by Ella Frank
Confessions: Henri
Ella Frank
Ella Frank, LLC
Contents
Synopsis
Also by Ella Frank
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Coming Soon
Thank You
Special Thanks
About the Author
Copyright © 2019 by Ella Frank
www.ellafrank.com
Cover Design: Hang Le
Cover Photographer: Rafa G Catala
Cover Model: Mario Zabal
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Synopsis
Good and bad. Right and wrong.
Life would be easy if things were always that simple.
That’s never been the case for Henri Boudreaux.
Son of a criminal. Ex-boyfriend to a Priest.
Henri's made a career out of getting in trouble and avoiding the law.
So when he winds up in bed with it, he knows that things are about to get…complicated.
But what’s life without taking a few risks?
And what’s a risk without the threat of being caught?
No one's ever accused Henri of being good man.
And Officer Craig Bailey is about to find out just how bad he can be.
Also by Ella Frank
The Exquisite Series
Exquisite
Entice
Edible
The Temptation Series
Try
Take
Trust
Tease
Tate
True
Confessions Series
Confessions: Robbie
Confessions: Julien
Confessions: Priest
Confessions: The Princess, The Prick & The Priest
Confessions: Henri
Confessions: Bailey
Sunset Cove Series
Finley
Devil’s Kiss
Masters Among Monsters Series
Alasdair
Isadora
Thanos
Standalones
Blind Obsession
Veiled Innocence
PresLocke Series
Co-Authored with Brooke Blaine
ACED
LOCKED
WEDLOCKED
Fallen Angel Series
Co-Authored with Brooke Blaine
HALO
VIPER
ANGEL
Co-Authored with Brooke Blaine
Sex Addict
Shiver
Wrapped Up in You
All I Want for Christmas…Is My Sister’s Boyfriend
Dedication
To Bailey,
The man who makes me feel as though I’ve found the sunlight after all these years hiding in the shadows.
~ Henri
Chapter One
CONFESSION
I hate weddings.
Especially Joel’s.
ROBERT, JULIEN, & PRIEST
TOGETHER WITH THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS
INVITE YOU TO JOIN THEM IN A CELEBRATION OF LOVE.
~ SATURDAY, OCTOBER SIXTH, NOON
~ 2502 SHANGRI LA POINT RD
OSHKOSH, WI
HENRI BOUDREAUX FINGERED the corner of the wedding invitation as he stood on the outskirts of the lakefront property that belonged to Robert Bianchi’s parents, and watched as guests of all three grooms arrived for the noon ceremony.
They were all there today to celebrate one of the most unconventional love stories he’d ever seen play out, and as he watched the festivities from under one of the large maple trees on the property, Henri couldn’t help but wonder why in the hell he was there.
Not that he disapproved of what was going to take place in less than ten minutes. But the fact that it was happening again for one groom in particular was a bitter fucking pill to swallow.
It’d been a few weeks now since the cream envelope with embossed gold writing had shown up at his place. But instead of immediately tossing it out like he knew he should’ve, he’d left it on his kitchen counter to taunt him until he finally gave in and opened the damn thing. Something he was now regretting, because just as he’d suspected, there’d been a wedding invitation inside. This wedding’s invitation, and if that had been it, he might have been able to ignore it. But it hadn’t been, not by a long shot, because that sneaky little princess of Priest’s had also included a whopper of a guilt trip.
A handwritten, folded one that was tucked nice and neat inside.
H ~
I thought you might want to come and see what you saved.
xx Bright Eyes
Henri took a deep inhale of his cigarette, hoping it would calm his fried nerves as people began taking their seats one by one, and when Priest stepped outside, followed by that gorgeous French fucker—his first husband, Julien—Henri felt as though there were a knife in his heart. One that was slowly being pushed deeper and deeper.
What the hell am I doing here? he thought, as Julien reached for Priest’s hand. But no matter how much Henri wanted to leave, his feet seemed glued to the spot, as he watched the two men talk to their guests while they waited for the ceremony to begin.
Around five minutes into the pleasantries, Priest gave a quick wave and made a hasty exit to the left, which didn’t surprise Henri in the slightest. Crowds weren’t really Priest’s thing—Henri’s either, for that matter. But it gave him a moment to really look over the man his former best friend had become. The man he’d loved ever since he was a boy.
Dressed in a black, perfectly tailored three-piece tuxedo, Priest looked devastating today. His flame-colored hair was subdued into an elegant style for the wedding, but it took nothing away from the wild heart and fire that Henri knew simmered beneath that tamed exterior.
He would’ve given up everything he owned right then to go over and tell Priest that he was making a mistake. That it was supposed to be the two of them against the world, not those three and Henri standing on the fucking outside.
But as he took a step in that direction, a jaw-droppingly handsome man approached Priest with a wide grin. As the two of them began to talk, any hope Henri had of getting a moment alone with his former friend was squashed, and not a second later, a booming laugh and a smile as bright as Priest’s hair lit his face, and Henri almost stumbled back from the shock of it, as what he’d been about to do slammed into him.
What the fuck is the matter with me? Was he really willing to go over there and take away the joy he could see on his friend’s face? Especially after all the shit Priest had been through over the years? And that was the real gut
punch here, wasn’t it?
For the longest time, it had been just the two of them who knew each other’s secrets. It had had to be; there’d been no one else they could count on. They’d fought monsters—both literally and figuratively—together. But somewhere along the way, instead of being the thing that helped his friend get through the darkness and safely to the other side, Henri had become the darkness for Priest. A reminder of all that was bad, and now here he was about to prove him right.
Henri took a final drag of his cigarette and shook his head. No—he wouldn’t do that. Not to himself, and certainly not to Priest, and as he dropped the butt on the ground and crushed it under his boot, he looked at the silver band on his right ring finger, the one that had an oval black diamond on it, and made a decision. It was time to leave his past behind, the same place Priest always left him.
“XANDER… XANDER? AS much as I’ve enjoyed this little advice session of yours,” Craig Bailey said into his phone, as he pulled his ’69 Camaro into an open spot along the curb of the Bianchis’ lake house, “I’m here now and I’ve got to go.”
Xander, his best friend—and ex-boyfriend—let out an irritated sound that could’ve been born of frustration or defeat. Either way, Bailey didn’t much care.
“Will you at least think about what I said?”
Bailey rubbed a hand over his face and prayed for patience. “About hooking up with a stranger? No. That’s not my thing and you know it. I like—”
“Long walks on the beach and reading by a fire. I know. But—”
“Substance. I like substance. You should be flattered. I used to think you had some.”
“Used to? Thanks.”
“I still do. But just because I’m not sleeping with someone new each night doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me.”
“I didn’t say there was. But when was the last time you got laid?”
Bailey opened his mouth, ready to give his pushy friend an answer, but when nothing came out, Xander chuckled.
“See? You don’t even know. That should tell you something, Bay. You’re too young and too hot to live like a monk—”
“I don’t live like a monk.” Bailey wanted to bang his head against the steering wheel. Ever since word had gotten out that he was heading to a wedding this weekend stag, there’d been no stopping the unwanted “relationship” advice that had poured in from his brothers and Xander. He was about two seconds away from blocking all of them on his phone if they didn’t get off his ass.
“You work too hard,” Xander said.
“That’s rich coming from an admitted workaholic.”
“No. That’s the truth, coming from me. Like it always is. Plus, I know the last time I got laid. It was last night.”
Of course it was. As one of the nation’s most popular news anchors, Alexander Thorne never lacked for a bed partner when he wanted one. “Look, I’ve got to go.”
“Just promise me you’ll keep an open mind today. Look around, see who’s there. At a wedding for three guys, there’s bound to be somebody nice and single you could…celebrate with.”
“Jesus,” Bailey said, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are we done here?”
“I suppose. But you sound a little frustrated.”
“Gee, I wonder why.”
“Fine. But if you don’t find anyone up there, there’s this new copy editor who just started for me. He’s just your type. A good guy all round.”
“Thank you, Mr. Matchmaker. If you ever lose your job, I think you’ve got a really good shot at making a living by annoying the shit out of single people. Now, I really do need to go.”
“Fair enough. Dinner? Tomorrow night?”
“Uh, can I take a rain check? I’m exhausted, and after this I’m just going to want to sleep.”
“No problem. But let’s catch up when you’re free.”
“Sounds good.”
“And remember what I said.”
Bailey gnashed his teeth together as he hit end on the call, then he pulled down the visor in his car to look at himself in the mirror.
Eh, not too bad, all things considered. He rubbed a hand over his buzzcut and was thankful he didn’t have much to do in the hair department, then he flipped up the collar of his shirt and began to tie the thin strip of material that’d been hanging around his neck the entire drive to Oshkosh.
After switching out his schedule with one of the other patrol officers at his station, Bailey had been able to wrangle the entire weekend off. The price tag that’d come with it was only a handful of hours’ sleep in the last forty-eight, but luckily for him, it wasn’t showing just yet.
There were no bags under his eyes as of this morning, but by the end of the day, he had a feeling he’d be passing out in the bed back at the hotel. He just had to make it a few more hours.
With his tie in place, Bailey shoved open the door and climbed out, grabbing his suit jacket from the passenger seat. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been to a wedding, but considering he’d played a minor part in Priest and Julien getting their princess to say yes, it only seemed right he was there today, which meant he needed to hurry the hell up.
As he made his way up the gravel drive, he saw a sign in the immaculately landscaped lawn that had an arrow pointing to the left: Wedding This Way.
Bailey glanced at his watch and grimaced. He was so damn late, and though he didn’t want to miss the ceremony, the last thing he wanted to do was sneak in midway and possibly cause a distraction.
As he hurried around the side of the house, his phone chimed and he grabbed it out of his pocket to see a photo of a handsome man in a sweater and a pair of chinos pop up on his screen.
Bailey cursed. He was going to kill Xander when he got back in to town. But already running late, he quickly silenced the phone and was about to put it away when he ran into something with so much force that he almost fell back on his ass.
“Shit,” Bailey said as he tried to steady his feet under himself, and when his eyes landed on the man he’d just collided with, he froze.
At six one, Bailey wasn’t short by any means, but this man had a good few inches on him, and that wasn’t the only reason he’d caught Bailey’s attention. No, the other reason was the man’s overall appearance.
In black boots, jeans, t-shirt, and a leather jacket, he looked more like someone attending a motorcycle rally than a fall wedding. He had a piercing through his left nostril—a small silver ring—and his chocolate-colored eyes were lined with lashes so thick that it looked as though he were wearing eyeliner.
With hair as dark as his clothes, and cut short on the sides but left longer up top, the overnight stubble around his full lips and sharp jaw line brought to mind rough kisses and even rougher nights.
He was a shock to the system. One that was as attractive as he was intimidating, and when Bailey realized he was staring, he finally found his tongue and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you until the last minute.”
The man’s eyes made a leisurely sweep of Bailey’s very proper suit and tie before landing back on his face. “I don’t think you saw me even then. But you are now, aren’t you?”
Shit, Bailey thought, as heat rushed to his cheeks. Who is this guy? Not only did he look like every bad-boy fantasy Bailey could imagine, he had an arrogant air about him that was as mysterious as it was sexy. He’d barely said a thing, and yet Bailey found himself at a loss for words, something that never happened to him. He always kept a cool head.
As music started up from across the lawn, Bailey blinked and gestured over the guy’s shoulder to the crowd he saw in the distance.
“It’s just, I’m running late, and—” When Priest stepped up beside Julien under the arbor, Bailey cursed and walked around the man to get closer. “And now I’m missing the ceremony. Great.”
The man stepped forward, next to him, and the scent of his cologne drifted through the air until it found Bailey and made his cock jerk in response. The dark, sensual blend
was woodsy with a citrus undercurrent, masculine and seductive, just like the man. And Bailey had a sudden and intense desire to burrow his nose into the neck of that leather jacket and see if the scent was even stronger against the man’s skin.
Fucking hell. What was going on with him? He was not the kind of guy who was ruled by his dick. Yet here he was trying his hardest to get his to behave itself.
“I’m sure if you want to, there’s still time to get over there before it starts.” The man’s voice was smooth as whiskey. “Especially since they’re missing the third groom in their little…celebration of love.”
Bailey looked his way, and when one of the guy’s eyebrows arched, he couldn’t help but ask, “And which groom are you friends with?”
The man’s attention shifted back to the ceremony that was about to begin, and he shrugged. “None, really.”
The tone and body language told Bailey everything he needed to know in an instant, and he nodded. “Uh, okay. So which one is your ex?”
A smirk crossed those sinful lips, and Bailey thought the guy should come with a flashing neon sign that said: WARNING! DANGER AHEAD! Because he looked exactly like the kind of guy your parents warned you about. The kind of danger that would be so damn good that you kept coming back for more.
