Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ACE
My stomach was in knots. That couldn’t be a normal reaction when it came to waiting for your best friend’s wife to come down the stairs, right? She was ready, at least from what I heard, but she refused to let us look at her as she held up in the library, insisting she needed to make a grand entrance down the staircase. Was that a thing?
Apparently so.
And we all stood around and waited, letting her do whatever the hell she wanted because we were soft, soft as fuck for her. Only her. How did that happen? How did I get myself so tied up with a woman like this? One that fell into our group effortlessly, like she was always meant to be here.
That room, the primary suite that Adam made, was too much, and yet everything I could ask for. I hadn’t expected him to go this far, to go all in. Though I shouldn’t be shocked. He’d always been an all-in type of guy. I just never thought it would apply to having a four-way relationship with his wife as the center.
And kids? He wanted more. Ours. His. Theirs. Mine.
Why did I feel like I was living in an alternate universe, and at any moment, the veil would split open, and the world would return to normal? To the sad, pitiful, soulless normal that we had all become too accustomed to. Because my dreams, this reality, were blending and meshing, and I was having a hard time distinguishing between the two.
I’d always wanted a family. Maybe it was the need to make up for the childhood I lost out on. Maybe it was because something in me, deep down, really just wanted to feel the same love I was desperate to give. The love I’d never had an outlet for. The love that completely died with my sister, causing my heart to fail to feel a damn thing.
Until Bellamy.
What was she doing to us?
To me?
For a moment I looked at my best friend, and I wondered if Elizabeth would hate this. Would she despise him for what we were doing? Hate us for finding the only way we could cope with love? The only way we could feel secure enough to love and ensure the safety of the one we picked? She always judged more than I liked. How would she judge us now?
“The garden is looking nice.” Adam broke into my thoughts as he stood a few feet away, his black-on-black suit making the yellow silk pocket square pop. “Elizabeth would have loved that it was brought back to life.”
How the hell did he know I was thinking of her?
Because he was too, clearly.
“You think so?” I looked at the shiny tile under my polished shoe, finding the matching shine amusing.
“I do. She loved it there. She would have hated to see how I let it go,” he admitted.
“We,” I corrected because this wasn’t all on him. I could have kept it up. Mercer could have. We all could have, but we opted not to.
“We,” he agreed and, after a long pause, spoke again. “I think, I hope, she’d be okay with this. Just so you know. I haven’t forgotten she existed just because I’ve moved on to something new. If anything, because I’ve chosen to move on, sometimes I think Elizabeth is all I can think about. But it also needs to stop. It’s not fair to Belle. And I can have thoughts about Elizabeth, and I should, but they needn’t be worrying if I’m doing something wrong. This isn’t wrong, Ace. Not when it feels right, feels perfect.”
I licked my lips while I thought about what to say to my friend. I didn’t want him to have the tortured soul that loving and failing someone gifts you. He deserved better, and I was glad that he had chosen a path that finally would gift him happiness. But I was still afraid deep down that maybe I didn’t have a place mixed in with him and Mercer. Maybe our girl wasn’t ours at all, but theirs.
“I think?—“
The door shutting upstairs tore my gaze upward and cut off my words. Mercer instantly stood from where he lounged a room over and stepped up next to us, waiting for Bellamy to emerge. We didn’t wait long. Moments later, she appeared like a goddess at the top of the stairs, a book in her hand and silk hugging against her curves so perfectly I was literally drooling.
When no one spoke, probably as speechless as I was, she finally twisted some of the silk into her fingertips and asked, “Well, do I look okay?”
“Do you look okay?” I huffed out, barely able to speak.
“Little one, you look good enough to eat.” Mercer picked up where I left off. He jogged up the stairs toward her. “In fact, I might need a taste just to survive tonight.”
When he met her at the top of the stairs, she looked down at her dress. “Are you sure this is fine?”
“More than fine.” Adam finally got words out. “The way that dress fits you is art, Belle. The curves of your body are perfection.”
Mercer took the book from her hand and helped guide her down the stairs, holding onto her as she took the steps down, her heels clacking against each step, creating a seductive melody. She was halfway down when she spoke again. “I didn’t think I’d like yellow, but it is gorgeous. And the jewels are perfect. Not too much to be heavy, but enough to draw attention.”
“Like you need more attention.” Mercer laughed. “Look at them. They are fucking speechless. I think they are still trying to rewire their brains into words.”
“He’s correct.” Adam swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple working against the movement. When she was close enough, he reached out a hand, and she took it, guiding her to the ground so that he could lean in and kiss her. Under his breath he muttered, “This dress...”
“Does not give me the option of undergarments,” she whispered to him, her eyes sparkling with the knowledge that the information she just provided might just kill him tonight. Might just kill us all.
“Fuck,” he cursed as he placed his hand against the bump of her abdomen. “I think we need to cancel.”
She patted his chest affectionately. “It’s your event.”
“And I’ve decided I don’t want to be there,” he persisted.
“After I went through the trouble of this hair and make-up?”
“That looks absolutely gorgeous, might I add.” His wink offered her the knowledge that he was only playing with her, and he’d definitely be taking her out and showing her off. “What about a deal?”
“Oh?” She smiled and leaned away from his body so she could look fully at his face. “What type of deal?”
“The type that says I’ll behave this evening if there is a promise of mischief tonight.” He spoke low, his voice husky with all the promise that I was sure would come.
Her face reddened, making the yellow of the silk stand out beautifully. After a few moments where their heated stares filled the room with thick lust and desire, she finally agreed. “Deal.”
Mercer stepped forward, leaning in behind her and speaking close to her ear. “I never made a promise about behaving.”
He placed her book back in her hand, then he walked past them, grabbing the doorknob and holding it open. Adam looked like it physically pained him to do so, but he parted away from her. “I need to let our security know we’re leaving. It will only take a moment, okay?”
He didn’t wait for a response before he rushed outside. She met my eyes, the tiniest of smiles teasing her lips before she stepped forward, wrapping her fingers around mine until I turned my hand and entwined our hands together. She stepped close, stood on her toes and buried her face in my shoulder, while whispering, “Don’t leave me tonight, okay? I can handle them walking away, but not you. I need you by me.”
Me? She needed me?
No one ever needed me. Even when my sister was alive and we were separated into different homes, she never needed me. She grew too independent to depend on someone like her brother to keep her safe. But Bellamy, the way she leaned into me, squeezing my hand, as if I’d protect her from harm… I’d almost believe she spoke the truth.
“Why?” was the only word I got out through the lump in my throat.
“Because.” Her voice was a whisper, making the hairs on my arm stand up. “You calm me.”
I calmed her.
Me.
Not Adam, who, by all rights, should. He was her husband, after all.
Not Mercer, with his carefree attitude and easy smile.
Me.
I squeezed her fingers. “I won’t leave you. I promise you that.”
Never.
Not when my chest felt like it was flayed and carved open, completely exposed by this sweet thing next to me.
She looked up at me and smiled. She was so short compared to all of us, fragile next to our brute strength, and maybe we all just needed a little of her softness around to remind us we were human. Sometimes it was hard to remember our humanity when blood coated our skin and schemes of power consumed our minds.
I leaned down and kissed her forehead, before releasing her hand and offering her my arm. “Shall we go, princess?”
She took it, her painted nails wrapping around my bicep as I led her out of the house. “I thought I was queen among the beasts?”
I couldn’t help it. I threw my head back and laughed. I shouldn’t say it, I knew, but I couldn’t resist. “Princess in public, queen in private, where we can worship every gorgeous curve and do your bidding.”
“Is that so?” She hummed, the sound vibrating in her throat as she took a step down toward the waiting vehicle. “Well, in that case. I’ll walk by your side tonight, Mr. Barrett, like the good princess I am.”
“Go on?” I knew it was coming, something more to that statement. I felt it knot in my stomach as an alluring taunt.
She took a step below me and looked at me over her shoulder. “If you promise to spend your night bowing at your queen's feet.”
“Jesus Christ.” The curse left me and she smirked. “Anything.”
It was all I could get out. I’d do anything for her. Anything she asked. With a promise like that, how could I deny her? The answer? I couldn’t. She was my best friend’s wife, and I’d bow down before her with a single snap of her manicured fingers.
“Such a good boy.” She reached up and patted my cheeks. “So fucking good.”
Then she took Adam’s hand, and he helped her into the back seat while I stood there, dumbfounded and hornier than I’ve been in my entire life. All for this girl.