Story of Love (Josh & Riley's Wedding Novella): Love in Bloom: The Bradens

by Melissa Foster

  Pushing her emotions down deep, she headed for the bathroom, where she found Max and Lacy drawing on the walls with lipstick. She closed her eyes for a beat, reminding herself this was the marijuana and alcohol taking over. Her friends had not suddenly lost their minds. When she opened them, they were using that lipstick to paint each other’s toenails.

  Perfect.

  At least there were no lamps involved.

  Riley stepped quietly from the bathroom and closed the door, hoping to keep them in one place long enough for them to stay out of trouble while she went in search of Brianna.

  On the way to the stairs she heard Jade’s voice. Oh crap! She’d forgotten all about Jade. She followed the sound of her friend’s voice down to…Josh’s bedroom? Pushing the door open, she found Jade on the bed, where she was lying beside Brianna, who was sprawled out on her stomach, still naked, with only a towel covering her butt.

  Riley couldn’t even begin to take apart this situation. “Where’s Josh?”

  Jade giggled and pointed to Brianna.

  Riley crossed her arms and glared at her. “Not Brianna. Josh. My future husband. That is if I don’t slaughter everyone tonight.”

  Jade shrugged and settled in beside Brianna, with one arm draped protectively over her back.

  Closing the door behind her, Riley stepped from the room and blew out a breath. Where the hell was Josh? She knocked on Rex’s door, and when he didn’t answer, she knocked louder. The man must sleep like the dead. She pushed the door open and went to the side of the bed, where Rex lay in nothing but a pair of tight briefs, one arm stretched over his eyes. Holy fucking hell. She forced her eyes to remain above his waist. She hadn’t thought about how awkward this would be. The man was built like the Incredible Hulk. All he needed was green paint.

  “Rex,” she whispered.

  He didn’t move.

  “Rex!” she said louder, nudging his arm.

  His eyes blinked open, and he bolted upright. “What’s wrong? Are Jade and my boy okay?”

  “Little Hal’s sleeping. And if you call ‘high as a kite and sleeping with Brianna, who’s buck naked, okay,’ then yeah. I’d say Jade’s just dandy.”

  In three seconds flat he pulled on his jeans and was out the bedroom door. “High? Jade doesn’t smoke or do drugs. She doesn’t even drink much anymore.”

  Riley ran after him, holding his massive arm to stop him from barging into any bedrooms. “Hold on. Bree’s naked. I should have gotten Hugh first, but I didn’t think of it.”

  “Riley, you have three seconds to tell me why you said my wife is high or I’m going in anyway.”

  “She ate brownies laced with marijuana. They all did.” She crossed her arms to protect herself from the death stare he was giving her. “It’s not my fault! Elisabeth gave them to me by accident. Just…Stay here.” Not knowing what stage of undress Hugh slept in, she quickly changed her mind. “Wait. I’ll stay here. You get Hugh. I’ve seen enough Braden skivvies for one night. Except my man’s. God, I need him right now.”

  Rex’s biceps flexed, a sure sign of his fighting the urge to barge into the bedroom and claim his wife.

  “I’ll go in with her,” she promised. “Please get your brothers and Jack. Please?”

  He reluctantly strode away, barreling into Hugh’s room without even knocking. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but heard their low baritone voices. Riley peeked into the room where Jade and Brianna were sleeping, and found them in the same position she’d left them.

  Seconds later Hugh came out of the bedroom carrying a bathrobe. Rex was on his heels, and without a word, they disappeared into Treat and Jack’s rooms. In what felt like only ten more seconds, all of Josh’s brothers and Jack were looming over her, peppering her with questions. She held up her hands to silence them.

  “Elisabeth sent brownies. They were laced with pot. We didn’t know, and they ate them. And half the kitchen. Hugh, you better go in first and get Brianna dressed. Rex, when he comes out, you go in.” She looked at the others and motioned for them to follow her. “It’s not pretty in there,” she said outside the door to the suite.

  Treat reached for the door.

  “Wait,” Riley said. “Jack, you go first, because Savannah was also naked.”

  Jack made a growling noise that sent goose bumps racing up Riley’s arm.

  “It’s not my fault,” she reiterated.

  Jack disappeared into the room for what felt like forever but in reality was only a minute or two. He appeared again cradling Savannah in his arms with the blanket tucked around her. “It’s a mess in there,” he said to Treat.

  With a glance at Hugh and Dane, Treat pushed past Jack and led them inside. Riley’s mother was fast asleep on the bed.

  “Where is she?” Treat demanded.

  Riley pointed to the bathroom door. “With Lacy.”

  “Oh, sweetness,” Treat whispered with so much emotion it made Riley ache.

  “Baby,” Dane said, following his brother toward the bathroom.

  “Thanks, Riley,” Jack said. “You going to be okay?”

  Riley nodded, but in truth, she was about a hundred different types of not okay. She was tired and still in shock from the night from hell. What if she’d eaten the brownies? What if the kids had gotten into them? And poor Charlotte’s house was ruined. She was so far from okay, she couldn’t even spell it.

  Jack and Treat both promised to help her clean up in the morning as they carried their wives out of the bedroom. Dane was the last to leave the room, having taken the time to wash the lipstick off of Lacy’s face.

  “Ri,” he said with Lacy in his arms. “Don’t sweat any of this. Josh already called our cousin Beau and made arrangements for him to spend a few weeks shoring up things around here for Char. We’ll add the wall and the bathroom to the list. We’ve got this, okay?”

  She nodded, more grateful for her soon-to-be husband’s and his brother’s thoughtfulness than they could possibly know.

  “Dane,” Lacy said sleepily. “My aura is red, right?”

  He kissed her forehead. “Yes, babe.”

  “Do you know where Josh is?” Riley asked. “He wasn’t in his room.”

  A pained look crossed Dane’s face. Lacy stirred in his arms, and he whispered, “He’s in the east wing, but you didn’t hear it from me.”

  With that mysterious answer swirling around in her mind, and the mayhem calmed, she decided not to wake her mother, and headed down the back staircase toward the east wing.

  Chapter Five

  TWO HOURS. THAT’S how long Josh had been holed up alone in a suite with Riley’s wedding gown and an ancient sewing machine. Most of that time was spent sketching and perfecting the redesign of Riley’s wedding dress, and the rest was spent pacing, trying to talk himself into making that first cut into her gorgeous gown. Scissors in hand, he approached the long wooden table where the dress was spread out like a sacrificial lamb waiting for slaughter. He raised the scissors, and the pang in his gut he’d been struggling against returned. He couldn’t take scissors to the dress they’d spent months designing. He ran his fingers over the colorful stick figures along the center of the skirt and smiled. What if it were their child who had “decorated” the dress? Would he want to cast their creations away simply because the child had chosen the wrong canvas?

  The answer came easily. No way.

  Raking a hand through his thick hair, Josh knew what he had to do. He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about how he should break the news to Riley. But no matter how he tried to cushion it, she would be devastated, because beneath her strong exterior was a sweet, sensitive heart that had been dead set on wearing this sparkling-white wedding gown when they exchanged their vows.

  He set the scissors down beside the dress, rested his hands on the table, and sighed, allowing his shoulders to relax and his head to fall forward. He closed his eyes, grasping once again for the right words to explain the situation, and the guts to go find Riley.
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  “Josh?”

  Josh’s eyes sprang open at the sound of Riley’s shaky voice. He turned, immediately struck by her frazzled state. Her eyes were wide and troubled and her hair was tousled, framing her tight expression. Her gaze dropped to the dress spread out on the table, and confusion filled her eyes.

  “Babe.” He reached for her, but she walked past his extended hand as if in a daze, her eyes scanning the length of the gown, hovering over the children’s drawings. “I can explain.”

  Her jaw gaped, and she shifted her eyes to him, closed her mouth tightly, and looked at the dress again.

  “Baby, the kids were only alone for a few minutes. They were trying to decorate it, to make the dress less plain.” Why did this sound at least a little better in his head?

  “Wh-what…?” Tears brimmed in her eyes as she gathered the dress in her arms and hugged it to her chest. Layers of tulle bunched beneath her trembling hands.

  “My father was watching them, and he turned away to change the babies’ diapers.” He felt like he was tattling. He didn’t even want to say the boys’ names. “I’m sorry. I wish I could have stopped it.”

  She didn’t say a word, which was harder to take than if she blew her top. Blinking away tears, she reached for his drawings, looking them over for a long moment. The air in the room seemed to disappear. Or maybe that was just his lungs constricting.

  He touched her chin, bringing her eyes to his. “I’ll fix it right now if you want me to. I’ve got everything I need. I was just coming to discuss it with you.”

  “When did this happen?” she asked just above a whisper.

  Josh’s chest tightened even more. “This afternoon.”

  “And you thought you could redesign and fix the dress tonight, after sleeping only a few hours last night?” She lifted the dress between them. “With all these layers?”

  A disbelieving laugh bubbled up from her lungs, but it was the tear sliding down her cheek that tore open Josh’s heart. He brushed it away with his fingertips and nodded. “I’ve got Charlotte’s mother’s sewing machine and what I hope is enough white thread, but that’s a little iffy. I figured even if we had to use cream, it was better than—”

  She pressed her lips to his, and he gathered her close, confused and thankful at once. Her dress crumpled between them, and tears slipped into their lips, turning their kiss as salty as it was sweet.

  “I love that you would do that for me,” she said through her tears.

  “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t cut the dress. Not without your approval. Every time I tried, something stopped me. I remembered the night we were designing the bodice and how when I suggested rose appliqués, your eyes lit up like I’d just promised you the world. And all those mornings I woke up and found you poring over our drawings, tweaking and rethinking, with so much energy it was like you’d already had three cups of coffee.”

  He touched his forehead to hers and said, “I’m so sorry, Riley. I’m sorry we had to sneak away from the Bahamas, and I’m sorry about your dress, and, God, you’re shaking.” He searched her eyes, and there were too many emotions looking back at him to pick them apart. “We can do this all over again. Skip the wedding and do it next weekend, after we fix your dress—”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head emphatically. She spread the dress over the table and turned back toward Josh, fisting her hands in his shirt. “I don’t want to wait to get married. We’ve already waited forever.” She looked forlornly at the dress again. “We worked so hard on the dress, and this…” She ran her hand over the children’s drawings, breathing harder once again. “Maybe we just need to spin it positive. Wouldn’t the paparazzi get a kick out of this? It makes our wedding very different, don’t you think?”

  “No, babe. It makes it very Josh and Riley.”

  She smiled at that, and the pieces of his heart scrambled back together.

  “Now it makes sense that we had to run from the photographers and ditch your extended family to hide away in a big house where my mother and your sister and all the girls got so freaking high from Elisabeth’s brownies that they were skinny-dipping and banging holes in walls and chanting and—”

  Josh couldn’t tell if she was angry, upset, or being sarcastic, but she was rambling about nonsense. He placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to slow the words flying from her mouth like bullets. “Riley, slow down. You’re not making any sense.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes, I am. Those brownies Elisabeth gave me were meant for a client, and laced with marijuana. Luckily I didn’t eat any.” She covered her belly with her hand. “But everyone else ate them, including my mother. They ate everything else in the kitchen, too. Then they proceeded to lose their freaking minds. I had to wake up the guys to take control of them. Oh, and Dane said you made arrangements for Beau to do some work for Charlotte?”

  “Yes. I called him when we were looking over the terrace. We noticed there were some…” Josh was still trying to process what she’d said. “Wait. Holes in the wall? Really? Are they okay?”

  “Yes, but wow. It was wild. I thought they were drunk, but Elisabeth texted and said she’d made medicinal brownies for a client and accidentally gave them to me.”

  Josh laughed, then quickly tried to school his expression. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh, but—” Laughter bubbled up again, and before he knew it, Riley was laughing, too. “Your mother was high?”

  “As a kite.” Her smile reached her eyes, and when she glanced toward the dress, Josh’s heart beat a little harder.

  He took her hand in his and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, walking her over to the bed, where she sat on the edge. “Do you have any idea how much I love you, Riley Banks?”

  “You must have a thing for girls with bad luck.”

  “I only have a thing for you, babe. Bad luck, good luck. I’ll take it all. I hate what happened to your dress, but at the same time, it’s apropos, don’t you think?” He gently laid her down on her back and rolled her shirt up, exposing her belly.

  She watched his fingers move softly over her belly, followed by his lips. She pushed her fingers through his hair.

  “I missed you today,” she whispered, breathing a little harder.

  He moved over her, propping himself up on one forearm, and stroked her cheek as he kissed her. Several long, slow kisses later, he gazed into her eyes and said, “I’ve missed you, too. I’m sorry your pre-wedding night got messed up.”

  Pushing her shirt up further, he unhooked the front of her bra and pushed the lace cups to the side. “But I plan to make it up to you.”

  He slicked his tongue over one taut peak, and she inhaled sharply. Moving his mouth to her other breast, he ran his tongue in circles around her nipple, knowing how it drove her crazy. She writhed beneath him, rocking against his arousal.

  “Josh,” she pleaded, pulling his mouth down to her breast.

  Sliding one hand down her hip, he clutched her ass as he pressed his erection against her center. She was trembling again, but this was a familiar tremble. An I-need-you all-over body shudder that he dreamed of and craved, and memorized. Her breathing shallowed as he teased her nipple with his teeth and tongue while thrusting his hips. She spread her legs wider, lifting her knees so her body cradled his. Damn, he wanted to strip her bare and take her fast and hard, but the frantic beat of her heart and the sexy, needy whimpers escaping her luscious lips were worth the slow burn.

  “This is my last night with you as my fiancée, and I intend to enjoy every moment of it.” He slanted his mouth over hers, taking her in a deep, passionate kiss and earning more greedy moans. As their mouths parted, he trapped her lower lip between his teeth and gave it a gentle tug. Their sex life had no boundaries, just the way he liked it. There was nothing they hadn’t done, and tonight he wanted all of her.

  He lifted her shirt over her head and made quick work of removing her bra and his shirt. She reached for the button on her jeans, and he took her wrist and placed it beside
her hip.

  “Let me.” He kissed her again, a little rougher than before, just the way he knew she liked it. Her nipples pressed against his chest, and her hands moved up and down the back of his arms. “Love when you touch me, baby.”

  He kissed his way down her body, spending extra time on each breast, teasing her until she was panting with desperation. He dragged his tongue down the center of her belly and used his teeth to pull open the button on her jeans. He unzipped them slowly, loving the quickening of her breath with each tick of the zipper. Riley curled her fingers in the sheets, straining as he hooked his fingers in the sides of her waistband and tugged her jeans and panties off.

  “I will never tire of looking at you, baby.” He stood at the end of the bed, drinking in the sight of her gorgeous curves and the sweet, slightly shy expression on her beautiful face as he removed his shoes and stripped her bare.

  She sat up and wrapped her delicate fingers around his cock. When she lowered her mouth, taking him in deep, greedy pleasure burned through Josh’s veins. She knew just how to touch him, with a tight grip following her lips as she took him to the back of her throat and then withdrew slowly. She repeated the motions, taking him right up to the edge of release. He squeezed the base of his cock, and she drew back.

  “I want to come inside you, baby.” He laid her down on her back, then ran his hands up the outside of her legs while kissing her inner thighs. “After I devour you.”

  She trapped her lower lip between her teeth the way she did when she was trying not to beg him to take her. He liked it when she begged; he also liked it when she took and gave. Sealing his teeth over her inner thigh, he gave her sensitive skin a hard suck.

  “Josh,” she pleaded, her hips bolting off the bed.

  He held her hips, licking and sucking and kissing his way up to the juncture of her thighs, inhaling the seductive scent of her desire, and pushed her legs open wider. Her eyes were closed, her heart pounding so wildly her breasts moved with each beat.