Your Love Ch. 06

Al right, here you guys go. Thanks again for the words of patience and support. It's been a lot to handle but I got it done for you. I'm pretty excited about this chapter and I really enjoyed writing it. This is my first time ever writing a full sex scene so please give feedback on it!

Enjoy!

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Christina approached Stephen's apartment door with Mingo at her side. She hadn't been here since the night they met.

She felt a little déjà vu.

Pulling out the house key he'd given her at the office she remembered that his fiancé, erm EX-fiancé was not only inside but actually expecting her. This was beyond weird. Should she knock instead. Stephen had said he confessed to Catherine that she'd been there before but she still didn't want to just make herself at home in front of her. She should definitely knock.

Christina took a deep breath and raised her fist to knock. But before she could swing the door flew open.

"Dang girl!" Catherine exclaimed, "I was wondering how long you were gonna stand out there! Oh my goodness, look at that puppy! So cute!"

Mingo jumped back at the high pitch sound of the stranger's voice. Mingo was by no means a puppy considering she was a full size Great Dane, and she was definitely a Great Dane that appreciated calm, so Catherine's greeting had most definitely taken her off guard.

She knew Christina had been standing here? AWKWARD.

"Come on in! I was about to pour us some wine, you and me got some chit chattin to do!" With that Catherine spun around and headed off into the kitchen.

Chit chatting?Christina couldn't imagine what they would need to talk about. Besides shouldn't this girl be wanting to wring her neck or something? Why was she being so nice?

Christina stepped into the loft and looked around. Nothing had changed. Except for maybe the southern version of Elle Woods that had greeted her.

"Red or white?" Catherine called from the kitchen. Her thick southern accent reminded her of Carmen's.

"Uh red please." Christina called back

Only two minutes had passed before Catherine came sweeping into the living room with two huge glasses of wine in one hand a a big bowl of water in the other.

Catherine set the bowl on the floor nest to Mingo and and then passed a glass of wine to Christina.

The two ladies sat on the leather couch and an awkward silence fell immediately as they took each other in. Well for Christine it was awkward.

Catherine sat opposite her looking her up and down in a non threatening manner, more like in how a Chihuahua wood greet another dog.

"God you are gorgeous!" Catherine finally said with sincerity.

"Oh thank you." Christina responded timidly.

"Ok so I know you probably think we are supposed to be enemy's or something right?"

"Well not enemies so to speak."

Catherine laughed.

"Listen girl, there is no problem here." Catherine motioned to the empty space between them. "Stephen is one of the sweetest people on this planet and I love him like a brother. All I ask is that you don't break his heart. I can tell he's got a lot ridin on you."

Christina smiled. She was feeling a little less intimidated by Catherine.

"I do care about him; he's done a lot for me in the short time I've known him."

Christina then remembered something.

"Stephen had said you didn't like dogs, or that you were allergic or something." She was clearly confused.

Catherine's face immediately took on one of guilt before she smiled awkwardly.

"That was one of my "try to get dumped" tactics. I actually love dogs, but I also knew how much Stephen liked them."

"Christina shook her head in understanding and laughed a little.

"That's crazy that you had to go through all of that."

"Trust me, I know! But it's working out now, for everyone."

Catherine smiled. She could tell Christina was authentic and that she did care about Stephen.

Catherine downed the rest of her wine and placed the empty glass on a coaster before slapping her manicured hands together.

"Alright girl, wanna help me with dinner?"

"Oh sure. What are we making?"

The girls stood up to head for the kitchen, leaving Mingo who had curled up next to the couch and fallen asleep.

"Steaks, mashed potatoes, with a side salad. I've already got the steaks done and the potatoes are just about ready. Just gotta get the salad prepared."

"Ok I will work on that then."

"Perfect, everything's on the counter already washed and the knives are in the stand next to the microwave. I'm gonna hop in the shower real quick and then I'll be out to set the table. The boys should be here in an hour."

With that Catherine turned around and went into the bedroom.

Catherine pulled a knife out of the stand and then walked over to the vegetables. Grabbing a tomato, she began to slice it into cubed chunks before tossing them in a bowl.

Christina began to develop an eerie feeing that she was being watched.

"Now that's not a bad view to come home to." Christina spun around to see where the voice had come from.

Stephen was leaning against the kitchen door frame smiling like a Cheshire cat.

"What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn't be in til later."

Stephen straightened himself up before walking towards her. His navy blue work shirt was rolled up at the elbows showing off his perfect tattooed forearms and his gold striped tie was loosened around his neck. His crystal blue eyes peered at her like she was the last meal on the planet and he was a starving man.

He is so fucking sexy.

"I was but I thought about you here with Catherine and I figured I shouldn't throw you to the sharks so soon by yourself."

Stephen had back Christina up against a counter and was pressing his body firmly against hers.

"Besides I kinda liked the thought of you being back in my apartment and I want to make sure you were...comfortable."

Christina felt herself running out of air as the heat of him enveloped her body. She was beginning to regret the whole "waiting" thing.

Finally, she got the strength to respond to him.

"Catherine has been great actually, very welcoming."

"Mhmm." Was all he said before leaning down to press his lips against hers.

Christina let out a groan before snaking her arms around his neck and leaning into him. She parted her lips allowing him to slip his tongue into her mouth and tasting hers. Stephen slipped his hands down to her plump ass before giving it a good squeeze.

Christina moaned.

Yes, I could get used to this just fine.Stephen thought.

"Well at this rate there won't be any salad for dinner."

The two pulled back from their kiss and turned to the doorway.

Catherine almost laughed at the looks on their faces, clearly those of two lovers caught being naughty.

"Oh sorry." Christina stammered before going back to cutting vegetables. Stephen just shot an annoyed look at Catherine and she stuck her tongue out like a bratty little sister. He was glad they could be friends but their friendship wouldn't last if she was going to interrupt the little bit of intimacy Christina was allowing him.

"I'm gonna take a shower," Stephen called into the kitchen at he walked towards the bedroom. "Ben said he's on his way. How long til dinners ready?"

"Give us 10!" Catherine called back before turning to Christina who was chopping lettuce. "So you two are pretty hot!"

Christina would've blushed if she could have.

"Thanks I think."

She had a hard time seeing Stephen and Catherine together as a couple, they seemed to act more like brother and sister.

"I'm gonna set the table." Catherine said while grabbing plates and glasses from cabinets and then disappearing into the dining room.

Christina liked Catherine so far, granted she was pretty intense and very peppy, but she was sweet and Christina could tell she was an authentic person. Mingo however, was clearly still in deciding mode. She had always been a relaxed dog and liked her surroundings to be quiet and chill, which Catherine clearly wasn't.

The salad was finally chopped and ready to be served.

"Hey, Catherine!" She called out. Catherine came rushing into the kitchen waving her hands and shaking her head.

"Nu uh! None of that!" She exclaimed, "You can call me Cat. Now what do you need dear?"

"Oh ok, well Cat," she stammered awkwardly, "the salad is done. Just wanted to know where to put it."

"Go ahead and place it on the dining table."

Christina nodded as she grabbed the huge glass bowl and took it in the next room.

Once she got into the dining room Christina gasped.

She was under the impression tonight would just be a simple dinner but clearly she was wrong.

Catherine, or Cat, had set the table so fabulously it looked liked it belonged in a five-star restaurant in Paris. There were dark red folded linen napkins, white bone dining ware with gold trim, and there were lit candles at the center of the table. It was gorgeous.

"Like it?" Cat asked, walking up behind her with a bowl full of mashed potatoes.

"It's beautiful! You have a talent."

"Thank you! It's actually my job." Cat laughed before explaining. "People hire me to stage houses, stores, different events. I love it, it lets me be creative!"

"That's amazing!" Christina said smiling, she didn't even know that was a thing but she was definitely impressed.

"What do you do? If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh not at all, I'm actually a lawyer at Earnest and Pratt."

"Oh I've heard of them! I've heard Richard Earnest is a beast in the courtroom but outside supposedly he's a huge teddy bear!"

Christina smiled, "Well I can confirm that, he's my father."

"Richard Earnest is your father?!" Catherine looked pleasantly shocked, "Get out of town! I bet you take some of that no bull attitude in the courtroom yourself then!"

She laughed, "I try, I don't think I'm as cutthroat as my daddy but I get the job done."

Cat laughed and nodded, she understood having a determined father, but she'd like to think Christina's father was much more noble about how he did business.

Right then the doorbell rang causing Mingo to to jump and rush to the front entrance.

"That must be Ben." Catherine walked to answer the door and Christina went to calm Mingo.

"Hush silly! You need to calm down."

As Christina soothed the Great Dane Cat walked back into the room with Ben in tow.

"Christina, I'd like you to meet Ben, Stephen's best friend and my wonderful boyfriend!" Catherine looked at him with admiration at being able to call him boyfriend.

"Hi Ben, nice to meet you." Christine extended her hand which Ben took and gave a good firm shake.

"Likewise." Ben returned.

Stephen had walked in the room in time to witness introductions.

"Great, we all know each other! Can we eat?"

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

"That was delicious." Ben said leaning back in his chair and slapping his belly.

Christina had to agree but she couldn't take credit, "All thanks go to Cat, she was the chef tonight."

Catherine smiled and waved her hand at Christina in a dismissive manner, "Honey please, I've never seen vegetable chopped so fine!"

Everyone laughed as they wiped their mouth and sipped their wine.

"So Chris," Ben started, "Mind if I call you Chris?"

"Not at all."

"Great. Chris, Cat tells me you were engaged too."

Catherine gasped before smacking Ben on his shoulder and exclaimed, "Loudmouth!"

"I'm making conversation."

Stephen interjected as he threw a bread roll at his friend, "Yea, awkward conversation."

Christina was laughing at the playful scene in front of her. She could see why the three of them, were friends. "No, it's totally fine. Umm, yea actually we officially ended it this morning."

"How did that go?" Catherine asked.

"Surprisingly not well. Jackson has always been a very calm and collected person. To see him fly off the handle like that was intense. I didn't even get to grab all of my stuff. All I really took was some clothes, Mingo, and some legal file he'd tossed at me."

Catherine looked ready to defend her, "Well don't you worry about it. We can go and get everything tomorrow."

Christina smiled in thanks.

"Legal file?" Stephen asked with a confused look.

"Yea, he kind of chucked it at me in his fit of rage. I placed it in my bag on the way out."

"Mind if I take a look?" Ben was curious.

"Ben actually went to school for law as well Christina. He just doesn't practice since he's actually doing my company's accounting." Stephen said.

"Oh sure then. Go for it. I'll go grab it."

Christina stood up and went to find her bag.

Catherine took the opportunity to kick Stephen under the table.

"Ouch! What the hell!"

"I like her!" Catherine said with a huge smile.

"Me too!" Stephen said with an annoyed voice, "Did you have to kick me to tell me that?"

"Well we can tell you like her." Ben said in a softer voice. "You haven't done too much talking but you're about to stare a whole through her."

Ben and Catherine laughed and Stephen fumed. He hadn't realized he was being so obvious but he found it incredibly difficult not to look at her, she was beautiful. He loved that he seemed to fit so naturally into their little group.

Christina walked back into the room as the giggling dies down and she could only assume she had been the topic of conversation. She could only hope it was good.

"Here you go Ben. I haven't really looked it over but from what I saw it looked to be the prenup. I'm environmental law but I assume contracts flow the same way in a marriage prenup."

"A prenup?" Catherine exclaimed, "I don't believe in those things."

"Tell me about it." Stephen muttered under his breath and Catherine kicked him again.

"I think they are just a set up for failure!" She said coming to her own defense. "Why prepare for the end when you are working on forever!"

Christina smiled and nodded but she sort of disagreed. Sometimes you just need that security in case anything didn't go according to plan, but she could empathize wit Cat's idealist point of view.

"Umm," Ben spoke up, "Christina, did he talk to you before he had this thing drawn up?"

"No, he just said he was going to jot down the basics and have a lawyer look them over. I think it was more for his peace of mind. I always earned more than him and he may have been worried about paying alimony of something were to have happened."

"Oh trust me," Ben said with a cynical tone, "he would have been just fine."

"Ben what are you talking about?" Stephen said growing irritated.

"One of his stipulations was that in the case of a divorce within the first year of marriage he gets a flat payout of $5 million."

Christina almost choked on the wine she had been sipping.

"Excuse me?" Christina almost yelled before snatching the papers out of Ben's hands. She skimmed over the words. She couldn't believe it. Why would he ask for such a large amount of money within such a....specific amount of time?

"This makes no sense." She muttered while looking over the rest of the papers.

Ben had considered the motivation, "Chris, my guess is that he wasn't planning on being married very long in the first place."

Christina looked up and considered what Ben just said.

Stephen asked, "So you think he was planning a divorce this entire time?"

Ben nodded.

"Damn," Catherine said more to herself. "I guess it's a good thing you didn't become Mrs..." She trailed off realizing she didn't know her ex-fiancé's last name.

"Billards." Christina said absentmindedly, her mind was on a million other things.

Billards?Stephen thought.

No. It can't be. JB? J. Billards. J for Jackson!

"Jackson Billards?" Stephen asked with a little more anger than he meant to show. "Jackson Billards is your fiancé?!"

Christina looked up at him, "Was."

"I was sitting right next to him." Stephen was muttering to himself at this point. "I was fucking sitting right next to the bastard!"

The rest of the table looked at him in shock and confusion clearly not following.

Stephen looked Ben dead in his eyes as her placed his fists on the table and leaned across it.

"Christina is engaged to J. BILLARDS!"

Ben's face turned white with realization.There's no wayhe thought. But how many J. Billards were in the area.

"Was!" Christina said again with a little more annoyance in her tone.

Stephen wasn't paying attention to Christina at this point, he'd just figured out who all was behind his breech in security and he wasn't going to let it go unpunished.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

"I can't believe this shit!" Jackson screamed and stomped across the living room floor the umpteenth time.

Deacon sat on the couch and let his lover work out his anger. He had no idea what happened, everything was going according to plan and then Jackson had to go and get dumped by his bitch of a fiance.

"Baby relax and tell me exactly what happened."

"I told you! I don't know! We were fine, everything was going perfectly, the wedding was in a few days. Then she wants to talk about some, "I just don't feel like this is right for us" shit!"

Deacon sighed audibly. The alimony he would have gotten from divorcing Christina was a majority of the money they planned to have a year from now. They wouldn't be broke but they'd have to put off their plans of moving to the beach for a while.

"Jesus Christ, well where is she now?"

"I don't fucking know!" Jackson had stomped back into the living room and thrown himself onto the couch. "She probably went on one of her stupid "minute" runaways. Fucking brat! I called her parents and they insist that she's doing what's best for her. Drive me fucking crazy!"

"Ok well just relax, we still have the money we are getting from Taylor Architectures and we may just have to milk it for another year or two."

Jackson huffed and nodded angrily, "Ok, I'll call Baker and let him know we will need to extend the contract. It'll be fine. We're still on track."

Jackson stood and walked off to grab his phone.

Deacon sighed. His dream of running off into the sunset with his man and his money were going to be pushed back but he'd be damned if anyone got in the way of it.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Catherine sat on Stephen's balcony and watched the night life go by.

Stephen had finally calmed down after his rage attack an hour ago. She didn't blame him though. To be within a breaths distance of the man screwing you over and not even know it and then to find out it's your girlfriends ex-fiancé? That was pretty heavy.

So much had happened in so little time, and there was so much left to do. She hadn't even told her parents that she and Stephen had called off the wedding and she was in love with someone else. They'd be furious.

But she didn't care, or at least she didn't care about how her father felt about it.

Catherine was entirely too disgusted with Baker Basin to worry about what he thought of her. He had caused entirely too much damage. After everything Stephen had been through, the fact that he'd actually go so far as stealing from his future son-in-law sickened her.

At this point Catherine only worried if her mother knew about what her husband had done. Was she in on it?

God I hope not,She thought to herself.

The patio door slid open and Ben stepped out into the cool air holding a blanket.

"Hey, you." He said looking at her with concern in his eyes.

"Hey."

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine." Catherine responded but Ben knew better.

"Cat, you've been to hell and back this week. How are you? Seriously."

She looked up at Ben and saw his worry. "I don't know. So much has happened Ben."

"I know babe." Ben walked over and sat down on the edge of the lounge chair Catherine occupied. He leaned back so he was laying next to her then draped the blanket over their bodies. "I'm here for you, you know that right?"