8 comments/ 15399 views/ 10 favorites 4. My Father's Son Ch. 16 By: inspirixis1 CHAPTER SIXTEEN Grace was so happy to be home. There were things that she missed about Boston and she hoped they would go back to visit Adrian, Jaidee, Charlotte Sensei and her other friends as much as they could, but Denver would always be home for her. Adie was so funny with their extended family. She was still fussy about who held her, but she couldn't mask her fascination with Grace's mom and Micah. Whenever either of them was in the room her eyes followed them around, and when they first tried playing with her she was hesitant, as if she didn't quite know what to make of them. It must have been because they were black. The rest of the family looked fairly similar to the people Adie had seen on a daily basis in Boston, Grace's dad looked like Adrian, Matthew could pass for a white guy with dark features, and Ollie looked kind of racially ambiguous, Micah and her mom looked black though. They both had deep brown skin and black hair that made tight corkscrew curls. It took a few days for Adie to stop stalking them with her eyes. Micah had changed so much since he had visited them to look at schools in Boston last year. He was physically different, he'd lost a lot of his upper-body bulkiness, but it was more than that. He was still Micah, there still wasn't a spec of dust or a book out of place in his room, he still did all of his chores without having to be asked, but he was more chipper. He laughed more. When the boys were joking around and teasing each other he didn't take offense at any of their jokes. He seemed like a new person. She thought it must have been all of the cycling he was doing. Matthew was home from USC for the summer and one day they went out riding together. Micah must have given him a good beating because when they got home Matthew collapsed on the bricks of the back patio dramatically, sweating and panting. Grace, Oliver and their mother were working in the garden, doing some advanced preparation for the wedding. "Mom," he complained. "Micah tried to kill me." "Serves you right," Oliver said. "I told you not to go with him. He's a maniac." "Mom, I need some Gatorade or something. I think I'm going into shock." "Oh don't be so dramatic Matthew." Their mom rolled her eyes at him. "I'm serious. There were multiple times when I thought I was either going to pass out from the exertion of trying to keep up with him, or fall off and die from going around a corner too fast." "Yeah, but you didn't did you?" Micah asked. He was using the back of a patio chair to stretch his hamstrings. He looked as if he was about to go out for a ride, not like he'd just gotten back from a four-hour tour of the Rocky Mountains. "You've got to let go of your fear Matthew, you'll never get anywhere if you're pinned down by it." It was such a wise thing for a teenager to say. She thought that Nicholas was letting go of his fears. He hadn't had a breakdown since they'd come back to Denver, even though he'd been under quite a bit of stress. Setting up the restaurant, looking for a house for them to rent or buy, living with his parents again after being independent for so long, it all had to be stressful for him, but he seemed to be doing well. They still walked with Adie in her stroller at night and talked, only most of the time they ended up talking about the future instead of the past. Nicholas wanted to have another baby. Grace wasn't against the idea; she was just scared shitless of the thought of being pregnant and giving birth. They found an Aikido dojo with a good Sensei and practiced together twice a week, but he didn't practice taekwondo anymore. He had gone back to his old dojang one afternoon with his tobok in hand, but he had come back a half hour later. That night he told her that he didn't think he would ever do taekwondo again. "It's weird," he said. "It used to be such a huge part of who I am. I used to think that I would always practice taekwondo, but now I just can't bring myself to do it." "That's okay," she said. "I don't think it was a part of you so much as it was an expression of who you were, and that changes naturally over a lifetime. You just need to find a new way to express yourself, that's all." He took up rock climbing. There were a couple of different rock climbing walls scattered around Denver and he tried them all out. He ended up getting a membership to one of the gyms and met a couple of guys who liked to go into the mountains to climb. "You wouldn't do anything dangerous right?" Grace asked. "No, of course not milaya," he responded. "I have too much to loose. I only do the established climbs and the other guys know what they're doing too." One night she went to the climbing gym to meet and go out for a drink with the guys that he climbed with. When she got there he was climbing up a wall and she was struck immediately by how graceful he was. He made the other climbers look clumsy and uncoordinated. There was a small crowd of people watching, enthralled, as Nicholas scaled the wall. Grace could see that he was actually well suited for this sport. He was using his natural talents, his flexibility, coordination, balance and creativity, just in a different way than he had before. The people gathered at the bottom of the wall were ohhing and ahhing and even laughing in disbelief at the moves that Nicholas was making. He was using the hand and foot holds in ways that were clearly considered unusual, his long arms and legs stretching and reaching for sequences of holds that weren't supposed to fit together. She smiled. It was so typical of him. He couldn't just be average at anything. While they were walking that night Nicholas asked her if she thought he should go and see Hamid in the hospital. "Do you want to?" She asked. "No. I really don't want to go, but I feel like I should, like it's my responsibility. He is my father, after all." "Do you remember that night when you asked me if I was a virgin?" "Yeah. What's that got to do with anything?" "Rape is a type of sex right? Technically what happened to me was sex, but you told me that I was allowed to define sex as more than just physical penetration. "I think this is kind of the same. If you want to get technical then yes, I suppose Hamid is your father, but the thing is, you're allowed to choose the definition of father. If you want to define it as the person whose genes you share, then fine, but I don't agree. I think your father is the person who is there for you, who you look up to as a little kid, who you fight with as a teenager and who you figure out how to be friends with as an adult." Nicholas was silent for a moment and then he put his arm around her waist and kissed her hair. "You're right," he said. "He's not my father. I don't owe him anything." Less than two weeks later Hamid was dead. The authorities wanted Nicholas to go up to Illinois to claim his body but he organized and paid for a funeral home to take care of everything. He had the body incinerated and the ashes buried in an unmarked grave. His grandparents knew nothing of it and it was probably for the best. They were so old and frail as it was; there was no point in making their lives difficult. They had just recently gone into an assisted living home because his grandfather had difficulties getting around. They were coming to Denver for the wedding though, Nicholas had already made all of the arrangements. A week after Hamid died his estate was unfrozen and passed down to Nicholas. He sold everything except the big plantation-style house in Florida, which he hired a team of social workers to set up as a sort of half-way house for victims of human trafficking. It was set up with an endowment that would pay for the staff, education expenses and health care for the residents. He had Benson contact the women caught up in Hamid's various schemes and offer them all a new life in Florida. He bought the apartment that Jaidee lived in and transferred it into her name and then set up education trust funds for Suchin's children. He sent a million dollars each to Ralph and Badger with accompanying letters asking them both to seek psychological counseling. After all was said and done there were still several million dollars left. They decided to buy the old lodge outright, set aside a little to help pay for a house, and give the rest to Amnesty International. Nicholas made the final transfer of funds from the office he'd set up at the lodge. "That's it," he said, turning to her. "All done. Time to move on to more important matters." She nodded. "Good. Like what?" He was sitting in an office chair and he rolled towards her and grabbed her by the waist. "How about searching for where you've hidden your wedding dress so I can get a teeny tiny preview?" He said cheekily as he inched his hands under the fabric of her blouse and pressed them against the skin of her back. "Not likely." She smiled and shook her head. He made a fake frown. "Hm..." He stood, turned her around and backed her up against his desk. His lips brushed up against the delicate skin of her neck when he said, "How about we take the time out of our day to christen my new desk?" He pressed against her and she felt his cock straining through his pants as he began kissing her throat. Her heart was beating quickly as her body started to respond to him. She felt that familiar ache in her center and her lips tingling in anticipation. "Interesting proposition..." Nicholas kissed up her neck and across her jaw to her ear as his fingers worked the buttons of her blouse. He slipped it off her shoulders and discarded it on the floor, and then his lips were moving across the newly revealed skin of her shoulders. "Just what exactly does a christening entail?" She asked breathlessly. He unzipped her skirt and it fell to the floor, his hands immediately moving onto their next conquest: her panties. "Well honestly, I've never been to one," he said as he bit her gently at the place where her neck joined her shoulder, the unexpectedness of it sending a thrill through her body and causing her to gasp involuntarily. "I'm just going on folk lore." "Which says...?" Nicholas peeled her panties away and lifted her by the hips, plunking her naked butt down on the polished wood of his new desk. "As far as I know, it is bad luck for a man to work at a desk that he hasn't made love to his wife on," he said as he stroked up the inside of her thigh and brushed over her swollen pussy, lingering to spread her fluids across her throbbing lips. "Oh..." she moaned. Grace leaned back on her elbows and watched Nicholas undress, then he was back between her legs, his warm solid cock pressing against her sensitive folds. "There's only one problem," she said. "What's that baby?" He asked as he massaged her breasts through her bra. "I'm not your wife yet." Nicholas moved his hips so that his cock slipped back and forth over the lips of her pussy and the sensitive bud of her clitoris again and again. "Mm..." she whimpered as she felt her pussy crying out for him. Begging to be filled. He let the head slip down to her entrance and pressed against her opening as he leaned down over her and whispered in her ear, "A mere technicality Grace, and one that I intend to rectify very soon." Then he pushed himself inside and she felt the bliss of the first penetration, the shock of the nerves inside her body coming to life, the thrill of being joined with him. "Oh Kolya," she breathed. "Feels so good baby." Nicholas started pumping her in long fluid strokes. He moaned her name and leaned down to her and showered her skin with kisses. He kissed her shoulders and chest and anywhere his face fell. Grace rocked her hips with his, grinding her pelvis against him, pressing the sensitive skin of her pussy into his groin. God he felt good. He felt so amazingly good. His hands came to her back, searching for and fumbling with the clasp to her bra. "This is hiding you," he said as he lifted her up with one hand and removed her bra with the other, tossing it away distastefully. He laid her back down and she felt his eyes on her, surveying her body. "Better." His hips started pumping again and her breasts jiggled freely in time with his thrusts. "Oh... much better." He was back on top of her, kissing and licking towards her breasts. He sucked on them hungrily. "Ahh..." she threw her head back and moaned loudly and lustfully, thankful for the privacy of the lodge. Nicholas released her breast and started pumping her pussy faster, pushing her closer and closer to the edge. "Gracie baby, cum for me," he urged her in a deep voice, his hot breath washing over her cheek as he spoke. This was the way Nicholas liked it best, his body on top of hers and so close that her breasts pressed against his chest. She liked it too, but she knew she wouldn't cum this way today, some days she could but today she needed a better angle. "Stand," she requested. Nicholas pushed off his hands and stood at the edge of his desk. He raised her legs so that her calves were resting on his shoulders and turned his head to kiss them as he continued to thrust his hard cock into her slippery wet pussy. His hand caressed her leg and down her inner thigh to stroke over her pussy in broad circular strokes. Oh yeah, this was going to do it. He was stroking right up against the special place inside her. She could feel it building, pleasure piling on top of pleasure. She squeezed the muscles of her vagina around him in time with his strokes and let her head fall back on the desk. "Oh Kolya... "Baby... "Oh... "Ahh." She instinctively curled her body towards him as her orgasm exploded inside her, looking deep into his dark brown eyes, committing his image to her heart. He pressed her legs together and increased the pace of his pounding, all the time looking down into her eyes. "Oh Grace," he murmured between labored breaths. "Oh baby." His forehead wrinkled and his mouth gaped open. He thrust into her deeply as his body bucked involuntarily. He thrust into her again and again as the warmth of his hot fluids bloomed within her. He stood for a moment, breathing heavily and looking down at her before he separated her legs and lowered himself over her until the skin of their torsos was touching and his head was resting between her breasts. "Gracie," he whispered as he tilted his head down to kiss her breast. "My Gracie." She rested her hand on his head, stroking thorough his thick black hair and he laid his arms on either side of her torso and squeezed her in a kind of desk-top hug. They lay like that for a few moments as their heart rates decelerated and breathing settled. "I'm a little worried," he confessed. "Oh?" "What you said about not being my wife yet... this christening might not be sufficient." She smiled. "You think we should do this again after the wedding?" He lifted his head and grinned up at her. "Yes. I think we should do this once we're married... frequently. For good luck, of course." She laughed. "Well, if it is the name of good luck then who am I to refuse?" She lifted her head and he met her half way for a kiss. His phone rang and he groaned as he reached for it. He checked the display before he answered it in his business voice. "Watson-Gray," he said in an authoritative tone. It made Grace smile to hear him use their new name. It wouldn't be official for another sixteen days, but Nicholas had started using it in his business dealings as soon as they had moved back to Denver. He thought it would be easier for people to remember than if he changed his name after getting established. Their dads had been so funny when they'd first heard him use it. "Are you going to change your name too Grace?" Tyler had asked. "Yes." "So you'll be Grace Watson-Gray?" "Yes." He had looked at her dad for a moment before they both smiled. "It has a certain symmetry about it," her dad had said. Grace had teased Nicholas about the way he answered his phone. She thought that people would think that his fist name was Watson, but they didn't. People took the time to do things right when they dealt with Nicholas. There was something about his demeanor when he was doing business that commanded respect. "Uh-huh," he said into the phone. He stood upright and scrawled something onto a post-it note then threw the pen to the side. "No. We'll meet you there." He smiled down at her as he used his free hand to stroke over her belly. You would never have guessed the position they were in from the tone of his voice. If you met Nicholas as a businessman you would never guess that he was the sort of guy who whispered tender words to his woman, or that he was the type of father who played peek-a-boo with his daughter tirelessly and in good humor until she was bored of it. "Half an hour. Thank you Georgia." He hung up the phone. "Real estate agent?" She asked. "Yeah. Maybe we did make some good luck, a house on Cedar Drive is about to go on the market." *** It was exactly what they had been looking for in exactly the area that they wanted to live in. It was big, with four bedrooms, but it didn't have that 'McMansion' feeling that so many houses had these days. It had a nice garden in the front yard and a generous backyard with a few established trees. There was plenty of room back there for a swing set and a sand box, and he could build a tree house with a ladder in the big oak near the back corner. "Please excuse the mess. The owners only contacted me this morning about selling. They're moving out to California to be closer to their grown children and new grandchildren." Georgia brushed her hand over the back of the couch nervously. "It's fine. If you think this is messy then we're obviously living on different planes of existence." He smiled at her to try and reassure her. It wasn't really that messy, it was just lived-in. The owners were obviously people who cared about their home. The house was over forty years old but it had been well taken care of and updated frequently. The floors were polished hardwood and it was open and airy. The kitchen and bathrooms had stylish modern lines. He tried to look only at the house but he couldn't help himself from examining the photos on the walls. There were old photos of children with outdated haircuts playing in the grass, summer-time family reunions, teenagers playing sports, wedding photos and newer frames with pictures of smiling babies, presumably the grandchildren of the owners. Many of the photos seemed to have been taken in the back yard. There was one of a girl of about seven or eight in a tire swing that hung from the branch of the big oak. She was being pushed by an older boy and she had a huge grin on her face as her bangs were pushed back from her forehead in the breeze. They walked through the bedrooms slowly, looking out the windows and checking the closet space. The owners obviously hadn't done much redecorating after their kids had moved out. It was still clear to see the influence of a teenage boy in one room and girls in two more. When they came to the master bedroom Nicholas felt a tug on his heart. There was a wide picture window that displayed an impressive vista of the mountains. He felt Grace squeeze his hand. "Can we have a moment alone please?" He asked. "Sure." Georgia disappeared out of the room. "I like it," Grace said. He smiled. "Me too. Do you want to make an offer?" She bit down on her lip and nodded as she looked up at him. Her cheeks were still rosy from their session at the lodge. He didn't try to negotiate the asking price, not because he felt that he couldn't get it cheaper but because he thought it was fair. The only thing he negotiated was how soon they could get the keys. He offered to pay to relocate their home contents to California if they could take possession by the wedding date. They were so touched by his offer that ten days later the house was theirs. 4. My Father's Son Ch. 16 He paid a contractor to give the interior a fresh coat of paint, refinish the hardwood floors and move the furniture in that they'd brought with them from Boston. Three days before the wedding he got word that it was done. The air hummed with excitement as everyone ran around making last minute preparations and collecting relatives from the airport. He stole Grace away took her to check out how the house looked. It was everything he had hoped for. It felt fresh and clean, but it had retained some of the warmth of the previous owners. She gasped when they stepped into their new bedroom. "It's perfect. I just got goose pimples." He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and kissed the back of her neck. "I think we should christen it Gracie... for good luck," he murmured as he slid his hand up her belly and squeezed her breast. "Get off me," she complained good naturedly as she swatted his hand away. She turned in his embrace and pushed against his chest. "Not until after the wedding. Then you can have as much of me as you want." "Urgh... baby you're killing me," he complained. A whole week without Grace. It was killing him. She had moved back into her old room at her parents' house. Not only was he banned from touch her in any way that could be conceived of as sexual, he was relegated to sleeping alone. Those few days before the wedding passed blindingly fast and all of a sudden he found himself in his best suit standing in his parents' kitchen with Lucas, Zach and Adrian, who were dressed in matching suits. "Are you nervous?" Adrian asked. "Yes." There was no point in denying it, he had been a ball of nerves since he woke up this morning and he was only getting worse. Zach slung his arm around Nicholas' shoulder and said, "I'm going to overlook the fact that you're marrying my sister for a moment and share with you all of the wisdom I have gained in the first three and a half years of my marriage..." "Okay...?" "Pineapple juice." "Huh?" Adrian and Lucas burst out laughing. Zach grinned widely. "Pineapple juice, pineapple juice, pineapple juice. That's the magic formula." "For what? Diarrhea?" Adrian was laughing so hard that tears were leaking from the corners of his eyes. "No doofus." Lucas swiped him over the top of his head. "It makes your... you know... taste better." Nicholas felt his eyes go wide in recognition and then he pushed Zach away. "Get out of here you slime ball," he said jokingly. He suddenly worried about the taste of his semen. Grace had never complained about it before. It was a stupid thing to be thinking about but at least it took his mind off what was about to happen in less than half an hour. His parents filtered through the kitchen with Madeline and Adie. Adie looked so cute in her little yellow and white dress, reaching for him from his mom's arms and muttering "Dada, dada." "All good?" His dad asked. "Yeah, now that I know Zach's secret to marital bliss I think I'm right." He looked at him quizzically. "Okay... We're heading over now." He hugged Nicholas tight briefly. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. This part now, the waiting, is the worst part." "'kay," was all he could get out. His throat was dry. His mom hugged him next and straightened his tie. "You look good," she said with a nervous smile. "Grace will be happy." He just nodded. They left in one of the limos waiting out the front of the house. The minutes were ticking down. He felt like there was a live animal in his belly, thrashing his insides. They rode in the other limo over to Grace's parents' house to wait out the final fifteen minutes in the back yard. It had been transformed. There were white, yellow and purple flowers and greenery everywhere and rows of white chairs separated by a grassy aisle. Most of the guests were already there, milling about and drinking champagne. He noticed Agent Benson and Chief Guiterrez talking to Jaidee, Peter and Suchin and nodded to him when they made eye contact. He had already spoken to him and asked him to avoid his grandparents, and to try and keep Jaidee away from them too. He didn't want his grandparents to find out about Hamid. It was a miracle that they didn't know, even though they were both in their late eighties they were still spry; it was just lucky that when the trial was on they were in period of transitioning into their new home. He had been nervous to introduce Adie to them at the rehearsal dinner last night. For some reason he had thought that they would somehow know that she was Hamid's child. But they weren't suspicious. They cooed over her and their wrinkled faces stretched into broad smiles and their old eyes twinkled with adoration. "I see your mouth Amir, and Grace's eyes," his grandmother had said. Grace had worn the red and gold sari that his grandmother had bought for her in New York and she looked stunning. His grandfather had leaned over and patted his arm. "She's a beautiful woman, and a good one too. Your father would be proud." Nicholas smiled and nodded. His father was proud, he had told him so himself just that day. The string quartet started to play and the guests began to find their seats. Nicholas lined up with Zach and Adrian. "Kolya..." Zach leaned towards him. "Grace wanted me to give this to you at the last possible moment." He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and handed him a photo. It was of he and Grace dancing at Zach and Beth's wedding. The photo was taken from behind him and all you could see were Grace's arms around his neck and her face smiling up at him. She was giving him his smile, the one she reserved only for him, a mixture of contentment, trust and devotion. He tried to swallow the knot that had formed in his throat and blinked rapidly to fight back the tears. "How...? When...?" "It was taken by our wedding photographer. Grace asked to look through our photos to get ideas for today and she flipped out when she saw it. She wrote something on the back." He flipped the photo over. "Kolya, how could we have not known? Love, your Grace," it read. He stared at the photo again and all of the feelings of that night came back to him in a rush. She had comforted him in the roof top garden. He had laughed when they had danced and she tried to lead by stepping on his feet. She had smelled like jasmine, and he'd felt the soft curve of her waist for the first time. For the first time he had felt that strange sensation when the rest of the world ceases to exist, when the only thing that matters is the woman in your arms. There was a pause in the music and then Canon in D started and Matthew was walking Nicholas' mom down the aisle, he deposited her in the front row with his dad and went to stand in the position that would usually be reserved for the maid of honor. Then Micah escorted Grace's mom and stood beside Matthew. There was a gap and then he laughed when he saw Oliver escorting Lucas down the aisle. He had known that Lucas was up to some stupid prank when he told him that he wouldn't be in the initial line up but he'd been too nervous to worry about it. Now Lucas was living it up. He was smiling and nodding and batting his eyelashes at the guests as if he were the bride. Everyone was laughing at him. Oliver took him to the best man position and then went to stand beside Micah. Now everyone was here but the one person who he really wanted to see. The music changed to the bridal march and all of the guests stood. There were agonizing seconds when nothing seemed to be happening and then a low sigh from some of those at the back. He couldn't see. He knew she was back there but he couldn't see her. Why did their family all have to be so damn tall? His heart was thudding violently in his chest. And then he saw her. She was more beautiful than he could have imagined. She wore a simple, elegant gown of white lace and a string of pearls around her neck. Her dark hair was twisted into a style that was smooth at the front but allowed her wild curls free reign across her shoulders and back. She wasn't looking at the guests the way Lucas had, she was looking straight at him, and she was smiling that special smile. He was barely holding it together when a breeze rustled over her and brought him her scent. She smelled like Jasmine. She remembered too. It was then that he lost it and he suddenly found himself in front of her with her face in his hands, kissing her soft lips. He was lost in the moment, in Grace, in the security of her nearness. He was with the woman who knew his darkest secrets but loved him anyway. Beside him, someone cleared his throat and Nicholas' awareness returned. He was half way down the aisle holding Grace's face in his hands. "You were supposed to wait for me," she whispered. He bit his lip. "Sorry milaya, I got carried away," he whispered back. "I just want to marry you so bad." She smiled at him and shook her head, causing the scent of the jasmine to wash over him anew. It was in her hair. Little strands of jasmine were threaded through her hair. "Well, what are you waiting for?" "Okay." He turned from her and was about to walk ahead when he decided that one more quick kiss couldn't hurt. He'd messed up her procession already; nobody was going to blame him for sneaking another kiss in. "Nicholas!" She protested but he knew it was just for show, she was smiling and she couldn't hide the delight in her eyes. "Dad, do something!" "Huh? What's that?" Sam asked. Grace rolled her eyes and Nicholas finally turned and jogged down the aisle ahead of her. The rest of the day was a dream. At the closing of the ceremony the celebrant said, "Incase you were wondering Nicholas, now would be the appropriate time for you to kiss your bride." He smiled at Grace as he leaned down to kiss her again while their family and friends laughed and clapped. The lodge was a perfect setting for the reception. It could only be described as magical. The view, the food, the dancing, the company, it was all magical. When they finally left the party he took her home to their new house and carried her in the front door the way they did in old movies. He carried her up the stairs and into their new bedroom and she gasped. "Oh Kolya, it's so beautiful." He smiled, glad that everything had worked out for them on their special day. He set her down on the bed and lit the candles around the room, each one illuminating more of the flowers that he had ordered and brought here for her. "Do you like your surprise?" He asked as he climbed onto their bed and pulled her into his arms. "Mm, yes they're lovely, thank you. I have a surprise for you too," she told him. "Oh? What's that?" "I stopped taking my birth control pills." Nicholas felt the smile that spread across his face. They had been talking about trying to get pregnant all summer, he was madly keen but Grace kept on saying, 'Lets wait until after the wedding.' He didn't realize that she meant this soon after the wedding. He kissed her and caressed her and made love to her slowly. He looked into her eyes and told her how much he loved her, how happy he was to be her husband, how much that photo had meant to him. She knew him so well. There was nobody on this planet who knew him better than Grace. She had seen the ugly things he had done. She knew all of his weaknesses and the dark parts of his heart, and yet she still loved him. He would never stop loving and giving to Grace. It was simply not possible.