Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Lucien
Talia’s lips quirk into a smile as I use the tip of my index finger to slowly trace out the letters of a message on her leg, just above her knee. I started doing it to distract her from the wedding ceremony, but now it’s turned into something fun.
I’ve spelled out each letter of I-W-A-N-T-T-O-L-I-C-K-Y-O-U-R-P-U, when she bites her lips and covers my hand with hers, stopping me. Her lips are pulling into a smile.
Coach Turner is sitting on her other side, his arms crossed and his expression stoic.
He’s at the end of our pew, right next to the aisle he walked Audra down.
He did his duty as her father, but when Kyle reached out to shake his hand, Coach glared at him and walked away.
It was savage as fuck. He refused to sit up front with the other family members, walking almost all the way back down the aisle to sit near the back of the church with me and Talia.
Audra was so adamant about no one taking photos with their phones that an usher confiscated them before we were allowed to come in. But I would have loved a picture of Macintire standing there with his hand out, his lower lip swollen and cut and his right eye black and blue.
“Kyle, from the moment we met, I knew you were the one,” Audra says, getting choked up on the first sentence of her vows.
Coach shifts in his seat and exhales through his nose, and Talia hums a note of amusement, likely because he was with Talia when Audra met him.
Everything about this ceremony has been awkward. People have been looking at Talia and whispering, and even though she’s been ignoring it, I know she has to be aware of it.
She looks sexy as hell in her off-white strapless dress, the sides of her hair styled up in a big, loose bun while the rest is loose around her shoulders. When we walked into the church, she was a picture of grace and confidence, but I could feel her shaking when I put my arm around her.
The hard part is almost over, though. I never would have thought the day I went to Kyle Douchebag Macintire’s wedding would be the best day of my life, but it is.
I didn’t want to leave our room this morning.
Not just because the sex was incredible—and it was—but because of the intimacy of lying beside Talia in bed afterward.
Both of us were naked, our legs tangled together as we whispered to each other, confessing all the times we wanted each other.
Her laugh is my favorite sound in the world.
It’s rich and unreserved, and bringing it out of her is second only to bringing her to an orgasm that makes her cry out my name.
I’ll be doing that again later. I’ve only gotten the tiniest taste of her, and I’m starving for more.
“Audra Turner, you complete me.” Kyle’s start to his vows makes the maid of honor roll her eyes.
What a cheese fest. Audra had an entire app designed for this three-day shitshow.
It includes the schedule for every day, stupid stories about Audra and Kyle falling in love, and fake-ass photos of them gazing into each other’s eyes.
I don’t have the app on my phone, but Talia does, so she can access the schedule.
And it’s borderline aggressive about telling people to use the official hashtag of #MacintirelyInLove in every social media post.
Talia was so amused the first time she saw it that she snort-laughed.
I glance at her, and I can tell she’s mentally elsewhere. Hopefully thinking about the sex we had earlier, because I sure as hell have been. I kiss her bare shoulder softly, and she smiles at me.
Finally, the pastor declares them Mr. and Mrs. Shitface, at least in my head. They’re dismissing everyone aisle by aisle, but we file out before they get to us.
As soon as we step outside into the warm, breezy air, Coach Turner gives me a relieved look, then turns his attention to Talia.
“Still up for the reception?” he asks her. “We can skip it if you want.”
“Nah. Kyle’s paying for an open bar. Let’s go drink the best alcohol money can buy.”
“Attagirl,” he says.
We fly out late tomorrow morning, and something tells me we’re all going to wish we were staying an extra day to recover from today.
“All I want for my birthday and Christmas and”—Talia furrows her brow, concentrating—“my birthday forever is a thumb drive with those photos on it.”
She’s had more than a few drinks, and so has Coach Turner. The reception venue has a bar, and we’ve taken over three stools at one end. Turner’s had several shots, and he’s actually smiling and laughing as we talk about the wedding photos.
Audra wanted photos of just her, Kyle and their parents, and then photos of just them and their siblings and their partners.
Of course, as Talia's supposed fiancé, I was in that one.
I was also in the one with every family member from both families, grinning like the happiest motherfucker on the planet.
Kyle sulked the entire time. Audra’s still behaving like a coked-out bridezilla, micromanaging every last detail she can. Talia, Coach and I are on a downhill slide, though—enjoying the last of our time here, but glad we’re leaving tomorrow.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Coach tells Talia in response to her request for the photos with me in them.
Fortunately, Talia had prepared him for hearing that we’re engaged. He wasn’t thrilled, even knowing it’s not real, but he tolerated it. Now he’s tipping back his glass tumbler, getting the last few drops of whiskey from it.
“That’s it for me,” he says. “I said I’d stay through the toasts and they’re about to start.”
Talia bursts out laughing from just the sight of Kayla taking the microphone from the DJ to do her maid of honor toast. She’s been outdrinking both me and Coach, and I’m kind of worried about her since I’ve never known her to drink much.
“Hey everyone, thanks for your attention,” Kayla says. “Audra and I were college roommates and I just want to offer up my warmest wishes for this happy couple. Cheers.”
It’s the most underwhelming toast ever. Talia downs a shot of tequila instead of drinking from the flutes of champagne that were passed out, and when she slams the shot glass on the bar, she lets out a little burp and laughs.
I shake my head, knowing there won’t be any more sex for us today. I’ll be surprised if she makes it back to our room before she passes out. It’s more likely I’ll be carrying her there.
Kyle’s best man is one of his high school hockey teammates, and he spends more time talking about how cool it is that Kyle’s a pro hockey player than he does about him and Audra.
I turn to make sure Talia is still upright on her barstool, and she’s gone. I lock eyes with Coach, both of us finding her at the same time.
“If I could have your attention for one more toast!” Talia has one hand wrapped around an invisible microphone and the other one in the air, her index finger raised. “Just one!”
Oh shit. She’s not yelling, but she’s not not yelling, either. She’s standing between two tables full of reception guests, too far away for me to intervene without everyone seeing.
“Hey, hi! I’m Talia Turner, Audra’s sister. Well, I’m also Kyle’s ex, but everyone knows that. Everyone! It’s why you’ve all been looking at me all day, right? Right?”
Coach Turner cringes, walking over to her.
“I’m doing a toast, Dad!” She walks away from him, moving closer to the dance floor set up in the middle of the room.
“So where was I?” She taps the invisible microphone.
“Is this thing on? Anyway! Like I was saying, it’s so funny that my sister knew Kyle was THE ONE”—she makes air quotes with the hand she’s not using for the invisible microphone—“because I was already dating him then!” She looks at her sister and Kyle, who are sitting at the head table with the same horrified expression.
“Auds, you should have mentioned that you planned to fuck him behind my back. And also! He used that ‘you complete me’ bullshit he STOLE from a movie on me too.”
She stumbles slightly and I’m torn about whether I should let her keep going or go end this.
“But don’t feel bad for me!” she yells. “Seriously, do not. I’m so good. I’m with a man now. A real man! One who doesn’t need me to spank him so he can come when he’s drunk.”
There’s a ripple of soft, stunned laughter.
The best man approaches her, putting his hands on her shoulders. Coach Turner and I both go toward them at the same time.
“Don’t touch me!” She shakes him off. “I wasn’t ready.
To be done, I mean. It’s Kyle, you guys!
Kyle wanted me to spank him so he could come when he was drunk.
But Lucien—he’s nothing like Kyle. He gives and gives.
I mean, I fucking love him. It’s like ..
. no one’s ever actually had me. Not the way he does. ”
I stop at the edge of the dance floor. Coach is there, too. Audra is crying into her hands at the head table.
“Anyway, here’s to a lifetime of spanking him, Audra!” Talia raises an invisible glass in the air. “Unless he cheats on you, too. Or maybe you’ll cheat on him? I don’t know. Either way, you deserve each other!”
Coach puts an arm around her shoulders, easing her away from the dance floor.
“What? You didn’t like my toast?” she says.
The room is completely silent, other than the sound of Audra’s wailing, everyone looking at Talia. The expressions of pity and disbelief make me fucking furious.
“She’s drunk,” a woman at the table next to me says, sneering.
“You would be too, if you were her,” I snap.
“Oh god,” Talia’s saying as Coach leads her off the dance floor. “I really just did that?”
I go to her and put my arm around her shoulders. She buries her face in my chest, shielding her face. I lead her away from the tables and out of the room as quickly as I can.
“I’m going to be sick,” she says weakly.
“Let’s get her into a cold shower,” Coach says, taking off his suit jacket as he follows me.
“I’ll do it.”
He lowers his brows. “I shouldn’t have let her drink so much. She never drinks like that.”
“I should’ve stopped her, too.”
Talia stands up straight and looks between the two of us. She shakes her head and groans.
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell her. “We’re going back to our room.”
“I want to make sure you get her there okay,” Coach says.
“I’ve got her.” I meet his eyes. “I promise I’ve got her.”
He nods. “Okay. Text me later and let me know how she’s doing, okay?”
“I will.”
The reception venue is also our hotel, so I hustle Talia onto an elevator. I don’t want anyone coming out of that reception to confront her.
She puts a hand on the elevator wall when it starts moving, looking confused.
“It’s an elevator, babe,” I say. “You’re fine.”
“We had sex.”
I grin at the way she’s acting like she just realized it for the first time. “Yeah, we did.”
“Lucien. What did I say back there?”
I shrug. “Not much. Just like ‘congratulations’ and stuff like that.”
She cringes and takes a deep breath in and out. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Hold it in for two minutes if you can.”
The elevator doors slide open on our floor, and I lead the way to our room. I manage to get her into the room, but before I can get her dress unzipped, she bolts for the bathroom to barf into the toilet.
I wet a washcloth and pass it to her when she’s done.
“Just leave me here to die,” she says mournfully.
“You’re not gonna die,” I assure her. “You’ll just feel like you’re going to for the next day or so.”
She curls up on the tile floor of the bathroom, her only answer a weak groan.