Chapter 23

A knock sounded on the office door.  The owner looked up from his desk and the papers he was perusing . “Come in,” he ordered.


The door opened to reveal his youngest son, “Hi dad.”


He raised a questioning eyebrow, “Isn’t it still too early for you to be up? What are you doing here son?”


The door opened wider, letting him know that his son wasn’t alone. The other young man gave him a polite smile before he said, “Forgive me sir, but I think it’s important that we had a serious talk. There’s something you should know.”


Judging from the look on the young man’s face, he knew it had to be serious and it needed to be taken care of immediately. Nodding, he gathered up the papers and cleared his desk, saying, “Very well, why don’t you two come on in and have a seat.”


As his son took a seat, the other young man closed the door before taking his own seat, waiting for his word to begin.

He sat back in his chair and looked from one to the other, before settling on the young man, “So, what is so important that has the two of you out of bed so early on this fine Sunday morning?”


“I saw something last night. Something that affects all of us,” began the young man.


He frowned, “All of us?”


He nodded, “Yes, especially your eldest daughter…”

“Alex? You awake?” I heard Jonathan’s husky voice whispering in my ear, even as his fingers skimmed down my arm.

I sighed, “Yeah.”

He chuckled, “You sound so disappointed, beautiful.”

“Mm, well I was having this really wonderful dream.”

“Were you?” he asked as his lips pressed kisses along my shoulder and up my neck.

“Mm, hm.”

As his lips skimmed my ear, he whispered, “Do tell.”

I sighed, “I dreamed I had gone to the prom with my boyfriend and afterwards, he surprised me by taking me to this beautiful hotel suite.” I felt him chuckle as he continued to kiss my skin, “Then he bathed me and later we made love in this huge soft bed surrounded by candlelight, roses, champagne, strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream.”

Jonathan pulled away slightly and rolled me onto my back, saying, “Is that so?”

I opened my eyes and looked up at him. Smiling, I turned my head to take in the view of the bedroom and the reminders of the night before, “Oh! It wasn’t a dream!”

Jonathan grinned at my wide eyes and innocent look, “No beautiful. That sounded way too good to be a dream.”

I laughed at his smugness and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, “Hm, you’re right, it was way too good.” I pulled him down for a kiss, enjoying the feel of him against the entire length of my body.

With a groan, Jonathan pulled his lips from mine, “I thought we’d order some breakfast and enjoy ourselves for a bit before I take you back to Sarah’s.”

I smiled and nodded my assent as I murmured, “And the dream continues.”

After Jonathan and I ordered room service and sat out on the balcony wrapped up in the bed sheets eating breakfast, we took a shower together.

Like the night before, we took turns bathing each other with the sponge, but unlike the night before, one thing led to another. Soon, my arms and legs were wrapped around Jonathan’s body as he held me up against the wall, taking his time thrusting into me.

His tongue swirled over my nipples, teasing and tasting, driving me wild. I dug my nails into his skin as I arched my body trying to drive my breasts into his mouth and his cock deeper inside me.

“God, Jonathan!” I moaned in frustration as I desperately tried to reach the end.

His answering moan came with the mumbled words against my chest, “Soon beautiful, soon.”

Just as I was beginning to think Jonathan was going to drive me insane with the wanting, he pressed me harder against the wall and slid one hand between our bodies. Quickly finding my bundle of nerves, he pressed and caressed, sending me over the edge with a scream.

My body gripped his in a vise like grip and it was more than enough to take him over with me. He tossed his head back and yelled my name as he released himself, “Alex! Yes!”

I held him tight, milking him with my walls as he shuddered in completion. He leaned against me, his face in my neck as he tried to regain some composure. Smiling with satisfaction, I slid my fingers through his wet hair. “Mm, I think I’m ready for a nap now, think we could stay here for another day?” I asked.

He chuckled against my neck, “Sounds great, beautiful, but I don’t think we should risk it.”

I sighed, “You’re right.”

Jonathan stepped back and allowed me to put my feet down before letting me go. He turned off the shower and reached out for the towels, handing me one to dry off with.

Sarah grinned as Jonathan and I walked up the steps into her house. Giving me a hug she asked, “So? It was everything you’d dream it would be, right?”

I laughed, “Let me guess, you knew what Jonathan was gonna do?”

Sarah nodded as her eyes widened in innocence, “But I swear I just found out earlier this morning from Darryl!”

I quirked an eyebrow, “He’s here?”

Her dazzling smile was all the answer I needed.

She hugged Jonathan as he asked if she’d enjoyed what Darryl had planned for them, to which she’d replied, “Oh, yeah. He definitely knew exactly what I’d been dreaming of.”

Jonathan chuckled as the three of us made our way into her house to the living room, where Darryl was currently lounging on the couch.

He grinned at us when we came in, “Hey bro, I see you managed to keep it together and stayed out of trouble.”

Jonathan rolled his eyes, “Yes, Darryl I did.”

I giggled, “He most certainly made sure that we forgot all about that part of the night and gave me one of the best nights of my life!”

Darryl  nodded, “Good. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, Alex.” He grinned at Jonathan as he asked me, “So, he’s still managing to sweep you off your feet huh? Guess there’s no chance of you running back to your fiancé, huh?”

Jonathan narrowed his eyes at Darryl as I swatted his arm, “What a thing to say! Didn’t I just say Jonathan managed to make me forget about that fiasco? And here you go and bring it up again!”

“Yeah, there you go!” said Sarah as she swatted Darryl’s arm too.

“Ouch!”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “I didn’t hit you that hard!”

“Yes, you did. Ouch! What was that for bro?” he asked when Jonathan had swatted his other arm.

Jonathan grinned, “I just didn’t want to feel left out.”

As Darryl gave him a ‘you’re insane’ look, Sarah started laughing and swatted his arm again.

This time Darryl returned the swat and soon the four of us were laughing and wrestling on the floor like ten year olds.

Jonathan and I stood just inside the door, his arms wrapped around my waist as he deepened the goodbye kiss. My arms were around his shoulders, one hand in his hair. We had been saying goodbye for the last ten minutes and still Jonathan hadn’t left.

I pulled away for some air, my face still close enough to feel his breath against my skin. Looking into his eyes I said once more, “Thank you, for everything, Jonathan.”

“You’re very welcome beautiful.” murmured Jonathan as he took my lips in his again.

Sarah huffed from the living room, “Okay! That is it! You two have been saying goodbye for the last twelve minutes! Darryl has been long gone and I’m getting lonely over here! Jonathan, girlfriend, you have got to leave so Alex and I can have our girl time before she has to go home!”

Jonathan pouted at Sarah, “What, I can’t join in on the girl time?”

Sarah shook her head, “Nuh, uh. This is the time for Alex and I to trade stories about our boyfriends.”

“But you said I was a ‘girlfriend’.”

“Oh, now you wanna claim ‘girlfriend’ status just ‘cause it gets you closer to Alex!” She rolled her eyes, “I swear, Darryl’s right. You guys are a step away from being joined at the hip!”

I giggled at the banter between Sarah and Jonathan before leaning over to nuzzle my boyfriend’s cheek. “Sarah’s right, handsome. It’s time for you to go.”

He sighed, “Okay, call me later?”

I nodded and gave him a quick kiss on the lips as Sarah started to protest again. I quelled her protest with a look before turning back to Jonathan, “I love you, handsome.”

He grinned, “Love you too, beautiful.”

He let go of me and opened the door as I told him, “Bye Jonathan, I’ll call you later.”

He waved to me as he walked to his car, “I’ll be waiting.”

As Jonathan got into his car, he couldn’t hear Sarah mumble, “Geez, could the man get any more sickeningly sweet?”

I waited until Jonathan had driven away before I turned to Sarah, hands on my hips, “Oh no you don’t girlfriend! I know for a fact that Darryl can get just as sweet as Jonathan and you love every moment of it.”

Sarah opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, and shut her mouth again.

I nodded, “Yeah, I thought so.”

Sarah and I spent a few hours talking about our prom nights over ice cream in her room. She ‘ooh’ed and ‘aww’ed through my narration of the hotel suite and the things Jonathan had done for me. Of course, I didn’t go into detail about what we did exactly, but she knew about the champagne, roses, food, and other items that had made the night so special. I described the room in great detail, especially the tub and bed which I had thought was the softest thing I’d ever slept on. I also told her how we’d woken up to order room service and ate our breakfast out on the balcony.

Sarah told me about the rest of her night with Darryl. They had stayed for another hour after Jonathan and I had left, then they had gone to Darryl’s house. Darryl had decorated the place up for her with candles and daisies spread out through his rooms.

He’d blindfolded her before taking her into the house. Inside, he’d made her sit on the couch until he had lit all of the candles, then he’d taken the blindfold off and allowed her to see what he’d done. Sarah said that she was so overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness that she had burst out crying, which sent Darryl into a panic.

She had ended up laughing at his scared expressions and they’d kissed as she told him over and over again how happy he’d made her.

Darryl had made Sarah lie on her stomach in the middle of the bed and he’d given her a body rub. She said that by the time Darryl had finished the entire session, she’d been purring like a contented kitten. And she’d been horny as hell.

Needless to say, after that, she and Darryl had spent the rest of their time wrapped up in each others arms.

She had loved waking up in his arms that morning, saying that both she and Darryl admitted to have missed that from when we all were at the beach house. I told her that Jonathan complained about that all the time ever since we had returned from that Spring Break. He never missed a chance to tell me how much he missed waking up with me besides him.

So prom night and the morning after was definitely a pleasure for all four of us. I had woken up in Jonathan’s arms and Sarah had woken up in Darryl’s. Then, Darryl had cooked breakfast for the two of them while she had showered. After they had eaten, Darryl took his shower as Sarah cleaned up the kitchen.

They had returned to her house soon after that and cuddled on the couch, making out until Jonathan and I had shown up. That last bit had made me laugh and once again I pointed out that even she and Darryl could get sickly sweet just as much as Jonathan and I could.

It was nearly six in the evening when I returned to my house. My father had told me to return home by six p.m. on Sunday and I’d managed to make it a few minutes earlier than that.

The house was pretty quiet when I entered and I knew no one was home since most of the cars were not in the driveway. All I saw was mom’s car, but usually she and dad would take the same car if they were spending most of the day together.

I closed the front door and made my way through the house, heading for my room. I wouldn’t have minded if anyone had been home. The only one that would have bothered me was Kevin, so I was extremely thankful his car wasn’t there.

Opening the door to my bedroom, I stepped inside and tossed my bag on the bed. As I turned to close the door, the light came on and my father stood just behind the door, glaring at me.

I let out a startled yelp and clutched my chest, “God, dad! You scared me! What are you doing here in the dark?”

His eyes narrowed as he responded, “Waiting for you.”

I frowned, “Something wrong?”

He moved away from the door and sat in one of my chairs against the wall, “Why don’t you tell me.”

“What? Nothing’s wrong, at least not that I know of.”

“Is that so, Alexandria Renee McCain?”

The tone of his voice and the fact that he’d just used my full name told me that he knew something and he was just about to tell me.

I stared at him for a moment as it began to dawn on me, what my father could be upset about. I had almost forgotten about the fiasco of the night before.

“Seems that we’ve all been a little too trusting with you. And once again, you went and made all of us look bad, including your fiancé!”

Taking a deep breath, I looked him in the eye and said, “Mark is not my fiancé.”

“You are getting married in June! How can he not be your fiancé?”

“I’m not marrying Mark, dad. We’ve been over this before.” I kept my voice neutral, hoping that it would keep my father from going off on a tangent. Luck wasn’t with me at that point.

“Oh yes you are!” he bellowed, “Your mother and I have bent over backwards planning this wedding of yours! We’ve done everything to make sure it all goes smoothly and we’ve been doing our best to keep the O’Connors calm and happy! Then what do you go and do? I had to find this out from Mark! Your fiancé! How dare you go to the prom with someone else! How dare you make him look bad in front of all of those people! You know they are going to talk! And now I’m going to have to bend over backwards again to clean up this mess you’ve made! You should be the one over there apologizing to the O’Connor’s for humiliating them like that! You better be glad Mark is willing to overlook this latest fiasco of yours! Let’s just hope his parents are that understanding!”

“What! Don’t you get it! I. Am. Not. Going. To. Marry. Mark!” I yelled, punctuating each word with a stomp of my foot.

“You WILL marry Mark and you WILL stop gallivanting around town with those deadbeat friends of yours! Do I make myself clear?”

This time I narrowed my eyes at him and growled, “NO!”

He stood there stunned for a moment before he answered my growl, “What did you just say?”

I shook my head, “No! I will not marry Mark and I will not stop seeing my friends. You can’t run my life for me! Neither can Mark! I will not become a pawn for either of you!”

“You don’t even know what you are getting yourself into! How can you believe those friends of yours even like you! Don’t you know they are just using you! They are after your money and anything else they know they can get from you! You need to stop being so gullible and open your eyes, Alexandria!”

“My eyes are wide open! It’s yours that are closed! You won’t even see what a jerk Mark is!”

“You will not talk about him that way!”

I growled, “God, dad! Stop for a minute and think, if Mark told you I went to the prom with someone else, how did he know? Unless he was there too! He was dad! With another girl.”

“Can you blame him for taking another date when his own fiancé refused to go with him?”

“Dad! He slept with her! He’s slept with others too! Mark has never been faithful to me! Don’t you get that!”

“This wouldn’t be happening if you wouldn’t keep turning him away!”

My jaw dropped open at that, “What?”

“If you had stayed with him in the first place, he wouldn’t be turning to others!”

I growled, “If he’s so gung ho on walking around and claiming that I’m his fiancé, the least he could do is act like it. Instead, he’s sleeping with every girl who opens her legs for him!”

Without warning, the flat of my father’s palm connected with my cheek. I stumbled against the side of the bed and covered my reddened cheek with my hand, looking up at him. I was completely stunned.

My father didn’t even bat an eyelash as he spoke in a commanding voice, “You are grounded. For the rest of the school year! You will go to school and come straight home. You will not talk to anyone, you will not hang out with anyone. You will apologize to Mark and his parents for everything you’ve done to embarrass them. In time you will realize that your so called friends were just using you. I know their kind Alexandria. All they want is to seduce you into giving them whatever they want. And you played right into their hands. Through you they would have gotten all of my money and they would have tried to take everything else from me. You are too naïve to see it!”

As tears of frustration welled in my eyes, I whispered, “Jonathan wasn’t using me! He loves me! Why can’t you understand? Jonathan is…”

“Not another word, Alexandria! You have no idea what that man is capable of! He’s old enough to know how to seduce young, naïve girls like you.”

I shook my head, “No, Jonathan wouldn’t do that. Dad, listen to me! He’s not who you think! Jonathan is the son of…”

“Enough Alexandria!” He roared. “I will not tolerate any more back talk from you! I’ve said my piece and you WILL do as I say this time or I will lock you in this room until the day of the wedding! Don’t you dare leave this room!” With that, he stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving me in silence.

I stood in the middle of my bedroom, letting my hand finally slip away from my tender cheek. As I let my gaze wander over every thing in the room, I knew there wasn’t anything else left to do. My father wasn’t even going to give me the chance to explain. He wasn’t even going to listen to the truth about Jonathan or Mark. Nothing I could ever say would ever change his mind.

I sighed and walked over to the bag on the bed. Opening it up, I began putting other things into it and packed two more bags full of all the things I couldn’t leave behind. Once I was done packing, I picked up the phone on the nightstand and dialed the number, waiting until I heard his voice.

“Hello?”

“Jonathan? I need you to come get me.”

“What? Alex, you okay?”

My lips trembled as a sob escaped, “He wouldn’t listen. He wouldn’t let me explain. There’s no other way out Jonathan. Please, come get me. I’m already packed.”

There was a moment of silence before he said, “Okay. I’m on my way, beautiful.”

I nodded as I heard the dial tone and set the phone back in the cradle. Turning around, I surveyed the room once more. I slowly sat on the edge of the bed as tears began to fall freely down my cheeks.