by Dee Ellis
I will marry her, give her my last name and my child.
Thrusting into her hard and fast, I grunt when she comes fast, clawing at my arms and marking my skin. Dropping over her, I suck at her pink nipples and then her neck, leaving my own marks. I want to embed myself in her very soul, but her skin bearing my marks is a good start. I bite at her neck and she moans, arching into me. Pleading with me to never stop.
“Never. I won’t ever stop, mi bella.” Grabbing her hips to angle her beneath me, I pound into her, grunting when I fill her again in seconds.
Pulling out, I curse as my cum spills from her. Doesn’t matter. I plan to fill her until she’s flooded with me. Want her pregnant and bound to me. Before that, I need to explain how wrong she is about my impending marriage. Oh, it’s happening, of course.
Just need to clue her in that she’s going to be the bride.
“Rest, beautiful. I will get you food and start a bath. Took you too much for our first times.” I kiss at her sweaty skin before pushing away, leaving her lazing in the bed.
Padding naked to her kitchen, I realize I feel complete, happy, and excited about my future. Our future, actually. For the past few months, the coming wedding has hung around my shoulders like an albatross. Now, I am excited about saying my vows. Because now I know I will mean them.
I will love, cherish, have, and hold Rian for the rest of my life.
Out in the living room, I laugh at our clothes discarded everywhere. As I pick them up, I check out her place. It’s totally her. Soft and sweet, pale yellow walls with flower quotes hung in pretty frames and a wall of photos of her with friends. I pause at every photo, my chest swelling with pride and love.
I want to know them all. I want to know what every moment means to her. Folding our clothes on the coffee table, I see her laptop and decide to order food for us the easy way. When I open it though, my heart sinks in my chest.
Photos from yesterday’s wine tasting for our first joint line from the wineries fill the screen. Featuring me with Helena and our partners, it looks like a party. And, it was. But suddenly I remember her sad eyes when I came to her after she hid herself away for two days.
After rushing away from me at the store, she locked herself in her office. I pleaded with her for an hour to come talk to me but left frustrated and angry. Though I called the store several times, her friend Erin refused to let me talk to her. Last night was my first chance to come to her.
Now I see she sat here believing I was celebrating my engagement to someone else.
I am a bastard.
I should have told her everything.
“Rian, baby we need to talk.” Shutting the laptop, I spin to head back to her.
Just to find her standing there in my boxers and a tiny tank. Fuck, the vision of her pussy wrapped in my boxers does something primal to me. As badly as I want to tear them off her and fill her with my cum, I want her to live in my clothes forever.
“You need to leave.” Rian barks it out before looking away.
Tears slip down her flushed cheeks and my heart aches. I stand to go to her, hands fisting in the rolled-up waist of my boxers. Her hands come to my chest to push hard. It hurts to think she doesn’t need me as close as I need her, but I get it.
“I am going nowhere, mi bella. Nowhere without you, at least.” Dropping my head, I kiss at her lips, smiling when she whimpers and kisses me back.
Another shove breaks the kiss, and I let her put distance between us. My arms ache to hold her but I know I did this to her. Should have told her that first day my engagement was a business deal and nothing more. One that became null and void once I met her.
“I do not want you here. I am not... I am a good woman; I would never be the other woman. Not even for you. I won’t. Please... go. Please.” Tears fill my eyes when I hear the pain in her voice. Never thought someone could make pain feel so good. It kills me to see her hurting, but I know it’s for good reason.
Rian loves me just as I love her.
“You will listen to me, bella. I need to explain myself to you. Make it make sense so we can move past it. Come here, please.” Reaching for her, I wince when she shakes her head at me, narrowing her gaze at me.
Love her fire, love her resolve, but hate that she’s not obeying me.
“Nothing you can say changes what we have done. I wanted it. I wanted you and I.... I told you I am not that type of woman. You told me you were a good man. Prove it to me. Leave. Don’t come to me asking for a perfect wedding ring or a perfect proposal for another woman.” Sighing, I go to her again, regretting how cavalier I was.
“I said foolish things. Things I wish I could take back. I did not expect you, Rian. Wish I could go back and do it all right. Should have waited to claim you because I want you to know what it means to me.”
“Stop it. Please. It means nothing! This meant nothing! I don’t want you here. Just go! I won’t get my fairytale because you are what my fairytale would be. I don’t get to have that and it’s killing me.” Bending my head, I kiss at her tears, crushing her against me.
“You will get to have your fairytale, mi bella. I promise you.” As I bend to scoop her up and carry her back to bed, someone knocks at her door.
Frowning, I shoot her a look as she stands there barely dressed. With a warning not to move, I head to the door, snatching my pants up from the table where folded them earlier. Pulling them on, I yank the door open impatiently.
“Benny? What the hell?” Shocked to find my driver there, I move in his line of vision when he tries to glance past me into the apartment.
“Been calling you for hours, boss. Helena... she is throwing a fit at the offices. Something about your arrangement ruining her relationship?” Wincing, he ducks his head and rubs the back of his neck.
“Wait for me downstairs. I need to talk to mio amata.” Smiling when his brows shoot up and he grins, he nods and heads down to wait.
“Your future wife needs you, yes?” Rian calls from behind me.
I almost laugh because she is actually so right. But I need to handle Helena before she makes a mess of things. Grabbing my clothes, I slip them on as I go back to her.
“I will be back. Some business needs handled. Tell me what you know about me, mi bella.” Watching her eyes skim over my bare chest before I tug my shirt over it, I smirk.
“You are rich and rude and cheat on your fiancé.” Rian juts her chin out and my eyes rake over her beautiful face. I love her full mouth and the freckle at her chin and the scar above her left eye. So, I feather my lips over each spot slowly.
“Rich? Perhaps. I assume you know how, then. I am not rude; I treat you like gold. You are wrong about my fiancé. You should also know that I adore you, you have stolen my heart, and all I want to do is make you smile, make you come, and make you mine. Give me a kiss before I go, Rian.” I demand it gently because I want her to give it to me.
For a few seconds she does nothing. Stares up at me with those wide blue eyes shimmering with sadness. I hate it, I want to take it away—and I will. Once I deal with Helena’s bullshit. With my hands on her hips, I wait for her to give me something I know will cost her.
When she presses into me, her tits soft against my chest, her head tipped back, I groan. Lowering my head to meet her halfway, I take the sweet kiss she gives me. Everything is in this kiss. It is promises and vows that I won’t ever give to anyone but her.
“Mi bella. Sono un uomo buono, amore mio, e prometto che ti darò una bella vita. I will come back to you, Rian.” I promise her more than she can know as I kiss her once more.
Rian says nothing as I finish getting dressed and head out. Once I get to the door though, she makes a sound. I turn back and she rushes across the space between us. Grinning at her, I catch her with one arm as she leaps off the ground.
We kiss long and deep as her legs wrap around me. Breaking away, a huge smile splits both our faces. We look like fools, I’m sure. But neither of us care.
“Wait up for
me, mi bella.” Kissing her nose, I set her at her feet and close the door behind me.
Pressing my hand to it, I swear I feel her on the other side.
Walking away gets harder every single time.
Soon, I won’t have to worry—neither of us will be walking away.
Chapter Nine
Rian
Sketches are strewn about my bed.
Rings and flowers and dresses abound.
Visions of the perfect wedding I will never have.
Because I am a stupid, silly slut who spread her legs for an engaged man. Crumpling another dress design and tossing it into the pile at the corner of the room, I huff out a breath.
Roman left my place hours ago and I realize I’m sitting here waiting. Waiting like a silly slut would. Hoping he meant his words and he will come back to me. Jesus who am I anymore? Whoever it is, I don’t know if I like this chick much at all.
Pushing away from my desk of bridal woes, I go to my closet. Flipping through the half a dozen bridesmaids dresses, I realize how each of them—though too frilly or overdone—meant something to me. I was in weddings with people who mattered to me. People who were starting their lives with someone they loved—and I mattered enough to them to be included.
Smiling as I try a few of them on just for fun, I no longer feel pathetic for always being a bridesmaid. I might still get my day. But even if I don’t, I was a part of some special moments for some special people.
Not just designing engagement sets or wedding bands. Talking with grooms and brides about proposals. Putting together designs for bridesmaids and groomsmen to wear on the big day. Standing up with my sorority sisters, best friends, and even family.
Slipping on the final dress—from my friend Joy’s recent wedding to her sexy Santa husband, Nick—I am smiling happily. It’s time to get rid of them, I think, but not because they make me feel sad or like I won’t ever have my own special day.
Don’t need them to remember I’ve had some special days.
By the following morning I stop waiting.
Before heading in to open the shop, I make a few calls to donate every dress to a dress shop for a second chance at romance. At least one of us will get a happily ever after.
Once I’m at the shop, it takes a moment to shake myself of the memories I will now forever have of Roman taking me on my design table. Turning up some Bangles, I dance around the store to help with shaking that shit off.
“I love to watch you move, bella.” Husky and warm his voice should not have the effect it does on me.
If my store muzak were a record player, cue the record scratch. Turning to inform him he’s no longer welcome—in my store as a customer or my vagina—I stop. Seems for this visit, Roman is not alone. Peeking around his shoulder is his fiancé, looking beautifully bored.
“Both of you can leave. Nothing here is for sale as far as the two of you are concerned.” I am proud of the strength in my voice as I face them down, squaring my shoulders.
“I like her, Roman.” Voice heavy with a thicker Italian accent than Roman’s, she smiles at me with a cock of her head—as if approving of me.
“Good thing. Now leave us for a moment, we need to talk.” With a curt nod, she turns to head out.
“Oh, honey, you can take him with you. Trust me, he is not wanted here.” I say it to them both, but my deadly glare is for Roman.
My words fall on deaf ears it seems. The lithe woman just smirks and ducks her head at me before pushing back through the doors. Huffing, I turn away once I realize this leaves us alone. Smart of me to come into the shop alone while still wading through heartbreak.
“Mio amata. You are too cruel to me. No clue how easy your words wound me.” Roman stalks slowly towards me in his expensive suit and sneakers, his sexy fitted shirt and dark eyes and sexier scruff.
“Too bad you refuse to listen to them, huh? Look, maybe you elite types fuck with people this way. Literally, since we just fucked here. I’m not like you or your lovely fiancé. I was a stupid slut for doing what I did with you. Won’t be so stupid again. Que sera, sera.” As I bounce my shoulders in a shrug, wishing it were as easily brushed off as I am pretending, he lets out a string of curses in English and Italian. Impressive vocabulary, not gonna lie.
“Mi bella, do not speak of yourself that way. No games are being played here, I assure you. No one has been wronged—though I owe you some details. Although I did just fuck you here,” Standing close to me now after he took a step closer with every statement, he gazes down at me with hooded eyes, “And very much want to do it again, I am not fucking with you, mi bella. I am a man of my word. I never, ever break it. I swore to you I am a good man. And, Rian, I intend to prove to you exactly that.” Stepping into my personal space, he slips his hands into my loose blonde hair, thumbs at my jaw, tipping my head back.
“Please don’t. Every single time you touch me, I become a stupid slut.” I step back but he growls and dips his head to glare at me.
“Warned you once. Do not say such foolishness again, Rian. You are not a slut because you gave yourself to me. Though it does something to me to know my touch affects you the same way yours affects me. Come here. Give me a kiss.” Wetting his lips, he presses closer and waits, just as he did last night.
“I waited for you. Just like a stupid slut, I waited. You said you would come back to me last night, but you never did. I can’t do this with you, Roman. I don’t even know you. You don’t know me but as I said, I’m not this kind of girl. Now please, leave.” It’s not easy but I twist away from him, giving him my back as I take a shaky breath.
“I am so sorry for last night, Rian. Business got out of hand. I won’t tell you again not to talk that way. I won’t have it.” Heavy hands cup my hips and tug me back against his chest.
“Your fiancé... that’s what you call business? How could... how could you bring her here?” My voice cracks as my tears slide down my face.
“Oh, mi bella. Because I knew just what was coming after I left you last night. I came prepared because I am not a man who doesn’t take care of the details. Helena is here as backup to prove I mean every single thing I have said to you.” Lips brush over my ear, down my neck, his words warm and soothing at my skin.
“You do not make any sense!” I shudder as he sucks at a mark I know he left last night, my thighs clenching.
“Your fault, baby. You make me lose my mind. Will you give me a kiss yet?” One of his big hands cups my jaw, turning it as his lips whisper over my cheek.
“No! I won’t kiss you with your fiancé waiting outside. What part of not this kind of....” Two of his fingers cover my mouth and I gasp.
“I know what kind of girl you are. You are smart and strong. Top of your class and debt free because you worked your ass off while in college. You have a brother and a sister who are married with kids that you spoil rotten. You love your friends and have been in no less than twelve weddings. More beautiful in every single one, no doubt. You love the city but want to see the world. You drink beer instead of champagne or fruity feminine drinks and you treat that tiny furball you call a dog like your child. I know who you are, Rian. Without knowing the details, I knew what kind of girl you were. But I love all the details.” All of this is said against my cheek as his fingers lazily trace my lips.
Shaking once he finishes, I nod my head because all his details are spot on. Smiling down at me, he moves his fingers as he locks his eyes on mine. Brushing his thumb over my mouth, he seems fascinated with my lips.
“Now will you kiss me?” I want to refuse him again, I really do.
But he’s looking at me with sexy hooded eyes, his touch driving me to the edge. An edge where I am totally okay with being a stupid slut if it means I am his stupid slut. I nod my head once and the grin he gives me makes my knees week.
“Come here; kiss me like you missed me.” Roman growls and my body twists to obey.
Our mouths meet as I snake my arm backwards to hook it around the back of hi
s neck. I twist my fingers in his hair as his tongue pushes into my mouth. He caresses my tongue, sucks at my lips, bites me gently, and groans into the slow, sweet kiss.
“I did miss you.” I admit, flushing as I realize how stupid this man really makes me.
“Mmm, not half as badly as I missed you baby. Almost impossible to walk away from you now that I’ve had you. One more kiss, then all my details, mio amata.” We’re both smiling as we meet halfway for another kiss that lingers far longer than the first.
Once we break apart, he twists me to brush his fingers through my hair and frame my face. I still don’t understand this, but I can’t deny it, either. I cannot deny that he makes me feel adored and desired.
“Now, let me tell you what kind of man I am, Rian.”
I already know what kind of man he is.
A good man who might still break my heart.
Because he might adore and desire me—but he came here to prepare his perfect proposal to another woman.
Chapter Ten
Roman
Christ, I am so in love.
And I am so ready to get married.
Came here the first time dreading the very thought of my wedding. Now, I cannot wait to put a ring on Rian’s finger. Lucky for me her best friend is a damn good designer and did her beautiful design justice. But first, all the details I was foolish enough not to tell her the moment I met her.
“Tell me what you know about me. You told me I am rich and...” Rian smirks and my heart stops at how beautiful she is.
“Rich and rude. That’s what I said.” I kiss her nose before lifting her atop the design table. Vivid memories of our first time flood my thoughts and it takes a moment for me to gain control.
“Right, that was it. Rich and rude. Because I came here for a ring for my bride just to flirt with you, yes?” As I step between her legs, shoving at her short pretty blue dress, she nods.
“Pretty rude for the groom to flirt with the woman selling him the ring he’s about to ask his bride to wear forever, yes.” We smile at each other though, and I kiss her lips softly.
