The Twelve Zenati Pt. 13

"First thing's first," he reminded himself out loud. "You have a plan for today; you just need to stick to it." He sent up another prayer that nothing unexpected would pop up in their lives today.

*****

"Hey," Genesis said with a smile waking up to find the beautiful woman beside him nuzzling his neck and purring happily. "How did you sleep?"

"Like a baby," she grinned.

"Waking and needing attention every couple of hours?" he teased knowing how restless her night had been. He was a light sleeper and had gathered her half-asleep form to him as she wrestled with her fears and excitement about today.

"No," she laughed shaking her head. She saw the doubting look in his eyes and admitted, "I only woke up once or twice and went straight back to sleep," she knew from past experience the look in his eyes that told her he would accept only the truth from her and be able to tell if she lied to him.

Genesis rolled her to her back pinning her to the mattress and stared into her eyes, trying to read her thoughts. He knew she was happy about the move and wanted to live with him in his apartment, away from the constant interruptions that plagued them here as people came and went from their suite of rooms as if they too lived there. He could also see anxiousness in her expression, fear of the unknown perhaps. Their whole relationship had been conducted during her recovery and now that she was healed both physically and mentally, although not to the same degree, it was time for them to start fresh somewhere new and build a real life together on top of the foundation they had formed in this place.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked in a soft deep voice.

"More than ready," she smiled. "I love you and want to be with you in your home, not here in a place that belongs to the whole family."

"It will be our home, not my home," he kissed her deeply and possessively. "We will still live in close proximity to our siblings, but they will have to knock before entering which will be a nice change. It also means I can keep you naked as often as I like just to watch you move that sexy little body and show off the marks you wear so well for me." He traced a line over a faint round bruise where he had bitten her breast the night before.

"I like the marks you give me," she sighed with pleasure as he bent his head and took a nipple into his mouth to suck and nibble on.

"I'm not going to mark you this morning, I want a well-rested pristine canvas to paint on the first night in our home together," he murmured heatedly into her mouth and took her lips again, kissing away the pout that warmed him from the inside out. She was his perfect mate. She beguiled and enraptured him each and every day with her willingness to meet his darkness with her own. He rolled his hips, repositioning his cock and entered her slowly, revelling in the fact that she was always wet and ready for him.

Olivia mewled with need as he entered her and curled her legs around his hips urging him to go faster and harder with her body. She arched and strained up against him, her hips rocking, but he was immovable from the slow, languorous pace with which he took her. She mewled and panted her need begging him over and over again, "Please, more, please..."

Genesis fought the urge to slam into her and lowered his head, licking over the bruise on her breast reminding himself of the afternoon and evening he had planned for her. If only she knew the delightful, painful pleasures that awaited her and how he would bring her to the cresting highs she longed for from him. He kept up the slow and steady pace despite her pleas which sang in his ears and the urging of the perfect body below his trying to break his will to have her like that this morning.

When they finally came together there were no loud guttural sounds of release but rather a slow melding of soft moans that shook them almost as much as the headier rushes, they induced in each other with the exquisitely erotic painful play they so enjoyed together. It was soft and sweet, and Olivia clung to Genesis as if he were a life raft in a sea of emotion as the soft orgasm rolled through her gently and ebbed away. They lay like that for a long time after just listening to their breaths and holding each other until Genesis finally moved.

"Shower with me, then we'll have breakfast and pack the last of our things," he sat up and swung his legs from the bed knowing she would do as he asked. He stood and held out his hand to her and pulled her with him to the bathroom deciding he may as well have her one last time in that room too, before he ate her for breakfast in the kitchen.

Today was another milestone for them, and he was going to make sure she felt every single minute of it in her proper place with him. He wanted her under no illusions that things between them would change despite the setting and the slackening of some restrictions he had placed on her life during her recovery. She would have some freedoms restored, but she would have to earn them and know that he could and would take them away if she abused his trust.

His thoughts went briefly to Marcella. She did not approve of their relationship, and he worried she might take advantage of the new living arrangements. He had to remind himself that he trusted Olivia and he needed to give her the chance to prove his trust in her. Fear gripped him as he considered the people who still hunted her, but he couldn't in good conscience keep her locked up forever. All he could do was put enough safeguards in place, and she seemed to like the bodyguards he had hired to protect her. He relaxed thinking about them and smiled. He needed to ease up, he knew. He'd done everything humanly possible to protect Olivia, now he just had to enjoy being with her in their own home.

Following his plan as he had got out of bed, Genesis fingered Olivia to orgasm in the shower as she stroked him to a new erection, then he lay her on the kitchen table and ate her to a third climax before having a proper breakfast. Then when the last of their belongings were packed and being loaded into the truck, and they were finally alone again, he fucked her hard and fast, growling out his desire in the still furnished living room while she hung over the back of a tall armchair.

The day had begun better than he had expected and it was only going to get better from here, he grinned as he came for the second time that morning feeling the fifth of Olivia's climaxes pulse around his cock. He grinned pulling her up into his arms and stroking his hands over her unmarked, pristine skin. Only one blemish, the bruise on her breast, marred his view and considering what they had done in the last twenty-four hours, the one bruise was of no consequence.

"Get dressed, and I'll take you to your friends for the morning before we officially move into our new home," he said huskily, smacking her ass and enjoying her squeal of delight.

"I can't wait!" Olivia said excitedly and scrambled to pick up her discarded clothes and pull them on in such a hurry that she got tangled up and would have fallen over if Genesis wasn't there to scoop her up and hold her against him, slowing down her movements.

It was at times like these that he considered her so sweet and cute, almost childlike and innocent. He loved this side of her as much as he loved the desperately needy nymphomaniac that craved his use and abuse. She was perfect in every way for him, and he would thank the curse of his family every single day for bringing her into his life because without it he may never have spared her more than an appreciative look. She was sexy, there was no doubt about that, but the cute and sweet thing had always been a turn off before. With Olivia however, her cute sweetness stole his heart and made it ache for all she had suffered.

"Everything okay?" Olivia asked looking up into his face as he was lost in his thoughts.

"Perfect," he murmured softly. "Just like you." He bent his head to kiss her and then picked her up carrying her out of the suite of rooms.

*****

Vivienne eyed her friend suspiciously. They had met at the clifftop café near the apartments they lived in. Of course, she had moved from her small apartment next to Marcella's into Gideon's apartment, unsurprised that the siblings all lived in the same small tower she had been living in already. Their apartments, however, were large luxurious spaces above the smaller apartments reserved for visitors on family business.

"So, your planning on seeing the helicopter pilot again? Even after all the drama your last date with him produced," Vivienne asked.

"It wasn't his fault!" Marcella said defensively. "Between Noah, Gideon and the watchmen don't you think I have enough people watching my every step without my best friend being suspicious of my motives? Why shouldn't I date? I need affection too, you know. It's okay for you and Olivia with your doting husband and well whatever Genesis is to Olivia, but I need something more than a friendly hug from you now and then," she sighed being overly dramatic for her friends benefit.

"I thought you and Noah were spending time together again. You went out to dinner with him, didn't you?" Vivienne asked a note of disappointment in her voice that the tension between the two of them was not abating as she had hoped.

"No, I went out for dinner alone, because the people I call friends were all busy in their loved-up relationships and I couldn't bear another takeaway meal in front of the television or my computer. He gate-crashed my little pity party and made me feel even shittier about being alone," Marcella tried to appeal to her friend's soft heart.

It wasn't true, Noah had been nothing but friendly and considerate of her wishes. They had laughed and enjoyed the dinner, but that was as far as it went. They used sarcasm and dry wit these days to communicate, all of the flirty banter that had marked their early days together had gone now, and she knew that the tension between them was more her doing than his. He'd turned her down once, and she had never given him a second chance to turn her down again. If she was honest, he was lucky she still spoke to him at all, people who dismissed her like that were generally written out of her daily life and ignored if she did have to see them or run into them somewhere.

"So your going on a date with this Greg, the helicopter pilot, who will probably take you somewhere dangerous and I won't know where you are or whether you're safe," Vivienne sighed sadly.

"Why wouldn't I be safe?" Marcella laughed. "I think all the drama with the AFP and the Suebi has gotten to you. No one cares about me or what I do. Besides, you know I am a feisty bitch who can take care of herself. No one is going to take advantage of me or make me do anything I don't want to do," she grinned.

"There is some truth to that," Vivienne grimaced. "I just worry about you. We all do, even Olivia," Vivienne said softly. "I can understand that you get lonely being so far away from home, but you have us. I just worry that you seem to be drifting away from us lately."

"I don't understand what you want from me, Viv. You don't want me to date? You only want me to go out with Noah? You know you can't force two people together who have absolutely nothing in common, right?" Marcella challenged her.

"He's under a lot of pressure at the moment, he probably needs a night out as badly as you do. Would it be so bad to hang out with him again and see what happens?" Vivienne appealed to Marcie's softer side, the one she rarely showed anyone aside of herself and Olivia at times.

"He seemed his usual arrogant self last time I saw him. He was trying to tell me what to do and what not to do," Marcella grumbled. Like Vivienne, Noah had voiced his concerns about her friendship with Greg and flying off with him the way she had when she had gone looking for Olivia's boat. She'd been interrogated ruthlessly about her story, and she knew Greg had been thoroughly investigated, which she was sure both he and Vinnie had been ready for and unconcerned about. "Why is everyone so concerned about who I call a friend anyway? It's not like the watchmen let me go anywhere without a tail anyway. I am perfectly safe, and you know it."

"I know it's silly but haven't you ever considered Noah as more than just..." Vivienne sighed. "If you two got together we would all be sisters. We would all belong to the same family, and we would always stay together, you, me and Olivia and all our new family and friends," Vivienne knew without a shadow of a doubt she had overstepped, but the horrified look on Marcella's face rapidly disappeared and smoothed out sympathetically.

"Look, Vivienne, he doesn't want me that way. I tried once, you know, to get close to him, way back in the beginning when we were all hanging out and doing the double date thing. He said no. He made it very clear that being with me was not even a remote possibility, so let it go, okay. We're friends, barely, but friends that can show up at family things together or dinners with his brothers and you and Olivia but it won't ever be more than that. He turned me down, not the other way around. So, you need to let me date, and find my own happiness somewhere else," Marcella explained in a way that could leave no doubt in Vivienne's mind that she was fantasising if she ever thought Marcella would join the Zenati family permanently. She was stretching the truth about Noah's rejections of her but not too much.

"I didn't realise, I thought he just wanted to wait. You never said he made it that clear before," Vivienne frowned.

"No, because he never said anything, and I am not about to advertise my own rejection to everyone. Just let it go now Viv, okay? Promise me you'll let that go and let me live my life the way I need to. I'm not now nor will I ever be part of the Zenati family," she said with certainty.

"Fine but it doesn't stop me from wishing it wasn't that way," Vivienne stretched out her hand to take Marcella's and squeeze it. Behind that tough exterior there really was a soft and fragile heart. Vivienne just wished Marcella didn't hide it so well from everyone. "I'll stop pushing, and I'll even run a little interference for you if you need it, but don't close the door on him completely please, for me? Let me have just a little spark of hope that maybe one day we'll be family."

"We already are Viv; we don't need men to make our sisterhood legitimate. I already think of you as my sister," she grinned. It was true to a point, she certainly felt closer to Viv than Olivia at the moment.

"Just promise, please," Vivienne asked again.

"Fine, though I don't understand what the big deal is. Noah and I are friends anyway. We don't hate each other or anything drastic like that. I just want to go on a date with a guy who thinks I look hot and wants to kiss me. I miss that sort of attention and affection and dammit, I need it occasionally to remind myself just how fabulous I am," she laughed loudly, her veneer of uber-confidence back in place after showing such a vulnerable side to Vivienne. "Now let's talk about you; you look content. I am assuming Gideon is great in the sack by the smile on your face every morning," she laughed again as her friend blushed a deep rosy pink.

"I can't complain," Vivienne finally stammered, too embarrassed to say anything else. Gideon made her heart and body sing for him each and every night as well as most mornings, and she was constantly amazed by his skill, patience and creativity as a lover. He made her feel beautiful and adored, and she felt pity for anyone who did have a love like theirs.

"I love that your so in love," Marcella softened again toward her friend. "You don't have to kiss and tell, I can see the smug satisfaction written all over your face." It was true, she could also see that same adoration and love on Olivia's face when she was with Genesis even though it was obvious what a dominant misogynist prick he was. Still, it was hard to condemn him when her sister looked at him with such adoration in her eyes. She needed to get away from these people for a while, maybe even a day or two and recover from the sickly-sweet love that pervaded the air around the two couples.

"Let's go shopping before the spa this morning and get Olivia and Genesis a housewarming present. It will be nice to have her in our building and able to join us for morning coffee like this," Vivienne suggested.

"Sure, I wanted to check out a shop I heard about in town. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. I heard they had a gypsy there who reads tarot cards or some such," Marcella grinned.

"Sounds fun," Vivienne agreed. She didn't think much of fortune tellers, but if it made Marcella happy, she would go along for the ride. After the worry when she went missing and her aloofness recently, Vivienne was determined to strengthen their bond of friendship enough to have Marcella confide whatever was going on with her. They all felt it, especially Noah, but he seemed unable to bridge the gap between them. Now at least, Vivienne had an inkling why. She was lonely, and Noah had once rejected her and bruised the fragile ego behind the bold and ballsy persona she showed the world.

*****

Noah had done all he could to support the triad that led their table, and he had left them alone to be together before Dominic's surgery. He sat by himself in the waiting room leaning back with his head resting on the window behind him. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander over everything else he had to get done today. His plan all depended on timing and chafed at just sitting here waiting. He knew that he couldn't leave, not until Dominic was taken to surgery. He had ensured Xavier was coping and Emma was on her way to the spa with the other Zenati women who would care for her today and keep her mind from the seriousness of Dominic's surgery.

A soft, warm voice sounded in his mind, and he felt the presence of Imelda settle into the chair beside him. Without opening his eyes, he drew a deep breath and extended his thoughts to her as she had shown him to do and asked, "Why are you here old woman?"

"Do you think I am so uncaring that I wouldn't be here today of all days?" she asked in return.

"If you want to see Dominic you need to be quick, they will come and take him to surgery soon," Noah opened his eyes and sat forward resting his elbows on his knees and resting his face in his hands momentarily before looking up at her as she remained seated beside him.

"I have not come for Dominic. He does not need my assistance today, young Lord Zenati," she said with amusement lacing her voice.

"Then why are you here?" Noah growled at the title she gave him repeatedly. "I am not in the mood for your games today, old woman." Imelda constantly pressed each and every invisible button he had to annoy him on purpose he was sure.

"Dominic will live and be well to lead the family again. Your future lies with your mate and today you will need to prove your worth to her," Imelda explained. "Some will have real love for her, others will have other motivations to utter the words and pretend with her. Do not be misled, her trust in you and equally your brothers will rely on your actions this day."

"I haven't even met my mate, as you put it. There has been no breaking of the curse as my brothers describe it, no great yearning to be close to someone, to protect them, to keep them for myself alone. You are wrong about this old woman," he said with certainty.

"You have a different spirit to that of your brothers. Your heart is already open, and you can feel and listen with it as a true oracle like your cousin Dominic. You are a Lord of your family, one in which the original bloodline runs truest, the fact you can hear me must tell you this much is true," she said in a frustrated lecturing tone. "Why must the young always argue, young Lord?" she lamented.