RICH
Kira had tried to convince me it was too risky to invite her to the wedding rehearsal, but I wasn’t hearing it. I wanted her to be there. I wasn’t willing to compromise her wedding experience any more than we had to for this little scheme of ours. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to compromise at all, but those just weren’t the cards we were dealt.
Everyone was there. My parents and a small army of extended family. The media—though we’d managed to ensure they were stuck outside the gates to the property where the rehearsal was taking place. Even Iris and Miranda had come. Kira had said if I was going to insist on her coming, her friends should be here too or it’d look too suspicious. At least this way, it looked like I’d been relatively indiscriminate in my invitations. There would still be whispers, but a pending engagement and wedding were enough to keep them at bay.
Stella was glued to my side. As usual, we avoided physical contact in a way that probably looked entirely unnatural from a distance. Many old-money marriages were bordering on arranged marriage, though, so a loveless pairing wasn’t unheard of. Otherwise, we likely would’ve seemed more suspicious.
“My father is here,” Stella said quietly.
I scanned the room and found him without much difficulty. It took all my willpower to wave and smile casually instead of recoiling from the intense stare he was directing at us.
Her father was tall, thin, and imposing, with white hair and glacial eyes. I’d seen him in person only a couple of times, but it was a fresh reminder of why Stella was so afraid to come clean to him about her sexuality.
“You’re not planning on telling him tonight, are you?” I asked.
“I already told him,” she said.
My chest tightened like an invisible fist had taken me around the ribs. I stared at her in disbelief. “What? Why would you do that? Why now?”
“Because, asshole, this isn’t just about you. You may be ready to burn every bridge in the world with your parents, but I’m allowed to choose how my parents learn about this, aren’t I?”
I gritted my teeth. She was right, of course, but I didn’t like the surprise discovery. Especially not right now. “You didn’t think I might want to know about this so I could plan for it?”
She regarded me icily. “I could’ve said the same about Kira. I don’t remember being warned before you started showing up with her in public like you didn’t care if anyone would notice or start to ask questions.”
I closed my eyes and forced a calm to come over me that I didn’t feel. “You’re right. You’re a bitch, but you’re right.”
She favored me with a faint grin. “That’s fair. And to ease your mind, he’s not going to tell anyone. Probably.”
“What? Why isn’t he going to tell anyone?”
“Because he took the news better than I expected. It turns out there’s a girl connected to much more money and respect than even you and your family. My father always wished he had a son to pair with her, but there are rumors she’s not interested in men anyway. So . . .”
I smiled. “That’s good, Stella. That’s really good.”
She finally smiled back. “I know. She and I might have nothing at all in common, but for once, I won’t feel like I’m going against my parents’ wishes. Believe it or not, I want to make them happy. I always have. Maybe he won’t be too thrilled with me if it ends up not working out with this girl, but it feels like a new door is opening up anyway.” Stella gave a little shrug, and her smile widened.
I nodded. I really was happy for her. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her look as free as she did now, and I almost hated to change the subject, but I needed to be sure. “So he’s okay with us going through with this? Isn’t he worried about how this will screw up things between him and my parents?”
“He’s not worried. He said your father cheats at poker, and he’s always secretly hated the man. This feels like an appropriate punishment, according to my father.”
“Remind me never to cheat your father in a game. And if he’s okay with it, why is he looking at us like that?”
She glanced over at him and twinkled her fingers in a dainty wave. “He’s been having stomach troubles the past few days. Gas and bloating.”
I laughed. “Well. Okay.”
“Richard,” my father said loudly. He came up to Stella and me with a heavy slap on the back of my shoulder. “Good to see you, son.”
I grimaced but hoped it would pass for a smile. As usual, my mother lurked a few steps behind him with her nose tilted up. I suspected she was withholding her relief until the moment she saw the marriage becoming official. True to form, she was planning to be disappointed. I wondered if intentionally disappointing her made me a good son in some twisted, confusing way. Probably not.
I’d given up any last desire to please them. Maybe before Kira and all this mayhem, I’d still held some deep-seated desire to patch over my relationship with them. Now, that was gone. I just wanted them out of my life so I could move on with my future.
“Quite the venue, isn’t it?” my father asked, as if he’d been the one to choose it.
“Quite,” I agreed.
“Stella, what do you think of it?”
“Yes, it’s beautiful,” she said.
He gave her a close-lipped smile, and then his eyes shifted to where Kira was standing on the other end of the room. She had a glass of soda in her hand and was doing an adorably poor job of hiding the fact that she was watching us. She took a huge gulp of her drink and jerked her gaze away when she saw my father looking.
“What do you think of her being here?” my father asked. “It wasn’t long ago that my son was ready to toss you aside for her, no?”
“Rich and I have moved on from that,” Stella said. Her voice was icy.
“Of course. It’s just strange that he would invite her, don’t you think?”
Shit. Kira had been right, after all. I’d thought my parents were too dense to suspect anything at this point, but apparently I was wrong. It wouldn’t matter. As long as the wedding happened, everything would be fine. Besides, if they managed to find a way to screw it up, we could always go to the media ourselves and announce we were together. But part of the reason I wanted to use the wedding to announce it was for the theatrics. The real game that had gone on wouldn’t be lost on the people in my parents’ social circle. They’d know my parents had tried to outmaneuver us and lost. It would mean any more attempts they made to sabotage us would be obvious acts of petty revenge, which would risk damaging their reputation even more.
No, it had to be like this.
“Strange?” Stella asked. “No. What’s strange is that you think my soon-to-be husband would have actually held any real interest in a local girl. Think of it,” she said, wrinkling her nose in a perfect impression of my mother. “Richard King with a local teacher. One who can’t even hold a job, nonetheless.”
I knew what she was doing, but I still bristled to hear Kira being talked about like that.
“Is that right, son?”
I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t bring myself to agree or even nod, so I just glared straight at him.
My father’s eyebrows twitched in response, and I wasn’t sure if I was being paranoid, but I thought I saw some kind of resolution forming behind his eyes. “Well,” he said quickly, and in a single word, all the tension had left the conversation. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds to enjoy the festivities. I can’t wait to see the ceremony. I’m sure it will be beautiful.”
I waited inside a small, cramped closet for a few minutes before the door opened and shut quickly. It was nearly dark inside, but from the sweet, flowery smell, I knew it was Kira. I reached out in the dark and found her hands to pull her closer. “You okay?” I asked.
“The venue really is perfect,” she said.
I could see only the vague outline of her body, and something about the lack of vision was giving me bad ideas. With her scent filling my nose and nothing but my hands to feel her, it was hard to keep myself focused.
“I think my father suspects something,” I said. I waited for Kira to say she’d told me so, because she literally had.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.”
I blindly pulled her closer by the back of her head and bent my neck to kiss her forehead. It was a mistake, because her warmth against my lips stirred up even more dangerous thoughts. There was no lock on the closet door, I knew, and I had no reason to believe someone wouldn’t stumble in here while looking for a restroom.
“And that’s why it was so easy to fall in love with you,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you tried your hardest to convince me this was a bad idea, and as it turns out, you were right. But you’re not going to rub it in my face. You’re too kind for something like that.”
She laughed softly. “Actually, I was totally fist pumping in my head because I was right. I just forced myself not to say anything obnoxious.”
I grinned. “Even better. You’re human, but a better human than me.”
“Maybe in some ways.” Her hands reached out for me and slid down my chest. From the sound of her voice and the way her hands were moving, I knew the dark closet was giving more than one of us some dirty ideas. “But I think you’ve got me beat in the fitness department. And hotness. When do you even work out anyway? Aren’t muscular guys supposed to do nothing but chug protein shakes and live in the gym?”
“I wake up early. And I just eat a lot of meat. I always hated the taste of protein shakes. And if you give me a vote, I don’t have you beat in any ways.” I didn’t plan to, but I found myself gripping her legs and hoisting her up to pin her against the wall as my voice turned into a growl. “You’re fucking perfect.”
“Tell that to the fact that I always sneeze twice in a row,” she said.
I barely heard her. I was kissing her neck, and the distant thrill of knowing someone could walk in felt like it was intensifying every sensation.
“Or the fact that I snort when I cry. Or—”
I kissed her on the mouth, not to make her stop talking but because once I put my hands on her, something came over me. I’d get a million ideas of the things I wanted—needed—to do to her, and being able to do only one or two at a time felt almost maddening. It drove me into a kind of starving frenzy where my brain didn’t have room for normal thoughts anymore. All that was left were the primal, basic instincts to take and claim every inch of her.
She made the sexiest sounds when she was turned on. Her legs were wrapped around me, and the dress she’d been wearing had to have been hiked up above her hips. Knowing her panties—probably soaked—were right there but I couldn’t see them was hot. It was hotter than it should’ve been. I used my hands where my eyes would’ve normally worked. I felt in the darkness for her and found the soft skin of her inner thigh pinned against me. I felt my way upward until I hit the edge of her panties and then moved my fingers down until they found what I’d been looking for. Her hot, wet arousal.
“You love getting wet for me, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
I couldn’t help chuckling. For some reason, the more turned on Kira got, the bigger the words she used. Where I thought most people would’ve just grunted out a quick yes, Kira would say something like I definitely do. It was adorable, along with the way she couldn’t seem to stop herself from moaning when she came.
I tried to think of something else to ask her, just because I wanted to know what kind of ridiculous response she’d give. She was already panting heavily as our bodies rubbed together, seeking friction wherever we could find it.
“How bad do you want it?” I asked.
“Astonishingly bad,” she breathed.
I laughed again. I could practically see the crooked, amused glare she’d be aiming at me through the darkness. I let her down to her feet just long enough to start tugging at her clothes, which was harder to do in the dark than I expected, especially considering I couldn’t just tear them off her. We were in a closet in the middle of a crowded wedding rehearsal, after all.
After struggling to find a zipper on her dress for a few seconds, I decided to just yank her panties down. I accidentally did it a little too enthusiastically and heard the sound of fabric ripping.
“Damn it, Rich!”
“Sorry. No, wait. I forgot we’re supposed to pull out our thesauruses during sex. My sincere regrets and deepest apologies, madam.” When there was no sound for a few seconds, I grinned. “You’re glaring, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I can’t help it, you know.”
“Good. Because I like it. Now let me fuck you, because it won’t be long before someone comes looking for me.”
When I reached to find her in the dark, I could feel that she had her palms on the wall and her ass facing me. Damn. My cock was already rock-hard, and now it felt like it was going to burst from the pressure if I didn’t get it inside her soon.
I unzipped my pants and pushed them down in a rush. I took the base of my cock in my hands and her hip in the other. She was so amazingly hot and wet for me. I groaned with pleasure at the first touch of her pussy to the head of my cock. I had to take it slow with her. An inch at a time as her walls relaxed enough for me to get deeper.
She was already gasping with her hand pressed to her lips from the sound of it within seconds. I wasn’t doing much better. Despite my best efforts, I was grunting every time I slid inside her and felt the soft pressure of her warmth relaxing to let me in just a little deeper.
Kira had been a virgin, even if she still didn’t want to admit it to me. I’d been taking it slow with her, and I didn’t want to force her out of her comfort zone. I had all the time in the world, after all. So it was the first time I’d taken her from behind, and the fact that it had been her idea was turning me on way more than it had any right to. She was an amazing blend of shy, reserved, and shockingly dirty. I loved the unpredictability of it.
I took her hips in both hands and pulled her into me with each thrust. Her ass slapped against my hips in an increasingly rapid pattern. Despite the music playing outside the closet, I had a feeling her gasping moans were probably traveling farther than they should have.
I turned her around, lifted her by the backs of her thighs, and managed to slide myself back inside her warmth without a hand to guide myself. I kissed her deeply, swallowing up her moans. She gasped into my mouth again and again. I didn’t have a condom with me, but I felt myself getting close to coming.
Sex had a way of making very stupid ideas seem reasonable, and I started to seriously consider asking her if she wanted me to come inside her. I came to my senses, if only barely. We had enough problems without adding a child to the mix. For now.
I did my best to put my mind somewhere else for a few minutes to hold out as long as I could. I wanted to feel her tighten around me as she came. I pulled my mouth from hers just long enough to whisper in her ear. “You feel so fucking amazing.” I put my mouth back to hers, and it was just in time. Her body convulsed against me, and her pussy clenched around my length. I held off my own climax for as long as I could before I slid out of her and let it come.
“Goddamn,” I groaned.
She said nothing, but I heard a little bit of rustling clothing as she was undoubtedly pulling her skirt back down.
I made a mental note to come in here when the coast was clear and clean up whatever mess we’d made.
Just as I was finishing zipping myself up, the door swung open. I moved as quickly as I could to stand in front of Kira, but then I saw who was standing at the door.
Cade.
He was wearing a shit-eating grin too. “You two done yet? I thought since maybe the ear-piercing moans had stopped, it might mean you two animals were done rutting in there.”
“What the hell are you doing?” I whispered. Once the door was open, I realized there was some sort of commotion going on in the living room.
“Saving your ass is all.” He nodded toward where Nick was lying on the ground next to spilled drinks and an overturned coffee table. Everyone was kneeling around him while someone was pressing ice to his face.
“I practically had to kill Nick to distract everyone from the sounds you two horndogs were making. I hope it was worth it. And if you made a baby in there, you’re naming it Cade. You’re welcome. Now hurry up and get out of there before people start looking. And you had better just go,” he said to Kira.
For once, I couldn’t disagree with him. Kira hurried out toward the parking lot, and I went with Cade toward an unoccupied room.
“Is Nick okay?” I asked.
“Mostly,” Cade said. “He was pretty confused when I attacked him, though. I honestly feel a little bad. I didn’t have time to explain the plan to him.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “So you heard moans coming from the closet and assumed it was us?”
“No. I saw you two idiots go into the closet a few minutes apart. I heard moans and knew it was you. People started looking around, and I did what I do best. I made a genius plan and put it into action before anyone could tell me not to.”
“Well, I can’t believe I’m saying this. But good job. And thank you.”
“That’s what brothers are for. Also, you owe me now. So you bet your ass I’m going to call in the favor eventually.”