Endless Love: Novella (Elite Heirs of Manhattan #6)

2. Colton

2

COLTON

“ T his was a great idea.” I raised my bottle of lager to Valentina, whose idea it was to have a clambake tonight. There would be enough activity over the next few days and more than enough opportunity to dress up and behave ourselves in front of guests and cameras.

Tonight, we lounged around on the beach, arranged on blankets and chairs circling the fire pit dug earlier in the day. Rose sat in my lap, now dressed as casually as I was, both of us stuffed full of seafood.

Noah, Lucian, and Evan tossed around a football while Miles chatted with Mom’s cousin, Spencer, who had come from LA for the wedding. He and Miles were on the verge of patenting some new technology. I didn’t know much about it, as it wasn’t my area of expertise, but they sure as hell seemed invested as they continued their conversation apart from the rest of the group.

“Am I going to get any time with you tonight?” Aria asked Miles, winding an arm around his. She shook a finger at Spencer, who chuckled when she chided, “It’s not fair to monopolize one of the grooms.”

“You know I would never dream of getting between a bride-to-be and her groom.“ He laughed, but there was something hollow in the sound. He was Mom’s cousin, in his early thirties and lived it up in LA while he made his mark in the tech world.

He raked a hand through his dirty blond hair, looking down into his empty beer bottle. “I think I need a refill.” He must have thought no one was looking when he slid Miles a furtive look, which hinted at a conversation that needed to be continued elsewhere.

Miles played it off, turning his full attention to Aria. “Hey, now,” he teased. “You’re three days away from being stuck with me forever. You can’t wait five minutes for me to finish a conversation?”

“What can I say?” she asked. “I’m greedy for you.” The way they looked at each other spoke volumes. It left me grinning at Rose, who touched her head to my shoulder and laced our fingers together.

“I need a glass of wine!” My Aunt Evelyn settled in a cushioned lounge chair positioned between Mom and Olivia. She wore the happy but exhausted look of a woman whose twin daughters were about to get married and had driven her crazy for the past six months of planning. “Whoever thought a double wedding was a good idea…”

Uncle Magnus stepped up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’m pretty sure it was you. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

Dad laughed from his chair on the other side of the fire. “Those are pretty bold words, you know. Haven’t you learned by now you never remind a woman of the things she’s said?”

“Excuse me?” Mom folded her arms, eyes narrowed. “Do you want to repeat that?”

“Spoken with love,” he insisted in a light voice, laughing with Uncle Magnus.

“You want to know the secret to a long marriage?” Aunt Pepper asked, winking at us from her chair beside Uncle Connor. “It’s letting your husband think you agree with him even when you know he’s wrong.”

“When have I ever been wrong?” Uncle Magnus asked, making us all laugh.

“Honestly,” Aria interjected with a sigh once the laughter died down. “I think we’ve had the best possible example of what makes a good marriage.”

“Agreed.” Valentina jumped up from her blanket and scurried over to Uncle Magnus, throwing her arms around his waist. “Thanks to you two.”

“Did you ever see it turning out this way?” Uncle Connor chuckled, a glass of scotch in his hand. “The kids growing up, getting married, tying the families closer together. It’s incredible the way things unfolded.”

“I still feel like I have to pinch myself,” Mom admitted. “How did we become the older generation? When did that happen? I feel just as young tonight as I did on my wedding weekend.”

“Even if we can’t drink as much and still expect to be functional the next day,” Olivia pointed out, draining what was left in her wine glass. “And I think that will be it for me. Oh, youth. Don’t you kids take it for granted,” she warned us.

I didn’t feel so young anymore. There I was, a married man with my eighteen-month-old daughter asleep in my childhood vacation home, on the grounds of which an elaborate wedding would soon take place. One of the grooms had been my best friend since we were teenagers. Nothing about this felt real, but there was no denying it. “I’m turning into an old man,” I admitted to my wife, who looked at me with wide eyes that glowed in the firelight.

“That’s not true.” She laughed lightly and shook her head. “Don’t listen to Mom. You know how she gets at times like this. All sentimental and emotional and stuff.”

I wasn’t so easily convinced. “It’s true, though, isn’t it? We’re the responsible adults now. One day, we’ll be the ones sitting around a bonfire while our kids are on the verge of getting married.”

“We should be so lucky.” She planted a chaste kiss against my cheek, then brushed her lips against my ear, whispering, “Want to reclaim a little of your youth, Mr. Black?”

There was nothing in the world that could get me hard in an instant the way her flirtatious whisper did. “What did you have in mind?” I asked, playing dumb while fighting the thickening in my boxer briefs.

“I think I could come up with something.” She glanced around like she was checking to make sure nobody was paying attention, then got up and began heading toward the house. I followed her without saying a word since nobody would ever accuse me of ruining a good thing. And when Rose got that look in her eye, it meant good things were coming.

The silence inside the house was almost deafening after hours spent talking and laughing. Rose crooked a finger, already halfway across the kitchen after entering from the back porch. “Where are we going?” I asked, caught between laughing and lusting once my attention landed on her perfect ass. It swayed hypnotically, leading me out of the kitchen and into the great room.

Once I realized she was on her way to the stairs, I jogged to catch up and take hold. “I have a better idea,” I growled out and pulled her into the powder room beside the stairs instead.

“In the bathroom?” she whispered, giggling as I closed the door and flipped the lock.

“I can’t wait. Besides…” I added between kisses against her neck, “… old people do it in the bedroom. A quickie in the bathroom is for young people.”

Her laughter turned to a strangled whimper as I worked my hand between her thighs to cup her pussy. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I had touched her this way, but the rush of power never changed knowing how to make her melt and beg.

My fingers flirted with the lacy edge of her thong when familiar moisture began to seep from between her swollen lips. Her mouth found mine in a hard, desperate kiss that stirred a growl in my throat and turned my cock to steel. Every stroke of her tongue, every breathless whimper sent lightning racing down my spine until nothing would do but bury myself deep inside her.

She used the counter for leverage, lifting herself and letting me yank the thong down over her feet. “We did talk about trying for another, didn’t we?” she whispered as she unbuttoned my jeans and dipped a hand inside my boxer briefs. When her fingers closed around my shaft, I could barely bite back a groan. “No condom. Come inside me.”

Like I would argue with that.

There was nothing playful about the way Rose guided me inside her without another word. Her head fell back, and her body went still while I sank myself into her hot, wet pussy. Every inch was better than the last until my knees shook from the sensation of being gripped from head to base with nothing between us.

“Oh, fuck…” she whispered. I could only groan in agreement, staying still to savor the thrill of being locked with her this way. Every time was like the first time. I would never get tired of it.

When her eyes opened and locked on mine, the hunger in them made me pull my hips back to drive myself in again. “You want me to put another baby in you?” I grunted, slamming home hard enough to leave her gritting her teeth. “You want me to fill this pussy?”

“Yes,” she gritted out, jerking her hips to meet my strokes.

I slid my thumb against her clit to push her closer to the edge, and her fast, ragged breaths filled the small space. I covered her mouth with mine to muffle the sound, but there was nothing I could do about the vanity as it rattled from the force of our bodies crashing together.

My pace quickened, her muscles clenching around me, pulling me deeper. Her needy, high-pitched whine told me she was close, and I let myself go, her pussy drawing every drop of cum from my balls, milking me dry.

“Shit,” I grunted out, leaning against her for a second, my face against her neck. “There is nothing in the world like being bare inside you.”

She chuckled softly and kissed my cheek, sighing. “After two whole years?”

“And probably after twenty years,” I told her, lifting my head for a kiss.

“Hurry!”

We both looked at the locked door when we heard the sudden cry. “What the fuck?” I whispered, my mind immediately going to Eloise before my heart started racing again. There were more loud and panicked voices, overlapping while I rushed through to pull myself together.

“I’ll drive!”

“You’ve had too much to drink. I’ll drive.”

“Oh, no!”

“Everything will be fine, don’t worry!”

I launched myself out of the powder room to find total chaos erupting, with people running everywhere, thrusting their feet into shoes they’d taken off to go down to the beach while shouting orders and questions. “What the hell is going on?” I demanded, raising my voice over the commotion.

Ari noticed me on his way to the door, and his stricken look chilled my blood. “The store. Something happened at the store.”

“What? What about the store?” Rose joined me, gripping my arm as her nails dug into my skin.

“Pumpkin, somebody from the village called Barrett.” Ari looked sick, adding, “There’s been a fire.”

That was all I needed to hear to get me moving, taking Rose by the hand and pulling her along when it seemed like she was frozen in place. Shock would do that to a person.

“Stay here with the kids!” I ordered Zoe, who stood wide-eyed on the stairs. At least they were asleep and didn’t have to witness their parents’ frenzy.

We were just there. How could this have happened? Questions slammed around inside my skull as I rushed out to the car and placed Rose inside. She was wide-eyed and mute—the way a person would react when they found out something they gave their life to was in danger of being destroyed. I could only hope the destruction was minimal as I pulled out, falling in place behind Noah’s car as we all drove down to get a look for ourselves.

As it turned out, there was no getting anywhere near the scene in a car. I settled for pulling into a spot two blocks away from the fire trucks and caution tape, barely taking time to put the car in park before following Rose as she sprinted toward the crowd growing behind the yellow tape.

Acrid smoke hung heavy in the air, and the thought of what that smoke represented was almost too much to comprehend. We were just there, dammit.

Firefighters trained water on the remains of what only hours ago was a beautiful, historic building. When I thought back on the pains we took to keep the building’s original charm intact, it was enough to lodge a lump in my throat. This was my first job, my way of proving myself to Dad, showing him I could be trusted to handle a project of size and importance.

And it was gone.

There was nothing left but cinders. “How the fuck did it all go up like that?” Dad’s question went unanswered, almost swallowed by the overlapping questions and pained groans coming from all around us.

Especially from Rose. “Oh my God,” she whimpered. I had never heard anyone sound so beaten. So destroyed. She had to turn away from the destruction, gripping my polo in her fists with her face pressed to my chest. “Oh my God. It’s all gone.”

It sure as hell looked that way from where we stood. This project brought us together, and now there was nothing left of it but burnt timber.

“We can rebuild,” I assured her, rubbing her back. “Nothing is lost forever. We’ll build it again.”

“How could this have happened?” she asked in a voice thick with tears.

“The dresses!” Aunt Evelyn’s heartbroken wail pierced the air while Aunt Pepper cried on Uncle Connor’s shoulder. “God, what if someone was in there?”

Her question made me look toward the twins, hugging each other and weeping. Magnus tried to comfort them, but he didn’t have much more luck than their fiancés did. “We’ll figure it out,” he offered while he exchanged a worried look with Dad, who comforted Mom as best he could.

“These things happen,” Dad murmured, but it was clear there was nothing to be said. The fact was, we were all shaken by what we saw in front of us.

“What the hell happened to the sprinkler system?” Olivia demanded, though there was no one around to provide an answer. It was a question I would’ve liked to have answered too.

For the time being, all I could do was try to comfort my wife, whose heartbroken sobs threatened to tear my heart from my chest. “What are we going to do?” she asked. “We lost everything inside. We lost the wedding dresses. What do we do now?”

If only I had an answer.