Fade to Black (sequel to riptide)

Part 48

It was a few days before Christmas and all me and Jackson were doing was preparing for jingle ball LA. It was the last one and for some reason it was really late in December this year. We only did two jungle balls though. One in New York and were doing the one here. But rehearsal has been strict. We spend all our time together outside of it because it's just been ridiculous. The house is all ready for Christmas anyways but still things were crazy. I'm just waiting for our families to get here because that'll be crazy. They're coming after jingle ball though so we have plenty of time.
I was standing in the living room fixing a toy for Toby. It was a robot that I got in Japan and had to put together because he just wasn't into building it. I don't mind though I find this fun. I still had a lot to do but it was almost there.
I suddenly feel a body pressed up against my back and breathing on my neck.
"Hey baby." I say knowing it was him he moves gently.
"So it's been 7 days your period must be over so what do you say?"
"I say I need to finish this robot."
"I say you need a break." He kisses my neck and I lean my head to the side allowing it to happen. He gets more aggressive."
"Wait babe I can't have a hickey Claire will kill me." She's my makeup artist.
"Don't care." He continues. I don't protest to hard as he bites slightly on my neck. He kisses up my neck and to the side of my jaw pushing further into me as I hold the table for stability. He was undoing his belt I could hear it and once again I was not fighting him. He runs his hand over my bum. Then the doorbell rang and everything stopped as he groaned loudly. I laugh at him then proceed to the door to open it Jackson buttoning his belt again behijdbme. Once he finishes I open the door seeing my family and his right there.
"Merry Christmas!" They cheer.
"Hum hey guys." I say crinkling my eyebrows since they weren't due for two more days. Then it hits me this man didn't tell her the new date. I look behind me and he gives me a sheepish smile. I roll my eyes at him.
"Welcome everybody come on in." My abuelitos gave me kisses and my mom did to and dad and I hugged my siblings then went to his family and did the same before another limo rolled up and my cousins and their significant others got out of the car. I felt Jackson behind me.
"Play nice." He whispers in my ear.
"I'm fine." I whisper back through my fake smile. Sandra makes her way down first like always with her husband Daniel. He was a real-estate mogul but you know with the real estate market going the way it was Sandra was overcompensating for their lack of money. She wore white dress wig a Chanel fur sweater and gloves. This girl was really trying to pass for old money when we all knew she grew up in the ghettos of Miami with us.
"Lauren darling how cute is your home?" She says with a very small smile.
"Welcome Sandra." I hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek then hugged Daniel as well. Me and Sandra just stand and stare at each other for a while.
"Let's all go inside shall we." Jackson says. They all follow us inside and Jackson grabs the tempt off the wall as And opens Jax's cage letting him out to meet everybody. He runs to my feet.
"Hi baby." I pick him up and pet him gen allow him to run to Taylor like I knew he wanted to. Traitor.
"So let's do a tour." Jackson says playing with the remote and turning the automatic shade curtains from the living room off so the family room right next to it could be seen.
"Here's the family room. That's the living room. Kitchen over here. Right off of there is the sun room." We walk through to the large culinary state kitchen then he unshaded the windows and everyone could see the backyard with the huge infinity pool looking over the mountain.
"There's a jacuzzi over there and if you go down there you can reach the gym." He points to the small accent building next to the house that they didn't know connected to the other section of the house.
"Over there is our studio which is off limits because everything in there is incredibly expensive and our work is on there so don't pick the locks, cough Dax."
"What me? Why... wait no that makes sense why me." He nods and Jackson rolls his eyes.
He presses the table in the living room and allows it to scan his hand and shows the lair.
"That's where he kids will be staying it's a state of the art child's lair because I'm literally a child. "
"Is that the light sabers!" Chris yells and runs towards the room. Jackson laughs and then his senses hit him.
"Chris don't hit anybody with the..."
"Ow!" Taylors voice yells.
"Dude they work."
"Yes everything in there works I'm a nerd." Jackson yells down. The other kids join them down there although Chris and Taylor are both too old to be playing with that stuff then again so is Jackson.
"It's completely safe, over night if anyone were to somehow get in which I doubt given my unbreakable security measures the only person who can open that lair is me and Lauren. It's the most secure room in the house so when we thought about having this I drilled into the walls and built cool bunk beds like little pods and installed a little security measure so we know how things are going down there. I just have to remember to put the lasersand stiff away."
"Why do you need lasers?" Sandra asks.
"It makes for some awesome laser tag games. I also have paintball guns, there's a pool table and a poker table down there, and of course an enormous tv for football games and such and video games with simulators down there it's so awesome. So men if you want to play a game or have some manly fun trust me I have the greatest stuff down there." They all whoop like ogres because, men.
"Alright guys come back up for now so you don't get lost." The kids all run back up and he closes the door.
"Up there is our room if you need something, Toby's room is there too, the guest room for you Mike and Clara and the room for you mum, and of course the attic has the kids play room for the baby's." He refers to Stella's new little one Rose.
"Is that it? We expected more space. If you want to house all of us." Sandra digs.
"Oh sweetie we've barely gotten started." Jackson says with a smile. He grabs my hand and kisses it as we proceed. We continue walk and reach the extension. I press the wall and it opens up showing the built in pathway. He presses the remote for lights and we proceed. The all glass passage way was thoroughly terrifying If you had no experience with it so everyone was terrified as we walked although Sandra pretended she wasn't.
"The glass around you is bulletproof and completely secure so don't be afraid." Jackson tells them then continues to the next door and I press the wall again and it gives way to the east wing as I call it now. The huge long hallway of rooms and other things.
"Here we have every bodies rooms all you gotta do is choose and I don't care what state your marriage is in you're sleeping in the same room as your spouse." I hear one of my cousin Tara's husband groan and her eyes go wide and elbow him in the balls. He groans and flips her off. I hold back my laugh and we continue walking. Past the common room with the great view which is self explanatory.
"Here we have a game room for the adults, purely classics. I'm talking the OGs. There we have a small spa. It's got a sauna and everything you need for relaxation. Hot towels, face scrubs, everything from lush including bath bombs, then we also have hers some massage oils for obvious reasons including that reason." He wiggles his eyebrows. I elbow his side although I know it didn't hurt.
"Stop being horny in front of everyone!" I say and they all laugh. He rolls his eyes and continues. Over there we have the other way to the gym if you don't want to go outside. If you come down here..." we go down the stairs and reach a bigger area stocked with shelves and cabinets and such. "We've got basketballs for the court right here and we've got volleyball cause you can always put a net up and work with it. We also have surfboards and beach supplies since the beach is right down this side of the mountain. You could basically walk to it. And we've got to finish it all off. The garage which could also be reached by the door in the front wing. It's primarily used for my projects that I do. Building unnecessary shit and necessary stuff. It also has our cars. So that's pretty much it. If you guys need anything you know where we are."
"Also because this dummy didn't call y'all to tell you or consult me before signing us both up for jingle ball we have a show tomorrow night and you're all welcome to join. It's mostly other artists though but it should be fun. Great for the kids. Not the babies though of course. Sorry rose you can't join us but we'll figure it all out. So just tell us before dinner so we can lock down the tickets from our managers."
"How can you get that many tickets to jingle ball so easily? I tried to get tickets for Daniel but they sold out?" Sandra asks.
"Do you know who they are to these people? They are like gods. These two are a power couple. They could get all the tickets to any concert they wanted to. They can get whatever they want to. Everything Lauren touches turns to gold so I assure you, 30 tickets to jingle ball are absolutely no problem." Taylor says.
"Alright tiger calm down." I say placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah so anyways that's what's happening. Get settled, rest off the jet lag and we'll see you guys later." We walk upstairs his arm around me then continue to our bedroom closing the door so no one would hear us.
"Babe you actually forgot to call?" I ask him.
"I did because when you asked me to do it you looked so sexy and I got all mind boggled and then it slipped my mind. I'm sorry don't be mad."
"I'm not mad baby just a little flustered and turned around. There's just so much to do and extra people in the house and I'm trying to keep my anxiety contained but Sandra just got here and she's already working my last nerve. There were gifts I needed to get and not it's going to be hard and the shows tomorrow and I haven't performed in front of that big crowd in a really long time and for sure not alone so this is all a lot of stress and...."
"Shhh. It's ok I know." He wraps his arms around me calming me down and I suddenly realize there were tears rolling down my cheeks. I wipe them away and relax into his touch.
"Good there you go." He says as my breathing calms down and I return to the normal that I didn't even realize I had left. I remember rambling then my body and mind started freaking out and then I was crying and hyperventilating. It was weird.
"Go make dinner." I say into his shoulder. He looks up at me confused.
"What?"
"The point I was getting to was you messed up so you have to cook and make it something Cuban."
"Babe.."
"Don't babe me go cook." He groans slightly while kissing my head.
"Alright my queen. Anything for you." He kisses my lips before leaving the room. I take this opportunity to have a bath and mentally prepare myself for the grueling week ahead. I pull out a bottle of wine that I have in a small cooler in our closet that I also have for some ice packs for when I'm on my period. I'm the epitome of my house is too big to go up and down the stairs repeatedly. That sounded really bad. Never mind I'm going to stop. I get into the tub. I relax taking a large sip of the wine. I take a large sip of my wine and relax for s good twenty minutes until I heard screaming and laughing and my door opened.
"Mija where do you keep the linens."
"Mami I'm in the bath!" I say shocked but also completely expecting it.
"I understand that and where are they?"
"Lauren how do you work the sink in the bathroom downstairs?" My aunt asks walking in as well.
"Lauren we need to talk about the lineup of events for this weekend." My controlling, overattentive cousin asks.
"Yo Lauren I need your help with the game system downstairs." My cousin Ralph says. They all continue chattering their issues. I put my head into my arms and sink down further amongst the bubbles. The anxiety was sinking in and I debated submerging my head.
"Woah what are you all doing in here my wife is taking a bath." Jackson says pulling people out. They all file out of the room and he locks the door.
"Alright baby you're ok." He says as he pulls me out of the bath and carried me into the bedroom wrapped in a towel. He kneels in front of me as I calm myself down.
"Babe the anxiety has gotten worse." He says gently rubbing my hands.
"I know babe I can't stop it. It's just apart of me."
"You need to go back to a therapist."
"No I haven't gone to him since I..."
"Tried to kill yourself. I know and I don't want a repeat so I need you to go and get his taken care of babe. Living with anxiety is miserable. I don't want you to be miserable." I nod my head.
"I'll make an appointment with Dr. Vincenzo for the new year."
"Good." He kisses my hand then my wrist and then my thigh and a few more times in the upwards direction.
"Babe what're you doing?" I ask.
"You ask me that and yet you know exactly what it is that I am doing." He continues and the minute I expect him to just go for it and end my agony but he backed up and walked away.
"You little.."
"Chef. Yeah now come down for dinner put on some clothes first though."
"Maybe I don't want to."
"You're cute put some damn clothes on Lauren and none of your exhibitionist mess tonight either." I roll my eyes and slide into some comfortable pants and buttoned up a new blouse. I head downstairs and meet them all in the dining room for dinner. Literally every room in this house has an incredible view so dinner was eaten looking at the gorgeous city laid out over the hills. It was great. Jackson made a delicious meal and everything was perfect