by JA Low
Wait.
That is huge news.
Big.
“You seem awfully calm?” I ask.
“I don’t want to get our hopes up, that’s all,” he reassures me, and I understand that. I mean, he’s been fighting this woman for years. He’s probably overthinking that this time might be it.
“Ari, stop humping your man and do your job,” Emma calls out to me.
The girls are already standing in line waiting for me.
“Got to go,” I say and press a kiss to Rhys’ lips before joining the girls.
We do the walk-through of the ceremony. It’s going to be a beautiful day.
The night continues on until a sensible hour because no one wants to look hungover in their wedding photographs.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I tell him and wrap my arms around Rhys’ neck.
“Can’t wait.” He grins, looking down at me before kissing me with passion. Then he waves me goodbye and disappears into the night with the rest of the boys. I let out a heavy sigh and head back into the living room with the girls.
“One last drink, ladies,” Emma states while moving the bottle of champagne from side to side. “Then we need to get our beauty sleep.”
34
Ariana
“I’m getting married, bitches,” Chloe squeals, rushing into the kitchen.
We raise our champagne glasses in her direction, and all say “cheers” to her big day.
“You need to eat to keep your strength up,” Lenna tells Chloe.
“I’m too excited to eat.” Chloe smiles.
“It’s going to be a long day,” Lenna advises.
“Fine.” She grabs a croissant from the table and shoves it into her mouth. “Happy?”
Everyone laughs.
The weather appears like it’s going to be incredible today, looking out the large glass windows. Chloe’s got a nice dusting of fresh show everywhere in her backyard. The blue sky has poked through the clouds and is shining down upon us today. I’d like to think it’s because of Noah’s and her parents, making sure their kids have an incredible wedding day.
The event crew has been busy working all morning. A million and one white flowers arrived earlier. Thankfully, none of us are allergic because she could probably fill a stadium with the sheer number she’s ordered.
After our delicious champagne breakfast, the photos started with us girls in our bridesmaid robes. After plentiful photographs, we are off to get our hair and makeup done.
Then there are more photos and glasses of champagne along the way.
I texted Rhys to see how he’s doing, and a message comes back.
Rhys: I’m downstairs.
He’s downstairs.
Thankfully, I’m finished with my hair and makeup and rush down. I run down the grand staircase in my robe to see him standing at the front door with a smile on his handsome face as he watches me descend. He’s dressed casually, so not sure what he’s doing here. Then I spy a red bag in his hand before I jump into his arms.
“Morning.”
He’s surprised by my enthusiasm. I think all this love in their air has made me a little crazy.
“Now, that’s a greeting.” He chuckles, wrapping his arms around me tightly. Leaning in, I kiss him ever so gently so as to not smudge my lipstick.
“You look gorgeous.” Rhys takes me in. “But you always do.”
“What are you doing here?” I slide down his hard torso.
“One of the guys forgot to drop off Chloe’s wedding gift last night. So, I told them I would do it.” He holds up the designer bag.
“Aw, that’s sweet.” Taking the bag from him, I say, “I’ll be back in two seconds.”
“I’ll be waiting.” He grins. His eyes are on my ass as I step up the grand staircase and head into the room where Chloe’s getting ready.
“Hey, babe. Special delivery from your soon-to-be husband.” I hand over the red bag to her.
“Oh, my goodness.” Chloe’s eyes widen as she grabs the bag from my hand. She pulls out the red velvet case where there’s a note attached to the box. She opens the white envelope and reads the note. Her eyes begin to well, and I can see the makeup artist slowly having a heart attack.
“I’m a lucky woman.” Chloe holds the note to her chest.
“Open up the box,” Emma calls from her chair in the corner.
Chloe shakes herself from her love haze and slowly opens the red velvet box. “Oh my…” Chloe gasps, and the room falls silent as she pulls out the most sparkly necklace I’ve ever seen. Prisms of light dance around the room as we all admire the gorgeous diamond necklace in awed silence. The diamonds on that thing are crazy huge.
I leave Chloe and the girls to ogle the necklace and head back down to where Rhys is waiting.
“Did she like it?” he asks as I step down the stairs.
“Yes. It is amazing. It’s a diamond necklace with stones the size of boulders.” I forget how rich my friends are until they do something like that, and I’m reminded that they do not live normal lives.
“Has anyone ever bought you diamonds before?” Rhys asks.
I don’t mean to burst out laughing, but I do, which makes him frown.
“No. No one has ever bought me diamonds. I could count on one hand the number of flowers I’ve ever been sent, too.”
“Really?” Rhys questions.
“Yes. You’ve been the best guy I’ve ever dated. You send me flowers. You listen to me ramble on about my day. You cook for me…” I trail off, shrugging my shoulders.
“No one has ever done that for you?” He genuinely looks confused.
“Nope.” I grin. “I dated some real idiots over the years.” We walk into the kitchen, where I grab us a drink.
“I’ll never understand how anyone can be like that.” He shakes his head as he undoes the lid of his water bottle and takes a couple of big gulps. My eyes focus in on his throat, watching his Adam’s apple move, and my body shivers all over.
Damn! I’ve got it bad for one Rhys Davenport.
“What?” He glances at me, perplexed as to why I am staring at him as if I’m seconds away from jumping him.
“Just that I love you,” I reply, letting the feelings I have for this man wash over me.
“I love you, too.” He stalks closer, caging me into the corner of the kitchen. His lips nip the tender flesh under my ear. “I’m going to spoil you, Ariana.” His lips glide over my goose-bumped skin.
“You don’t need to spoil me, Rhys. I’m not one of those kinds of girls,” I explain to him.
“I know.” He grins against my skin. “That’s why I want to. You don’t ever ask me for anything. Add in the craziness of my divorce, which you also never complain about, and you never push me on it either. I need to show you how much you mean to me, Ari,” he tells me. “How much I appreciate you being a fucking queen standing by my side.” His head falls against my shoulder as if he’s too exhausted to hold it up any longer. “I hate that this bullshit has consumed our entire relationship,” he confesses.
“Hey.” I lift his face to look at mine. “This won’t be forever. I know that. Also, none of this is your fault. How can I blame you for marrying someone as duplicitous as she is?”
Those blue eyes shimmer with emotion while staring at me. “I don’t deserve you, Ari. But for some reason, I’ve been given a second chance at love with you, and I’m never letting you go,” he declares.
Normally someone telling me they’re never letting me go would suffocate me or be creepy as hell, but looking into Rhys’ eyes, I can see the love he has for me.
“I want to be your second chance, Rhys,” I tell him.
His shoulders relax as if a heavy burden has been lifted from him as I say the words that I thought he always knew, but maybe I never articulated them in the right way. Rhys’ lips come crashing down on mine as he kisses the hell out of me.
“Rhys Davenport, you better not be smudging her lips, or you are a dead man.�
� Lenna’s voice echoes through the kitchen.
We both move away from each other, and I know well enough he has completely messed up my lipstick.
“Sorry, babe. But it was worth it.” Rhys grabs my ass in his hand.
“So worth it.”
We both chuckle.
“I better let you go.” Rhys kisses my temple. “See you later, Lenna.”
Lenna waves at him as Rhys waltzes out of the kitchen, leaving me all hot and bothered.
“Won’t be long till we are standing here on your wedding day.” Lenna winks.
“He needs to get divorced first.” I shrug my shoulders.
“That man is going to do everything in his power to finalize that. You mark my words,” Lenna tells me.
We can only hope.
35
Rhys
Never thought I would want to walk down the aisle again after the disaster of my first marriage. I watch as Ariana glides down the aisle looking like a beautiful goddess dressed in a green velvet dress, with her brown hair pulled up into an elegant bun. A bouquet of winter-inspired flowers is nestled in her hand, and her face is lit up with a smile so bright because her two friends are getting married. As she walked toward the flower-covered archway, she found me in the crowd, and the look she gave me was a direct cupid’s arrow to my heart. I’m head over heels for this woman, and the damn mafia is not going to stop me from moving forward with her.
“You look delicious.” Ariana finds me just after the wedding and kisses me passionately, the day giving her some extra confidence in public displays of affection.
“You look ravishing,” I whisper into her ear.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to wait till we get home to have you.” Ariana’s eyes drink me in.
Who knew tuxedos turned her on so much?
“Later, once everyone is a little drunker, we can slip off for some fun.”
“I like the way you think, Mr. Davenport.”
Ariana grins before someone starts calling her name, and she disappears into the crowd again for more photos.
Dinner was amazing. EJ’s—who is Stella’s partner and Chloe’s brother—restaurant, catered the food. It was delicious—I really should go and check out his restaurant. Then there was the cutting of the cake, the first dance, and the tossing of the bridal bouquet, which Chloe tossed directly at Stella, who blushed. EJ shook his head but had the biggest smile on his face knowing that his future is inevitable. Once all that was over, I was able to catch up with Ariana again.
“My duties as a bridesmaid are officially over for the night.” Ariana wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me in for a kiss.
“So, you wanna play hooky, then?” Nipping her ear sends a shiver down her spine, while goosebumps lace her skin.
“Yes, please, Mr. Davenport.”
I take off my tuxedo jacket and wrap it around Ariana’s shoulders, then grab her hand and escort her out of the tent where the wedding reception is taking place. The shock of exiting the tent to outside chills us both to the bones.
Right. I don’t think my idea of fucking her in the garden is going to work. It’s too damn cold.
“It’s freezing,” I grumble as we walk along the carpet set up over the snow, so guests don’t get their feet wet. “Not sure a quickie in the woods is going to work. I don’t want us getting hypothermia.”
She smiles even though her teeth are chattering.
“Don’t worry, I know a place.” She takes a right off the carpeted path and we stroll through the wooded area for what feels like an eternity in the cold until we reach the ocean.
“It’s empty.” Ariana grins. “Chloe and Noah wanted me to work on their boathouse after seeing the plans I put together for Emma and Anderson.” Ariana wriggles the door handle until it opens, and we walk inside. It’s still cold but not as bad as it is outside.
“I think we’re going to have to be quick. It’s freezing in here,” I tell her.
Ariana turns around and begins to lift the hem of her bridesmaid’s dress. “Then you better get to work.” She bites her bottom lip as her eyes look over me hungrily. She doesn’t have to tell me twice as I fall to my knees and disappear underneath her dress. Thankfully, the skirt of her dress isn’t tight, so I can fit underneath easily.
I love that Ariana wears skimpy underwear. It makes life so much easier as I push the tiny bit of fabric to the side and swipe my tongue through her folds.
Ariana falls back against the wall of the boathouse as I continue to ravish her. Neither one of us are up for making this last long, so I use everything that I have to bring her to orgasm as quickly as possible. My thick fingers sink into her, stretching her, and I curl them across the sensitive nerves inside of her. I know every inch of her body as if I’ve studied her for a lifetime—the way her back arches as I hit the bundle of nerves and her tiny mews as I take her higher and higher.
I know I’m getting closer when her fingers disappear into my hair, and she anchors herself to me as I continuously lap at her essence.
Come for me, Ariana, I command telepathically as my mouth is busy delivering her pleasure.
She’s so close. So very close, and I can’t wait until she is tumbling over that edge all over my tongue.
“Yes. Yes. Oh, yes,” she screams as she finally pushes herself over that precipice and comes all over my tongue. I continue to lap at her until she pushes me away from her pussy.
“Please, I need you,” she pleads as I come out from under her dress. Her face is flushed from her orgasm.
“Bend over, sweetheart,” I tell her, eyeing the chair in the corner. On unsteady legs, Ariana stumbles over to the chair and hoists up her dress around her hips, exposing her peachy ass to me. The sight makes me smile at how eager she is for my dick, and that makes him even harder. There will be no finesse in the way that I’m going to take her because I’m more worried about her getting cold than my dick getting wet.
I release myself from my tuxedo pants and line myself up against her slick entrance, then slowly push my way in—both of us hissing at the connection. Ariana stands up against me, pushing me further into her as my hand cups her breast through the velvety material of her dress. The boathouse is filled with the sounds of our coupling, my grunts and her pleading whispers, as each of us searches for our joint release.
In this moment, I forget about everything and imagine what it might be like to finally be free of my past and begin to plan a future with Ariana. My dick thickens at the thought of her being mine forever and always.
“I fucking love you,” I growl into her ear as I find my release.
A kaleidoscope of a future spent with Ariana flashes across my subconscious, and it’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of and more.
36
Rhys
What an amazing weekend Ariana and I had at Chloe and Noah’s wedding. It brought us so much closer together, which I didn’t think was possible.
“Babe, your phone’s ringing.” Ariana nudges me in the darkness.
Trying to wake, I roll over and reach out to where there’s a glowing orb in the darkness and pick it up.
“Hello,” I answer groggily.
“Is this Rhys Davenport?” the gruff voice asks down the phone. It has my full attention as I sit up in bed. I swallow the morning dryness away as I try and work out who the hell could be calling.
“Yes. It is.”
Ariana is now sitting up, giving me a concerned look.
“This is Detective Smith Johnson from the NYPD,” the voice announces himself.
“I know him. Put him on speaker,” Ariana states loudly, pulling my attention from the phone. How the hell does she know him? So, I do as she asks.
“Smith, it’s Ariana here, too.”
There’s silence on the other end of the line.
“Ariana Blanco?” the detective asks.
“Yes. Rhys is my partner. How can we help you?” she explains to him.
“I’m going to assume yo
u’ve spoken to Jackson?” I’m not sure if that question is directed to Ariana or me.
“Yes. I know what’s going on if it’s in regard to Rhys’ ex,” Ariana explains.
There’s another long pause.
“Right. Well then, before I continue, I have to ask Mr. Davenport if it’s okay for me to talk in front of you,” he asks.
“Yes, it’s fine. Ariana is aware of the situation.” Ariana gives me a small smile as she wraps herself around me, giving me her complete support.
“Right. There’s been a breakthrough in the case,” the detective explains. Ariana frowns as I didn’t tell her everything regarding Madison. “Your ex got herself into a little bit of an altercation at a bar on Sunday night. A glass was thrown, and the person who was hit happened to be the owner’s wife. She quite rightly called the cops. She’s been charged for assault, and when we printed her, her prints were on file under her real name, Madlina Ivanov.”
Ariana looks up at me, and I shake my head and tell her silently that I’ll explain a little later.
“What does that mean?” What happens now her real name has been exposed.
“Means we got extremely lucky. Madison or Madlina has exposed herself without you having to do it. She did the work for us.” There’s a grin in his tone. “She doesn’t know that we know who she is,” he explains. “And we need you to play along with that. Because we believe she’s going to call and ask you to post bail, and when she does, you’re going to agree.” Why would I agree? “Then when she walks out of the station, we are going to arrest her for the long list of crimes she’s committed.”
“But won’t she think I’m a part of all this?” To be honest, I am concerned about the plan. It carries risks.
“No. There’s no way she will think you’re a part of this. I’m going to offer her witness protection for turning on the Bratva, or she will be looking at the next ten years behind bars for the long list of offenses she has carried out over the years.” My eyes widen with this piece of information. It can’t be this easy. This entire nightmare can’t be over just like that, surely?
