Blended (Redemption #1)

by Sasha Brümmer

  Adriana shifts on the couch and crosses her leg over the other. “I think it’s why he’s been refusing the connection between us, or even more, refusing to admit that he has stronger feelings for me than just physical ones.”

  “I’m sure that he will snap out of it, Adriana. I can’t even imagine what he must have gone through.” My heart aches for her and Liam. I didn’t know that I was capable of feeling so deeply for others’ loss, but this organ of mine has a mind of its own these days.

  “Please, call me Addy. Only my boss and mother call me Adriana.”

  I laugh, and I’m about to take a drink when I realize that my flute is empty. I stand and straighten out my black high-waisted pants, making sure that my black sequin blouse is still tucked in.

  “You know,” she says softly, “Waylon helped him a lot in his search for her. He may be daunting and all too intimidating on the outside, but he’s truly a good man.”

  I can’t help the smile on my face as I walk around the couch. “It’s why I’m getting married to him.”

  I watch her smile change as if she’s been caught just as his arm comes around my waist from behind, taking the empty flute from my hand and replacing it with a new one. I’m sure it’s the one that he refuses to drink.

  “Thank you, handsome.”

  “You’re welcome, gorgeous.”

  I turn in his arm and kiss him with reserve before Lillian applauds and pulls me from his spell. “I won’t ever tire of seeing the two of you together. I need to finish up the pie, and I’ll be back. Please, everyone, make yourselves at home.”

  I take a seat again while Wade returns my empty flute to the kitchen and then goes to answer the door when there’s a knock.

  I hear Isla wish him a Merry Christmas before they both walk into the living room, and she hugs Liam and then me before sitting down next to me. “I’m sorry that I’m late, but finding a taxi on Christmas Day is virtually impossible.”

  “You could have driven, Isla,” Wade says as he motions for her to move aside so he can be the one to sit next to me while I hog the warmth of the fire on my other side.

  “And lose the opportunity to get drunk? Yeah, no thanks, Brass.”

  He shakes his head as he places a hand on my knee, and I take a drink. For some reason, I’ve convinced myself that this particular glass tastes better because he took a sip from it. It’s as if I can taste his kiss in the bubbles.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Isla says and reaches over Waylon before grabbing my left hand. “Brass! You actually did it.”

  We all laugh at how ridiculous she’s being. “Congratulations, you assholes.”

  She still has my hand in hers before she lets go and throws her arms around his neck. I should be jealous or at least feel the smallest bit of envy roll through my body, but nothing comes of it because he’s mine. Entirely.

  She pulls away from him and pats his chest once before relaxing against the back of the couch again. “Today just got so much more exciting. No wonder you all have champagne.”

  Addy looks at Isla and then away again as if she’s grown uncomfortable with her being here. I make a mental note to ask Wade about it later. I lean my head against his shoulder as Lillian comes back into the room. “All right, kids. As we wait for the appetizers in the oven, why don’t we open a few gifts?”

  Isla sits up and starts to pull out small gift bags from her large tote, and hands them out to everyone except Addy. I frown, and when she looks up at me, she gives me an unenthusiastic smile.

  “Wait, Rye,” Wade says. “Come here. I want my gift to be your first this Christmas.” He rises and offers me his hand. I place my right hand in his as I finish my champagne and put the empty flute on the coffee table in front of me before I stand and he leads me out of the room and into a bedroom that I’m assuming must be for guests.

  “Why are we away from everyone else?”

  “This is our first Christmas together, Hadley. I want it to be memorable.”

  “You’re too good for me, you know.”

  “I won’t go over that again. You know how I feel about you. Now, turn around.”

  I purse my lips and turn my back to him. I’m about to tell him that he cannot always get his way, but before I’m able to respond, his hands move around my neck. I feel the weight of a light necklace grace my collarbone. He pulls back from me after securing it as my fingers trail across the lettering. “Thank you, Whiskey. What does it say?” I ask as I try to figure it out by touch.

  “Whiskey Girl.”

  My eyes light up. I quickly make my way to the bathroom and gasp when I see my reflection in the mirror. He’s placed a simple gold chain around my neck with the words Whiskey Girl on the golden pendant in scripted cursive.

  “I love you,” I say softly as he joins me in the bathroom.

  “It’s adjustable if it’s not the right length.”

  I turn and throw myself into his arms, forgetting about his back for a moment. “It’s perfect. Thank you so much.”

  “You’re welcome, baby. I have one more gift for you.”

  “You don’t need to do all of this, Wade. You’ve already given me you—that’s more than I ever thought that I would have. You are all that I never thought I wanted.”

  “Indulge me, Hadley Rye, please.”

  I think on it for a moment before I nod once as I watch him pull his phone out of his pocket. “You have two choices.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. The first being a choice in color: what color vehicle would you prefer?”

  “What?” I ask quietly. “Whiskey, no, that’s too much.”

  “All right. The second choice then: I’ll be hiring you your own driver. I’d prefer it, given your history of men taking advantage of you.”

  My mouth drops open. “Both options are ridiculous. I don’t need you to give me either of them.”

  He raises his eyebrows. “You’ll soon be Mrs. Waylon Brass, and I will treat you as such. If you do not oblige me with an answer, then you will be receiving both.”

  “It’s all too much, that’s what it is. I don’t need a driver.”

  “Then it’s settled. What color would you like?”

  “Wade.”

  “Answer me, Hadley.”

  This man is incredibly caring of me, yet so frustrating at times. He doesn’t need to do any of this for me, but I know that he feels as if he does. I let out a sigh and step closer to him where his left arm comes around me once again.

  “White.”

  “Thank you.” I watch him type something out with his right hand before pocketing the phone in his slacks.

  “No, thank you.”

  “Merry Christmas, gorgeous.” His lips find mine, and I circle my arms around his neck as he lifts me up onto the vanity top and pushes my legs apart so he’s able to stand between my thighs. His lips become more forceful as our kiss continues. I whimper against his lips as my back arches toward him, my body wanting more contact with his than what I’m currently being given.

  He pulls away from me, leaving me breathless and needy. “Whiskey . . .”

  “What is it?”

  I close my eyes as he runs his thumb down my line of cleavage. “I need to grab your gift, and we need to get back to everyone else, or they’re going to assume that your gift to me was that beautiful cock of yours.”

  “It still can be,” he says with a leer and pushes his hips against my sex, allowing me to feel exactly how hard he is.

  I splay my fingers out on his chest and push him back, but it doesn’t help much since I’m already tipsy on everything that is Waylon Brass.

  “What did you get me?”

  “Patience, handsome.”

  I went out a few days ago to pick up the gift I ordered for him, and between the two of us, we picked out gifts for everyone after he fucked me all night after his proposal. He sent his doorman out to collect them, and it allowed us to sleep in for hours on Christmas Eve after being up all night.

  I sli
de off of the vanity and take his hand, leading him back out to the living room area. All eyes turn to us as we re-enter.

  “A quickie. That’s a little less than what I expected from Brass for Christmas,” Isla says with a laugh.

  “Isla Madden,” Lillian scolds her.

  I ignore the banter and go to my purse where I find the box that I’m looking for in my Burberry and pull it out. I take a seat and pat the cushion next to me. He joins me without a word, and I turn to angle my body toward him. “If you don’t like it, I can exchange it for another.”

  “It could be a fucking used condom, and he’ll love it if it’s from you,” Liam says boldly and throws his arm around Adriana before getting comfortable. I notice Isla shift as I’m handing Wade the gift box.

  I watch him unwrap the paper, and he pauses when he sees the symbol of a golden crown on the white cardboard box covering. “Hadley.”

  “Just open it, okay?”

  He looks back down at the box in his hands and pulls out an emerald green box and opens it, revealing the new Yacht-Master watch from Rolex.

  He takes it out of the box and turns it from side to side, inspecting it. He stops turning it when his eyes catch the engraving on the back of it: Blended Love.

  His eyes find mine.

  An electrical static runs up my spine before a warmth explodes over my entire body. The look he’s giving me is filled with an uncanny amount of love, adoration, and appreciation. In one simple look, this man can make me feel a thousand and one different things. His love screams louder than any demons have before. He places the watch back into the box before setting it down on the coffee table. The room is quiet except for the Christmas song playing in the background.

  He surprises me by leaning forward and taking my face in his hands. “Our life together is not measured by time, but by the flashes that turn into personal moments. You were a risk, something uncertain, yet when a real connection was made, the reward of having you stole my soul. Our passage may be far from flawless, but it’s you who makes breathing easier. With you, baby, I’m home.”

  A solitary tear runs down my cheek. He watches it before slowly wiping it away with his thumb.

  “I’m ready for our future,” I tell him honestly.

  “As am I.”

  I throw my arms around him and lock my lips to his, not giving a fuck about anyone else in the room. I think I hear his mother sniffle, but I’m unsure. All I care about is how his lips move against mine. He’s not only shown me how much he loves me in private, but now he has declared it in front of the people closest to him.

  Liam clears his throat and Wade smiles against my mouth. “Fuck off.”

  His hands move down my back and underneath my ass so they are between the couch and me before he lifts me onto his lap.

  “Wade,” I whisper.

  “It’s fine.”

  I lean my head against his shoulder and take in a deep breath as the rest of them start to speak again. I hear wrapping paper being opened and a few gasps in surprises as the two of us stay still and close to each other and in our own world, for at least thirty minutes before he pulls back to look down at me. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t think that I could be any better.”

  “Good. I cannot wait to spend my life with you, gorgeous.”

  I kiss his jaw in answer and climb off of his lap to sit next to him, but he never stops touching me, which I’m grateful for. Once we’ve eaten a few rounds of holiday appetizers and opened two more bottles of champagne, I’m buzzed and content in Wade’s arms. It amazes me how close I’ve allowed myself to get to him, as well as how I’ve grown to trust him.

  The rest of the holiday passes joyously. Lillian prepared a delicious ham, and we’ve stuffed our stomachs. Isla is incredibly drunk, and Lilly has taken her to the guest bedroom to sleep it off before the four of us leave for the evening. On our way out, Lillian stopped the two of us and asked when we planned on making everything official. I paused, unsure how to tell her just how soon Wade wanted to do it, but he didn’t hesitate to give her a date: January twenty-ninth.

  I throw my head back against the mattress as the final waves of an orgasm rage through my body. I’m exhausted from going at it every other hour or so with him today. All of my muscles are tender and deliciously sore as I stretch out.

  Wade and I spend the next five days holed up in his penthouse. Today marks the last day of this year, and this evening, Wade is hosting a New Year’s Eve party in the Aon Grand Ballroom on Navy Pier. Apparently, it’s an annual event that everyone in Chicago wants to be invited to and most of Chicago’s high society has been. There will be a total of eight hundred people in attendance. Out of the invites that went out, almost every single person respondez, s’il vous plait as attending. I don’t blame them—I’m sure that it’s going to be incredible.

  “Fuck, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay up this evening after fucking you like you deserve it these last couple of days.”

  I smirk. “You’re the one that keeps coming back for more.”

  “You’re the one that offers it up to me without hesitation.”

  “Are you complaining?” I ask.

  He rolls onto his back and pulls me onto his lap, penetrating me again with his beautiful cock. I moan out and start to move on top of him, riding him hard.

  “Is this complaining?”

  “N-no.”

  The next thirty minutes are filled with naked desires and endurance as he gets me to orgasm again. The feeling of him spilling into me has quickly become one of my favorite things. I love hosting him between my legs and allowing my fiancé to thoroughly enjoy himself.

  After our combined orgasms leak out of me, he gets up and offers me his hand. “It’s past noon, Rye. You’re a bad influence on me.”

  “You enjoyed it, Mr. Brass.”

  “Indeed. Now come. I need to get you cleaned up and get us settled before the party begins. We smell of sex.”

  “I’m sure this entire penthouse smells of sex from what we’ve been doing. Poor Liam, he must be hornier than usual.”

  We walk into the bathroom, and I turn on the shower. While I wait for the water to warm up, I grab three towels out of the closet and set them on each one of the vanities.

  “Between Adriana and Isla, I think his dick is content at the moment.”

  I stop in the threshold of the shower and turn to him. “Wait. He’s fucking both of them?”

  “Apparently. I knew that he was with Isla while we were in Sydney, but I had no idea that he and Adriana have been fucking around for years.”

  “Do they know? The girls, I mean.”

  “I believe so.”

  I step under the spray and run my hands through my just-fucked-curls to get them wet while I contemplate what he’s just told me. Once I’m done showering, I force myself to step out of the shower before I push him up against the wall and take his cock into my mouth. I don’t need him to be in any more pain as he was a week ago.

  Once I’ve dried off, he turns the shower off and steps out. My mouth waters at the sight of him walking toward me completely naked with small droplets clinging to his powerful body. He’s been keeping up with his rehabilitation as well as going to the gym on the property twice a day. I bite my lip and take a step back from him. “You’ll get me wet.”

  “I believe that you already are.”

  “And? What if I am?”

  “I’ll need to lick you clean then.”

  His approach is slow and torturous; he’s teasing me on purpose, and I refuse to let him win this time. I turn to face myself in the mirror and pick up my hairbrush, running it through my hair before grabbing my product and spraying it over the strands, then brushing it through. When I look up at him in the mirror, he’s watching me while his hand moves up and down the length of his cock.

  “Care to join me?”

  “Yes, but I need to get dressed before Jacobs arrives.” I pause and take one last look at the glistening head of
his cock. “Unless you’d rather he saw me naked?”

  His hand stops moving against his hard, silky skin, silently challenging me to do it.

  I raise my brows at him, returning his silent challenge.

  “You win, Rye, but you’re mine after the party.”

  “I always will be. That reminds me: are you going to announce our engagement?”

  “Possibly. It depends on how comfortable I feel. There’s going to be a lot of people there. I’ll decide in the moment.”

  “Well, I’m happy with anything you decide on.”

  He places a kiss on the back of my head before he runs a towel through his hair and steps out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

  I sigh to myself, content with my life for what feels like the first time. All of those times I told myself that I was happy did not feel like this. The sex and dick-hopping might have actually been holding me back. I wouldn’t change a thing, though, because it’s what got me through a horrible time in my life, but now that I’m with Wade, I know that I won’t need another man. Ever.

  Once I’ve applied my makeup and my hair is straightened, I toss the towel into the laundry basket and walk into the bedroom. He’s seated at the end of the bed, tying the laces of his Oxfords when he glances up at me. “Jesus.”

  “What?” I ask as I blush. I admit that I walked in here naked on purpose: I love his reactions to me. It makes me feel beautiful and wanted.

  “You’re going to make us late to our own party, Rye.”

  “It’s your party, Wade, and I am in no way making us late. Just keep that cock of yours in your pants and we won’t have a problem.”

  “It is ours. Don’t argue with me.”

  I raise my brows before walking up to him and kissing his cheek. “I wasn’t.”

  His knuckles graze the outer skin of my thigh as I walk away from him and toward the closet and look at the outfit that I had dry-cleaned yesterday for this evening. I won’t lie: having the extra hands of the staff in the penthouse and Colin Jacobs may come in handy when I cannot break myself away from Wade.

  “Whiskey?” I call out, and he steps into the closet a moment later while straightening his bowtie.