“I want to try it on.”
My back is to the dressing room mirror when the salesclerk glides the zipper up. “All right. Let’s turn you around and see what you think.”
Sheer long sleeves. Ruched bodice. High neckline. Full skirt. It’s definitely high fashion and appears to be from a time period other than the one we’re living in.
I feel regal in this dress. “It looks like it could have belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots.”
Janet places her hands on my waist and twists the dress a little. “Not everyone can pull off something like this, but on you, it’s lovely.”
“It isn’t at all what I pictured myself wearing.”
“That’s often the case with brides. Do you like it?”
“I love it, but we’re getting married in my fiancé’s whisky bar. I feel like this dress will look out of place in such a casual setting.”
“A beautiful bride is never out of place.” Janet holds up her finger. “Don’t move. I want to put a veil on you before we show your friends and family.”
I study the image in the mirror while I wait for her to return. The longer that I look at myself in the dress, the more I fall in love with it.
This is nothing like what I pictured in my head when I imagined Leith and I standing before the entire brotherhood saying our wedding vows. It’s so much better.
“Here we are, dear. A tiara and veil for the princess.”
She places the silver crown on top of my head, and I can’t believe how much I love the way it looks with the dress. “It’s goes perfectly.”
“You look stunning. And the dress is a perfect fit except for the length.”
“No surprise there since I’m only five-two.”
“No worries. That’s an easy fix. Do you want to show your friends and family?”
“Definitely.”
I grasp the skirt and pick it up, careful to not get tangled in it as I walk. Once I’m on the platform, Janet spreads and smooths the skirt and train.
“All right. Let’s hear your thoughts, girls.” Jenny, Bleu, Ellison, and Westlyn look at me, saying nothing. “Come on, let me have it. Do you love it or hate it?”
Jenny gets up and comes to me, taking my hands and holding them out. “A leanbh, this is the one. You’re going to wear this dress when you become Leith’s wife.”
“You really think so?”
“Oh yes. This is your dress.”
I look at my girls. “You agree with Jenny? This is the one?”
“Definitely. Absolutely. One hundred percent,” the three of them say at the same time.
“What do you think?” the salesclerk asks.
“This is my dress.”
This wedding gown is a bit of what Leith asked for and a bit of what I didn’t know that I wanted. It’s more perfect than anything that I envisioned.
I’m going to become Mrs. Leith Kendrew Duncan in this dress.
I’ve been working nonstop for the last two weeks on our wedding. Even with the help of Isobel’s event planner, it’s still a ton of work. I had no idea that pulling it together in such a short period of time would be so stressful.
Wedding dress and veil. Check.
Catering and music. Check.
Flowers and decorations. Check.
Menstrual period. Check.
I’m not pregnant but it’s all right; I didn’t expect to be. Leith and I knew that the timing was all wrong, but there’s still this small disappointment in my heart when I see the proof.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“I started my period.”
“You look upset.”
“I’m not. I mean, not really.” I just had this shred of hope in the back of my mind that it might somehow happen.
I know. Silly.
“It’s going to happen, just not this time. And we get to actually try if it doesn’t happen on its own, and that’s going to be a lot of fun.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Leith holds out his arms. “Come here.”
I go to him and he pulls me into his arms, squeezing my body against his and kissing the top of my head. “You look beautiful tonight.”
“Thank you.” He releases his hold of me and I take a single step backward, assessing him in his suit. I place my palms on his chest and slide them down his jacket. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“You know me. Suits aren’t my thing.”
“I know but you look so damn handsome when you wear one. Especially this black one; it fits you perfectly.”
“Doesn’t compare to how you look in this dress. I can’t wait to get you home tonight.”
“I’m having my period.”
“Makes no difference to me.”
“No, it never has.” Leith never let my menstrual cycle stop us from being together.
“I don’t recall it ever making any difference to you either.”
I always knew that the week of my period meant no foursomes. It was only Leith and I—so I didn’t mind it so much. “I wanted you any way that I could have you.”
“And now?”
“Nothing has changed. I still want you any way that I can have you.”
“That’s what I like to hear from my girl.”
We arrive at the Witchery and Sin and Bleu, Jamie and Ellison, Kieran and Westlyn, and Mitch and Shaw are already seated.
“Are we late?”
“No, you’re fine. They just seated us.”
Party of ten. I love being here with our best friends. I’ve missed out on so many get-togethers with them because I was avoiding Leith. And it was so unnecessary since the whole thing was a stupid misunderstanding between us.
Maybe one day I’ll stop feeling so much regret about that.
“Who’s keeping the babies tonight?” Westlyn asks.
“Thane and Isobel,” Bleu answers.
Westlyn laughs. “Together? In the same house? Hope it’s still standing when you get home.”
“Their relationship has changed over the last several months. They’re very different with each other.” Bleu’s brow lifts. “They more than tolerate each other, if you know what I mean.”
“You’re talking about my aunt and uncle who can’t stay in the same room together for more than five minutes? I’m going to need you to expand on that a little more.”
Bleu giggles. “Thane and Isobel are in love.”
Westlyn’s gasp is loud. “No. Way.”
“I’m not kidding. They’ve fallen in love.”
“After being married for thirty-some-odd years? They’ve hated each other every second of every day and now they’re in love?”
Sin nods. “She speaks the truth.”
“How does something like that happen?” Westlyn asks.
“Becoming grandparents changed them. They softened and that allowed them to be open to the possibility,” Sin says.
“I can’t believe it.”
He chuckles. “You think that you can’t believe it? You should have grown up with them as your parents and seen on a daily basis how much they hated each other. You really wouldn’t be able to believe it if you were Mitch or me.”
Mitch reaches for Shaw’s hand. “I can’t wait to see what a fourth grandchild does to them.” All attention focuses on Mitch. “Shaw is pregnant. We just found out today.”
A series of congratulations are voiced at the same time from everyone around the table.
Sin gets up to hug his brother. “A second Breckenridge-Hendry child is on the way. One for The Fellowship and one for The Order. That is wonderful news, and I know that Mum and Dad must be thrilled.”
“They are very happy.”
“We were going to wait to make the announcement, but I guess now’s the right time to tell you that there’s going to be yet another Breckenridge. Ellison and I are expecting a baby too.”
Wow. There are three pregnant women at this table right now. I wish that I was one of them, but that doesn’t take away from the joy that I feel for
my best friends.
I smile, and it’s genuine because I am happy for everyone, but I’m also a little sad because I feel left out. “I’m so happy for all of you.”
“You’ll be next, Lolo.”
“Hopefully.”
“She will be.” Leith looks at me and squeezes my hand beneath the table. “I’m seeing to it personally.”
Chapter 13
Leith Duncan
I carry Lorna’s bag to her car and place it in the back. “Where are the wives taking you?”
Her brow lifts. “I’ll tell you if you tell me where the husbands are taking you.”
It’s a stag party. The wife-to-be isn’t supposed to know anything about it.
“You’re going to be away from me for the first time in a month. I need to know where you’ll be in case something happens and I need to come for you.”
Lorna rolls her eyes. “Shaw is pregnant. Ellison is pregnant. Wes is pregnant and could deliver at any time. What kind of trouble could we possibly get into?”
Yes, we have an alliance with our former enemy, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever truly trust those people. “I’m not worried about you and the other wives getting into trouble. We’re Fellowship, and we never know when trouble is going to find us. So where will you be?”
She sighs. “The girls have booked a suite at the Balmoral. We’re having a spa and massage day with manis and pedis before we go out for dinner. There will be little opportunity for trouble to find us, but I imagine that the opposite is true about the night you’re going to have with your mates.”
Greer sent word to Lorna that she was going to be the stripper at my stag party. Of course, it’s a lie but Lorna has been uneasy ever since.
“We’re going to drink whisky at the bar until we pass out and wake up with throbbing heads. Nothing more.”
“Tonight is the last chance Greer will have to see you before we’re married. I don’t think she’ll miss out on her final opportunity.”
I’ve been expecting her to reach out to me in some kind of desperate last-ditch effort to try and talk me into being with her instead of Lorna. But she hasn’t. Maybe she’s moved on.
“If Greer or any other woman shows up at the bar tonight, she’ll be turned away at the door.” The plan is already in place. Nessa and Gwyneth will be there to serve us but that’s it. No other women allowed. I have no intention of allowing anything to happen that might bring my faithfulness into question.
“I don’t question your fidelity but Greer is sneaky. I worry that she’ll somehow manage to get into the bar.”
“And do what?”
“I don’t know exactly, but she’s crazy enough to try anything.”
“You think she would try to seduce me on the night before my wedding?”
“Absolutely.”
“One can’t be seduced if he isn’t willing to be seduced.”
“I know you wouldn’t choose to be with anyone else while you’re sober, but you’re going to get smashed. You won’t be in your right mind.”
“I wouldn’t be with another woman ever, sober or wrecked. I need you to trust in that.”
“Greer said that she wasn’t finished with you. She’s the one I don’t trust.”
“Her threats are empty.”
“I worked side by side with her for a long time. I know what she’s capable of.”
“She doesn’t have the power to hurt us.”
“I’ll believe that after we’re married without incident.”
“Then you’ll believe it tomorrow. Because at six o’clock in the evening, you will be my wife. Mine forever.”
“And not one minute too soon.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I’m getting married tomorrow.” I touch the left side of my chest. “I want my wife’s name right here over my heart.”
It’s one of my gifts to Lorna. I’m going to show it to her on our wedding night.
“I do a lot of tattoos, mate, and many of them are do-overs to cover up a woman’s name after a breakup. The new ladies don’t tend to be too fond of the old ones being on their man. Are you sure you want to do that?”
This tattoo artist isn’t Fellowship. He doesn’t understand that there is no such thing as moving on to a new partner in our world. “I’m in this for life. There will be no do-over.”
“Says every man who comes in here and asks for a tattoo of a woman’s name.”
“I can go somewhere else to have it done if you’re so opposed to it.”
“It’s your body, mate. I’ll ink you with whatever you want.”
Good. I’ve had this appointment for over two weeks. I don’t have time to fuck around with finding another artist today.
“What is your wife’s name?”
“Lorna. L-O-R-N-A.”
“Any graphics?”
“Text only. Script with shadowing.”
“All right. Give me a few minutes to work up a design.”
It takes a few tweaks but I’m satisfied with the final design. “That’s exactly what I want. Let’s do it.” I have a stag party to be at in a few hours.
These are my final hours as a single man. I’m never going to be with another woman again. Lorna is my final taste.
And I couldn’t be more at peace with it.
Nessa brings another round of whisky. “Anything else I can get you?”
Kenrick reaches out and wraps his arm around Nessa’s bum. “Come here. I need to tell you something.”
She lowers her head and Kenny whispers something in her ear, prompting a big smile to form on her face.
“Okay.”
Kenny watches every step she takes as she walks away. They’re going to need to do better than this if they’re going to avoid Nessa being labeled.
“What was that about?” Sin asks.
I’m curious to see how my brother will handle answering our leader’s question.
“I told her to meet me in the back room in five.”
Oh shite.
“Shagging one of your barmaids, aye?”
“We aren’t just shagging. I love her. I’m going to claim her. Planning to ask her to marry me after we get through Leith and Lorna’s wedding.”
Well, fuck. Kenny is laying it on the line. I didn’t expect that.
“I’m happy for you. Nessa will make a good wife.”
“I don’t want my wedding to be a long time coming like yours.”
“Wise move. Because you don’t know what misery is until you’re living without the woman that you love.”
“Despite everything, you hung in there and fought for her. I knew you could do it,” Jamie says.
“I didn’t have a choice. I love that woman too much not to.”
“Wish that it could have happened sooner,” Sin says.
“You tried, mate. All I can say is that it happened the way that fate intended for it to happen. That’s the only way to look at it, or I’ll spend all of my time regretting the past instead of enjoying the present with her.”
“Let me tell you about a new joy that you have coming.” Jamie closes his eyes and moans. “Being inside your wife for the first time. There’s nothing in the world like it.”
It’s already like pure magic. “I don’t know how it could be better than it already is.”
Jamie nods. “Well, it can be and it is. You’ll see what we’re talking about.”
“Where are you taking your bride after the wedding?”
“I booked a suite in town for tomorrow night, and then we’re leaving for Lake Como the next morning.”
“I wish that I had taken Bleu there before the babies were born; she won’t consider going without them now.”
“Take the babies with you,” Mitch says.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Lourdes would be fine but have you met my sons?”
“Take a nanny with you,” Kieran says.
“Bleu isn’t having any part of a nanny.”
“Ellison won’t c
onsider having one either. Do you think it’s their American upbringing?”
“I wouldn’t count on that. Lorna says that we won’t have a nanny either.”
Mitch chuckles. “This is Leith’s stag party, and we’re sitting here discussing nannies. If the brothers overheard us, they’d say that our dicks are shrinking and being replaced by pussies.”
“And I’d have to agree,” Jamie says.
“All right. While you come up with a new topic to discuss, I’m going to step into my office and make a call.”
“You can’t call your fiancée during your stag party.”
Oh yes, I can.
“Pour another round of whisky; I won’t be long.”
One ring. Two. “Hello, husband-to-be.”
“You don’t get to call me that for much longer.”
“What will you have me call you after tomorrow night?”
“Master has a nice ring to it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“All right then. I’ll settle for husband. Unless you change your mind and decide that master is a better choice.”
“I think we’ll stick with husband.”
“Are you having fun with the girls?”
“As much fun as you can have with two women experiencing pregnancy nausea and another one who’s having pains.”
Oh shite. “Westlyn is having labor pains?”
“She says that she’s not, but she keeps closing her eyes and breathing in and out as though she is.”
Why hasn’t she called her husband? “Should Kieran come for her?”
“I don’t think so. At least not yet but it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him a heads-up so he doesn’t drink too much whisky. I know that he wouldn’t want to be drunk if the baby decides to come tonight.”
“No, he wouldn’t. I’ll let him know what’s going on. Where are you now?”
“Waiting outside the restaurant for Sterling to pick us up.”
I’m relieved when I hear that Sterling is driving the women. I’m still not a fan of them being without protection.
“Did you or one of the other husbands send a limo?”
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