Newly ordained online, Kit waits at the end of the altar, rubbing his hands together then breathing into his cupped palms. Ali, Coop, Deb, Zed, Margaux, Gaétan, Piaf, and my soon-to-be mother-in-law fill the seats on either side of the aisle.
I line the kids up beside me and wait. It’s the longest fucking three minutes of my life, but as Brie appears, I realise I’d have waited until the end of my days for this moment.
Brielle walks down the aisle in a blush embroidered grown with a pale pink fur stole around her shoulders. Her hair is down, the way I like it, her makeup minimal, and her smile is fucking poetry.
In front of her, Aurelie twirls and dances toward us in a sparkly princess dress and bright yellow gumboots. She takes a seat beside Ali and gives me a wave. Anais and Amelie must grow tired of standing because they move to sit with their sister, but Ash stands tall and proud in his leather jacket and dress pants—a replica of my own outfit.
Brie stops in front of me. “Hi.”
I shake my head. “You look incredible.”
“This old thing?” She waves away the compliment with a simple hand gesture. I had a bunch of dresses couriered over from her favourite French designer a few days ago. In truth, I wouldn’t have cared if she’d showed up in baggy sweats with food on her face. She’d still be the most beautiful woman in the universe.
“You liked them?”
“Are you kidding? I loved them all. I don’t want to send any back.”
I shrug. “So don’t.”
“You are crazy, but you look very handsome. You both do,” AFG says as she leans over for Ash to kiss her cheek.
“Hey, hey, hey.” I shove Ash’s shoulder playfully. “I’m the only one who gets to kiss the bride today.”
Ash rolls his eyes, but he rewards us both with a megawatt smile.
Oh shit, my kid is going to be a lady killer.
“Now that you’ve got your little chat out of the way,” Kit says. “Do you mind if I begin the ceremony? I’m freezing my balls off out here.”
“I’m starting to regret letting you ordain this ceremony.”
Kit grins. Sly fuckin’ dog. “Well, it’s a little late now, don’t you think?” Kit clears his throat. “Dearly beloved, I’m Father Kit. You can call me Father Kit. Especially you, baby.” The bastard winks at Piaf while everyone laughs. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the love and nuptials of Levi Quinn and Brielle Kagawa.”
The guests cheer and Kit offers his fist for me to bump. “Brie, Levi wanted to say some special shit so ...” Our bassist makes a sweeping hand gesture and all eyes turn toward me.
“Brie, my angry French girl. I love you so much, baby. I wanted to write my own vows because second-hand words could ever explain how I feel right now. I promise to cherish you. I promise never to put anyone above you. I promise to never stray. I promise I’ll never become the man I used to be; addicted to vice and empty sex—”
“Bullshit,” Zed and Coop both fake cough as if they’re sarcastic teens.
I turn and glare at them. “I said empty sex. I didn’t say sex in general.”
Aurelie tugs Ali’s sleeve and whispers just loud enough for everyone to hear, “What’s sex?”
“Nope.” Ali shakes her head. “Not touching that one. Ask your father.”
“Père, what’s sex?”
I grin at my favourite girl. “I’ll tell you when you’re forty, baby.”
“Okay.” She swings her little legs and smiles up at me. I wink and glance back at my beautiful bride.
“Shall we proceed?” Kit says.
Oh, now he takes his officiant certification seriously.
“If these arseholes can shut up for five goddamn minutes.” I straighten my leather jacket, take AFG’s hand and lower my voice, “I promise to make you come as long and hard as I did this morning.”
The adults laugh. The kids all stare with brows raised and matching expressions of confusion. All except Ash, he side-eyes me and then stares down at his shoes.
“Mon Dieu! You are incorrigible,” Brie says.
I laugh and bite my lip. “I promise to think of your beautiful face every time I’m tempted by a line or a glass of whiskey, and to never forget that you and our children are the most important people in my whole world. But beyond all of this, I promise I will love you long after my dying breath.”
She inhales. A cloud of hot air leaves my lungs and fills the space between us. Brielle’s eyes shine with unshed tears and I blink back my own. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love the mother of my children.
“Damn, you really do have a way with words,” Kit says.
“Why the hell do you think our last record went Diamond?” Zed says. Cooper rolls his eyes because he’s always been our main songwriter, and we love to give him shit about the album I wrote being more successful than any record we’ve ever put out.
“I might need to take notes,” Kit says.
I take a long deep breath and let it out slowly. “You do realise that you arseholes are kind of killing the vibe here?”
“Well you ruined my wedding by calling my bride a whore and smashing my cellist’s instrument.” Ryan shrugs
“I guess I did. I should really thank you guys for destroying my soul that day. If you hadn’t been hitched in south of France, I never would have met the love of my life.”
“Can you thank them after we say I do?” Brie says impatiently.
“Is anyone else freezing their tits off?” Deb’s wrapped in two faux fur coats and she’s still bitching about the cold.
“Deb, I love you, but if you do not shut up while I marry the man of my dreams, I’m going to jam this damn bouquet down your throat.” Brie shakes her bouquet and glares at the members of our extended family. “That goes for all of you.”
I grin. “There’s my angry French girl.”
“Alright, let’s move this along before I freeze my dick off too.” Kit clasps his hands in front of him the way a clergyman might. Fucking tool.
“Good idea,” Brie says through clenched teeth.
“Can we have the rings?”
Ash pats down the lapel of his jacket. His eyes widen and he bites his lip. I give him a look that says he better find it, or he’s toast.
“Ash, tell me you didn’t lose the rings, buddy?”
“Nah.” He slips his hand into his pants pocket and pulls it out. Opening his palm where both rings are resting.
Zed guffaws and slaps his knee. “I taught him that.”
“You should be so proud,” Deb deadpans.
“I am. That was totally convincing. The kid could have an acting career.”
“Levi, do you take Brielle to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.”
“Brielle, do you take this loser, Levi Quinn, to be your awfully wedded husband?”
“I think you mean lawfully,” I say.
Kit smirks. “I said what I meant.”
“I do.”
“Then, by the power vested in me ... from the internet, I now pronounce you husband and wife”—he turns to me with a huge grin on his face— “you may kiss the bride.”
I waste no time kissing my gorgeous, ball-busting, hot wife. Our tongues tangle, her hands grip my neck and mine grasp her hair, hard. As far as wedding kisses go, it’s sloppy, open-mouthed, and completely inappropriate for any audience, much less one my kids are a part of, but I don’t care, because she’s mine. My angry French girl. And now she’ll always be mine.
This wedding was a total fucking shitshow, just like I knew it would be.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
LONG AFTER THE WEDDING cake has been consumed, we sit by the fire in the living room. The rug is dotted with kids and one mangy mutt who’ve all fallen asleep after the excitement. The TV is on, but none of us are watching it. A Christmas movie is playing in the background that no one understands—except Brie and Piaf, of course. Snow covers the ground outside thanks to an unusually cold Decembe
r, and I smile as I look around the room at my bandmates and their partners in the matching onesies that Zed bought us for Christmas.
“Wedded bliss looks good on you, Quinn,” Ali murmurs as she leans against Coop’s shoulder.
I grin. “Back at ya, Red.”
It’s hard to believe the three of us are sitting here; happy, and so in love with our respective partners, especially after we risked so much. The fact that Coop and I didn’t kill one another over Red, really is some kind of miracle. But the even greater phenomenon is that a woman agreed to love me for the rest of her life. That hits pretty high on my list of Christmas miracles too.
And speaking of my wife, she appears in the doorway like an apparition, a fucking goddess in a plaid onesie. Though I’d like nothing more than to take her off to bed and fuck her senseless, my dick has other plans, because I need to drain the one-eyed trouser snake. I stand up and walk toward her, planting a kiss on her cheek. “Hey, wifey.”
She chuckles. “Bonjour, husband.”
“You two are so cute,” Piaf crows from the armchair in the corner. Kit sits at her feet, his body framed by her delicate little pixie legs.
“So cute,” Deb says, her voice completely devoid of emotion—or a soul, for that matter. “Can someone hand me a bucket so I can vomit now?”
“Maybe I should start calling you my angry Aussie girl.” Zed nibbles Deb’s neck. Which wigs out me and Coop, if Ryan’s obvious disgust is anything to go by.
“Do and you die.”
We all chuckle, and I move past Brie on my way to the guest bathroom she just vacated. “Where are you going?”
“To piss. I’ll be back in a minute, and then I’ll take my new wife to bed.”
She grins. “Your new wife can’t wait.”
“Of course she can’t. They don’t call me the Footlong for nothing.” I smirk and head to the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I walk the few steps to the toilet, but before I’ve even undone my onesie, my eyes land on the little white stick in the bin. My heart hammers against my ribcage as I lean over and pick it up. Two bold pink lines stare back at me from the tiny plastic window.
“Holy shit!”
I yank open the door and dart back to the living room. All eyes are on me as I hold up the stick. “Babe. Is there something you want to tell me?”
My wife’s face blanches as she glances at the pregnancy test in my hand and then at the three other females in the room.
“We’re having another kid?”
“Er ... Levi?” Brie’s throat bobs as she swallows. “That is not mine.”
I laugh without humour. “What?”
“That’s not my pregnancy test,” Brie says, the corners of her lips turn up in an amused smile.
I drop the stick like it’s covered in deadly bacteria and glance at my wife, my bandmates, and then at their partners. Six deathly pale faces stare back at me. “Then whose is it?”
Merry Christmas!
From the Taint family to yours.
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MORE BY CARMEN JENNER
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Enjoy Your Stay (Sugartown Series #2)
Greetings from Sugartown (Sugartown Series #3)
Now Leaving Sugartown (Sugartown Series #4)
Sugartown: The Collection
REVELRY (Taint #1)
CLOSER (Taint #2)
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TANK (Savage Saints MC #2)
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Bittersweet (Co-write with Lauren K. McKellar)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carmen Jenner is a USA Today and international bestselling author.
A hardcore red lipstick addict and a romantic at heart, Carmen strives to give her characters the HEA they deserve, but not before ruining their lives completely first ... because what's a happily ever after without a little torture?
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COPYRIGHT
REVELRY
Copyright © 2015 Carmen Jenner
Published by Carmen Jenner
CLOSER
Copyright © 2015 Carmen Jenner
Published by Carmen Jenner
REVELRY DELETED SCENE
Copyright © 2015 Carmen Jenner
Published by Carmen Jenner
A TAINTED CHRISTMAS
Copyright © 2015 Carmen Jenner
Published by Carmen Jenner
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events, and incidents are either of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the author’s work and for not making me set some very pissed off hot rockers on you.
Tainted: The Complete Duet © Carmen Jenner, December 18, 2019
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Editing: Creating Ink
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Cover Design: © Tall Story Designs
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TAINTED: THE COMPLETE DUET Page 55
