Taking the Belle: Big Easy Shifters: Book One
Page 8
The worst part was the way she had looked at him. Like he was a monster. Because that’s what he was. He was a simple, territorial creature who scrounged the city for scraps. All night after that encounter, he had roamed the streets, waiting, remembering, thinking, torturing himself, wondering what she thought of him now.
Ash stood back and studied the metal door of Rosemary’s flat. It was locked up tight, but he needed to make sure she was okay. Most of all, he needed to set eyes on her and to answer questions. Listen to her if she felt uneasy about moving forward with their relationship after watching him nearly kill a man.
There was no chance of breaking down the door, but he was able to pull the pins out of the hinges. He mentally added that to the list of reasons why this place was not safe for her.
Once inside, he found her in the shower, steam making it difficult to see. She screamed and blurted out a string of curses when he announced himself in the bathroom.
He put up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Have you never seen Psycho? You don’t do that to a person!” she shouted. Rosemary turned off the water and reached her hand out of the shower door; Ash obligingly handed her a towel.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay, but you weren’t answering your texts and you didn’t answer the door,” he said, politely averting his eyes while she dried off.
“Well, Ash, I was fucking traumatized after what happened. Not to mention sweaty from following you around all night. I needed a long-ass shower. How did you even get in here?” She opened the shower door again to hang the towel; Ash took it and handed her a fuzzy robe that hung on the hook nearby. She slipped into it and stepped out while she tied the belt.
“Loose hinges,” he said.
She cocked her head to study him. “I hope you don’t think I find that sexy?”
“I didn’t think you would. But when I need to make sure my girl is okay, there’s nothing that can stop me. Not even a shitty door.”
Rosemary shook her head, padded past him, and made her way over to the bed to sit down and pull on her socks. “Well, as you can see, I’m fine. Narrowly escaped a wolf attack, but fine.”
Ash winced. “You’re angry with me.”
“I’m not angry,” she said. “I’m tired. Confused. A little scared. Severely lacking in information. Feeling like we’re way past due to talk about how this whole whirlwind romance is going to work out in the end.”
“I’m here now. Let’s talk.”
She laughed and tucked herself under her blanket. “Stay if you want to. But any touching is going to be non-goal-oriented touching, and it’s gonna be a lying-down kind of talk.”
Ash ditched his shoes and stripped down to his undershirt and boxers. “This okay?”
Rosemary grinned rolled over to face the wall. “Spoon away.”
Ash slid up behind her in the bed, and feeling her warmth against his chest lit up his heart beyond words. He exhaled heavily and kissed her shoulder.
“Remember what I said,” she warned with a grin in her voice.
“I do. I’m just happy to be here with you, to answer any questions, reassure you if you have any reservations about marrying a wolf.”
Rosemary snuggled back into her lover and sighed, “A sentence I never thought I’d have to ask myself.”
Ash chuckled softly and squeezed her closer, eliciting a sleepy, satisfied noise from her. “Why have we never done this before? We’re really good at the snuggling part,” Rosemary said.
“Because we’ve been preoccupied with ravishing each other in stolen moments between weeks of wedding planning?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “And we haven’t taken the time to talk about what marriage would look like.”
“The way I see it, we’d only have to separate two nights a month. Me on the full moon, and you on the new moon,” he said.
She took a while to respond. Ash thought she might have fallen asleep, but she finally said, “As I understand it, you can wolf out at any second, but you say you have it under control. And you said you generally don’t remember what happens during your wolfy time. But I know you remember tonight. What happens when you get angry and wolf out at someone, say, bullying our children? Harassing me at the grocery store over nothing? I can’t have you ripping people’s throats out, Ash.”
“That guy was a grade-A psychopath. I could … jeezus, Rosemary, I tasted it in his goddamn blood,” he said, already feeling his blood pressure rise at the memory of his female being threatened.
“Ash,” she said. That was all that she said, but there was something in it. He’d spent his whole life learning how to control the beast, but she had his blood calming with a single word. She helped him get out of his head. If nothing else conveyed how he had truly found his fated mate, it was this. He let the realization of this wash over him, satiate him, and reassure him.
“You’re right,” he said, stroking her hair.
“The thing about us cats is we can shift when we want to, but we rarely let it get out of control. The only time things are out of our control is on the new moon, and we have our ritual so down pat, we’re never a danger to humans. We leave the city, we go to the wild places, we hunt live animals.”
Ash shifted in the bed so he lay on his back and stretched out. Staring into the black, he said, “Just like in real life. Your family is so much more used to this. Old money. New money. Old shifters. Newish shifters. I guess we have a lot to learn.”
Rosemary pivoted to face him, nestled against his chest, her eyes catching the lights outside so they almost glowed in the dark. “This is the last time I’m going to say this. Maybe our families can learn from each other. Nobody is better than anybody else might be the first lesson. Whether or not I’m marrying you is not a question. I only need to know that you’ll be able to control yourself when you’re angry or feeling protective. You might get away with what happened tonight, but someday it’s going to catch up to you. And I need you around. Okay?”
Ash felt a hard knot of emotion at the back of his throat. “Okay. So I guess this little abstinence game we’re doing will work out for the best. I can spend my time working on the wolf while you’re busy doing your thing.”
Rosemary sighed and rested her cheek against his chest, and Ash continued to play with her hair until she fell asleep.
He wasn’t sure if his horndog ways would drive him crazy until June arrived, but he resolved to make the most of it.
He and the rest of the pack had work to do.
Chapter Fourteen
Rosemary
Newly refreshed and invigorated, Rosemary threw herself back into wedding planning with renewed energy. She had so much to do. Besides nailing down a venue, there were photographers, invitations, flowers, music, dresses, and all kinds of details to secure.
As much as she enjoyed spending her time shocking her mother, Rosemary was relieved to be back in her good graces. Wedding planning was a bitch. Mama and Daddy’s credit cards made it a whole lot easier to get shit done.
Choosing her bridesmaids was the hardest part of the whole affair. She knew GiGi and Chastity had to be in the wedding. But there was just one missing part. She needed a maid of honor, and there was only one choice.
So she swallowed her anxiety and walked into Lucky Penny Interior Designs.
“Hi,” she said. Pen, who had been bent over a worktable mixing and matching upholstery, stood up, surprise etched on her face. “Listen, I know we have our differences, and I should have told you from the beginning what I was. But I want you to know I understand. It’s weird. I’m weird. The DuChamp clan is weird. We are all weirdos, you know? You’re pretty weird yourself, being a wolf and all. So, anyway, I know this is awkward, but would you please consider being OK with me for maybe three seconds and please come dress shopping with me today? Because you’re the one who brought Ash and me together, and I want you to be a part of everything. I’d be incredibly honored if you’d be my maid
of honor. If you do agree, this could help everybody get over the whole panther/wolf shapeshifter thing. We can show everybody how okay we all are with each other. What do you say?”
Pen stared at her and blinked, mouth hanging open.
It took a moment to get a response, but finally, Pen relented. “Whatever I have to do to get you to stop talking about fairy tales in front of my client here, I’ll say yes.”
It was then that Rosemary finally noticed the little old lady who had stopped flipping through a book of fabric samples to stare at both of them.
“Okay so I’ll go away now and come back later to pick you up for lunch,” Rosemary said, trying to recover after realizing she’d just spilled everybody’s secrets in front of a stranger who thought she was nuts. “… at which time I will be medicated and not at all talking about wolves and things. Shapeshifting? What’s that? Haha…”
Later at lunch, Pen and Rosemary cleared the air.
“But listen,” Pen said over a comforting bowl of crawfish, beans, and rice, “it’s going to take some time for me to get used to your other cat friends hanging around. I know GiGi’s become kind of a fixture too, but I have my doubts. Especially after what happened after that first date of hers. First date!”
Rosemary shrugged and nodded, pulling back and sucking off the head of the tasty little crawfish. She had heard about GiGi’s date with one of the members of the wolf pack, and how it had ended disastrously. “We kitty cats like it rough, but everybody’s okay.”
Pen rubbed her temple. “This is all happening so fast.”
So much drama. So many hushed side stories in her little wedding party. But she listened to Pen’s concerns, and Pen ultimately accepted Rosemary’s request that she be in the wedding party. After that, the pair of them shopped for dresses with Betsy, GiGi, and Chastity. The rest of the bitch-ass cousins were having a bridal shower planning session somewhere, so it was just the five women.
At the end of the day, they’d finally agreed on a different color for each bridesmaid, reflecting all of Rosemary’s favorite colors: teal, silver, pink, and purple. Rosemary acquiesced to her mother on a traditional white silk ballgown for the ceremony but picked out a teal dress to wear to the reception. Betsy, to her credit, let it go.
The four younger women giggled and strutted around the posh Uptown dress shop in the biggest, boldest, most over-the-top ballgowns any of them had ever laid eyes on, while Rosemary looked at herself in the gilded mirror and sipped her complimentary champagne.
Her mother sighed happily and shook her head, a little tipsy herself, having just dropped tens of thousands of Lionel’s dollars on five dresses, plus a mother-of-the-bride gown for herself. “Rosemary’s gonna do what Rosemary does,” was Betsy’s strongest opinion of the day.
The bride-to-be slammed the rest of the champagne back down her throat and said, “Why the hell not? Cats don’t have nine lives. I’ve got one life. One wedding. Who’s gonna tell me I can’t have two dresses?”
The final two months before the wedding flew by in a blur of work, parties, brunches, and meetings with vendors. Rosemary only hoped Ash was trying his best to have a little bit of fun to take his mind off this incredibly short engagement.
Chapter Fifteen
Ash
The final months before the wedding dragged on like an eternity.
Due to wedding planning and work, Rosemary and Ash barely saw each other.
He poured himself into some extra projects at the advertising firm. On top of that, he and the wolf pack began regularly convening to talk about possibly finding new places to hunt, away from civilization.
That was all in addition to coming up with plans A, B, and C to get the stubborn old ass Lionel DuChamp to show up at the riverboat for the wedding.
As the day approached, Ash, Bobby, Vann, and Gavin had the father-of-the-bride mission all planned out. A little chat between Lionel and Vann shortly after the engagement party may have also helped in the cause, but nobody could be sure. There was no telling what Lionel was thinking. That was probably what had made him such a damn successful businessman. He was unreadable.
Ash just hoped it would not go completely sideways.
On the big day, Ash was nervous as hell.
Not because he was having second thoughts. He was without a doubt ready to be with his bride. As far as he was concerned, they were already married. They were bonded by love. She was his, and he was hers. The rest was just a party.
As Bobby helped him with his tie, he was grateful his best man didn’t speak the utterly grotesque phrase “last chance.” Bobby just got him. He knew as well as Ash that there was no question this wedding was happening, with or without Rosemary’s father.
Instead, Bobby said, “I’m proud of you, buddy. I love you like my brother. And I think Rosemary is fantastic. You’re a lucky man.”
Ash agreed. “I am lucky. So lucky that I’m about to take my chances with this ceremony and hope Rosemary doesn’t try to kill me.”
Bobby laughed. “Nah, she’ll understand. Hey, you had a job to do, and the pack gets it done one way or another, right?”
“Yes, we do. I just wish I knew the outcome already so I wouldn’t feel like I was ready to vomit. Why couldn’t we all have been cursed with second sight instead of wolf genes?”
Bobby shrugged as if to say, It’s a little late to wish for that now. He patted his shoulder. “Well. Time to go on upstairs.”
“I believe it’s called a deck. Were you raised in a barn?”
Bobby laughed. “Almost. As you know.”
Moments later, Ash stood under the flowered arch with the justice of the peace, as well as his priestess friend Lucy, who had agreed to take part in the ceremony. Ash, who had never been a fan of having a religious ceremony, had secretly made the priest go away with a donation to the parish. He was not about to pretend to convert. He was going to marry his woman on his terms.
He glanced over at Lucy and crossed his fingers.
From the gangway beyond the ceremony space, Rosemary’s cousin Chastity, wearing the biggest purple ballgown he’d ever seen, gave him the thumbs-up. He nodded back. Chastity then picked up a radio and spoke into it, quietly, so nobody could hear. Then she disappeared around the corner.
Soon, a slight commotion developed near the stern of the boat, behind the gathered guests. A strange, burning smell wafted across to the bow of the boat. That would be sage and burning crystals that Ash had hoped Rosemary wouldn’t notice.
Wedding guests were turning around in their seats, but nobody could see exactly what was happening from that vantage point. The only thing Ash could hear was a man’s voice booming, “Just what kind of half-assed circus is this?” And then Rosemary’s voice, on the verge of tears, “Daddy?” And then silence.
Ash’s heart stood still in his chest as he waited for what would happen next.
The string quartet struck up the processional and now was the moment Ash would find out if his plan—or another one of the plans of the pack—had worked or not. The only question was whether Rosemary was going to be a blushing bride because she was so happy or blushing because she was ready to spit fire.
Ash calmed himself and smiled.
He would take whatever version of Rosemary he would get.
Chapter Sixteen
Ash
The groom closed his eyes as he drank her in, his senses heightened to her sweet taste and scent. He could try to devour every drop of her, but there was always more. She drenched herself shamelessly for him. That’s one of the many things he loved about her.
On the outside, she was a refined Southern belle from old money with finishing-school manners and traditions. But inside? She was a hellcat. And the wolf loved him some kitty cat action.
Ash wouldn’t have his bride any other way.
He looked up to glimpse her flushed face as he ran his fingers along the lace trim of her white thigh-high stockings. “Rosemary Michelle DuChamp Boudreaux, who’s your daddy?”
She had to know how fucking insane he had been with his need for her. His need to taste her, nibble on her, to fill her and get lost in her had consumed him from the moment she decided they should abstain until the wedding night. But Ash had played along. He had obeyed and accepted her terms with gritted teeth.
And he swore throughout the engagement that she would pay for this. He had not endured her little games throughout these last few months only to be rewarded with some vanilla missionary wedding-night sex. Not when Rosemary’s spice taunted him daily.
Now she was all his. And she was going to pay. There were no more barriers, least of all the silk and tulle that lay crumpled on the floor by his charcoal morning suit. You don’t fuck with Ash Boudreaux.
He’d done exactly what she’d asked, even if it had taken a little bit of force on the part of the wolf pack. They had gotten old Lionel to the ceremony, and he had walked his only child down the aisle. It was a real tearjerker moment, even if Ash still thought of Lionel as a just-plain jerk.
The ceremony had gone off without a hitch, the reception had been a full-on rager, and his girl was happy. She was about to get a hell of a lot happier.
“Get ready, girl, ’cause I’ve got a present for you.” He snapped her baby blue garter belt, then pulled it off with his teeth. No, they had not been down for ceremonially pulling this little “something blue” off of his bride during the reception. Nobody was getting a look at the goodies under her dress. Nobody but the groom. The drunken wedding guests had begged for this torrid display, but he was not having it, and his word was final on the subject.