by Ruby Vincent
She tightened around me, body sending the signal seconds before her convulsing told the rest. I followed seconds after, emptying inside her and dropping on her back sweaty and spent.
“Wow,” I grunted. “Let’s come back tomorrow.”
“Don’t think we’re going to make this a habit, Prince.” Belle wriggled out and eased me onto my back, resting her head on my chest. “We had sex in an orange grove on our list, but don’t forget our beds work just fine.”
I snapped my fingers. “Damn. I forgot to tell you there’s a problem with mine. The frame is busted.”
“Oh really?”
“Smashed to splinters. Plus, bedbugs. They infested the mattress. The sheets. Yours too. Hendrix will have to take our beds out and burn them.”
“When did all of this happen?” she asked, chuckling.
“Very recently.”
She kissed my chest. “I love you. By now you know, you can get me to show it just about anywhere.”
“I love you too.” I held her close, jokes put aside at the rightness of her in my arms. “I should have said yes, Belle. When you asked me to marry you, I should have said yes.”
“No, Nathan.” She laid her palm over the heart that was hers. “You wouldn’t have been saying yes to this. That yes would’ve gotten us separate homes and lives. Connection by bank account and polite conversation every now and then to see how the other is doing while we count the days to annulment. You were right to say no to that marriage. It would’ve destroyed us both.”
“Then let me say yes to the right one.” It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. “I don’t give a fuck if Mal hunts us both down for the rest of our lives. The colonel will be putting in twice the effort. If I can put up with him for one woman I love, I can take on some stalker thug for you.”
Belle pressed our foreheads together, peering deep into my eyes. “I love you so much for saying that. I love you even more because you mean it. But... I was selfish once. I put what I wanted first and clung to a life I refused to let Mal take from me. As a result, I hurt someone I loved and he took it anyway. I can’t be that selfish again, Nathan. No one else will be placed in his path to be mauled when that beast comes for me again.”
“So Preston and I marry women we don’t love, and you cut out marriage, love, and family so that the only people on that path are you and Mal? I don’t have to ask if that’s the life you want because I know it’s not.”
Her smile tinged sad around the edges. “At some point, we have to accept we don’t control the outcome.”
“Belle—”
She pressed a finger over my lips. “But we do control right now. Today. This summer. I’m in this beautiful place with my naked, secret boyfriend who loves me so much, he’d risk everything to be with me. The last thing I want to do is talk about that man when I should be giving you the blow job of your life.”
“We’re not done talking about this,” I warned.
“Yes, my love,” she replied between peppering kisses on my nose, forehead, and cheeks.
“We’re making it past this summer, Belle, if I have to track that shit down and kill him myself.”
“Nathan, please. Let’s not make promises we can’t keep.”
Sitting up, I spoke directly to those big, doleful eyes. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep. I know you’ll be my wife as surely as I know I’ll free Mom from her sour-faced sperm donor. Mal is through tormenting and screwing up your life.”
I swooped down and kissed her hard, rough, and insistent. We broke apart panting.
“Now that that’s clear,” I said, “I’ll take that blow job.”
CARTER
Belle sat alone at a small table at the back of the dining room. She likely traded for her permanent spot on Preston’s terrace for the crowded hall due to me. Too bad. I was here to see her.
A million thoughts and twice as many emotions went through my head as I watched her. Taking dainty bites of her cheese and spinach flatbread in between poring over our latest assignment. A list of questions every person needed to ask themselves before they got married.
It was a lifetime ago that we were best friends. Still a part of me was certain that I knew the answers to most of her questions.
How important are your career goals? Belle had designing in her blood.
Do you want kids? She wanted three. Didn’t care about the sex.
How do you feel about a prenuptial agreement? She couldn’t start a real, loving marriage by planning how it would end.
I knew her. Understood her so well that when I woke up in that hospital bed to a stranger that lied, deceived, and betrayed me, it shook my faith in everything I knew to be true. I couldn’t let go until I understood why.
And now I do.
The thought sparked anger hot and corrosive in my blood. It was time for us to have it out. Right there, right then.
Belle jumped when I parked myself in front of her. “Carter?”
“Is that a question?”
“Yes.” She dropped her food, pushing it to the side. “You’re sitting with me.”
“I am.”
“You’re... talking to me.”
“I’m doing that too.”
“You’re hopefully hearing me say that I’m sorry. If I could take back—”
“No.”
“No?”
“No, I’m not here to listen to another apology.”
Her face fell. “Oh. Okay then, let me have it.” She straightened, bracing herself against the table. “I deserve everything you’re going to say to me. Go on. Don’t hold back.”
I looked at her—open, pale, and holding stiff as she readied to be torn apart—and made my decision.
“This is what’s going to happen, Belle. We’re going upstairs and you’ll tell me everything. At least as much as you’ve told Nathan and Preston about this Mal guy. All of it. Out in the open, so we can move on.”
She blinked. “M-move on?”
“Yes, move on.” I took a breath, and on its release, I finally let the anger go. “I asked for the truth, and though it came too many years too late, you gave it to me. For the last two weeks, I thought of the ways I wanted to punish you. How I’d make you feel a fraction of what I felt since you left me alone in those woods. You may have been there physically, but... you left me, Belle,” I said softly. “On the worst day of my life, you abandoned me.”
Her lips trembled, eyes filling with tears. “I know.”
“But,” I said, “when we found you this morning—the terror on your face. I’ve only ever seen you that scared once before. It occurs to me that I don’t have to make you feel the same. If an abusive, pedophilic monster has been after you for years, driving you from your homes, and terrorizing you every chance he gets, you’d understand being alone and afraid better than anyone.
“I don’t want to make you suffer any more than I know you have these last few years.” I lifted my shoulders. “Like I said, it’s not in me to see you cry. We’re older now. We understand that people can do all the wrong things for what they believe are the right reasons, especially if that person is a terrified twelve-year-old. All that marriage and wedding stuff is done. Let’s just start over with the past in the past where it belongs.”
Belle stared at me through the whole speech, eyes huge and lips parted like she was trying to translate what I was saying.
“Carter, are you saying you... forgive me?”
“I very pointedly did not say that.”
Bewilderingly, a wide, beaming smile broke out on her face. “Oh, Carter.” She jumped to her feet.
“What are you doing? What—” The next thing I knew I had a lapful of Belle and a stranglehold on my neck. She hugged me so tight I grunted.
“I’m sorry. I could apologize to you a thousand times and it wouldn’t be enough. I owe you so much, and the whole truth is the least you can ask. Of course I’ll tell you everything.”
“Why are you in my lap?” I snapped.
She kissed me bold on the cheek, bugging my eyes. “I’ve missed you so much. Our love story doesn’t end here.”
“Holy hell,” I muttered. “Get off me.”
“No.” She yanked a growl out of me, dropping kisses all over my no doubt reddening face.
What the hell is with this girl?
Her warm, wiggly weight on my lap and sweet, cherry lips on me were stirring up responses I swore I left in the water the night I held Belle. My threats to marry her aside, I couldn’t have real feelings for Belle. I had two best friends in love with her and baggage the size of Mount Kailash to answer why.
“I forgot how clingy you are.”
“I’m happy to remind you,” she replied. “I’ll never let you down again, Carter. No matter what happens, I won’t abandon you. And I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you if that’s what it takes.”
“Yeah, yeah. Blow it out your shorts.”
Giggling, she jumped up and dragged me with her. “Come on, Knight. We’re overdue that talk. We’ll go up to your room. There’s a lot I need to tell you.”
I trailed her—equal parts annoyed and relieved. Hating her had been an anchor around my soul. Dragging me down and keeping me against the tide for years. I was as happy as her that the fire had gone out. But she wasn’t supposed to know that.
This is what happens when she knows me just as well.
BELLE
Fights, pain, bullying, separation, blackmail, and seven years later, I finally got my sleepover with Carter Knight.
His soft exhales stirred the pillow beside me. We stayed up until almost four in the morning talking about Mal. Carter didn’t demand too much of me, allowing me to share as much as I was comfortable with. To my surprise, it was the entire story. I couldn’t say for sure why it was easier with him, but Carter had faced him. Been hurt by him. He understood what it was like to live under fear of Malcolm Byrne.
I tapped his nose. “Wake up, Knight.”
Scrunching up his face, he groaned deep in his chest. “Why are you still here? You should’ve snuck out already.”
“Why would I sneak? I’m not your secret late-night hookup.”
“No, you’re Preston’s and Nathan’s secret late-night hookup. What if they find out you were in here all night?”
“They wouldn’t mind. The three of us have defined our relationship. We know where we stand.”
He opened clear, crystal blue eyes. “How does that work exactly?”
“About as well as every relationship with two guys that can’t last past a summer.”
“You’re the only girl in the world that two possessive dudes like Nathan and Preston could agree to share.”
I grinned. “I think it’s easy to agree to most things when you’re in love.”
“Right. Get your sappy ass out of my bed.”
“I know I fell asleep before you,” I said, smiling away. “If you wanted me out of your bed, you would’ve carried me out.”
Carter flipped over, muttering to himself. I propped my chin on his arm.
“Now that the wedding is off, what do we tell our parents?” I asked.
“The wedding isn’t off.”
“But you said—”
“As far as our parents and everyone else here believes, you’re off the market. We’ll have a long engagement like I told your parents. Long enough to get us through college and let you miss the next marriage event in three years. After we graduate, you’ll be a free woman. Independent with a design career, and they won’t be able to dangle college or money over your head. That’ll be around the time we break up citing irreconcilable differences.”
“You would really do that for me?” My voice was small.
“Yes. I said I would.”
“Four years is a long time. What if you meet and fall in love with someone else? You don’t want a fake fiancée holding you back.”
“Who the fuck am I falling in love with? The last girl I fell for messed me up something fierce. Marrying for money is my logical step. I can do that well after you’re free to live your own life.”
I snuggled closer—though it earned me another growl. I missed touching him. Hugging him. Inhaling that unique and should-be-bottled brand of Carter. He missed it too or he wouldn’t let me get away with it.
“Why does it matter to you that I am?” I asked.
“Are you kidding, Belle?” Twisting his neck, he frowned up at me. “We spent the entire night talking about why. After everything you’ve been through, demanding you live your life chained to another man you don’t want to be with, is way past the line. I still can’t believe your parents are doing this.”
“Oooh. So I’m another cause you’re going to tirelessly defend,” I said with a smile.
“You can put it like that if you want to.”
“I want,” I teased. “It means you still care about me.”
“You’re getting real comfortable, aren’t you?”
“And you’re getting real grumpy because you’ve forgiven me and it bothers you that you did it that fast. It means admitting to yourself that the soft spot for me that you worked for seven years to kill, didn’t truly die.” I kissed his temple. “You don’t have to marry for money, dummy. Seems to me the answer is letting the girl who messed you up put you back together again.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?! Ugh!” He slid out from under me. “You and your damn mind games will put me back in therapy before these four years are done!”
I relaxed on his pillows, getting comfortable just like he accused. “No mind games. I don’t have the right to demand things of you. Not to be my fake fiancé or even my friend. I just want to know one thing, Carter.”
He stalked the length of the bed. “And that is?”
“How do you see our love story ending?”
Carter froze, back to me. “You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll tell you straight-up, it doesn’t end in me walking away.”
My heart thumped loudly in my ears. “You mean you would—”
“We’re a long way from that conversation,” he sharply cut in. “I may have forgiven you, but trust doesn’t come as quickly.”
I sobered. “Yes, of course not.”
“The point is also moot because while Byrne is out there, you won’t feel safe to take meaningful steps with anyone. Let’s put on hold conversations we’re not ready to have. We’ll also pause the hugging, kissing, and sleeping together.”
I rolled over, taking his hand. “But not the talking and spending time together, right?”
“Sure,” he said, staring at our hands like he was wondering how they got there.
“And we can hug and kiss and sleep together when you secretly want me to.” I winked. “Right?”
“Now you’re out.” Carter scooped me up and carried me out the door. I was cheesing ear to ear as he put me on my feet.
My life was no less complicated and fraught with danger than it was the day before. But I had Nathan. I had Preston. And by a miracle, Carter was finding his way back to me. That was plenty to be happy about.
FOR THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS of my summer, happy I was. Actually, joyfully, blissfully, glowing was a better description of my mood. The pressure of husbands and marriage was over and I could bask in my time at the cove for what it was—the last chance to have fun with my friends and love with my boyfriends before college, commitments, and the real world crashed in.
Zion, Mila, Kelli, Owen, Hazel and I formed a tight group. Kelli was slowly falling for Lukas, and by the sloppy grins he threw her over breakfast, he was plung
ing just as hard. Hazel kept sneaking away with Andres and thought we didn’t know about it, but their smiles were no less toothy when they saw each other.
The rest of us weren’t worried about marriage, so we spent our days swimming, playing volleyball, watching movies, and enjoying everything the island had to offer. One night, we went to a bar to listen to an island band play and stayed up dancing until early morning.
As for my boys, I could talk, calling Lukas sloppy in love, but I wasn’t much better. Nathan and I ate dinner on my balcony almost every night, talking about the lives we’d have when we were free.
Preston’s need to be careful of his mom and soon-to-be fiancée didn’t slow us down as much as I thought. We easily skirted her sleep routine at night, and during the day, he surprised me by whisking me somewhere private. Having sex in the ocean is tricky with waves knocking you about, but we got the hang of it.
As for the Ice Prince Carter Knight, starting over with the boy I once shared everything with was its own minefield to navigate. We knew too much about each other. The buttons to press. The embarrassing stories to whip out when the other needed to be taken down a notch. Some days we made the nuclear fallout of my breakup with Nathan seem as harmless as a baby splashing in a kiddie pool. But then there were other days—
I burrowed into Carter’s side, throwing my arm around him and weaving my leg between his. The four of us laid out on the beach watching Owen teach Zion how to surf.
Carter poked my side. “Who’s the crusty ass barnacle now?”
I poked him right back. “Don’t get yourself beat up so early in the day.”
He cracked up, once again proving he simply liked being on the wrong side of my tongue. If he didn’t want my affection, I’d be dumped in the sea along with Zion.
“I can’t snuggle with my Preston or my Nathan with everyone watching, so you have to give me my fix.”
“We’re going to do plenty of snuggling in the next hour,” Preston spoke up. “Count it down.”
My lower belly clenched. The man was a beast in bed and had been opening my mind to new sexual horizons for the last two months. He had a full-length mirror in his villa bedroom too.