Chapter Nine #5
Blinking herself out of those intrusive thoughts, Violet watched Reaux set Tamsyn on her feet. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a handkerchief of all things, and proceeded to clean her face with the fatherly tenderness of a man tending to an upset toddler.
Clutching his wrist in both hands, Tamsyn said something to him, her face crumpling again, but Reaux simply shook his head firmly, nudging her chin with his knuckle, then winked at her. Tucking the handkerchief away, he offered her his hand and led her back to the group with dignity.
“Sorry that took so long,” he said to Merrick. “The pixie’s a tough nut to crack.”
“It was ten minutes,” Merrick replied, obviously shocked.
“Like I said,” Reaux murmured, carefully handing Tamsyn back to her Dom and waiting for her to snuggle into him before sliding in beside Violet, “tough nut. She’s okay now, aren’t you, pixie?”
A tired nod was her reply.
“Good girl. Now, what did we miss?”
“Nothing much.” Intrigued, Violet leaned in close enough to whisper, “What did you do?”
“Do? What I do best, Mistress.”
“Boudreaux.”
“It’s a secret. Tamsyn will tell you if and when she’s ready.”
For a shocking moment, she wondered if she and Tabitha weren’t the only ones in the waiting to find out stage of the pregnancy game, but dismissed it quickly.
Tamsyn was absurdly na?ve about her own body and its capabilities, thanks to her upbringing; if she was pregnant, Merrick would know before she did.
“Do you really want to test my temper, boy?”
“That depends. Is it fueled by a certain kind of hormones? Because I’m pretty sure that’s an epic level of hotness I’m just not ready for.” Grinning, he bent and nipped her mouth. “Getting fucked by my pregnant wife would open up a whole barrel of kinky exploits.”
“Not your wife. Possibly not pregnant,” she reminded him in a deadly quiet hiss.
“Yet.” He yelped when she snagged his nipple through his shirt, twisting sharply enough to sit him ramrod straight as chuckles rippled around the tables. “Fine, fine. I may have promised you’ll partake in Zoom conversations with the pixie.”
“Oh. Well, that’s not a problem.” Violet released his nipple. “Of course, it’s not.”
Reaux did his best to look innocent as he rubbed his hand over the ache. “Every day.”
“Every what?”
“Every day, eight p.m. Denver time.”
Callie and Sierra both jumped on that without hesitation. “Us too!”
Wonderful. It still wasn’t an issue—anything she could do to ease the transition was fine with her—but she wasn’t going to let him think he could just organize her life without any input from her.
“Did you think to run that by with her Dom? You know, the guy who controls her schedule on a day-to-day basis to keep her in a routine she can rely on?”
“Oh, fuck.” Reaux frowned, then shrugged and turned to face the man in question. “Merrick, are you okay with Violet calling the pixie every day at eight p.m.?”
“If it keeps my little owl happy, Violet can call whenever she damn likes.”
Evidently pleased, Reaux turned back to her and grinned again, smugly this time. “He’s cool with it.”
A lifetime of this, she thought in exasperation. God forbid she was actually pregnant—she knew who would be the strict parent and who was going to be the pushover. “I heard.”
“Is the wine not to standard?” Elias asked from the far end of the table, scowling down toward them. The eagle-eyed sonofabitch flicked his gaze from Tabitha’s full glass to Violet’s—only the two of them were ‘drinking’; Callie, Sierra, and Tamsyn all had juice in their glasses.
“Uh…” Violet shared a joint look of alarm with Tabitha.
“Let me taste.” Concerned, Liam took the glass Grit obligingly passed him and sipped. “No, that’s good. It’s a good vintage,” he said, sipping again. “Remind me to order some more of that.”
It happened in slow motion.
Violet saw Elias’s scowl deepen, his focus lifting from the wine as he concluded it wasn’t the issue, to study first her face, then Tabitha’s with fierce intensity. That dark head cocked curiously before his right eyebrow rose in question.
Blue eyes bore into hers, sparking with realization and knowledge. “I see. Indeed, I do. I suppose congratulations are in order.”
Fuck. Fuckity fuck.
Commanding the group’s attention as effectively as always, Elias stood and lifted his glass, his eyes still flicking between her and Tabitha.
“A toast. With any luck, this won’t be the last time we all come together before Violet departs, but life is a mysterious beast at times.
It gives,” he said pointedly, “even as it takes. It has been the upmost pleasure to have you as one of our Mistresses, Violet. An honor to hold your company. The door to Serenity will always be open for you and Reaux… and whomever else you welcome into your family.”
Under the guise of pretending to be overwhelmed by his gesture, Violet pressed her hand to her chest. Perhaps he was aware she would kill him if he outed either her or Tabitha—God knew she was beaming the thought into his head like a laser—because he refrained from further teasing.
“A toast to our irreplaceable Mistress Violet.”
All the glasses raised in the air and clinked to the closest one as her name rang out.
“Hey, did someone start the party without us?”
Fordham and Levi strolled up; the photographer’s camera was slung over his shoulder, probably still cooling down from however many disturbingly sexy photos he’d taken during the shoot.
“Sorry we’re late,” Ford said quietly. “I told Levi to come on ahead while I finished business, but he insisted on wandering around pretending to be a photographer until I was done.”
“Pretending, my ass.” Grunting in dismissal, Levi reached into his back pocket and pulled something out, tossing it at Reaux.
“Dude, you forgot the box. I’ve got epic photos of the proposal.
Sure as hell wasn’t expecting that while I was working,” he added emphatically with a baleful side glance at Fordham, “but you guys made my night.”
The only sound left in the room was the low hum of music coming from the speakers. Once again, all eyes swung to pin Violet on the hot seat, although it was refreshing for Reaux to be caught up in the collective stare of disbelief this time.
“Damn it,” she whispered.
“He proposed?”
“You said yes?”
“You’re engaged?”
Questions fired from everywhere at once, from everyone around the tables, until words seemed to hang in the air and suffocate her.
Clucking his tongue softly, Levi scratched his jaw. “Guess that wasn’t the big announcement you wanted to make, huh? Shit, sorry, Vi.”
Sorry was all well and good until the cat planted its claws in the damn bag it refused to return to after an asshole let it escape.
Rubbing her temples, she was trying to figure out a reply that didn’t include a barrage of insults followed by slapping him across the face, but a small, hurt voice asked, “Were you not going to tell us?”
This just couldn’t get any worse, could it? First, she’d devastated Tamsyn with one revelation, then wounded her again by withholding another.
Smooth as polished ice, Reaux stepped in to rescue her yet again.
“Actually, pixie, we wanted to tell everyone. Some happy news to balance the sad. However, it came to our attention that Sierra might have something to share, something much more important than this, so we decided to wait a couple days.”
It didn’t go unnoticed that he said we and our. Not I or she.
He was accepting the blame as much as he could, prepared to shoulder the burden.
“Wait, what have we missed?” Fordham frowned, scanning faces. “What sad news?”
Evander spoke up as he shifted Callie on his knee, bouncing her like a toddler as she threatened to throw a tantrum.
“The Mistress will be leaving us in a couple weeks, Ford. She and Reaux are returning to New Orleans, apparently as an engaged couple.” A slow, satisfied smile tugged at his mouth.
“I think you owe me fifty bucks, brother.”
Ford had the good sense to look sheepish. “Meddling matchmaker.”
“Master Meddling Matchmaker,” Evander corrected, then ducked his head when Violet glowered at him, concealing his grin in his beard.
“You took bets on that ridiculous contract?” she demanded.
“We took bets on the outcome of that ridiculous contract. It’s become evident we hired a lot of suckers—the only one who put money on this result, aside from yours truly, was Merrick.”
Oh, the betrayal cut deep. She cast her friend a dark, dirty look.
Merrick just shrugged. “Told you I like the guy, Vi. Kinda hard to bet against a guy determined to win back the love of his life.”
Her temper began to vibrate, driven by those pesky hormones.
Before she could explode, Reaux ran a soothing hand down her back and commandeered the conversation again, holding his other hand up to bring the group to silence once more.
“We’re losing track of our direction here.
You can kick their asses later, Bennie, if you still feel inclined, but I think Sierra has been extremely patient this evening, waiting for Fordham and Levi to arrive. ”
Of course, he was right. If they didn’t change course now, Sierra and her surprise were going to fade into the chaos of everything else. Tomorrow was soon enough to rip her friends a new one for betting on a private matter that didn’t involve them.
“All right, sweetheart,” Reaux continued when the chatter died down, sweeping his hand toward the group once Fordham and Levi squeezed in. “We’re all ears.”
The little redhead looked at her Daddies for reassurance, chewing her lip nervously. She got a nod from Liam, a wink from Mack, and shakily got to her feet, whispering, “We are pleased to announce—”
“Speak up, little one, we can’t hear you,” Elias coaxed gently, showing his rarely-displayed-in-public tender side.