by Savannah May
We’re both gob-smacked at seeing each other here. But Bolt, beaming out his glittering smile and petting a frisky dog has me at a disadvantage. All I have are breasts swelling so my bra seems three sizes too small and embarrassingly rock hard nipples
Bolt follows Scherri’s dismayed gaze then leaps up from the floor. He’s beside me and down on his knees again before Scherri has uncoupled from Steele’s solid arm around her shoulders. As one unit, the aunties move across the room to stand around Steele. He towers up from the middle of his swarm of followers and they all gaze at Bolt, on his knees in front of me – again – carefully picking up each one of Scherri’s wedding flowers.
“Isn’t it romantic?” Matilda says.
“Babe, aren’t you going to introduce them?” Scherri whispers, tipping her face up to a stunned Steele.
She turns back to look at me with an inquiring demand I can’t face. My knees are suddenly jello for too many reasons and I sink down, coming knee to knee and face to face with the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. Who also just happened to ram his tongue inside my pussy last night.
Now shaven with his hair clean and brushed back so the length is behind his ears and curling at he nape of his neck, he looks incredible. And I am a complete idiot for running out on him last night.
“Bolt, this is Scherri’s sister, Bella,” Steele says, with an undue emphasis on the word sister, like that’s my only claim to be here. “He was in my unit.”
But the aunties are all chattering at once over top of him.
“Yes but now he’s a special ops.” Matilda announces.
“I thought he was a spy in Europe,” Giselle objects.
“He can’t talk about his mission, don’t you remember anything?”
“It’s so wonderful that you made it back in time after all.”
“Yes, how long has it been since you saw each other.”
“It’s been months, she already told us that. You never listen Amelia. Mother always said that.”
“You two know each other?” Scherri asks, frowning, when the authies stop talking over top of each other.
“Of course they know each other,” Dottie tells her
“Their reunion is fragile, not the moment for joking, Darling,” Matilda admonishes her, probably the only auntie that can hear my sister’s confused low voice. “He’s come all this way to escort his fiancee to your wedding.”
I wince so hard the whole household must have witnessed it.
“Shush, Amelia.”
“You shush.”
Bolt on the other hand doesn’t flinch or ever flicker an eyelid. He continues gazing at me with the same kind of awe I’m seeing from the aunties looking at him in admiration. Or any other woman he passes, for that matter.
“We aren’t supposed to say anything,” Gracie hisses.
“Say what?” Scherri asks, “You’re engaged, Bella?”
Her face is even more gobsmacked than mine and with a look of betrayed annoyance clouding it. “To Bolt?”
Now what?
I’m uncovered, as lies always are sooner or later.
The aunties are bickering with each other over who said what and shouldn't have, going back decades in their stored memories. I’m glad that my humiliation isn’t going to be witnessed by them as I own up to my lie. But Bolt’s gaze is – wow seriously? – it’s nothing less than adoration smothering his face. Well, that’s about to be wiped away, when I own up.
“Bella?” Scherri demands.
“Yeah, she is,” Bolt announces, his smile spreading wide.
I have to remember to force my jaw closed so it doesn't drop to the floor with the flowers. Except he’s picked them all up now and is cradling them gently in his big arms. He shifts them into mine as gently as though he’s handing over a newborn, then he takes hold of my hand.
Just like last night, he powers his thighs like a pro to lift himself, and me in his palm, to standing. Then he wraps me under his wing, tugging me into his side like I’m seeking the protection of a God and together we face my incredulous family.
“You never said a word about this,” Scherri murmurs, her eyes searching mine, then turning to seek some answer from Steele.
Is she blanking Bolt?
Her eyes go skittering across him like she can’t look at him now.
Or am I imagining that?
“She didn’t want to steal any of the limelight off your day,” Dottie says, fortunately filling in the gaping hole of silence as I’m still too stunned to utter a word.
My lips are Novocained into silence, refusing to form so much as a gasp.
“And we won’t do that, will we Babe?” Bolt says. “We’re here to celebrate friends and family.”
I nod dumbly, clinging to the flowers like a life-raft and crushed against his solid curve of muscle. His heavy arm like a steel band around my shoulders, I've never felt tinier. I feel as birdlike as one of the weeny aunties. I just hope I can maintain as vivid a personality as each of those life-embracing firecrackers.
“Where’s your luggage?” Scherri suddenly blurts out.
She hasn't congratulated me at all. In fact her eyes barely manage to contain a hint of fury. I’m surprised at her. Because she isn't usually a spotlight hugger and would normally be jumping up and down with glee for me. Perhaps she’s mad that I didn't tell her. I didn't know myself until three minutes ago.
“You know me,” Bolt tells her. “Playing his part for the aunties brilliantly, like she really does know him. “I travel light. My duffel is out on the bike.”
“Ooh, you ride a Harley?” Dottie squeals, peering through the window at the machine at the curb. “Will you take me for a spin?”
“I’d love nothing more,” he says, looking down at me and squeezing me harder into him.
“Me too,” Amelia pleads.
“And me.”
“I asked first.”
The aunties are off again and as Dottie walks into the kitchen talking about lemonade, they all follow her, bickering like sextuplet children. Bolt appears to be in his element, only the three of us left in the living room with him are still gaping in stunned silence.
“Where are you staying?” Scherri asks him, but pointedly looking at me.
“He’s staying here obviously,” Gracie interrupts, reentering the room and removing the flowers from my grip. “These old blooms could do with a drink and so could she.”
She twitches her head in my direction and twinkles up at Bolt.
“Mom will have a bird,” Scherri says. I guess because she was never allowed to sleep in the same room with Steele.
“Nonsense. We all have to move with the times, not stay stuck in the zone. Isn’t that what you say?”
Gracie directs her question at Bolt. Like he’s some magus with the answers to everything.
“Definitely.” He grins. “If Bella wants me here of course I’ll stay.”
“Wants you? She’s been pining away since she got here, haven't’ you darling girl?”
Damn. Thanks for outing me Gracie.
“Is that right Baby?”
Bolt squeezes me even tighter under his arm so my free hand reaches up to rest on the swell of his chest before he crushes me right through his skin. Holy cow I have never felt anything so firm and vigorously pulsing with energy.
“Did you miss me last night?” he grins.
I nod weakly, too inanimate a mollusk to so much as move my lips. Until that is, they spark into life when Bolt tips down and plants the most amazing forceful kiss on them. I almost suction him into my mouth, unwilling as he is to release our connection even though everyone is staring. Sparkles of electricity fly through my tummy straight down to my thighs and a pulsation picks up between them.
He breaks the kiss with the biggest smile yet, Giselle is dancing around on her toes and clapping. And I realize I’m so soaking wet, my panties need wringing.
12
Bolt
After bringing my bag into the house and depos
iting it up on the third floor, in the same bedroom as Bella for chrissake, I make myself useful for rest of the day. I’ve never had so much fun in my life. Standing around the kitchen, doing as I’m directed by the army of tiny generals. I’m the resident beefcake – ordered to unscrew jar lids and reach up to shelves for long-stored away serving dishes. Who knew the amount of work and fussing around it took to get a wedding together?
But I love the camaraderie of being inside the family. I never had that growing up. I catch Bella’s eye periodically and she’s looking at me strangely. I can’t tell whether she’s happy or pissed. But each time she smiles at me a weird pang goes through me, first to my heart then straight to my dick.
“Ahh,” one of the aunties will say, catching our gaze and misinterpreting it for love or some shit.
I’m set to cutting up about a thousand damn cucumbers into dice and I don’t even mind. What with all the stories coming out from times past and the hysterical bickering these amazing old ladies get into over who misremembered, who’s telling ‘porkies’ and who’s plain senile.
Steele and Scherri disappear for the longest time but when they come back, those eyes on me are not so benevolent.
I get it. This is kind of an awkward situation. But it’s not like I set this up. I had no clue Bella was Scherri’s sister. I wish I had. It would have made the last six months of my life a whole lot fucking easier. Although I guess Scherri wouldn’t have been that amenable to me hooking up with her sister. She might even have warned Bella off me.
“Now Bolt’s here, why can’t the others come too,” Scherri’s saying when they come into the kitchen.
She finds me with Bella and the aunties finishing up preparing lunch for us all. We’re making a buffet spread for all the family that will be arriving today, for the rehearsal dinner tonight and the ceremony tomorrow.
“Babe, I told you, I just want it to be you and me,” Steele tells her gently but firmly. “And your family of course.”
“But Bolt-”
“Babe, can we talk about this later please?” He says with a commanding tone you don’t usually hear out of Steele, not when he’s talking to his girl.
She stops pushing him and immediately joins her sister preparing chicken salad, digging out some curry seasoning. They look at each other then look away. The emotion between them fills the room with pressure. I notice it and I see Steele detect it too. I wonder if he wants me out of here.
My eyes are drag-drawn back to the two sisters. They make an absolutely stunning picture together but my gaze is naturally drawn to Bella. Even is she weren’t here, I still wouldn’t be making any kind of eyes at Scherri. She’s my bud’s girl and I never let a man down.
What happened between us three, that was a single moment in time. Never to be repeated. It brought Steele and I together and maybe freed those two in their relationship. I don't know and of course I can’t be sure what occurred between them. But they’ve made it to this point and that’s freaking huge. More than I could ever imagine for myself.
Bella looks up at me from stirring the orange powder into the mayo mix and smiles nervously.
I grin back at her, trying to ease her anxiety, hoping to let her know I’ve got her back. Her secret’s safe with me. I’m just so freaking happy to be here with her, watching her with her family. And also to be with my buddy on his big day. It makes me wonder whether any of the other guys from our unit have made it up the aisle into the shackles.
“Sorry,” Bella whispers to me, bringing me a plate as we all settle down for lunch.
“Don’t be,” I say, meaning it. “I’m having the time of my life.”
She grimaces at that, like I’m teasing her, or holding her to ransom. Well if she thinks that, let’s prove it. I scoop her around the waist in front of everyone, tugging her to me so her pelvis presses into my thigh and makes my cock unfurl eagerly. Shit, she is so gorgeous my chest aches. I half lift her into me and tip down to take her mouth again, gathering another chorus of approval from the aunties. But not from Scherri, who disguises a glare of disgust too late.
A flare goes through me about what will happen if she tells her sister about last summer. Should I tell Bella about that first? But what if she tosses me out before we spend the weekend getting acquainted?
Fuck it. I still have Bella trapped in my arm hooked around her and I bend down hungrily to claim her soft lips again. She doesn’t resist me at all. Far from it, her mouth opens like she wants to tug me inside, her tongue reaching for mine.
More people are arriving so we’re forced to break apart, exceptionally reluctantly on my part. Soon as lunch is over, there are guests to entertain and more prep work to be done in the kitchen. I don’t get a chance to be alone with Bella until she pops up beside me.
“I didn't know you knew Steele,” she whispers.
“I didn't know you did.”
“Or that you were in the military,” she continues.
“We didn't get to the pleasantries last night.” I grin, hoping to deflect her.
I bend down to taste her soft mouth again, addicted to the caress of her lips against mine.
“Ooh sorry,” an auntie pops up between us like a gopher. “I need a platter from the top shelf in the pantry.”
“Your servant,” I tell her, eliciting a shiver from Eloise, I think it is, and a grin from Bella.
She seems happy that I’m getting along so well with her family, All the aunties that is. Scherri not so much this time. I catch her glaring stony cold at me every time we cross paths.
“Look at you all dolled up already,” Eloise snaps, the first time I’ve heard snark come from her otherwise sweet and affectionate mouth.
From behind, I see an over-dressed woman with stiff hair straight from the beauty parlor has joined us. It takes me a moment to recognize Scherri’s mother Lyndsey and it also clicks that this is Bella’s mom too.
“It looks like it’ll be my only chance to be the mother of a bride,” she announces to eight stunned women.
She doesn’t notice me in the pantry, holding the platters I’ve brought down from the top shelf.
“Rubbish,” Eloise quips with a sneer at Lyndsey. “Bella’s next, aren’t you darling?”
“We can only dream,” Bella’s mother says and I step forward, ready to take Bella’s game to the next level.
Whatever she’s up to, I’m happy to support her in it for the weekend. Unlikely though it would have seemed to me before I was thrown into it, this being a fiancé lark is fun. I have a family and a woman that loves me even if she is only pretending for whatever reason. I haven't had a chance to ask her about that. As soon as I get her alone, I’m going to have way more physical demands than inquiring what she’s up to.
Before I can reintroduce myself to Lyndsey, Bella grabs her mother’s arm and drags her from the kitchen. I catch her muttering something about her opinion on pies and I’m left with six faces frowning at me. They’re clearly wanting me to take care of something, but I have no clue what.
“She’s turned into quite a nasty piece of work with those girls,” Matilda says to the sister beside her.
Man, will I ever distinguish all of them before the weekend’s over?
“Shush, Matty,” Eloise tells her, still frowning
“You shush. Don’t shush me, I can say what I think. It’s not good for a girl to have a mother that’s jealous of her.”
“Scherri and Bella aren’t girls anymore,” Dottie says.
“Not good for grown women either. Makes them hungry for love wherever they can find it.”
Twelve eyes land on me and I throw them a grin. Suddenly I wonder what I’ve dropped myself into. It hits me that Bella isn't only smart and funny and sexy as hell. She’s a real woman with deep emotions. Like me she has a past that determines her needs. And dreams.
“Platters,” I say, setting the stack of outsize plates down and distracting the way the conversation is headed.
This might be more than I’m prepa
red to handle.
13
Bella
I emerge from the new ensuite Mr Greengross had installed on the third floor and jump out of my skin to see Bolt stretched across the new loveseat. His big feet are hanging over the edge of the armrest.
“Ohmigod you made me jump,” I gasp, my hands flying to my chest.
Once my heart settles back down, Bolt’s hugely appreciative grin reminds me that I’m wearing nothing but my lingerie. One of two new bra and pantie sets I bought for the wedding events this weekend. A treat to myself. And apparently him too. This one is dark red satin and lace, a push up balcony bra and very high cut bikinis. The underside of the bra is satin but the top half of the cup is very see-through lace. The side straps of the panties are satin but the rest of them are completely diaphanous lacy fabric.
I’m suddenly shy that he’s staring at my basically naked body, despite what he did to me last night in the washroom at the bar. I reach for my robe on the bed and slip it on, tugging the belt into a tight knot.
“You’re going to have to dress eventually,” he says.
His hands go up behind his head and he relaxes back as though he’s got all the time in the world to wait for the show.
“And so are you,” I snip at him, more snarky than I meant.
It’s just making me really awkward having him here in my room. It’s my fault, I know, I could hardly tell my long-lost fiancé to go to a motel. And god knows I don't want him to. Another pair of panties, over-priced brand new ones are soaked through from the way his eyes trawl across my body like a ravenous wolf. He continues to gaze on me while I dig out my dress for tonight and hang it up to take mom’s steamer to the creases.
“Don’t you need to shower or something?” I ask.
The way he makes me tremble, so close that he’s driven all the air from the low-ceiling room, leaves me breathless.