re Oracle. And I’m going to start my own foundation like One Humanity.”
“All in due time,” I say. “Becoming Oracle is still a few years off yet.”
“I want to start the foundation before a few years off. In fact, I refuse to marry you, whenever you get around to properly asking, until we set it up. So you can’t back out.”
I have no intention of denying Lauressa anything she wants so long as I’m with her every step of the way. But again. She’s amusing when she’s riled up.
“Snow White,” I mutter, twirling a lock of her black hair as I look down at her. “I thought we established that you don’t get to refuse me. I’m not going to ask you to marry me. You just are. Whenever I say that I’m ready to.”
“We’ll see about that,” Lauressa says with a stubborn purse of her lips. The way she looked at me when I first approached her months ago.
I smirk, pleased that I’ve still got an incredibly long way to go in taming that fire of hers. Hopefully, no matter what I do, I’ll never put it out.
If we weren’t minutes from my father’s house, I’d lie her in this back seat and fuck her senseless right now. As it is, she’s already flustered about meeting my family. I’ll do her the kindness of not making it worse with sex minutes before her introduction.
My driver pulls up to my father’s home. It’s not nearly as large of a home as he could have. But my father likes to pretend he’s modest. That he’s not as bad as the other megachurch or cult leaders who have large houses and properties… As though it’s common for the average person to have ten bedrooms, five bathrooms and an elevator in their home.
“What’s the most important thing I told you?” I say before our doors open.
“The walls have ears,” Lauressa repeats.
I nod, signaling my men to open our doors. We make our way up the ramp to the house, a ramp only installed once my father began to lose some of his mobility and found it harder to use stairs. One of my father’s security lets us in. A housekeeper takes our coats, and then we’re led to the family living room.
My father, his wife, some of his high priests and priestesses, along with a couple of my siblings are there. A little more than a dozen people in total waiting on my return. Temporary as it may be.
“Son,” my father says.
“Father,” I say, bending down to hug him and kiss both cheeks.
“How were your travels?” he asks, pretending to care when all eyes, including his own, are on Lauressa.
“Thankfully, uneventful,” I say while stepping aside and giving Lauressa her cue to come forward. “This is Lauressa. The woman I told you about that I met while getting to know the community in Georgia. She was a great help and assistance to me. With her continued assistance and insights into the people, I think we can have a full-fledged altar up and running in just a few years. ”
Lauressa nods her head respectfully and says, “Oracle. It’s an honor to be in your presence. I look forward to serving you and the Sovereignty.”
She holds out her hand to shake his, and my father takes it. Normally, shaking hands with the opposite sex would be against decorum while in a Sovereignty space. But it’s the Oracle. He can shake everyone’s hands.
Lauressa clearly tries to pull her hand away, but my father doesn’t let go. Instead, he stands up and towers over her. Her eyes dart to me for some kind of cue. Some kind of assistance. But I’m as clueless to what the hell my father is doing as she is.
“Oracle,” Magdalene dares to say, her flaming auburn hair once again covered by one of her blond wigs.
My father says nothing and a foreboding feeling settles over me as I anticipate him throwing a wrench into my day.
Finally he says, “I had visions of our meeting today, Lauressa.”
I hold in a scoff, but it’s a near thing. Being away from this madness and able to relax around Lauressa has eroded some of my discipline. Before, I wouldn’t have needed to hold anything in. Regardless, I’m positive my father is bullshitting.
“Hopefully only good things,” Lauressa says with a brilliant smile, and I allow myself to smile at how charming she can be when she wants to.
“More than good,” my father says to her and then dares to caress her hand with his thumb.
Lauressa visibly squirms. I feel myself frowning but don’t care to hide it .
Lauressa’s smile falters as she forcibly pulls her hand away, decorum be damned, and I wholeheartedly approve. What the hell is my father—
“I saw us standing together before the Supreme Force as he blessed you as my new conduit,” he finishes.