by Xavier Neal
My heart stops. “You want a divorce?”
“Of course I don’t want a divorce, you jackass!”
I let out a deep breath.
Anything she throws at me after this I can handle now that that’s not on the table.
“But if you’re not going to give me the love and respect I deserve, that I’ve earned, and I can’t feel like I can trust you, then there’s no need for us to continue in this relationship.” She pauses and gives her hair a ruffle as if collecting her thoughts. “Look, I know you’ve got a lot on your plate. Work wise. Royal responsibilities. Now you’re an uncle. But you’re also a husband and that should mean something too.”
“It does,” my strained voice argues. “It means more than any of the others. And I know it feels like I’m blowing hot air up your nose-”
“Ass.”
“What?”
“The phrase is hot air up your ass.”
“That sounds sexual…Almost enjoyable,” I counter.
Her face freezes in a mixture of humor and surprise.
She’s totally wrong about the phrase, but now is not the time to put her in her place.
“I want to be a good husband,” I declare. “I want to be the man I stood at the alter and promised I would be. I know things need to change. Hell, I’ve been spending the last four making some vital ones…but I know there isn’t a damn thing I can say to you to make you believe me. You said actions speak louder than words and it’s time I prove to you that you don’t have to second guess mine. However, before I do that, I owe you several apologies.”
“Kellan don’t-”
“Please.”
My imploring is met with a short nod.
“I am sorry for putting my career before you. I am sorry for not paying enough attention to yours. I am sorry for forcing you to endure late dinners at overpriced restaurants and painstakingly boring conversations. I am sorry for being tardy. Not mindful of your time as you are of mine. I am sorry for disrespecting our marriage by treating it like a hobby rather than a relationship. I am sorry for breaking your trust in me. For failing to be there not only when you need, but want me.” Her face melts and I bravely stretch out my hand to land on hers. “I am sorry for treating you unfairly. I am sorry for hitting your friend in the face. And most importantly, I am sorry for not being the man you agreed to marry…” After a long, sullen pause, I lift her hand to my lips and let my eyes fall shut. “I love you, Brie and one promise I can make, and will do anything to keep, is not taking you for granted again.”
When her thumb strokes my knuckles, I finally let our eyes connect again. “I love you too, Kellan.”
The weight on my shoulders plummets to the ground. “Even though I’m a royal asshole?”
“You’ve always been a royal asshole.”
Her playful retort is followed by my lips crushing hers. She sweetly sighs, parts them, and allows for my tongue to seize hers. While our tongues roll and duel for the right to control the increasingly aggressive kiss, I let my hands caress her skin, anxious to ravish every bit of her imaginable.
Our moment however is ceased by the sound of my alarm blaring.
I knew that was coming…
Abruptly, I pull back and admire her swollen lips. Her glazed gaze. Her uneven breathing.
Not sure I have ever hated my organization more than this very minute…
“Love,” I softly coo. “We need to go into the office.”
Her frown is instant. “What?”
“We need to go into the office.”
“We? What do you mean we?” Brie slides out of my grip. “And can’t it wait? We’re kinda in the middle of my favorite part of fighting.”
I smirk. “The part where I spend hours between your legs?”
She whimpers, bites her bottom lip, and nods.
The image rolls around in my mind causing me to groan.
Damn it. See what she did.
My alarm starts the secondary ringer for being ignored the first time. At that sound, I shake away the tempting thoughts and state, “We will have that, I swear. We can spend the rest of the day in bed or on the couch or on the patio-”
“No patio sex, Kellan!”
Eh, it was worth a shot.
“Wherever you want,” I cockily grin. “But we have a meeting at the office to receive my Uncle Trenton’s wedding present.”
Bemusement blankets her face. “Wait, we didn’t get a gift from him yet? We got married months ago.”
“Precisely.”
“Why is he just now wanting us to have it?”
“He possesses a very strange policy in regard to gifts.”
“Clearly.”
Another smile covers my face and I politely ask, “Will you please get dressed and accompany me to the office?”
Brie caves. “Fine. But now we are stopping for hot chocolate.”
“Of course.” She starts out of bed, which is when I add, “Will you please wear one of your dresses?”
Her head tilts at me sarcastically.
“There’s a purpose. I promise.”
With a roll of her eyes, she agrees again, “Okay. But that’s gonna cost you a doughnut and then a hamburger for lunch.”
“I expected nothing less.”
Brie hops out of bed and purposely saunters herself to the on-suite bathroom. My eyes fall to her tight, plump ass causing my cock to cry out in protest.
The sooner we get this over, the sooner she’s going to sit on my face…What? Too crass for you now? Come on. Surely you’ve reached that level of comfort with me…
Brie whirls her tongue around her finger one final time before fussing, “Stop picturing me naked.”
Is it wrong I thoroughly enjoy when she punishes me with her wardrobe? I mean, look at her. She always manages to find a way to balance the comfortable with the sexual. Her black dress with its slightly loose flowy sleeves, but steep v-cut neckline designed specifically to play peek a boo with her tits, screams comfort yet it’s sinfully short stopping location of her upper thigh, leaves me pining to slip my hands underneath to where she’s probably not wearing panties. Oh. And those red heels? Well... Some people have a red room of pain, she has a pair of red pumps. Trust me. Knowing what they look like in the air, over your shoulder, and how they feel when they’re cutting into your ass as you take her roughly, just seeing them on her makes you want to beg for mercy.
I lean back in my office chair and cock a grin. “I wasn’t picturing you naked.”
She dusts a crumb of her lap. “Oh, so that’s a sock you stuffed in your pants?”
A small groan greets her as I shift my growing stiffness. Sitting completely back up, I correct, “I wasn’t picturing you naked, love. I was picturing the process of getting you naked.”
“Not hearing a difference.”
“Well there is one.”
Brie folds her hands and leans forward with a mocking expression. “Oh I’m listening Professor Pervy.”
Have I mentioned I love having her playful nature back?
“Picturing the process of getting you naked requires much more involvement.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Like imaging where my hands go first. How they start on the sides of your outer thighs and slowly slide upwards, hitching your breath and breaking you out in goosebumps…” I pause and enjoy the heat building in her cheeks. “Or how one hand grips you by the hair while the other tugs at your sleeves to expose more places for me to drag my lips across…” Her eyes widen, which pushes me to provide one more example. “Then again, I could completely disregard the use of my hands and drag the material off your body with my teeth, gently scraping several highly sensitive areas such as your nipples…”
She lets her bottom lip escape to its favorite place.
The sight of her growing arousal adds to my own. I lean forward on the desk and question, “Shall I continue or have I proven my point?”
Brie leans back, crosses her legs, and clears her throat. “U
h…Um...Mmhm.”
Her inability to speak causes me to smirk. “I love making it hard for you to talk almost as much as I love making it impossible for you to walk.”
Her gag is followed promptly by an interruption.
“Oh, Kellan! I’m here! I’m here! Are you alright? Did Brie finally leave you? Is that why you insisted I meet you this morning? Do you need a friend to talk to?”
Grows classier by the minute…
“Nope,” Brie chirps on a sarcastic sigh. “Sorry. We’re still two idiots together in love.”
“Oh!” Felicity squeaks at my wife’s presence. “I didn’t realize you were here.”
“Obviously.”
“Glad to see he hasn’t chased you away yet.” Her poor back pedaling lowers my eyebrows in irritation. “Glad to see you two are working things out.”
Before Brie can make another snide retort, I motion a hand to the chair across from my desk. “Have a seat.”
She crosses the room and does as instructed. “What’s this meeting in regards to?”
“One moment.” I press one button on my laptop keyboard and the video chat link begins. Almost immediately, my uncle’s face appears on the screen. “Morning, Uncle Trenton.”
He lifts his pint glass to his lips. “Nephew.”
It’s never too early to start drinking when you live on the beach I suppose.
“I highly appreciate you joining us this morning.”
“Not a problem.”
After angling the screen to have him join the conversation, I divert my attention back to Felicity. “As you know, sometimes in business much like in the rest of our lives, things don’t work out. Unfortunately for you, this is one of those times.”
Her voice snips. “Pardon?”
“You are no longer part of Hannah’s Hope.”
“What?!” The two women shout together.
Haha. Probably the only time they’ve ever been on the same page.
“You can’t do that…”
“I can,” I correct and fold my hands. “Our contract states clearly that I have the final say no matter what the topic is, which includes your removal as long as you are reimbursed for every penny you have actually spent. And thanks to our amazing accounting team that you also required to work outrageous hours, I have a detailed documents with that exact information. The money was transferred to your account this morning, thanks to a generous wedding gift from my Uncle Trenton.”
“Hello!” He says cheerfully between sips.
“You were sent an e-copy of the documents and a hard copy is being delivered to your lawyer’s office as we speak.”
Her face begins to redden, and I fight the urge to smirk. “So that’s it? You’re just done with your biggest dream yet? I was your backer, without me there is no Hannah’s Hope.”
The vanity and venom in her voice causes my jaw to throb. “There was a Hannah’s Hope long before you walked back into my life and there will be a Hannah’s Hope for a lifetime after you walk out those doors today. Hannah’s Hope doesn’t need just monetary means to exist. It needs a foundation. Working appendages. A heartbeat. Most important, hope. Money can be found anywhere, Felicity. The rest? They’re the type of things that come from people with the same true vision as you. People who are there to support you ages before money is ever a factor.” My eyes cut Brie a glance to see her smiling softly. “But you’re right. You were my backer. However, my Uncle Trenton-”
“Hello!”
“-was generous enough to give us two wedding gifts. The second being an investor with a much better proposition than the one we had.”
She grits her teeth in a poor attempt to maintain her composure. “You’re making a terrible mistake.”
“No.” I lean forward and state fiercely, “I am correcting one.”
The room falls to a dead silence as Felicity debates on her next move.
She doesn’t have any. Trust me.
Finally, she tosses her hair over her shoulder and casually says, “I can fight this. I can take this to court and have Hannah’s Hope become completely mine. I can shut you out. I’m aware of what the contract says, but that’s not the only loophole in it. I can guarantee it. And at the very least, if I can’t take it, I can delay the progress by keeping your head spinning and your lawyers drowning in litigations for so long you or your new investor run bankrupt.”
I give her a moment to fully allow her attention to settle on me. Once I’m certain it has, I calmly reply, “Try me, Felicity, and you will learn in the harshest of ways that I am my father’s son.”
The comment sends her into a cower I predicted it would.
Most of being royal now may be a bunch of titles and bullshit, but there are cruel and unkind elements that prevent power from being taken. You’ve only seen a glimpse of what happens when you push a Kenningston a tiny bit too far. Take a moment to imagine the chaos and catastrophe that would happen if you tried to destroy something or someone we truly loved.
She stands to her feet and declares, “You’ll regret this, Kellan.”
“Not for a single moment.” I adjust my tie. “Please have your things removed from my wife’s new office by the end of the business day. If you do not have them out by then, I will have someone box and ship the items to a location of your choosing.”
Felicity rolls her eyes, shoves the chair out of her way, and huffs at Brie, “I hope you know dissolving this partnership is the second biggest mistake your husband’s ever made. The first being that he married you, of course.”
My hands curl tightly as I prepare to lose my temper.
Swiftly Brie retorts, “That’s kind of you to try to bestow that honor upon me, Felicity. But we both know his biggest mistake in life was ever being with you.” Felicity glares and my wife adds, “And anything you don’t remove from my office, I’m setting on fire and letting my kids at MINOH roast marshmallows over.” She cocks a fake grin. “Have a nice a day.”
The shrill sound that seeps from Felicity is almost frightening.
Pretty sure she could scare banshees.
Her dramatic exit, which includes a loud door slamming, is followed promptly by my wife throwing her hands into the air. “Best. Wedding. Gift. Ever!”
Helplessly, I chuckle and Uncle Trenton says, “I am quite the master if I do say so myself.”
Brie giddily giggles and says to him. “Thank you! For everything.”
The sincere look on his reminds me of the lecture he gave me earlier this week. His eyes glow with warmth and understanding. “It was a pleasure.”
All of a sudden, he breaks off a piece of his sandwich and offers it to the bird perched on the edge of his chair. I shake my head. “Are you actually sharing your breakfast with a seagull?”
“It’s Sammy!” He exclaims.
Brie tries to bite back her snicker.
“He loves when I’m up this early. We share a pint and an anchovy sandwich with cucumbers.” My wife gags, which makes him chuckle. “It’s delightful! You have to try it.”
“Nope.” She shakes her head. “You can give Sammy my portion.”
He lightly laughs again before stating, “Well I’m going to finish my drink and take a nap. You two enjoy your introduction meeting with the investor.”
Brie and I bid him a kind goodbye filled with additional expressions of gratitude.
The moment the screen is back to the background of our wedding photo, she snaps, “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?!”
I state firmly, “Because I wanted to show you.”
Her brown eyes begin to radiate a glow that makes my heart swell. “You got rid of Felicity for me?”
“For us.” Leaning back in my seat, I continue, “She was toxic. For me. For this company. For our marriage. She was an obstacle, not an advantage.”
Hold your unnecessary agreement sounds and ‘I told you so’ please. While not the wisest idea my brother has ever had, it definitely was one that had benefits. It broke ground when I w
as having trouble imagining it ever would. It led me to a better position for the orphanage. It also brought my wife a friend she desperately needed, though we’re not going to talk about that quite yet.
“And this new investor?”
I give my watch a quick glance. “Should be buzzing in in approximately three minutes.”
“It’s not another ex-girlfriend, is it?”