Gifted Connections 04 Read online

  I sighed and put the present I had been wrapping off to the side. “At her. Not him! He’s innocent in all this, and if I had full use of my gifts, I would love to help him out, just as long as I had little to no contact with her.”

  “If you don’t want contact with her, then why are we allowing her to have contact with the kids?” Jace asked drolly.

  “Really,” I groaned. “I already got the third degree from Jemmy and Dawn. I was hoping for a little support from my connections. I formulated my opinions on her. The children should have the right to do the same.”

  “We’ll support whatever decision you make,” Jace stated with a raised brow. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate.”

  “Or maybe you should have talked to us before making that decision,” Remy grumbled. I turned and gaped at him and his lips curved into a mischievous smile. “Remember you’re not fragile and you want us to be open with you.”

  I groaned as I stuck my tongue out at him. “Touché. I am sorry that I didn’t talk to you guys first. She cornered me in the hallway before we were leaving, and I didn’t have the energy to fight her.”

  “We can tell the kids at breakfast tomorrow,” Jace stated as he began to pick up some of the gifts that we had wrapped. We were going to hide them, and on Christmas Eve, after the children went to bed, we were going to drag them all back out.

  “Are you going to make me my favorite white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for Christmas Eve?” Jaxson asked Drake hopefully.

  Since his earlier outburst at the dinner table, Jaxson seemed to be trying to bounce back. He even seemed excited about wrapping gifts. He was mangling the paper, wasting a lot of Scotch tape, and his wrapping skills needed help, but at least he was having a good time doing it.

  “The Christmas cookie list request will be posted tomorrow morning at breakfast,” Drake stated. “I am going to cap it off at eight requests, though, so you better hope you’re not the only one that wants white macadamia nut.”

  I looked up in puzzlement. “Eight? Isn’t that a bit… excessive? Are there even eight different kinds of cookies out there?”

  “Oh Blake,” Troy sighed with laughter lurking in his eyes. “Just wait until you experience Christmas our way. Your mind is going to be blown.”

  I laughed and shook my head.

  “My heart hurts that you’re not a connoisseur of cookies,” Jaxson said dramatically as he gripped his heart and flopped backwards onto the floor. “White chocolate chip macadamia nut, oatmeal raisin, oatmeal raisin with chocolate chips, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, sugar cookies, ginger snaps, gingerbread, almond biscuit, butter cookies, macarons, custard cream,” he rattled off.

  “Lemon drop, caramel pecan,” Troy continued. “Nutella lava, double chocolate chip, chocolate white macadamia nut−.”

  “Okay, okay.” I laughed. “I get the picture. I forgot the magic Drake can make in the kitchen,” I turned and grasped Drake’s face before kissing him lightly on the lips.

  “Just the kitchen?” he murmured wickedly near my ear.

  I seriously loved seeing how deep his still waters ran. Since I finally decided to sleep with him in every sense of the word, I found out that he had a different side to him when it came to bedroom activities.

  I yelped in surprise as I felt him gently pinch my bottom. “No, not just there!”

  Noah groaned. “Am I the only one that missed the days that Drake wasn’t so…open about his sexual depravities?”

  “Speak for yourself,” Jaxson snorted. “I’ve been aware of them for years. You forget Tamara and Rose banded together for a little while there. Tamara used to love to tell me how Drake was an animal in the bedroom.”

  I groaned. “Can we not talk about them?” I noticed Drake had turned red.

  Rose had been claiming that she was carrying his child up until about a week ago. She now forbade Drake to accompany her to any more doctor’s appointments. Drake’s lawyer had already sent her the paperwork requiring the paternity test after the baby was born. Drake had plenty of evidence to her earlier claims, just in case she refused to do it of her own volition. We didn’t think the baby was his, but he wanted to know for his own piece of mind.

  “Well, I’m just as surprised by this new sexual deviant my brother’s turning into,” Troy continued to tease Drake mercilessly.

  “Are we doing our final shopping trip tomorrow?” Jace asked, coming back in the room, oblivious to the previous conversation.

  “I’m done,” Jaxson said smugly.

  “I thought you promised Alex a bike?” Remy asked dryly.

  Jaxson groaned palming his forehead. “I need to get four bikes tomorrow.”

  “You guys have already spoiled them enough!” I exclaimed loudly. “Where can they ride bikes here? You do realize that the whole team is buying them gifts. Not just us.”

  “They deserve it.” Noah shrugged.

  I spread my arms out with the gifts already scattered around us. “They have plenty.”

  “They’re getting bikes,” Jaxson said stubbornly, and I knew I was wasting my breath if I said any more.

  Chapter 4

  The sun felt amazing on my skin. I slowly opened my eyes, and I could smell the ocean breeze in the air. I sat up and looked out the floor to ceiling windows. The sheer white curtains were blowing in the warm morning breeze. It was a perfect day to go surfing, too bad I had to go to work in an hour. I watched the waves crash upon the beach and stretched my bronze, muscular arms.

  I gasped as I looked down at my body. I noticed a silver necklace around my neck with a pendant of the sun and moon on it. I reached down and rubbed muscular pectorals. Where did my breasts go? I stared in confusion, then noticed my mark. It was right above my heart now. Not on the nape of my neck. Whose body was this?

  I slowly kicked my snow-white sheets off my legs, looking at the hair on my thighs and calves. I tried to ignore the bulge in my boxer briefs. I shifted. It was uncomfortable.

  I gulped when I felt a small, dainty white hand reach out to firmly grab it. Her hands were well manicured, and her nail polish was a bright shade of pink. I watched in horror as I continued to grow under her exploring fingers.

  A tousled blonde looked up at me with desire in her eyes. She was beautiful and vaguely familiar. Her color definitely came from a bottle because there was no way her platinum blonde hair was natural. Her face was artfully made with heavy makeup and pink lip gloss.

  “Ready for round four? Or is it five?” She smiled at me with a knowing grin. She looked hungry, like she could swallow me whole.

  I stared down at her in shock as she pulled my boxers down and then wrapped her knowing lips around my hard manhood. Her head bobbed up and down as she licked and sucked on me. I was stunned to find myself continually responding to her as the desire mounted up in me.

  “Oooh, me too!” another gorgeous blonde exclaimed as she sat up on the other side of me. Before I could comprehend what was going on, she was pulling my shoulders back so that I was now looking at the ceiling, and before I could stop her, she was straddling my face.

  I sat up with a gasp. Warm arms encircled me. Warm, muscular, olive toned arms. “Bad dream?” Troy’s smooth as silk voice asked as he stroked the exposed skin of my waist.

  I looked over at my alarm clock; it was nine o’clock in the morning. Not only had I slept in, but that was one of the most bizarre dreams I have ever had. I scooted closer to Troy’s warm body and felt his morning rise, literally.

  “I was a man. I was darker than you, and my mark wasn’t in the right place. I was on the beach. I could smell the ocean. I could hear it. I felt the warm breeze,” I paused for a moment. “And I wasn’t alone. I had one girl going down on me and another that…” I swallowed against the sudden thickness in my throat.

  “And…?” Troy prodded me. I could hear the amusement and interest in his voice.

  “And another girl that was straddling my face.” I was glad he couldn’t see the warmth flooding my cheeks
from the night light that illuminated my dark, windowless room.

  Ever since the attack by Bradford, I had been unable to sleep without a nightlight. I knew it was silly and somewhat irrational, but it comforted me. I never suffered from panic attacks before, and I had been molested and assaulted a few times over the years. Ever since Bradford’s attempt at attacking me in the darkness of the laundry room, I hated the dark. It physically immobilized me, and I was unable to think or rationalize anything when I didn’t have even a little bit of light.

  When I was conscious, the dark didn’t bother me, but it was in those waking moments that I suffered from the effects of my attack.

  “Mmm,” Troy moaned. “Are you trying to tell me that you would like to straddle my face?”

  His warm lips and knowing hands started to dispel my dream and my dark thoughts. He wasted no time finding the warmth between my thighs, and I was slightly embarrassed to realize I was already wet. I knew it wasn’t all Troy that had made my body react.

  He chuckled sleepily once more. “Did that dream excite you?” He asked as he threw a bare leg over one of my own. He continued to use his hands and mouth, working me to a near frenzy.

  Then suddenly he was on his back. “Come ride my face” he commanded me gently.

  I bit my bottom lip. My guys had gone down on me, and I had gone down on them, but I had never straddled their faces. I felt horribly self-conscious. “I don’t want to suffocate you,” I blurted out.

  He chuckled once more. “Come on, honey, I promise you won’t suffocate me.”

  Facing the foot of the bed, I tentatively got into position and immediately forgot my misgivings as his mouth found me. I sighed and moaned simultaneously. This was definitely an excellent way to wake up. He continued to work me, and I leaned forward, eager to get a taste of him as well. I could taste the moisture on the tip of his manhood and made another satisfied sound at the back of my throat. I felt him moan against me as I grabbed him and moved my hand in the same rhythm as my mouth.

  I felt the warmth begin to spread from my toes to my head. I was so close to finding nirvana. I started to work my hips on him as I worked him faster in my mouth. I wanted to prolong our pleasure but found my body tensing up as I felt my release coming. I cried out just as I felt his thighs tense up under my hands.

  “I’m going to come,” he warned me.

  “Go ahead,” I bade him as I went as far down as I could go, feeling him hit the back of my throat. I felt his warmth fill my mouth and heard his moans and grunts of release.

  I placed a plate of over-easy eggs, bacon, and toast in front of Troy before I took my seat next to him at the table. We had taken a shower after another satisfying round of making love. Then I began breakfast, since we missed it. He had pulled out his laptop after I made us coffee. He always made mine perfectly, with just the right amount of cream and sugar.

  He closed his laptop as I sat down. He looked pensive for a moment before he cut the edges away from his eggs. “What time of day was it in your dream?”

  I looked up at him in surprise, forgetting about it momentarily. “Morning,” I answered after taking a bite of a piece of bacon. “I wanted to go surfing, but I had to be at work in an hour. Why?”

  “You said your mark was on your chest. Do you know what you did for a living? Where you were going?” he asked, avoiding my question.

  Slowly, realization dawned. I felt idiotic for not connecting the dots earlier. “You think I jumped him, don’t you?”

  He nodded slowly.

  “That would explain so much.” Then I snorted. “My mystery connection is a man whore. He had not one but two women in his bed. Beautiful blondes…” I suddenly leaped for his laptop. “Good news is, I’m probably not his type,” I said cryptically.

  Troy laughed, but I could hear the unease in his laughter. “Not all men have a type. You do realize that… well, never mind.” He coughed. “What are you looking for?”

  I forgot about the fact I was probably not my other connections’ type. The implication that he was justifying the other man’s actions indicated he had engaged in similar activities. I paused, my mouth agape.

  “You have!” I accused him, slightly surprised and…jealous. “You’ve had a threesome!” I paused again, deep in thought for a second. “I bet Jaxson, Noah, and Remy have, too. Maybe Jace…” My voice trailed off.

  If truth be told, I’ve had a threesome with Remy and Jace as well, but they were my connections. I hadn’t tag-teamed another guy with another girl. I knew I was being hypocritical, and mostly it was the same.

  I got over myself quickly. I really had no business getting upset or jealous. They were mine now. The past belonged in the past. If it didn’t affect our present, then I needed to let it go.

  “What are you looking for?” Troy squirmed uneasily.

  “Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. “I know you have. You were single and fulfilling most men’s fantasies.” I sniffed with a smile. “Not what, who. The girl in my dream was familiar. She’s famous. I just don’t where or when I’ve seen her before.”

  He placed his now broken egg on a piece of buttered toast. “So, Otto travels in celebrity circles,” Troy said thoughtfully.

  “Otto?” I asked in confusion as I broke my own egg and dipped my toast in the yolk.

  I waited for the page on the laptop to load. Sometimes the Wi-Fi down here sucked. It would be just my luck when I was looking up something of importance and the darn thing lagged.

  “Eight in Italian,” he smiled wryly. “Might as well give the guy a name. Hope he likes it when we meet him.”

  I laughed even though the situation was beyond messed up.

  I could either cry over the rain, or I could put on my rain boots and learn how to play in it. “Think he’ll be upset if we continue to call him Otto even after we meet him?”

  He threw his head back in laughter. I couldn’t imagine sitting here with Remy or Jaxson right now and making a big joke of it all; they were taking this situation way worse.

  “I don’t care,” Troy said. “I’ll call him Otto until I feel like he’s earned his name.”

  I leaned forward to kiss his mouth. “Thank you, I needed some comic relief in the middle of this sucky situation. Jaxson isn't his normal self, and Noah still thinks I’m going to pull a Snow White again.”

  He laughed once more. “We are your six of the seven dwarfs, but I don’t like the idea of Otto being your Prince Charming.”

  I grimaced at the similarity. My gifts were dying, and I needed to find him to “live” again. “Noah has to be Doc, Drake is Bashful, Remy is definitely Grumpy,” I mused aloud.

  “Jace can be Sneezy.” At my look of confusion he explained with a smirk, “You haven’t seen him in allergy season yet. Let’s see… Jaxson is Dopey, so that leaves Happy and Sleepy. I call Happy!”

  I laughed once more and noticed my page finally came up. I groaned. “There are too many blonde famous people.”

  “Here.” He motioned to me to hand the laptop. “I’ll search. You eat.”

  I shrugged. “I won’t complain,” I joked.

  “When you say famous, did you think she was a model or an actress?” Troy asked as he started to click away on the laptop.

  I closed my eyes and tried to imagine her face and body once more. I groaned. “Why couldn’t Jemmy, Dawn, or Rachel have seen her? They would have known exactly who she was.” They were notorious for subscribing to every gossip rag and Cosmo issue known to man. “I don’t think she was a model. Her tatas were too big and fake, and I really didn’t get a good look at the other girl before she was mounting my face.”

  Troy spit out the coffee he had been drinking. He coughed violently as he laughed. “A little warning next time!”

  I giggled impishly as I took a sip of my own coffee.

  “Ugh! I give up,” I groaned as I closed the last magazine I had gotten my hands on. I had gone up to Jemmy, Rachel, and Dawn’s room and got all the magazines they had of gossi
p rags, and I still couldn’t find the mystery girl in my dream.

  Of course, the girls had insisted on coming back to the apartment with me, so now there were at least forty magazines spread across our living room floor. Jaxson had also joined the party once I gave him the very basics of my dream. I omitted the fact that I was engaged in sexual behavior with two blonde females.

  “Maybe she’s a ‘B’ rated actress,” Rachel said sympathetically.

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “I feel like I’ve recently seen her in a movie, something I watched with you girls.”

  “We can binge watch all the movies we’ve recently watched,” Jemmy suggested as she continued to flip through one of the magazines we’d already gone through.

  “That would take forever,” I groaned. Being confined to my bed had given me little else to do. I often had company, so we had watched a lot of movies.

  “Hey, isn’t this the girl you dated?” Jaxson held up the magazine he had been leafing through.

  Troy shot him an irritated look. “What of it Jax? Blake knows I have a past. Shall I pull out your high school yearbook?”

  Jaxson laughed mischievously. I climbed up on his lap and immediately noticed the girl was a brunette, so I barely spared her a glance. There was no use comparing an ex to me. “Always have to be stirring trouble,” I said quietly to him.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been myself lately,” he murmured as he leaned me forward and began rubbing my neck and shoulders.

  “Mmm,” I moaned in bliss. It felt amazing. “I understand,” I said placatingly. “It bites knowing Otto is out there, and we are happy just the way we are.”

  “Otto?” Dawn asked with an arched brow.

  I laughed. “Troy and I have decided to call him Otto, Eight until he is worthy of a name.”

  I had my eyes closed so I could enjoy my impromptu massage, but I heard the laughter around me. “Done deal!” Jemmy crowed in laughter.

  “I’m sure he’ll be as thrilled as Ma,” Rachel giggled in her hands.

  Jemmy was known to push buttons, and the moment we found out that Pops and Megan were back together again, Jemmy asked Megan what she would like to be called: Megan, Aunt Megan, or Ma. Megan said Megan or Aunt Megan, and needless to say, Jemmy now called her Ma. To make matters worse, Rachel, Dawn, Marcel, Noah, and Troy also called her Ma now, too. She learned quickly just to accept it. You couldn’t show any weakness around these sharks.