Once Upon A Beast

by KB Winters

  She flicked on a light over the oven and started pulling out kitchen appliances before adding, “Please, call me Alice.”

  “Okay, Alice.” I finalized the email I’d been working on and closed the lid of my laptop. “Anything I can help with?”

  “I’m a firm believer that too many cooks spoil the broth, but you can mix the batter if you’d like.” She offered me a mixing bowl with what looked like brown goo in it.

  “Sure,” I said, thankful she didn’t want me to do anything more than mix. I’d noticed that even Mia only chopped veggies when she was in the kitchen. Mama Doyle seemed to protect her territory fiercely. I could respect that.

  I mixed as she darted around the kitchen, pulling out ingredients and adding them all to their own bowls. “You know, I was over the moon when Mia called and said she was bringing someone home with her.”

  I’d gathered as much. “Really, why? She’s a beautiful woman. You must have met your fair share of boyfriends in the past.”

  Alice huffed. “We’ve met none, actually. A couple of dates when she still lived here, before she went off to Portland, but she’s never been serious enough about a man to bring him home specifically to meet us.”

  That explained her reaction on the plane and on the way to the house. “She’s never brought anyone home?”

  “Never,” Alice confirmed. “She didn’t tell you that?”

  “If she did, I wouldn’t have believed her. You’ve got yourself quite the daughter there, Alice.”

  Her answering smile brightened the room. A knot tightened in my stomach. That was how a mother should look when talking about her kids. “I do. I was blessed with two amazing children.”

  “Forgive me if I hold one in higher esteem than the other,” I joked, but her expression became serious.

  “I do forgive you. Ryan hasn’t been very welcoming to you.” Not welcoming? I would’ve snorted if I wasn’t with his mother. “He’s very close to Mia. I think this relationship has surprised him more than anyone else.”

  “I’d bet on it,” I replied, not wanting to say more.

  “Our fault, I’m afraid. We used to make it clear to Ryan he had to take care of his baby sister. Protect her at school and all that. He takes it very seriously.”

  “I can see that. I’m grateful he has protected her for me all these years.”

  Alice smiled. “It makes me so happy to hear you say things like that.”

  “I mean it. I’ll protect her with everything I have.” Because she was potentially giving up something as important to her as the company was to me, her relationship with her family. As unimaginable as it was to me, maybe what she was giving up was more important than what I was fighting to keep.

  Tears welled in Alice’s eyes. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

  “I’m happy to hear it. Mia means a lot to me. Your approval will make it so much easier for us going forward.”

  “Forward?” Alice raised an eyebrow.

  I flashed her my cocky smirk. I didn’t want to give too much away. That was for Mia to do, if she was still committed to our arrangement.

  My palms grew sweaty. That never happened to me. I needed to know where her head was at, but I couldn’t exactly wake her over it and risk pissing her off more.

  In the meantime, I settled for talking to Alice and actually enjoyed it. “Forward.”

  “Well then, you’d better get to that whisk in your hand, young man.” She waved a spatula at me mockingly.

  “What am I mixing, anyway?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I trust you, but I’m curious.”

  “It’s just bran muffin mix.” Curiosity flashed in her eyes, but she was too polite to ask about my lack of knowledge surrounding basic breakfast foods.

  “Never had homemade bran muffins before,” I told her.

  “You don’t say,” Alice mused. “Well, there’s a first time for everything. Now you get to have a hand in the first batch that you’ll ever taste.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s a positive thing.” I glanced at the bowl with apprehension.

  “It will be,” she assured me confidently. “My recipe is foolproof.”

  “Good thing, since I’m a fool when it comes to cooking.”

  “We’re baking, honey,” she teased.

  I was amazed at how easy Alice was to be around. “An even bigger fool when it comes to baking then.” I smiled.

  “Stick with me, I’ll make you famous.” She winked and went back to weighing and measuring. “You know, I remember when I taught Mia to bake. It was a disaster at first.”

  I laughed, surprising myself. “It was?”

  “Oh yes, she decided to make us pancakes for breakfast one morning. Got up long before dawn, bless her little heart. It would’ve been great if she hadn’t misread the recipe and swapped out the oil and water measurements.”

  “She added oil instead of water?” I asked, more than amused at the thought.

  “She added the amount of oil the recipe called for water, and the amount of water it called for oil. It was an unmitigated disaster. She refused to bake anything for years after that.” Alice’s eyes lit up with what was obviously a fond memory.

  “It sounds like you two are really close.” It was an offhand remark, but it earned me a wide smile.

  “We are. Did Mia ever tell you about the time we went on a girls’ day to Rodeo Drive when she was in the eighth grade?”

  She launched into a hilarious story that ended with Mia becoming an accidental shoplifter. She was wiping tears of laughter from her eyes by the time Mia walked cautiously into the kitchen.

  She seemed so very different from the stubborn, outgoing girl her mother had been telling me about while we covered every inch of the kitchen in baking trays that sat cooling with something or another in them.

  “Angel,” I said and pulled her toward me. Her mother squealed with delight as I rose and spun Mia around in my arms. “Good morning.”

  Well, at least one woman in the Doyle household thought I was charming. The look on Mia’s face spoke volumes in the opposite direction.

  My stomach dropped. Even though I didn’t really believe she would back out of our arrangement, the more I learned about her, the more I realized this was a much bigger thing to her than it was to me.

  “Can we talk privately, Hudson?” she asked quietly once I set her back on her feet. Alice was singing along to some song on her radio and seemed to be studiously ignoring us.

  “Sure.”

  She laced her fingers through mine in a gesture that had me hopeful I wasn’t wrong about the fact she wouldn’t back out. She led me to the gazebo where we’d spoken the morning before.

  “You should sit down.” She started much the same way I had.

  I pulled her down with me, settling her onto my lap, very aware of her mother and grandfather watching us from their respective domains.

  “You have an answer for me?” I asked, toying with a loose curl at her lower back.

  “I do. I mean, I will. I’ll go through with it.”

  “I believe ‘I do’ is the correct answer, then.” I didn’t resist the urge to press my lips to her neck, taking rare pleasure in the shudder that passed through her.

  She collected herself by taking a deep breath before continuing. “I have to be the one to tell my family, though.”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  “Just okay?”

  “Just okay. I told you before, Mia, they’re your family. I respect that.” There was an unfamiliar gleam in her eyes when she met mine.

  “Besides, you’ve never tried to poison me by adding almost a whole bottle of oil to a batch of pancakes, you owe them one,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

  Her eyes grew wide, then she laughed and punched my arm. “That story doesn’t leave California, Blake.”

  “Oh, yeah? How about the one where you snuck out to meet Ryan’s friend only to fall right onto Ryan after another friend
ratted him out to Ryan?”

  She cringed. “She told you about that?”

  I nodded. “She did. Am I to assume it doesn’t leave California, either?”

  “Let’s just say that nothing my mother tells you leaves these walls, nevermind California.” She eased herself off of my lap and led me back to the house.

  Ryan’s hulking figure waited on the porch, scowling at me. He caught my arm as we tried to pass.

  “Go on ahead, babe,” I said. “I’m just going to talk to Ryan for a second.”

  She raised an eyebrow, revealing a very close likeness to her mother, flicking her eyes between Ryan and me with a worried glance before shrugging and heading inside.

  “Let’s walk,” Ryan muttered, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans as he set off across the large backyard.

  I matched his stride and followed him to the far end of the yard. That close to the perimeter, I could appreciate how close to the ocean we really were.

  Ryan didn’t say much to me, brooding until he pulled to a sudden halt. “What’s going on between you and my sister?”

  The guy was direct. I had to give him that. “We’re dating. Isn’t that obvious?”

  “There’s something else.” His nostrils flared in a familiar way. There was no mistaking Ryan was Mia’s brother. From the set of their jaws, their arrow straight noses, intense dark blue eyes, and the way they carried themselves, they were undoubtedly alike.

  “What are you talking about, Ryan?” I played dumb. The guy was obviously more astute than I’d given him credit for.

  “Something is up between you and my sister. Something other than the obvious, that is.” He shuddered slightly at the insinuation that my dick was up between me and Mia. I took inappropriate comfort in that.

  As far as he knew, I was sticking it to his little sister on a regular basis. I wasn’t going to shatter that image. He deserved it as a nightmare as far as I was concerned.

  Besides, what couple of our respective ages were in a relationship that didn’t involve fucking? He wouldn’t have believed me, even if I told him the truth, that we’d never touched one another.

  “Why don’t you tell me what you think is going on then, Ryan,” I challenged him.

  “I don’t know what it is yet, but I’ll find out, Blake.” He fixed me with an intent gaze.

  I nodded. “Okay, Doyle. Bring it on.”

  Chapter 11

  Mia

  “So, you just socked him right in jaw?” Hudson asked, his voice incredulous.

  “Yeah, I did, served him right for hitting on my woman,” my grandfather confirmed proudly.

  We were seated for dinner in almost the exact same way as we had been on the first night Hudson was here, but things seemed to have simmered down considerably.

  Hudson and my grandfather seemed to be getting along, which was strange. My grandfather didn’t get along with anyone outside of the family. I wondered why he was getting along with Hudson, of all people.

  My grandfather’s approval of Hudson drew my dad out of his shell, and he joined in on some jokes with the two of them.

  My mom adored Hudson after he’d baked with her the other morning.

  It was only Ryan who was still glaring at Hudson like he was about to grow a second head.

  I’d asked Hudson what Ryan had wanted to talk to him about after the two had gone for their walk around the yard, but he’d insisted it was nothing but guy talk, and told me not to worry about it. Then he’d cut me off by setting his laptop on the desk in my room and calling in to the office.

  Ryan had given me an equally cryptic answer when I’d rounded on him the previous night, claiming he and Hudson had stuff to talk about that didn’t involve me.

  They didn’t fool me for one second. The only thing they had in common was me, but I let it be, after a pep talk from Tina. She assured me one of them would tell me what it was about if I needed to know.

  “You know, Hudson,” my grandfather was saying when I returned my focus to the conversation happening around the table. “I think it’s safe to say you’ve turned the skeptics into believers in two short days.”

  “What do mean?” Hudson asked, picking up his glass after pushing his cleared plate away from him. My mother beamed. It was quite obvious that he’d figured her out.

  Dinner was almost done, and my grandfather’s cheeks were warm from the wine he’d consumed during the course of it. His eyes were just a little out of focus. It was quite endearing and made him look younger than his years. “I just mean that when you arrived two days ago, I was quite convinced there was something untoward going on between you and our Mia, but you two seem genuinely happy.”

  His eyes moved to where Hudson’s arm was resting on my shoulders, as it had been for every meal since we’d arrived. My grandfather raised his glass to us. “Cheers to the both of you.”

  Hudson and my mom clinked glasses with him, but my dad’s eyes grew serious.

  Crap.

  “Before I can raise my glass to that, Hudson,” my father started. “I would like to know what your intentions with my daughter are.”

  My mother sucked in an audible gasp. “Charles, this is hardly the appropriate time, is it?” my mother admonished, smiling apologetically at Hudson. “And this isn’t the middle ages, where you can demand a man declare his intentions.”

  “I think it’s appropriate, Alice. Everyone in this room loves Mia. She brought this man here out of nowhere. For the first time ever, she’s introducing us to a significant other. Either, it must be more serious than she’s letting on or it’s helping her career.” He was joking about it helping my career, as evidenced by his wink and tone as he said it, but I bristled.

  He was trying to embarrass me in front of the family. I’d been through it countless times before. My father couldn’t, or wouldn’t, accept that I was working for BC Records and didn’t want to come home to manage the family business. He seemed to firmly believe he could bend my will to match his by embarrassing me.

  It strengthened the resolve I’d been lacking to tell them what needed to be said.

  “Actually, Daddy, we are serious. Much more than we’ve been letting on.” Hudson’s arm tightened around my shoulders. I appreciated the silent show of support.

  We exchanged a glance, and he nodded encouragingly. It relaxed me, looking into his confident blue eyes. I gripped onto his thigh nonetheless, my fingers meeting steel beneath his jeans.

  I pushed any lascivious thoughts from my mind. Now was not the time to become distracted by him. This had become about so much more than Hudson’s immigration status.

  “We’re so serious, in fact, the reason we actually came down here is to tell you we’re getting married,” I confessed.

  “What?”

  Everyone in the room stopped breathing at exactly the same time. Every eye was on me. Ryan’s fork clattered to his plate, sending rice flying all over the table. No one seemed to notice. Hudson squeezed my arm gently, spurring me on.

  “Hudson took the blame for me the other night, but the truth is, I wanted to come home and share the news with you all. We want to get married here. On Friday.”

  The room exploded with noise. My father and Ryan looked like they were about to pass out, my aunts were thrilled, while my uncles looked to my grandfather, who seemed to have popped into another dimension for all he had to say.

  My mother’s voice was the first to make it over the din. She yanked me from my chair and pulled both Hudson and me into a tight hug.

  “Oh, my angel, I’m so happy for you. I had a feeling something like this might be coming.” She whispered to me, while she ruffled her hand through Hudson’s hair. I wanted to run my hand through his hair so carelessly, yet Mom had beat me to it.

  A few hours passed before they’d let us go to back to my room. I told my mother I wanted a low-key ceremony, right at the house, in the back yard. We didn’t want much more than an average, Sunday lunch. And I also told her Tina had alre
ady agreed to be my maid of honor and was ready to help with whatever we needed.

  My mother immediately kicked into celebration mode, opening two bottles of champagne from God knew where and made everyone toast to love, forever and happily ever after.

  I finally crashed down on the couch in my room, snuggling into it. I was unbelievably tired and relieved to be welcomed into its familiar folds. It had been one hell of a day.

  Hudson emerged from the bathroom wearing low riding pajama pants and nothing else. My mouth watered.

  His torso was lined in hard edges so perfect, they’d make a sculptor weep. They tapered into those perfect lines between his hips that pointed like an arrow to the prize that his dick was sure to be.

  Fuck me lines, Tina called them. And God were they.

  He toweled his hair, then look surprised I was still awake. Fake as our relationship may be, I kicked myself for missing even a moment of his ripped body by falling asleep early on the previous nights.

  He was prime spank bank material. Not that I had a spank bank, but if I did, he would be the only person in it, now and forever. How was that for a wedding vow?

  His gaze ran slowly over my body, and he paused to allow me to get my fill of him, as well.

  “See something you like, Mrs. Blake?” he teased, although there was a dark, sexy undertone to his voice.

  “I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Blake.”

  His eyes had grown slightly darker, and his silk pajama pants betrayed the beginnings of an erection. I wasn’t going there. I couldn’t. We’d have to get used to one another barely clad until we figured out how to live our lives separately and avoid these kinds of situations.

  Thankfully, he slid under the covers of my bed and stayed silent. Then he rolled onto his side to look at me. The room was illuminated only by my muted bedside lamp. It looked like a porn shoot. I hoped it was dark enough he wouldn’t see the heat rising in my cheeks.

  “You okay?” he asked, tucking a hand under his chin. “What happened?”

  “I’m fine. It’s just been a long couple of days, you know?” I yawned.

  “Yeah, it has been. What made you blurt out the big news over dinner?”