It happened so quickly that Damon couldn't even figure out when it happened. One moment, he was looking at his brothers from far away. The next, he was back with them, back where he belonged. His brother's banter faded slightly as he watched them; Kennick had waved for a round of shots, a belated celebration of Cristov's big news.
Family forgives. Family accepts. Family will let you come home.
Maybe not all families, but Damon's family.
And that was all that mattered.
46
While Damon was patching things up with his brothers, Tricia was catching up with her best friends. She and Damon had checked out of their hotel early and gotten a room in the same hotel as everyone else. Kim and Tricia were enjoying makeshift cocktails from the mini-fridge while Ricky downed an apple cider vinegar concoction that made Tricia gag from across the room.
"It's good for me," Ricky insisted, though she grimaced with each sip.
"Says who?" Kim challenged.
"The internet," Ricky said. Tricia eyed her friend, who wasn't showing yet. Ricky said she was two months in.
"Soon enough, you're going to look like a watermelon with legs," Tricia mused.
"Well, hopefully my new boobs come in before that," Ricky said, rising and going to the mirror beside the bathroom. She pushed up from below on her meager chest, giving herself cleavage that would disappear as soon as she let go. She looked back at the girls with her eyebrows raised. "What do you think?"
"I don't know, you might not like the back pain that comes with it," Kim said, arching her own back. Tricia nodded her agreement.
"But I'm sure Cristov will appreciate it," she said, waggling her eyebrows.
"Please," Ricky said, flouncing back to sit on the bed. "Have you seen what boobs look like after breastfeeding? I'll probably scare him off every time I take my shirt off … "
"Oh, come on," Kim said, rolling her eyes. "Cristov would screw you if you were forty pounds overweight and had a lazy eye."
"That's true," Ricky said, primly. She glanced over at Tricia, a wicked grin on her face. "So, what's with you and the lug?"
Tricia smiled right back.
"He's a good man," she said. "Must run in the family."
"Well, he might be good in some ways, but he can't organize a bookshelf to save his life," Ricky said. Tricia's brow furrowed in confusion, and Kim shot Ricky a look.
"He is a good man," Kim said, leaning in to Tricia. "Intense, though, right?"
"Kind of," Tricia said. "But then again, he's always making those jokes. It kind of takes the edge off."
"If you can even call them jokes," Ricky said. "He must have something else to take the edge off if you put up with those all the time … "
Kim stifled a giggle and Tricia threw a pillow at Ricky, feeling like she was slipping back into their lives – seamless, sure, and steady. The feeling was very welcome.
"I don't know," Tricia said, looking down into her drink and smiling. She shrugged. "I think I love him. I mean … I do. But that's crazy, I've known him like five minutes … "
Kim put her hand up to stop Tricia's sentence. "We know the drill, Trish. You can't surprise us with what those boys can make you feel."
"So you approve?" Tricia asked, the question seeming to come from nowhere. She hadn't meant to ask it, hadn't even thought that their approval would matter to her. But she had asked it, and now she waited with surprisingly bated breath for the response.
"Duh," Ricky said. "You can date whoever you want as long as he makes you happy. And if the person you date happens to keep you close to us … well, that's even better."
Kim nodded along, and Tricia smiled. But that opened up a whole new issue. She had missed her friends, but she still didn't quite feel prepared to go back to Kingdom. It had been so hard to be there, and this trip had proved to be more stressful than relaxing. She didn't feel like she was in any better shape than she was when she left.
But her friends wanted her home; that much was clear. Kim must have noticed the bittersweet nature of her smile, because when she spoke again, her voice was soft.
"Why did you go with him, Trish?"
Tricia sighed. She knew why. She didn't want to hurt the girls, though. They'd worked hard to make her homecoming pleasant.
"I didn't feel good in Kingdom," she said. "I loved being with you again, I missed you so much … but I just didn't feel like I was home. I felt like I was a stranger in my own town. And it just felt … wrong."
Ricky nodded.
"Do you feel like you can come home now?" she asked. Tricia looked up at her and shrugged.
"I don't know – not … not really," she admitted, worried about how her friends would react. To her surprise, though, Ricky just smiled.
"Well, whenever you do feel ready, we'll be there," she said, reaching out to cover Tricia's hand with her own. "But you sure as hell better come back when this little womb-goblin decides it wants a taste of fresh air."
Kim's nose scrunched in horror.
"Womb goblin? Geeze, Ricky … "
Tricia collapsed into laughter, relieved and grateful all at the same time. It was all she needed to hear. Now, she just had to find out how to tell Damon …
Well, she could think of at least one way to soften that blow.
47
"How did it go?"
He heard Tricia's voice call from the bathroom as the door shut behind him.
"Well," he said. "Very … very well."
"Oh, that's so good," she called.
She heard the clunk of keys hitting wood, pictured him emptying his pockets. She took one last look at herself in the mirror, turning, seeing herself the way he saw her. She knew she really shouldn't tax his body more than it already was. He could still rip his stitches. But she planned on doing all the work, and she never had managed to repay him for that night in the tent. She smiled.
"Fuck," he muttered as she walked out of the bathroom. She was naked, her skin slightly dewy, her hourglass figure on full display. The blush on her cheeks only made her more enticing as she stood in the doorway, leaning one hip against the frame, curves like a racetrack – and his heart was her very own racecar.
"That's the plan," she said, eyes lidded as she walked towards him. He was still standing in front of the little wooden hotel table, and as she approached he spread his arms out, wanting to feel her bare flesh, her feminine warmth. She slipped into his embrace but busied her hands at the bottom of his shirt, pulling upwards until he was bare-chested, his torso of tattoos and old scars and the bandage cutting across it all exposed to her lips.
She started to kiss his collarbone, her hands on his waist, her lips moving downward steadily. She could feel the stiffening of his spine, his blood pulsing; she skipped over the bandage, kneeling before him.
"Wait," he said, holding her shoulders and looking down. "You don't need to … "
"I want to," she cooed, looking up at him. "I want to taste you too, Damon. Don't be selfish."
He bit back a smile, then a groan, as she undid the button of his jeans while licking down his taut stomach, dipping into his bellybutton and then following the light trail of hair downward. Her knees hit the floor as his jeans hit his ankles, and he was firm before her, throbbing and hard. She kissed his thighs, pulling down his boxers until he was fully unclothed.
She kept kissing all up his thighs and in the warm crook where his legs met while her hand traced the length of him, her fingernails only barely raking along the soft, silky flesh. She let her tongue trace up the side of his thigh to the base of his shaft, and then up the length of him to the swollen head. He shuddered as she licked back down, teasing him slowly, feeling the knots in his thighs as she held herself up against them.
"Tricia … " he moaned as she drew her tongue along the bottom, back to the head, where she just barely flicked her tongue, catching a drop of pre-cum from the tip. She licked her lips with it, leaned in and spread herself around him, feeling the throb of his desire as she sucked on the head of his cock, tracing her tongue around the rim and flicking over the tip. Her hand gripped the base of his cock, squeezing gently, then firmly, then gently again.
His hips jerked once, and she moved in closer, taking another inch of him into her mouth, letting her tongue bathe him in warmth and press against the veiny underside. She felt his hand fall to her head, burying itself in her hair, as she leaned in, taking him inch by inch, as far as it could go – which still left a few inches in her hand. She began to bob her head back and forth on his cock, using the slickness of her mouth to lubricate the base.