Chapter Twelve Have A Little Faith
Have A Little Faith
Samantha
WARMTH SURROUNDS ME AS I SLOWLY wake. His hand skims my hip, his breath on my neck, and the tender graze of his lips across the bare skin of my neck and shoulder has my nipples hardening.
“Keep your eyes closed. Stay in half-slumber. Don’t think.” His raw voice sends chills skating down my body.
A soft kiss behind my ear.
“Let me love you.”
Kiss on my neck.
“Don’t turn me away.”
Kiss. Kiss along my shoulder.
“I need you.”
Kiss on my ear.
“I miss you.”
His tender words lull me in and keep me in a peaceful place, not asleep and not fully awake. I linger, welcoming that space where nothing exists but the two of us.
“I love you.”
He moves over me, whispering across my skin his words of love and comfort.
His hard, heated parts, rubbing, seducing my softer, needful ones.
Warm breath and hot tongue soothe and tempt in sync with his knowledgeable hands, pulling and teasing, opening and filling.
His body surrounds me, cocoons me, fills me and fills me, taking me flying—higher and higher.
Our love. Our souls. Our bodies burst like a phoenix, consumed in flames, fed by the hunger of our passion, our sorrow, our need, our joining. Burning and burning until we are reduced to ash and are reborn.
I leave the thoughts of yesterday and the vision of that video where it belongs, in the past. Showered and dressed, I head to the kitchen to start breakfast. Peace and calm is my motto for the day. It’s Sunday, after all. If peace can’t be found on a Sunday, then there is no hope.
“Princess.” Michael’s presence halts me in my tracks.
“Michael?” It’s not that unusual to see him here early in the morning, but it is on a non-working day.
He chuckles. “It looks like we’re gonna be roomies for a while.”
“What?”
Joseph ensconces me from behind, nuzzling into my neck. I can feel his smile against my skin. “I asked Michael to move in. Temporarily.”
“Temporarily?” I repeat, turning in his arms.
My Caveman nods with a shrug, not wanting to elaborate.
Peace and calm.
“Okay.” It’s not like it’s a hardship. I love Michael, and it’s not the first time we’ve spent more than our fair share of time together. It’s too bad it always seems to be when I’m in danger, which they obviously feel I am. “Pancakes?”
“Hell, yeah!”
Joseph
Michael and I meet with Jace before the others show up. It’s family meeting day. It’s time to bring in the big guns and stop fucking around. Privacy be damned, except for the picture and video. They’ll be aware of their existence, but they don’t need to see them.
Jace is pacing the floor, having finished viewing the video. “Jesus, I can’t unsee that.”
“Welcome to my world,” Michael mutters.
“Hey, this is no cakewalk for me. It’s humiliating as fuck,” I bark.
They both turn to face me, stunned.
Jace is quick to make peace. “Sorry, man.”
“Yeah, me too. I know how hard this is on you and Sam,” Michael replies with sincerity.
Now that that humiliating show and tell is out of the way. “Anything we need to discuss before Fin and Victor get here?”
Michael grabs a seat across from my desk. “We may need to let Victor see the copies of the picture and video. He has expertise in this area. He may see something we don’t.” Michael’s already overnighted yesterday’s package to his forensic buddy.
“I leave that up to your discretion, but under no circumstances are my bothers to see them. The letters are bad enough.”
“Matt’s still out of town. I can bring him up to speed when he returns,” Michael offers.
I nod my agreement before ushering them out of my office to wait for the others’ arrival.
My need to check on Samantha is strong, more than normal.
She seems fine, better than fine. I’m not complaining, but I don’t think she’s dealing with the events of yesterday, and I don’t want to leave her alone too long.
We find her in the kitchen, making lunch for everyone.
She may not like social gatherings, but she sure enjoys feeding the Six Pack when we’re all together.
Sebastian is coming over too; he’s going to keep her company while I fill in Fin and Victor.
I’m not looking forward to it. It’s a total clusterfuck, and I’m quite sure neither of them will fail to remind me of that fact.
“It smells good, Sweets.” I kiss her cheek and then her temple, giving her a side hug as she stirs the large pot of gumbo on the stove.
“I hope it tastes good.”
I tip her chin, searching her eyes for any signs of sadness. “I have no doubt it’ll taste even better.” A slow kiss on the mouth with a suck on her bottom lip has her leaning into me like she hasn’t done in weeks. “God, I’ve missed you.” I breathe between our lips.
She drops the spoon, letting it stand in the pot, turning into me, wrapping me into a welcoming hug. “I’m sorry,” she whispers against my chest.
“Shh, none of that, Sweetness. You’re with me now. That’s all that matters.” With my cheek pressed to the top of her head, I hold her tighter, never wanting to let her go.
A throat clears from behind us.
Fuck off. I don’t give a shit who it is, and I don’t bother to turn to see.
Another “ahem” has Samantha pulling away, but I stop her. “I’m not ready,” I say, my voice low, only for her to hear.
She looks up, a sweet smile lighting up her face, and I’m lost in her blue eyes. She pats my chest, nodding behind me. “I think we have an audience.”
On a groan, I turn to see Fin, Victor, Jace, Michael, and Sebastian staring back at us with stupid grins on their faces. Fuck me. “Can’t you see we’re having a moment here?”
Fin laughs. “When aren’t you having a moment?”
I try to smile back, but if he only knew how rare this was lately, he’d leave us the fuck alone.
Samantha kisses my cheek. “Do you want to eat or have your Boy Scout meeting first?”
Fin and Victor say, “Eat.
Michael, Jace and I say, “Meeting.”
“We need to get this over with,” I say to them. A nod to Michael has him prompting them to follow him to my office.
Sebastian comes around the breakfast bar. “I guess it’s just you and me, cupcake.”
My girl smiles. “Now you made me want cupcakes.”
“Damn, that does sound good,” he agrees.
I’m quite sure he means an actual cupcake and not my Samantha, whom he calls cupcake.
But either way, it sure as hell puts one delectable image in my head of losing myself in my Sweets’ pussy.
Shit. Concentrate. “You two don’t have to wait for us to eat, if you don’t want to.
” I kiss her quickly—trying not to think of her other parts I’d like to be kissing—and thank Sebastian for keeping her company with a silent nod, then leave to apprise Fin and Victor on the crap that’s been consuming much of our lives for the past few months.
“Why in the hell did you keep this to yourself?” Fin steams as Victor glares daggers into Michael and me.
Yep, pretty much the reaction I expected.
“What could you have done differently that we haven’t already done?” I challenge.
Fin steps forward. “Supported you.” He clamps on to my upper arm. “Make sure you knew this was bullshit, and we don’t believe a word of it.”
“Is this why Sam hasn’t been to the office?” Victor seems to have calmed down a tad.
I turn on a silent nod, running my hand down my face, not able to admit she can’t look at me without seeing that damn photo, and now that fucking video making it even more ominous, more real.
“Brother?” Fin’s concern pulls at my gut.
“She’s been pulling away, wanting to delay the wedding,” Michael steps in.
“What? She can’t possibly believe it’s true. You’d never cheat on her.” Fin’s outrage and the depth of his unwavering belief in me tightens the vise in my chest.
“She won’t… We haven’t…” I turn to face them, avoiding Jace, as I know this is awkward for him, being Samantha’s brother.
“She can’t see me without seeing that fucking picture, and now she has a video to remind her.
” I stare at the door, like I can see her on the other side.
“Today was…unusual.” She’s her old self today—my girl.
“And we interrupted your moment.” The sorrow in Fin’s voice is evident.
A curt nod is all I can manage.
“Does she believe you’re cheating on her?” Victor asks.
The weight of the last few weeks hits me hard, and I slump down into the couch, my head back, and press my palms over my eyes. Keep it together. I still can’t find my voice to answer them.
Jace steps up this time. “She doesn’t believe it. She trusts Joe.” I can feel his eyes on me. “She can’t get the images of him with someone else out of her head. She’s never been confident in her ability to hang on to him—”
I growl and lean forward, my arms resting on my knees, my hands buried in my hair.
“Fuck!” It’s one thing to know it. It’s another thing to hear it from someone else’s mouth.
“I’d never cheat on her. She’s my world.
” My voice cracks. It’s killing me how much this is hurting her—hurting us—bringing these fucking doubts to the surface that have long since been buried.
The couch dips as Jace and Fin take a seat on either side of me, their hands clasping my shoulders. “We know,” they chime in unison.
I look at them, surprised, not so much that they believe me—that is huge, trust me—but that they’re so in sync. Jace has been apart from us for a long time, it’s good to see him slip back into our fold so seamlessly, as if he never left.