by Jillian Neal
“How’d you go by there without her knowing, or did she pick it out?”
Vindico laughed at them outright. “I hope she’s as excited as you all are. I really just went ahead and picked it up and got it as a carrot for myself, no pun intended. I’m not asking her until Wretchkinsides is done for. She can’t exactly wear that without people noticing that she’s taken, which was obviously my goal, but as the entire Realm thinks she’s dating you, that might be a little awkward,” he reminded Garrett.
Garrett looked hesitant to agree. Vindico’s tone didn’t sound too thrilled about that fact either.
“I don’t know, Dan. I hate that you’re hanging it up on him. He’s ruined your life for long enough.”
Vindico shrugged out his agreement as he reached and pulled the box from Garrett’s grasp. “Not asking her until he’s through. You want me to do it sooner, then let’s get to work.”
“Maybe ask her now, and she could just wear it around the house.”
“Yeah, because that’s what women want to do. They want to be engaged, and own a ring like that, but not be able to show anybody.”
Logan and Rainer laughed. They knew that Vindico was absolutely correct.
“Hey, what do I know? I’m sure as hell not ever buying one,” Garrett combatted.
“Did Uncle Tad make it, or just ship it in for you?” Logan still seemed quite impressed with the ring itself.
“I showed him a couple of things I knew she’d like and told him I wanted every guy within a fifteen mile radius of her to know she was mine. He crafted it, and I’d say he does excellent work.” Vindico opened the box again and admired Tad’s craftsmanship. “It’s not imbued with promethium, but again, as soon as we take Wretchkinsides down, hopefully Emily won’t need to use that portion of her ring anymore,” he offered Rainer.
“That would be nice,” Rainer allowed.
“You gonna ask her dad?” Garrett shot Dan a knowing grin.
Vindico placed the ring delicately in his desk drawer. He locked and casted it closed. “I’ve always been more of an ‘ask for forgiveness, not permission’ kind of guy, and her dad is definitely not my biggest fan. But that seems like something that would mean a lot to Fi.” He studied the men standing in his office, clearly looking for opinions.
“He’s coming around though. He and Gretta came by the farm the other day to bring Mom some cookies and bread to let her know they were thinking of her, and he called you by your first name instead of ‘that guy taking advantage of my sweet Maylea,’” Garrett laughed.
Rainer and Logan cracked up, but Vindico looked defeated. “Suppose that’s something.”
“Dad tried talking to him. Not sure how far he got, but he went to bat for you.”
“The Governor said yes when I asked,” Rainer urged hopefully, but was met with disdain from everyone.
“Of course Dad said ‘yes!’ He raised you,” Garrett pointed out.
“You should have just gone ahead and proposed at our eighth birthday party,” Logan chuckled.
“I was a little short on funds, what with my trying to support my Hot Wheels collection.”
“Oh, remember! That was the year we got those fly tracks.”
“Yeah, those were cool. Remember the car wash thing?”
Vindico and Garrett cracked up.
“If you two would like to rejoin us here in the adult world,” Vindico shook his head, “I do have to figure something out about the Angels and Wretchkinsides.”
“Okay, but on the asking her dad front,” Garrett brought everyone back to the original conversation, “try asking her mom and her dad together because her mom really, really likes you.”
Vindico considered that for a moment. “I’m thinking, I’m gonna stick to my asking forgiveness plan, but we have a lot to do before that, anyway.”
He opened a file folder and threw down a paper cut-out of what appeared to be a corset. It had black ribboning laced through holes in the folded pink striped paper.
“These are going out today,” he explained.
Curious, Rainer lifted the paper and pulled the ribbon. As he unfolded the corset, he realized he was holding a paper doll of sorts. It was an invitation displaying a naked woman from her chest to her thighs. There was a piece of velum that fell in Rainer’s lap. He lifted it and read the words:
We all know Em is oh so sweet
So let’s get her something to knock Rainer off his feet
Get her some feathers, some leather, and lace
So she can shake it right in his face
Some little something to make their night complete
We all know Rainer wants a naughty treat
She’ll be so lovely in her gown made of white
But we’re gonna spice up their honeymoon nights
No flannel, or t-shirts, only satin and lace
Let’s put Mr. Lawson hot on the chase
So ladies only toys and attire
Meant to set Rainer Lawson’s heart on fire
Go get something naughty with a great deal of sass
Make him want to spank her sweet little...
The word ass wasn’t actually printed, but it certainly didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“Oh my God.” Rainer’s eyes bugged. Blood pooled in his cheeks making him feel like his face was, in fact, on fire.
Logan grimaced in horror. “Ugh, I will never get that image out of my head.”
Garrett guffawed, and Vindico gave Rainer a sympathetic nod.
Refusing to meet anyone’s eyes, Rainer noted that written on the actual corset shaped invitation were Emily’s bra and panty sizes, the dates and times of the lingerie shower, and Rainer’s preferences in color and styles that he assumed Emily must’ve supplied.
He let his head fall in his hands, willing himself to wake up from what he was certain must be some kind of extremely odd nightmare.
“If you think that’s bad, wait ‘til you see what Fi got her.”
Rainer whimpered, “Why, exactly, did you show me this?”
Vindico refolded the invitation, clearly thinking that getting it out of view might help. “Like I said, these are going out today, and obviously, all of the Angels will be in attendance as it’s being held at the arena. Wretchkinsides is still furious that we made a fool of Pendergrath when he attempted to buy out the Angels. He’s out for revenge, and it won’t only be the Angels in attendance. Brooke will be there, and Adeline, all people that Wretchkinsides is extremely interested in. So while all of the ladies are consuming mass quantities of alcohol and supplying Emily with everything mentioned on that invitation, we are going to be at the arena making certain that no one without an invitation decides to come inside.”
“I have to attend my little sister’s lingerie shower?” Logan looked horrified.
“Not exactly,” Vindico shook his head. “The party is going to be in the ballroom. We’ll just hang out in the arena, keep an eye on everything. So two weeks from last Saturday, plan on sitting outside of your fiancée’s lingerie shower. I, somehow, doubt any of the ladies will need to be driving after the party anyway.”
“Seriously, I wish I had a picture of the look on your face when you read that.” Garret was still laughing heartily as he punched Rainer’s shoulder.
Vindico’s cell rang and Fionna’s name popped up on the screen. “Hey, baby doll, you feeling any better?”
Everyone politely ignored Vindico as Garrett began chastising Rainer about exactly what kinds of things would make him want to spank Emily’s sweet little ass.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to cast you last night. I shouldn’t have gone. Why don’t I pick you up, and we’ll go home for lunch? You can rest,” Vindico urged, though Rainer noted it sounded more like a command.
However Fionna responded, it had Vindico grinning broadly. “I could definitely do that,” he assured her. “Love you too, baby. I’ll pick you up in a little while.”
“Fi okay?” Garrett’s brow furrowed.
<
br /> “Kind of. I’ve got to get the schedule of this down better. She didn’t sleep much,” he explained somewhat cryptically.
The very few clues that Vindico had allowed seemed to let Garrett in as to what was actually going on. He grimaced and nodded his understanding.
“Sick to her stomach, writhing in pain, little bit bitchy, but will be better by tomorrow?” Garrett quizzed, and Vindico hesitantly agreed. His jaw tensed and everyone got the distinct impression that he was not discussing Fionna with any of them anymore.
Both bands of his rhythms pulsed. He seemed to forcibly shake off the desire to tell Garrett to ‘fuck off.’ Rainer and Logan shifted uncomfortably, wishing they could escape the stare down Garrett and Vindico were engaged in. Vindico drew an audible breath.
“All right, let’s see what we can get done this morning. If I can talk Fi into not going back to practice after lunch, I’m going to stay home with her. I’ll work from there.”
Rainer wondered what had brought about Vindico’s willingness to stay home. The past three weeks he’d been relentless. Whatever it was, Fionna was clearly the key to Dan Vindico.
Playing Games
Rainer picked Emily up from the arena. Vindico had stayed home with Fionna, so Elite took the opportunity to actually leave on time.
“You okay?” He leaned and kissed her cheek before he cranked the car. She was twirling her hair around her fingers and gnawing on her bottom lip.
“Yeah, but I overheard Fi and Chloe talking about my lingerie shower.”
Rainer was still trying not to cringe over the invitations. “Yeah, I saw the invites.”
Emily’s eyes goggled. “I swear, I didn’t know they were going to do that when they asked me about your favorite stuff. I thought they wanted to know for their own shopping. I never thought they would put it on the invitations.” Her face promptly turned the color of her hair. Rainer chuckled and squeezed her hand.
“Well, the initial embarrassment factor aside, I will say I’m pretty excited to see what you come home with.”
She giggled, but was still showing signs of a bad case of nerves. “I need to ask you something.”
“Sure, baby.” Part of growing up with the girl you fell head over heels for when you were eight years old meant that Rainer and Emily had been through it all before. He was living on the farm when she’d first started her period.
She’d been almost as stunned as he had when he woke up one morning after a few weeks of his voice cracking horribly and suddenly sounded much more like a deep bass than the tenor he’d been before.
He’d physically watched her breasts develop and grow at what she considered an alarming rate. He’d been enthralled. She’d been annoyed.
“Remember when Dana was teasing me in Brazil about my only having ever been with you?”
Rainer clenched his jaw over his irritation and general dislike of Dana Mathers. She was Emily’s teammate, he reminded himself.
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, Chloe asked Fionna if she would pick up the condoms for the party and the cucumbers for one of the games.” she sounded thoroughly nonplussed. “Apparently they think it’s a good game, because as Chloe explained, trying to get Gifted girls who’ve had a great deal of alcohol to put the condom on the cucumber is rather funny,” Emily elaborated, still glowing the color of an overly ripe strawberry.
Rainer supposed that was probably true as he considered the fact that most Gifted girls would have very little experience with a condom since they could cast and close their own wombs, blocking out any and all sperm, even if they were sleeping with a Non-Gifted guy.
“Okay…” Rainer tried to determine what Emily’s take on the game was going to be.
“I was just thinking that since I’ve never even seen a condom,” she shuddered slightly, “that Dana’s just going to tease me more if I completely screw up the game.”
With a slight chuckle, Rainer pulled the Porsche into the garage and kissed her forehead. “I can tell you everything I know about them, baby, but I cannot go buy condoms. The press would go insane.”
This was yet another time that the Gifted press’ fascination with them drove him crazy. If he went into a drug store and purchased condoms, every paper in the Realm would scream that he was cheating.
“Yeah, didn’t think about that,” she lamented dejectedly.
“Maybe Garrett or Connor would get me some to practice with.”
Rainer had to laugh at her desire to be successful at a drunken bridal shower game.
“I’ll ask Garrett for you if you want, but I really think it’s just supposed to be fun, baby.”
Emily seemed to realize that she might be taking everything just a little too seriously. She giggled and rolled her eyes. Heat still permeated her cheeks.
“I guess I’m just a little nervous after seeing that invitation.”
“Well,” Rainer soothed, “as it turns out, Vindico wants several officers at the arena for the party since the Angels are one of Wretchkinsides’ obsessions, so I’ll be around. If it gets too bad, you just say the word, and I’ll bring you home.” Rainer knew perfectly well that Emily Haydenshire would never leave a party given in her honor, but he also knew that she would calm down if she knew she always had an out. Rainer would be there if she needed him.
Pomp and Preparations
~Dan Vindico~
Dan was seated at the kitchen table eating the toast and eggs that Fionna had fixed while he watched her begin her methodical work.
She pulled the numerous trays of thin, heart-shaped, sugar cookies from their refrigerator and began turning them upside down. She iced the curves on half of them to look like breasts in a low slung bra and the other half to look like curvy ass cheeks in thong underwear.
Dan shook his head as he took in her creatively-made, sugared undergarments. He doubted that when her father shared all of his knowledge and skill on being a pastry chef and baker with her that this was what he had in mind.
“Oh, that would look good with pearls,” she commented to herself as she began placing tiny white fondant pearls along the top of several of the bras.
She gave him a sheepish grin when she realized he was watching her intently. When she’d completed the dozens of bra and thong cookies she began working on a large tray that she’d cut to look like corsets.
A mischievous grin cast her face as she waggled her eyebrows at him while he placed his plate and coffee mug in the sink before starting to load the dishwasher for her.
“Hey, honey…”
He laughed just taking in her expression.
“I need to work on the cake, and I think I need you to model for me.”
Shaking his head at her and feeling the warmth and contentment that he only felt when he was in her presence, Dan grabbed her hands and pulled her to him. He dropped them to wrap his arms around her waist.
“I just showed you last night, baby doll,” he growled in her ear, thoroughly delighting her.
“I know. I can’t seem to stop smiling.” She always made him feel like a king. He grasped a handful of her gorgeous backside and gave it a tight squeeze as she wiggled it for him, making him moan.
“I’m not really certain that I want my junk to be the model for Emily Haydenshire’s cake anyway.” He grimaced from the thought as she cracked up.
“Uh, yeah, because that is all mine. Every delicious inch,” she goaded, making him shake his head again.
“You already getting in the mood for the party tonight, baby doll?”
This seemed to bring her back to the task at hand. Dan released her to go back to her icing bags as he moved to the fridge, pulled out a Dr. Pepper, set it on the counter, and opened it for her before getting one for himself.
“Thank you.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to brush a sweet kiss on his jaw. She began going over a list written on a notepad as she refilled the black icing bag.
“I have to get the condoms.” She checked the clock on the stove.
/> Dan laughed. “You threw away a bunch I had when we first started dating. You could’ve used them now. And, by the way, girls are so much dirtier than guys, and we get a bad rep.”
“Both of those points are completely true, but the condoms you had were way too mundane for what we need tonight. I have to get the rainbow colored ones that glow in the dark, or the jet black ones. You know, ribbed for her pleasure.” She cracked up at her own teasing.
Thinking she was completely adorable, Dan kissed the top of her head. “Of course, what was I thinking? And these are to be placed on the dozens of cucumbers in our refrigerator, right?” He recalled her explanations of all of the games she and Chloe had come up with.
“That and tons of other stuff. They’ll be balloons, and decorations.”
A wicked thought of Governor Haydenshire walking in on this ode to debauchery given in his daughter’s honor had Dan laughing again.
“And would you like me to go and purchase those for you, sweetheart?”
“You would do that?”
“For you, I would do anything,” he reminded her. “So, yes, I will be happy to make the pimple-faced teenager at the drugstore laugh hysterically as I buy dozens of rainbow colored condoms. And it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to be seen buying them. If, for some reason, the press gets wind of anything, or if Wretchkinsides has someone tailing me again, me buying condoms certainly doesn’t say I’m in the most important relationship of my life with the most beautiful, exceptional woman in the Gifted Realm. It says, ‘I’m still an asshole that will take what I want and walk away.’” He offered a verbal effigy in hopes of atonement for his life before her.
She gave him that sweet smile that righted everything in his world. “Dan,” she shook her head. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too, baby.”
She wrinkled her nose adorably and lifted one of the upside-down heart-shaped cookies decorated with a white lace thong and popped it in his mouth. Despite its decorating, it tasted delicious. She was outstanding in every possible way.