9. Jarvis #2
Henry nods once, sharp and final. "Then we have an understanding."
Later, I find Margaret in the kitchen with Jolie, who's standing by the sink holding a dishrag even though she didn't make the mess. Her grandmother approaches her slowly.
I know I should leave. This is a private moment. But my feet won't move, so I stand in the doorway and watch.
Margaret takes the dishrag from Jolie's hands and sets it on the counter before taking Jolie's face in her small, wrinkled hands.
"I didn't understand at first," Margaret says quietly. "When I saw those two men looking at you like you were the only thing in the world, I didn't understand. I thought they were taking advantage, that you'd gotten lost."
Jolie's lip trembles.
"But I watched them chase you," Margaret continues.
"I watched them face that horrible man. I watched them get on their knees in front of us and tell us they'd rather lose everything than lose you.
" She brushes Jolie's hair back. "Your mother loved you, but she never chose you the way she should have.
Not the way you needed. But those two men—they choose you every single day. I see it. I finally see it."
Jolie breaks, collapsing into her grandmother's arms and sobbing without apology or hiding, her forehead on Margaret's shoulder and her hands clutching the cardigan.
"I'm so sorry," Jolie chokes out. "I'm so sorry I ran. I'm so sorry I scared you."
"Shh," Margaret murmurs. "You don't have to be strong for me, sweetheart. You just have to let yourself be loved."
I step back from the doorway, and Jett appears beside me. He saw it too.
"We're doing this tonight," I say. My voice is thick.
"Yeah," he says. "We are."
We wait until the house is quiet and Margaret and Henry are asleep in the guest room with their door closed and their breathing soft.
We lock the bedroom door behind us and undress her slowly, peeling away the layers like we're unwrapping something sacred. She stands between us, naked and trembling, her eyes wide and trusting.
"No more running," I say, cupping her breast and testing its weight. She's full, as she always is for us. "No more hiding. Tonight, we claim you completely."
"Please," she whispers.
Jett kisses her first, hot and demanding but taking his time to explore her like he's memorizing every inch. I move behind her, my hands sliding down her waist, over her hips, and between her thighs. She's already wet. She's always wet for us.
I lift her onto the bed, and she lies back against the pillows with her hair fanned out and her breasts rising and falling with quick breaths. Jett kneels between her legs, and I kneel beside her head.
"Look at me," I command.
She does. Her hazel eyes are dark with need.
Jett lowers his mouth to her core, and she cries out with her back arching as I catch her hands and pin them above her head with one hand while leaning down to take her breast and latch on.
The milk flows immediately as she moans, the sound vibrating through her chest into my mouth, and Jett's tongue works her clit with steady, relentless strokes. She's climbing fast, too fast.
"Not yet," I growl against her flesh before releasing her nipple with a wet sound. "Don't come yet. Not until we're inside you."
Jett lifts his head, his chin glistening, and crawls up her body to kiss her stomach, her ribs, and her throat. He positions himself at her entrance, and I watch her face as he pushes inside.
She gasps, her eyes rolling back and her hands twisting in my grip while her body arches to meet him.
"That's it," I murmur. "Take him. Take all of him."
Jett starts to move with slow, deep thrusts that make the bed creak. I keep hold of her wrists with one hand and return to her breast with my mouth, suckling rhythmically and matching Jett's pace as she starts to fall apart beneath us.
"Please," she begs. "Please, I need..."
"What do you need?" I ask, lifting my head.
"Both of you. I need both of you. Please, Daddy..."
The word sends a jolt through me as I release her wrists and move to the other side of the bed.
Jett shifts, pulling her with him and positioning her on her side while staying inside her, spooning her from behind with his hand gripping her hip.
I lift her top leg and position myself at her entrance from the front.
"Relax, baby," I whisper against her lips. "Let us in. Let us fill you completely."
I push inside.
She screams. It's a sound of overwhelming fullness, of being stretched beyond anything she thought she could take. Jett is still inside her, and now I am too, the pressure immense, her body tight and hot and perfect around us both.
"Good girl," Jett pants against her neck. "So fucking good. Look at you, taking us both like you were made for it."
We move carefully at first, finding a rhythm. When I push in, Jett pulls back, and when he thrusts deep, I hold still and let her feel every inch. She's sobbing and crying, milk leaking from her breasts in steady streams that coat her chest and our hands.
"You're ours," I growl. "This body, this milk, this heart. Everything."
"Yes," she cries. "Yours. Both of yours. Forever."
I feel her tightening, the flutter of her orgasm building around my cock and around Jett's, her body trying to milk us both at once.
""Come for us now, baby," I growl against her mouth. "Let go. We've got you."
She shatters.
The orgasm rips through her, violent and consuming, her scream muffled against my shoulder as her body convulses and her inner walls pulse around us both.
Jett curses, thrusting deep as he comes with a groan that sounds like surrender, and I follow seconds later, burying myself to the hilt and flooding her with everything I have.
We stay like that, connected and locked together, sweating and shaking and breathing hard.
Then I pull out slowly, and Jett does the same. We arrange her on her back with her legs trembling and her chest heaving, her eyes glazed and delirious. She looks well-fucked and claimed, like she's ours.
We clean her with warm cloths from the bathroom, gentle and thorough.
Jett finds her clothes and helps her into them while I hold her steady.
She's limp, barely able to keep her eyes open, her body still trembling with aftershocks.
I lift her easily and carry her to the couch against the office wall, settling her into the soft leather.
Jett drapes a blanket over her shoulders, tucking it around her legs.
She sinks into the cushions, drowsy and warm, her hair tangled across her forehead, her lips slightly parted.
She looks small. Safe. Ours.
I look at Jett. He meets my eyes and nods once.
We kneel beside the couch, one on each side of her. I reach into my pocket and pull out the small black box. Jett pulls out his.
Her eyes focus slowly on the boxes, and she stops breathing.
"Jolie," I say, my voice thick and rough. "I didn't plan to do this tonight. I planned to wait until you were sure. But I'm done waiting. Marry us."
Jett opens his box, revealing a platinum band, simple and strong. "No more thirty days or countdown," he says. "Just forever. Say yes, sunshine. Say you're ours."
She looks at the rings, then at us, tears spilling down her temples and into her hair.
"Yes," she whispers, then louder. "Yes. I'm yours. Forever."
We both reach for her left hand at the same time. Jett slides the platinum band onto her ring finger first, and I slide the diamond next to it, the two rings stacking perfectly together as they catch the light. She looks down at them, then back at us, tears still streaming.
"Forever," I say against her lips.
"Forever," Jett echoes, kissing her shoulder.
She closes her eyes and smiles, the first smile without fear or apology or hidden doubt. Just love. Pure and simple and finally hers.
We lift her from the couch and carry her back to the bed.
This time is different and slower. We undress her again, peeling away the layers with reverence instead of hunger.
Jett kisses her throat while I worship her breasts, lapping gently at her swollen nipples and drinking her in with the patience she never got from us before.
When I enter her, it's unhurried, deep and rolling, with Jett at her back pressed against her, his hands spanning her stomach as he rocks into her from behind.
We move together like water, endless and soft, claiming her not with force but with permanence.
She comes quietly, shuddering between us, and we follow, spilling into her with her name on our lips, sealing the promise we just made.
We stay wrapped around her, our hands linked over her heart, the rings catching the lamplight. The restaurant doesn't matter anymore, nor the empire or the walls I built to keep people out. None of it was real. Just this, just her, just us.
She looks up at me with those hazel eyes, and I see the truth there. She's ours completely, and she knows it now.
I tilt her chin up. "I love you," I say, and it's the easiest thing I've ever said.
Jett echoes it against her skin.
She doesn't have to say it back. We already know. We always have.
She's ours, and we're hers, and tomorrow we start counting forever.