Author's Note:
This is a dark romance erotica. So there will be plenty of sex scenes, but they will not be the entire focus of the story. Some chapters will not have sex at all.
Trigger Warnings:
You can find the overall warnings at the beginning of chapter 1.
Chapter 2 warnings are: group sex, public sex, blowjobs, casual sex, mild racism, verbal abuse.
Act 1: The Wedding
Chapter 2
The worst part about it was how gorgeous they were together.
Bonny's perfect petite figure popped in her pleated white tulle. Looked like a fucking pixie flitting about the dance floor with the giant Yasser.
Yasser, who had switched out his tux for a stunning all white suit, complete with gloves and threads through his short black hair that almost looked like a subtle crown. Like a goddamn fairy tale prince.
They'd finished the first dance with winded grins and a flourishing kiss that only kinda felt like a knife twisting in Avery's gut, but he was getting used to the feeling and practised at pretending to get distracted so he didn't have to see it and no one would hopefully read into him looking away.
In that particular instance, he masked his recoil behind a long sip of sparkling white wine, but being well into a bottle the caterers probably ear marked for him at that point, he barely tasted it. Barely felt the damn bubbles.
"It was a good thing you did."
Avery cringed into his wine. He stared down at the liquid longingly and dreamed of diving in and drowning in it before he dared spare the awful woman a glance. "Wow. This really must be a special day. Don't think you've ever given me credit for anything, Teresa."
She pursed her lips in that all too familiar nasty scowl she reserved only for him when no one was watching. "I'm still your mother."
"No," Avery muttered half way into another long sip. "You are not."
She pulled her sapphire blue shawl tighter around herself, as if simply being near him might expose her to something dirty, and awkwardly perched on the edge of the seat next to him. "You've managed to mostly keep your trademark inappropriate behavior in check." Her disapproving glare dropped pointedly to the rainbow goose tattoo peeking out from beneath his cuff. "Your sister may be 'woke', but we're now joining families with all these Arabs, and you know how--"
Avery barked a laugh way louder than he intended. Mom's sharp glare snapped to him with indignation and alarm.
"Jesus, lady." He shook his head and sent a shrugging glance around at the heads turning their way. "I hope you got their consent before you projected all over them. Yasser's family fucking loves me." Bitter-tasting emotion cracked at his voice, and when the woman's hard eyes softened just a smidge, he hated himself for it. With a frustrated sneer, more at himself than her, he shook his head and waved his wine glass dismissively in her general direction. "I take it you're referring to my lack of a date with which to flaunt just how gay my agenda is. I didn't come alone to be decent. I did that because I'm un-fucking-lovable, clearly. But you're welcome, I guess."
What little pity had reflected in mom's pretty blue eyes, took no time at all to morph into disgust. She looked away with a quiet, callous sigh, to watch the crowd of people happily rushing to fill in the dance floor. "I swear, sometimes I wonder if they cut a little too much off at your circumcision."
Every nerve in his body twinged painfully.
It was stupid. Such a pointlessly cruel and sexist thing to say. He knew it was wrong, but knowing it didn't stop the visceral, cloying anger and hurt from burning through his veins.
Didn't stop the tears from stinging at his eyes.
He gulped down half his remaining wine, then got to his feet with a muttered, "Oh look. I seem to need a refill."
"Of course, you're running away." The force of her rolling eyes stained her voice ugly. Like every goddamn grade school bully he'd ever had to survive. "Whether we like it or not, Avery, we're family. And God knows I'm not over the moon about it either."
He should have walked away in that moment, but his damned willpower always was a slave to his perpetually doomed desire to shut that woman up. To make her regret all the awful things she'd done and said to him, if only he could find the right words.
So instead, he stopped. His jaw clenched as he stared down into his glass as if he'd find courage there, and he sent a wayward glance her way. "You and I have very different ideas of what 'family' is."
Her perfectly sculpted brows raised lightly. Noticeable more in her eyes than her brows, though, from years of practice at avoiding wrinkles. "Oh?" She adjusted her shawl and stood gracefully. "Who is your family now, sweetheart?" Mock pity twitched her full lips into a pout. "Yasser?"
Avery followed the pointed flick of her eyes out onto the dancefloor where Yasser was busy twirling Bonny while the crowd ate it up.
"Bless your heart," she cooed. "No. He has a real family now. See, that's the difference between friends and family: If you turn your back on your family, they'll be there when you turn around again. But friends?" She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Friends move on."
He drained the last of the dregs from his glass. Then without another word, for fear that his voice would break, he turned around and headed for the exit.
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic," Mom called after him.
"Hey!" Yasser's voice boomed over the room. "Ave! Avery, where you going, man?"
Avery forced as convincing a smile as he could muster. Took two damn tries to get one that didn't immediately crumble away. Then he turned and waved Yasser dismissively off. "I'm just stepping outside for a second. I'll be right back."
Yasser stopped at the edge of the dance floor. Suspicion narrowed at his dark eyes. For a moment he just stared, like he was literally trying to parse through the subtext in real time, until finally, he shook his head, and paced after Avery. "No."
Avery clenched his teeth through a crack in his façade. "What do you mean, no?"
"You're not going anywhere."
"Of course I'm not going anywhere." Avery coughed out a weak laugh. "You're an asshole, but I'm not leaving on your wedding day."
"You didn't even say hi to me."
"I said hi."
Yasser shook his head as he closed the distance between them. "No, you didn't. I'd remember, because if you'd said hi, I would've been stoked you were finally talking to me again, and I would have hugged the fuck out of you." And with that said, he grabbed Avery by the shoulder and yanked him into a rough-ass bear hug.
Avery grunted through it as the asshole jostled and squeezed him so hard his ribs ached. He bared his teeth and hugged back at first, but his efforts quickly turned to frantic pats. "Okay, okay! Jesus, let go before you shatter all my bones!"
Yasser stopped squeezing, but he didn't let go. Instead, he pressed a big, forceful kiss to Avery's temple and hissed, "I don't know what the wicked witch said to you, baby boy, but you know better than to listen to her."
The words hit harder than the fucking hug. Emotion welled up in his eyes and constricted at his throat. "You ass..."
"You know better," Yasser repeated. "Say it."
"I know better."
"Yeah?"
Avery whacked his shoulder. "Yeah. I fucking know better, now get off me."
Finally, Yasser released him. At least somewhat, but his hands were still all over, forcefully straightening Avery's suit out and smoothing out his quiff. "Okay, good." He offered a lop-sided grin. "Now stop wallowing in self pity and talk to people. Kareem's been trying to get your attention all night."
With a tired, wry snort, Avery shook his head and swept his gaze around the room in search of Yasser's football teammates.
Kareem? Where the hell did that even come from? Avery vaguely remembered hearing Kareem had come out, but they'd never really got along. Kareem worked hard to get where he was. Earned himself that college scholarship the good ol' elbow-grease way. Really, so did Avery, though most of his hard work was done on his knees, and there was a nice little puritan pocket of football players that just didn't fuck with big slut energy.
But if the man wanted to bang, he sure could use a good 20 minute distraction.
But as he searched the room, another pair of eyes caught his instead. Dark, intense, piercing eyes. Even lurking back there in the shadows behind the DJ booth, chatting with Avery's dad, the glint of Hadi's eyes and the sparkle of his imposing and strangely charming smile drew Avery in like a collapsing star.
"He wanted me to chat him up to you... Is that how you say it?" Yasser frowned to himself. "Chat you up? Chat... It's something with chat, right? Like making him sound good?"
Avery shrugged and tore his eyes away from Hadi. A wanton urge to put them right back, to check repeatedly, obsessively, if the man was still looking his way, itched at the base of his spine. "Beats me. I sucked all my grades out of my professors--you think I know what words are? Go ahead. What's your sales pitch?"
Yasser blinked in thought, then shrugged too and held his hands out in front of him, a good distance apart, and announced in that booming voice of his, "You ain't gonna believe this, but believe it, baby. It's this fucking big."
Snorts and chitters echoed around the room, peppered by the frowns of older and more proper guests.
Avery raised his brows playfully in surprise. He let out an impressed, low whistle. "Wow. That's like, what, two feet?"
"Heck yeah, baby boy." Yasser twirled a finger in the air. "And about a mile round, give or take."
Avery laughed. "Really?" He glanced around until he found Kareem--tall, black, and sinewy from a lifetime on football fields and surf boards. The man's cheeks burned with embarrassment as his buddies at his side snickered and muttered to him. "You know, I've been meaning to take up running in the morning."
"Perfect! You can do laps." Yasser flashed a broad grin and called out, "Hey Kareem! I did it! I wing-manned!"
Kareem coughed, glanced nervously Avery's way, before wryly calling back, "Yeah. Thanks. You're the best."
Yasser wrinkled his nose and turned his attention back to Avery. "Aw. I don't think he appreciates it at all." And as Avery nodded in playfully sombre agreement, Yasser's humour sobered to a sincere frown. A silence stretched between them for a few long beats before he sighed and said, "Man, I'm sorry."
And that one word effectively drained what little humour Avery had managed to conjure up too. He inhaled noisily through his nose and scratched at the back of his neck. His gaze lingered on Kareem's adorably bashful face, before getting drawn right back over to Hadi's gaze still glinting at him from the shadows.
