ChapterSeventeen
Joseph
I look to my right to see Josh wiping away the tear that has escaped his eyes, as he gazes lovingly at his wife in her wedding attire singing Kem’s I Can’t Stop Loving You, as Lennox walks down the aisle towards a crying Peter. All the women look stunning, and my brothers and I can’t take our eyes off of them. Lennox asked Savvy, True, Skai, Joyce, Brooklyn, T’Aundrea, Mell, Megan and a couple of her friends from Alabama to be her bridesmaids; Savvy was her matron of honor. Bubba was the ring bearer and Sarai was the flower girl. We were all Peter’s groomsmen, and Josh was Peter’s best man. Savvy sounds beautiful as she sings Lennox to Peter and there is not a dry eye in the room. I am so happy that Peter finally got the one woman he’s loved for over four decades. I look at Atlas on the other side of me and he looks like he wants to snatch True up and take her to one of the hotel rooms for the rest of the weekend. Before I met Joyce, I would have teased him mercilessly about him being whipped, but now I am looking at Joyce the same way. Thank goodness we are not in a church, because the amount of cussing Atlas thinks he’s doing under his breath would send us all to hell just for being in proximity to him. To be fair all the dresses are hugging all the women like gloves and a man can only take so much.
“If that fucker doesn’t get his eyes off of True, I am going to flip this fucking room over!” Atlas growls over to me. And I follow his eyes to the man he is referring to, and the guy is practically drooling as he watches True’s every move. And then True does something that confirms she is just as crazy as her husband. She reaches inside the top of her dress and pulls a gun out of a bra holster and flashes the guy with it. He snaps his attention back to Lennox walking down the aisle and it takes everything in me not to burst out laughing.
“She is getting fucked as soon as I can get out of here. That shit was sexy as hell.” Josh and I both shake our head at him, but we both understand.
“I reserved a penthouse suite for Savvy and me because after that song and that dress, I’d never make it all the way home and I don’t want to embarrass her.”
“I got a room too,” I add in.
“Damn, why didn’t I think of that? You think Peter can get me a room too?” Atlas says, staring at True.
“On his wedding day?” Josh and I both respond looking at him like he is crazy.
“And stop looking over there at her like that. You’re crossing into the X rated territory with those looks alone!” Josh whispers to him. It looks like it takes Herculean strength for him to tear his eyes away. The three of us look at our other brothers, Shepp and Saint and they also have a woman in their sights. Well, everyone but Jaasiel and Asher. Anson is watching Megan like a hawk watching a chicken. Aryan is trying not to look at Brooklyn, but I will say in his defense, the scrubs she wears do not do her justice at all. Jabarri gave up the fight and is openly eye fucking Skai. I swing my eyes to her. She glances at him, yawns, rolls her eyes and looks back at Lennox, summarily dismissing him. Saint is looking at his wife like he wants to make another baby and even Shepp is watching someone in the audience. I follow his eyes but cannot figure out who he is watching.
Lennox finally reaches Peter, and he pulls her to him in a hug and a collective AWW comes from the audience. She looks amazing in a custom emerald green wedding dress. Her bridesmaids are wearing burnt gold dresses. Peter is wearing a black tux with emerald green accessories to match Lennox, while we wear black tuxes with burnt gold accessories. Peter has his business associates there and Lennox has her former and current colleagues there and of course the family. My parents flew in to attend the wedding and check-in on me so all in all it’s a full house. They decided to have the ceremony and reception at Peter’s hotel. He shut the hotel down for his wedding and provided rooms for the guests who want to stay for the weekend. Savvy’s dad begins the ceremony. So far he has officiated over everyone’s nuptials and I know when it’s my turn, he’s the only choice or I am not getting married.
“This may be the very first time I have had the privilege to marry a couple who has been in love with each other for so long and got a second chance. It is an honor to have the privilege to marry you two. Your love is proof that if it is meant to be, it will happen and delayed does not mean denied. The bride and the groom have written their own vows,” Pastor Errington says.
Their words to each other have the entire room wiping away tears. I never knew it was possible to actually feel the love someone has for another person until Josh and Savvy, Atlas and True, and now Peter and Lennox.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. Peter, you may kiss your bride. May I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Peter and Lennox Bennett,” he announces.
Peter gives Lennox another quick kiss as they walk out of the ballroom amid cheers and applause. We walk out after them with our partners and head to the smaller ballroom Peter had set up for the wedding party to be able to relax, talk, and eat before we take more wedding pictures. Joyce and I find a table to sit at and she goes to grab us something to snack on and drink. The wedding guests will also be directed to another room with hors d’oeuvres and drinks while the staff sets up the main ballroom for the dinner and reception.
“You look devastatingly beautiful, baby.”
“You look like sex in a tux,” she says as she licks her lips.
“You’re playing with fire, Joy,” I tell her, my voice dropping an octave or two as my arousal surges to the surface.
“I’m wet enough to put that fire out,” she says with a challenge in her eyes.
“Ok baby, you remember that later when it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.”
“I was planning on putting something else there,” she says as she stares at me and I am about a second away from saying fuck pictures, dinner and the reception, but before the words can get out, Josh and Savvy sit at our table.
“That was such a beautiful wedding. And you guys looked so handsome up there in y’all’s tuxes. I think a few of the women wanted to throw their panties up there for y’all to catch,” Savvy says
“And if any of them came Atlas’s way those heffa’s would have been catching some bullets,” True says as she sits down.
“You might be worse than Atlas,” I tell her
“I doubt it. If you didn’t flash your gun at that guy, I was getting ready to rip his trachea out.”
“Yeah, I take it back; you’re not worse but you’re not better either,” I say, laughing. I guess we’re all pretty bad when it comes to the women we love. We talk and laugh until Peter and Lennox come to get us for pictures. They had a separate room they went to after the wedding to have time alone to relax in private, considering they probably won’t get much time to themselves until after they leave the reception. They are not going on a long honeymoon since Peter and Lennox felt they already had one when he took her away and proposed. They are going to one of Peter’s resorts in Panama for a long weekend instead. The photographer comes in and begins to orchestrate the pictures and poses and even though they aren’t overtly sexual, the sexual tension in here is palpable.
When Joyce sits on my lap with her arm around me, I am tempted to go straight to the room I reserved. We switch partners to take more pictures and for the first time since we rescued her, Megan allows a man that is not her father or Anson to touch her. She ends up taking pictures with all of us and I am so pleased to see that she is overcoming the trauma that she endured, but as soon as the pictures are over, she is right back with Anson. Of course, when Jabarri takes pictures with Skai, he looks like he is finally home. Skai has to behave and not snap at him since she does not want to ruin her grand-Peter’s wedding photos, so for once he can just enjoy being with her. I will say being in this wheelchair has slowed me down a lot and I take a lot more time being even more observant to my surroundings. If it was not for that, I might have missed what happens next between Skai and Jabarri. The photographer has them face each other; he instructs Jabarri to put his arms around her but there is like a foot between them.
“I need you guys to move a little closer to each other,” the photographer tells them, and Skai steps a half inch closer. Jabarri must have gotten frustrated cause he snatches her to him, and she ends up plastered to his front. At first, she is stiff as a board, until his hands find their way into her hair at the base of her head, and his other hand is resting at the top of her ass. He grabs the fabric of her dress and pulls her in closer, while simultaneously pulling her head back to make her look up at him. Her mouth falls open on a gasp and she grabs his lapels in her hands. I watch my brother lean down and rub her neck with his nose, and I move to get over there before Josh and Savvy sees this damn near x-rated display these two have going on over here, but as I look around, everyone is preoccupied. Before I can get over there, the photographer’s camera flashes, and it snaps Skai out of the trance she was in. She pushes away from Jabarri and damn near runs off. When I make it to him, he looks torn between being hurt and pissed off or ready to go after her.
“Let it go. This is not the time or the place. You are lucky Josh and Savvy didn’t see that.”
“I want all of those pictures. Do NOT add them in with the other wedding photos. I’ll pay whatever for them,” he barks at the photographer who nods his head like a bobble head doll. “She’s a grown woman, JoJo.” He uses his childhood nickname from when his bigheaded ass couldn’t say Joseph.