by M. S. Parker
“Edward...” I moaned out his name as I rode the edge. I love him, I told myself. I love him.
“Gabriella.” He rasped my name just before he kissed me, a deep, hungry kiss that stole my breath away.
When his teeth scraped against my bottom lip, I was able to find that place inside me and finally came. As I tightened around him, he groaned and followed me.
We lay there, panting and wrapped around each other, my hand on his chest as he stroked his up and down my hip. I focused on the fading pleasure, telling myself that I was imagining the slight ache inside me, the one that told me I’d missed something, that there had been a greater plateau I could have reached. I’d come, but I wasn’t entirely sure I’d been satisfied. That wasn’t important though. Not every climax had to be earth-shattering.
“I’ll call my mother in the morning,” he said some time later, his voice thick with sleep. “Talk to her about our change of plans.”
“Hmmm…”
That was the only response I made out loud. Inside, I was still telling myself, I love him. I really wasn’t trying to convince myself. It only seemed that way.
I loved Edward.
Chapter 6
“You do realize why she’s in such a hurry, don’t you?”
The look Claire tossed me was full of scorn. If I hadn’t felt pretty much the same way about her, it might have gotten to me. But I didn’t really care for her, and that was putting it politely.
As she continued to glare at me, I arched an eyebrow at her. I’d been working on that. It was an expression of cool contempt and I found some small measure of pleasure when she was the one to look away.
The pleasure faded as she turned towards Edward, her voice rising. “Don’t you?”
“Yes, Mother.” Edward gave me a small, pained smile, one that clearly said let me handle this. Please.
That meant only one thing. This wasn’t going to be over any time soon and it was going to get uglier. Lowering myself onto the window seat, I stared out over the gardens and tried to pretend I was inside a scene I’d just written. Inside it, not actually living it. Although, if I’d been writing it, the heroine would’ve had a hell of a lot more to say to the villain of the piece.
We’d decided to invite her over for brunch to tell her the news rather than having Edward do it over the phone. I was pretty sure that had been one of the worst ideas ever. She’d come sailing through the door, armed with wedding plans and suggestions. In seconds, she’d raked me over with a look that made it very clear that my plain white capris and pink silk top fell very short of what she considered appropriate attire.
But then again, Claire Bouvier considered everything about me inappropriate, from my slight Tennessee twang to my simple and inexpensive haircut. I was pretty sure she even found the auburn color of my hair offensive, but that wasn’t the most inappropriate thing about me. No, that was my relationship with her oldest son.
We’d had a whirlwind romance, getting engaged after dating only a short while and she was furious about that. Then Edward had decided that he’d wanted us to be married in an equally short period of time. She’d been livid, but had thrown herself into the preparations for a massive ceremony befitting the Bouvier name.
Now, the plans had changed.
Sort of.
After finally telling Edward that his mother was stressing me out by overriding every decision I’d made about the wedding and generally taking over, he’d suggested that we have two weddings. A small one I could plan for just our families and close friends, and then Claire could keep the big one she felt was appropriate. I hadn’t exactly been happy that he’d come to that solution since it had still meant Claire would force me to have the wedding she wanted, but I’d agreed in an effort to keep the peace.
Claire, apparently, wasn’t going to be so gracious.
Not that it surprised me.
“Mom, please.” His tone was placating. “We’ll still have the big ceremony in two months, just like you wanted, but we want to make things official now.” He didn’t say anything about the fact that I wanted a wedding I actually had some say in. “We want to start living our lives without the pressure of a big wedding looming over us. You and Estelle can handle everything for that one.”
Her nose curled as if she smelled something bad. “She wants to make things official now because she wants to start living her life with your bank account. It’s quite the coup, some young girl from Tennessee catching the eye of Edward Bouvier. She must be so thrilled with herself.”
My hands curled into fists. I didn’t give a damn about Edward’s money or last name. He could be Edward Smith from Nowhere, Alabama and it wouldn’t matter to me.
I almost told her that, but I kept quiet as Edward threw me a look. His ice blue eyes, so much like his mother’s, begged me to hold my tongue. I did. He was doing this for me. I could keep quiet for him.
“Mom, you know that’s not true.”
It continued on in that vein for another fifteen minutes and I kept my cool. Right up until she was no longer toeing the line, but jumped right across it.
“Have you considered that she might be pregnant and that’s why she’s so eager to get married?”
Edward closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face, but he didn’t say a word. I slid off the seat, staring at her.
“Are you crazy?” I demanded, past the point of caring.
Claire looked triumphant. “I’m just cautious, like a good mother. Just looking out for my boy. After all, that’s a thing with your family, isn’t it? Getting knocked up so the guy will marry them?”
I stared at her, stunned, and it took a moment for the dots to connect. “You had me investigated.” My voice shook as I forced the words out. My hands did too, and I pressed them against my sides to keep from reaching out and throttling her.
“Of course.” She looked vaguely surprised that I hadn’t already realized that.
“In what kind of world do people do that sort of thing?” I demanded. “I haven’t hidden anything from Edward. All he had to do was ask and I’d tell him the truth.”
My cheeks burned, but there was shame mixed with anger. That wasn’t entirely true. I had hidden things from Edward, but they hadn’t been about my family. He didn’t know that I’d posed for his youngest brother, Flynn...or that Flynn and I had slept together. While the sex had taken place before I’d met Edward, most of the modeling work hadn’t. His younger brother, Cody, knew everything, but I’d kept it all from Edward, not wanting to ruin what we had, or turn him against his brother.
“In my world, we do whatever it takes to keep our family from being taken advantage of, but, of course, you wouldn’t understand that.” Her eyes burned like blue steel and she lifted her chin, staring down her nose at me. “Sure you can’t be that surprised by my assumption. Other than the fact that the women in your family have an atrocious time telling men no, there’s little to be learned.”
“Watch it.” Warning underscored my voice and I fought to keep my tone level. Coming after me was bad enough. Going after my family was something else.
“It’s only the truth.” She looked around and moved over the small drink service set up in the corner, pouring herself a small glass of sherry. “Your mother had to drop out of college the first semester and marry your father. Your brother, Duncan, was born six months after they got married. Doesn’t take a math whiz to add that up.”
“Stop.” I spoke through gritted teeth.
Claire laughed. “At least she attempted to go to college. Her mother never even finished high school, did she? Then there’s Catherine. Pregnant at eighteen.” She shook her head. “Do her boys even have the same father? How long before the youngest follows in her family’s footsteps?”
“Mother, that’s enough.” Edward finally cut between us, but it was too little, too late.
I was already leaving the room. It was either leave, or cause a real problem when I punched my future mother-in-law right in her smug face.
>
At the door, I paused and looked back. “I’m not pregnant. And for the record, I’ve already finished college. Top of my class, on a full scholarship. And yes, my mom did drop out of college because she was pregnant, but you know what? She’s still married to my dad.” I paused a moment and then gave myself permission to be a little mean. “As for Catherine, no, her sons don’t have the same father, but may I remind you, that neither do yours.”
Claire’s face went white, then red.
“What my family does have that yours doesn’t, is we’re happy and we love each other, because that’s what families do. Can you say that about yours? Can you honestly say that you’re happy? Because, from where I stand, it looks like you’re determined to make everyone as fucking miserable as you are.”
Leaving the sound of her outrage and Edward’s conciliatory voice behind me, I headed out into the hall. I had only one goal in my mind. Get as far away from Claire Bouvier as I could.
I only made it ten feet.
My desire to escape was cut short as I nearly walked into one of the last people I wanted to see. Flynn McCreary was Edward’s twenty-five year-old half-brother and just as gorgeous as the two Bouvier boys. Dark brown hair, cadet blue eyes and a lean body that I could picture all too well.
At the moment, a familiar smirk twisted his beautiful mouth and I knew he’d heard at least part of my little tirade. While my outbursts towards Claire generally exasperated Edward, Flynn seemed to find them amusing.
Wearily, I sighed. I was so not in the mood to put up with his shit. “What are you doing here?”
“Dropping off a portfolio for Edward.” He held it up, displaying an oversized reddish-brown folder wrapped with rubber bands. He grinned when I glared at him. “Don’t worry. You don’t know the model.”
I wondered if it had been the beautiful, curvy woman I’d seen him with the other day. The woman he’d been fucking just days after he’d told me that he couldn’t get me out of his head. My already churning stomach flipped.
He shoved off the wall and came toward me, sharp white teeth catching his lower lip, tugging on it for a second before he slowly released it. The motion made me think about how that beautiful mouth had felt moving against my own. Against my body...
“You put up with her bullshit longer than I would’ve expected you to.”
I had to run the sentence through my head twice before it made sense. Behind me, I heard Edward’s soothing voice competing with Claire’s strident one. I tensed as I heard a particularly disparaging comment.
Flynn looked disgusted. “Why do you put up with that shit?”
“Because she’s Edward’s mother.” Shouldering past him, I took the hall that would lead me to the western wing—and the greenhouse. Other than the study and the bedroom, that was one of the few places here where I could relax. I desperately needed to relax.
And now that wasn’t going to happen because Flynn was following me.
“So because she’s his mom, you feel you can’t tell her she’s a bitch?” Flynn sounded annoyed. “Well, she’s my mom too, and I give you permission. Tell her to back the fuck off.”
“It’s not that.” My heels clicked on smooth wooden floors, polished to a high shine.
I’d wanted to wear comfortable dress sandals, but I’d seen the way Edward had looked that them, so I’d gone with heels instead. I was regretting it now. I could’ve made a quicker getaway in sandals.
When Flynn fell into place next to me, I slanted a look up at him. “She’s going to be my mother-in-law. We already get along like gasoline and fire. Why make it worse? Edward’s trying to help ease the stress by giving me a small wedding the way I want and letting her have control of the big one, but she doesn’t like it and now he’s caught in the middle. I don’t need to make things even more complicated.”
“Fuck that.” Flynn caught my arm and pulled me to a stop. His eyes locked on my face and my heart jumped up into dangerous territory, slamming against my ribs so hard it hurt to breathe. “It shouldn’t even be a question. You’re his and she shouldn’t talk to you like that. He shouldn’t let her.”
“Look...” I blew out a breath. We were at least far enough away that I could no longer hear Claire’s raised voice. “I’ve got thick skin. I have to have thick skin. Yes, she’s a bitch, but I don’t care what she thinks about me, what she says.”
“I do.” He cut me off and reached up, one hand tracing my cheek. His touch was surprisingly gentle.
I held still, mesmerized as he pushed his hand into my hair. I could barely breathe.
“If you were mine, I’d never let her talk to you like that. Never force you into a compromise like that.” His thumb swept over my skin and his eyes studied me as though he was trying to imprint my face on his memory. “If you were mine...”
Claire’s voice echoed, drifting toward us. I pulled away from Flynn, swallowing around the tight knot that had settled in my throat. I kept my head up as Claire appeared. She cast a haughty look toward us before sailing on toward the front door.
Edward trailed in her wake. A faint smile curled his lips when he saw us standing there and he turned, coming toward us as he shook his head. “Didn’t want to come join the fight?”
“Hell, it’s not my wedding.” Something unreadable danced through his blue eyes as he looked at his brother. “Not my fiancée she was trashing, either.”
Heat flooded my face as Edward caught my shoulders. “I’m sorry, darling,” he said. He bent and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I know that was ugly, but it’s all taken care of now.”
I rested my head on his chest as he spoke to Flynn, focusing on the steady beat of his heart. Even his mother couldn’t get him riled...not even on my account. Distantly, I heard the two of them discussing something. I had no idea what and I didn’t really care.
I was too busy thinking about what Flynn had said.
If you were mine...
Chapter 7
If you were mine...
Shit.
Four words. Apart, they didn’t really mean much. How could they echo in my head hours, even a day, later? No, that last one, it meant something. Mine. If he’d stopped before he’d gotten to that one, I would’ve been fine, because anything could follow if you were. But put all of them together and it was something I couldn’t stop thinking about, no matter how much I wanted to.
I was flying solo again, juggling wedding plans and dealing with everything on my own. Our ‘together’ wedding planning hadn’t lasted very long. I couldn’t really complain though. Edward was pretty much flipping a billion-dollar company on its end, just so he could have a few days away for our wedding at the end of the week.
The big, elaborate honeymoon would have to wait until after the big elaborate wedding, but we’d decided to take a couple of days for ourselves up at the lodge again. Even that bit of time off was taking a massive effort. Edward had gone into the office yesterday and he hadn’t left until nearly midnight. He’d been gone when I woke up and he’d already called to let me know he’d be there late tonight.
I just hoped that his working late was only because of the weddings and it wasn’t going to be a habit. I loved Edward and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, not waiting around until he could squeeze me into his schedule.
He’d apologized for tonight, of course, told me to send anything I couldn’t handle to his administrative assistant. I knew he wanted to help as much as he could, but at the same time, I knew there were work things he had to get done if we had any chance of having anything resembling a honeymoon.
I supposed that’s what happened when you married a man the fashion world considered a powerhouse.
Blowing out a breath, I studied the list I had in front of me. The good news was that his assistant had assistants and between her assistants, we’d managed to get a local minister who could marry us. We had everything set up to get the license and all the other legalities taken care of. The big thing was notifying family and friends.
“This is almost as bad as just letting Claire have her way,” I muttered, rubbing my neck. Why had I thought this would be better? Right, I hadn’t. I’d just agreed to it because it had been what Edward had suggested, a way to make peace. It hadn’t exactly worked that way, but he’d said he’d smoothed things over.
The phone rang and I grabbed it, desperate for a distraction.
“Gabriella, it’s Estelle.”
Mentally, I groaned. Not much of a distraction from stress. Out loud, I said, “Hi, Estelle. Sorry, I missed your call earlier. I was taking care of a few things.”
“I understand. I...” She hesitated and then forged on. “Well, I heard about the change in plans. I hope there wasn’t anything I did that brought this about.”
“No.” Rubbing the back of my neck, I pushed back from a desk that was suddenly way too small to hold all the crap I had thrown on it, and I moved to the window. “It’s just...I guess I wasn’t prepared for a wedding like what we’ve been planning. I’m stressing so much and...”
“Gabriella.” Estelle spoke into the silence left by my unfinished sentence. “It’s your wedding. You need to have the one that suits your needs.”
A rush of relief washed over me. She understood that it was less the wedding itself and more what the wedding was being forced to be. “Thank you.”
“Of course. There is...” She cleared her throat delicately and I assumed she was preparing to talk about the other reason for her call. “Claire’s already been over. She’s informed me that she’s taking over the rest of the plans for the October event. I assume you were made aware?”
Grimacing, I thought back to the discussion Edward and I’d had. His solution to the problem of me and his mom. “Yeah. That was the compromise. She finishes up, taking over everything I haven’t already arranged.”