16. Lemon #2
I try to talk, but with his hand still pressed firmly to my face, the only sound that comes out is a muffled mumble.
“It’s my turn to talk, Lemon, so you can either stay quiet, or I can go and get the gag from the toy cabinet. You might not like the look of it during sex, but if it’s the only way you’ll let me speak, I’m more than happy to force you to use it now.”
I feel my eyes go wide, and he must see it too.
“Can you stay silent on your own?” he asks.
Hoping he can see the anger in my eyes, I sharply nod once.
“Good. Now, I’m going to start at the end and work backward, because you just threw a lot at me.
But first, the most important thing you need to hear is that I don’t give a fuck what you do for a job.
I don’t care if you serve cakes or clean toilets.
Hell, if you decide you want to come to work with me every day like Knight does with Octy, I’d be the happiest man alive.
Leaving you while I sit at the studio for hours on end is the worst part of my day, and I practically skip around the moment I know I’m going to see you again. ”
I try to speak, but he silences me with a single look.
“Lemon, the least interesting thing about you is your job. I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you, and I’ll love you until the last time we see each other before death. Then, if there is a heaven, I’ll find you there and love you for the rest of eternity.”
I suck in a sharp gasp, but his hand on my mouth stiffens before he starts to speak again.
“If you want to be a clothes designer, then that’s what I want you to be.
If you decide you want to teach Pig Latin to underprivileged parrots, then that’s what I want you to do.
If you decide your dream is to find the prettiest seashell in the world, then I’ll take you to every beach in every country until you find what you’re looking for.
I don’t need you to be anything other than you.
I don’t need you to do anything other than what makes you happy.
Because you’re already everything I want and need.
You’re already sexy and submissive and special and beautiful and caring and talented.
I fell in love with you, Lemon, just as you are, because you’re perfect, and you’re mine, and we’re getting married in two weeks. ”
Fresh tears fill my eyes, spilling out and slipping down my cheeks, but these aren’t tears of sadness.
They’re happy tears. Curling my fingers around his, I slowly pry his hand away from my mouth.
“I don’t have a dress. My dress won’t be ready in time.
If I had a year, then maybe I could learn enough to be able to finish it, but not now,” I admit, my throat thick with emotion.
Shrugging, he wipes my tears away with his thumbs. “Then go and buy a fucking dress. I’d get married with us both naked. What you wear isn’t important.”
“You said you wanted me to wear a dress I made,” I whisper.
“Because I thought it would be something you wanted and something you’d enjoy. If it makes you sad, then forget it. Buy a dress, or wear something you already have. I don’t care, Princess, because the moment you’re officially mine, I’m going to be ripping it off you anyway.”
“Atticus.” I giggle.
“Go shopping with my sister or whoever you want to take. I’ll take you if that’s what you want.”
“You can’t take me to buy a wedding dress. It’s bad luck for you to see me in it before the wedding.”
“So who do you want to go shopping with? Let’s make some calls, and you can go dress shopping in the morning.”
“They’re here,” I tell Atticus, trying and failing to push his hands off my hips so I can leave.
“I hate these,” he whines, sliding his hands beneath the fabric of my panties.
“I can’t try on dresses without any underwear on,” I tell him again for the dozenth time, kissing him quickly, then wiggling my way out of his hold. “I have to go. They’re downstairs.”
“Do you have your card?” he asks.
“Yes,” I sigh.
“Family card, family money,” he reminds me.
After Atticus told me that he and Felix share a bank account and pool their money, I was a little surprised, but given how close the brothers are, it makes sense.
Since I officially moved in, I’ve been having my wages paid into it too, and Atticus put my name on the account alongside his and Felix’s and got me a credit card that is linked to it.
Honestly, whenever Atticus and I are together, he pays for everything, but it still feels a little strange to be spending money out of an account that isn’t just mine.
“There’s plenty of money, so buy what you want. Don’t look at the price,” he says.
“We get married in two weeks. Most wedding dresses have an order time of six to nine months. I’ll be lucky if they have a sample in my size at all. I don’t think I’ll get to be picky,” I admit. “But I do have to go. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck. I love you,” he says, reluctantly releasing me.
“Love you too.”
Kissing him again, I dart away from him and toward the door, swallowing down the nerves that have thickened in my throat. In the last month, my friendship count has gone from zero to…well, a lot.
After my first day at work in Tori’s store, I’d gone to the tattoo studio where I’d met Betty, Etta, and Leo.
Betty had insisted that we join her and her family for dinner, where I’d met Bonnie, Cora, Alice, Lulu, Juni, and Missy.
Within an hour, I’d been added to a dozen group chats, and I was invited out for drinks where I met James, Parker, Henry, and Verity.
Somehow, in the space of a few weeks, I now have a huge group of friends, and I’m honestly not sure how it happened. As I step out of the warehouse and into the warm morning sunlight, I’m shocked to find a huge black bus full of my new friends waiting in the courtyard.
“Come on,” Bonnie beckons from the driver’s seat just as the sliding rear door opens and a gaggle of excited cheers herald my arrival.
Beside Bonnie in the front seat is James, then in the back of the van are Tori, Missy, Verity, and Cora with her newborn baby in a car seat beside her.
“Get in. My boobs are starting to drip,” Cora shouts.
Climbing into the final empty seat, I slide the door closed, then pull my seat belt across me.
“Knight is driving Octy, Betty, Leo, and Etta and meeting us at the store, because he doesn’t trust any of us to keep her safe,” James says, rolling her eyes even as she smiles widely.
“Do you think I’ll be able to find anything? I know I’ll have to get a sample, but I don’t know how many they keep hold of,” I ask no one in particular.
“We’re not actually going to a bridal store,” Cora says, reaching over to touch her tiny baby boy.
“Where are we going then?”
“I have a friend who is a buyer for a department store with a huge bridal section. They usually only hold samples for three months, and then they change out the stock and put all the samples into a holding room until they have a huge sample sale once a year.”
“Okay,” I say slowly.
“Their sample sale is in a couple of weeks, but she owed me a favor, so she’s letting us into the sample room today. There are hundreds of dresses for you to choose from,” Cora says excitedly.
“Are you serious?” I gasp.
“Yep. This is going to be so much fun.”
Instead of going to a mall, we arrive at a huge outlet store in an industrial unit with shutters pulled down over what I’m assuming is the entrance doors.
Knight’s car is already parked outside, and when we slow to a stop beside him, Etta, Betty, and Leo all spill out of the back seat, followed by Octy, who waits in the car until Knight opens her door.
As a group, we all follow Cora around to the rear of the building, where we’re greeted by a smiling woman who introduces herself as Jill.
She leads us into the back of the store through a small service door.
“Cora, I can’t believe you have three children now,” Jill says, peering longingly into the baby carrier Cora is carrying.
“I know,” Cora sighs, unstrapping baby Jerico and bringing him to her chest.
“We haven’t told anyone yet, but I’m pregnant,” Jill whispers, like she’s worried saying it too loud will make it not true.
Cora’s expression softens. “Jill, I’m so happy for you guys.”
“The doctors said it wouldn’t happen. It doesn’t feel real yet, except for the fact that my boobs are enormous and sore.” She giggles.
“You just wait until you’re crying and laughing and furious all at the same time. Being pregnant is insane,” Cora says, and most of the women around me nod in agreement.
“I’ll take insanity if it means I have a baby in the end,” Jill says softly, stroking a finger over Jerico’s tiny hand.
“Okay,” she says, turning away from the baby.
“The rails are through here.” She opens a door and steps into a huge store filled with rails full of wedding dresses.
“There’s a changing room in the far corner.
I have a load of admin to do, so I’m going to set my laptop up in the back office. Shout at me if you need anything.”
“Thank you so much for this, Jill, and congratulations,” Cora says, hugging the woman with one arm while she holds her baby with her other.
Once Jill has left, Cora takes a fabric sling out of her diaper bag and positions Jerico in it, unfastening a clip on her dress and freeing her boob so the baby can latch onto it.
“Okay, split up. Everyone pull two dresses for Lemon to try on, then we can narrow down styles from there,” Cora orders, cradling the baby through the sling as she strides forward into the aisles of rails.
The next twenty minutes are insane. Knight stands by the door like he’s guarding us from some unknown threat while the rest of us search the sea of rails for dresses for me to try on.
By the time I make my way to the dressing room, with a dress over each arm, almost all the others are there too, and there’s a rail full of all different styles of dresses for me to try on.