Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
Dropping my hand with a scoff, I backed away and drank in the sight of Hunter, dazed and undone. She stared at me as if I had slapped her. “I know exactly what you two have been doing, Hunter. No need to explain. You can fuck Ocean. You can fuck me. But you can’t be with either of us, right?”
“Coby, wait,” she pleaded.
I turned to go. “Thanks for the cake.”
I stood on a dais in the bridal boutique in Black Veil, staring into the wall-length mirror but not seeing myself. The gold and crystal chandelier above me glittered, showing off my glowing skin.
I only wish I felt the same inside.
I wore a satin-and-lace number with a sweetheart neckline, a firm bodice, a long train, and an oversized bow at the back. I looked like a princess—like the angel Ocean called me—but today…
Today, I felt truly wicked.
It was a little late for a final fitting, but money talked, and bullshit walked. With the help of Ocean’s cousins, I’d found the perfect wedding dress weeks ago. But I couldn’t stop reliving last night to care. I couldn’t stop missing my mom and wishing she were here to help.
No one could ever replace her, but at least I wasn’t alone.
“Some girls dream about this day, but your mind seems a million miles away,” Effie noted as she gently touched my hand. “You’re thinking about your mother, aren’t you?”
Tearing up, I looked down at Ocean’s mom and saw her son’s eyes staring back at me.
They looked a lot alike.
Just picture a softer, tinier, feminine version of Ocean, and you have Euphemia Kilpatrick.
She was breathtaking, and her kindness made her even more so. The only thing Ocean had inherited from his father was his power, money, and penchant for cruelty.
Except Ocean wielded his for good. He used it to protect, not to crush those around him indiscriminately.
“Yes,” I answered plainly, not wanting to say more and risk sobbing like a baby all over my future mother-in-law. “And I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”
“This life,” she stated knowingly. “It can be a lot. I know.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, because blaming my sorrow on being in a whole new world was an easy scapegoat.
“My son can be demanding, too,” Effie stated with a sigh. “He’ll roll right over you if you let him.” And then she eyed me. “You’re not, are you? I hope he’s been good to you.”
“Oh, yes. He’s um… Ocean’s not what I expected.”
“I’m sure he feels the same way with you. Ocean’s kindness and generosity often surprise even himself. He runs from it because of his father, but I’m hoping that you can help him with that. You and that brave young lady you both speak so highly of.”
My eyes flared as I met Effie’s in the mirror.
She smiled knowingly as she strutted away, sipping her third glass of champagne.
Suddenly, the heavy curtain shielding one of the dressing rooms parted, and Hunter stepped out wearing her maid-of-honor gown.
It was a champagne number with a low scooped neckline and high split that showed off the curve of her thigh.
Priscilla had shown me a number of bridal party gowns, and I remembered choosing this one weeks ago because I knew that Hunter would love it.
The rest of the room faded away as I admired how her hips pulled at the crystal satin. It was a good thing Effie was no longer standing there because I couldn’t hide my attraction to Hunter anymore if I tried.
“Damn, Coby.” Hunter rushed to my side as fast as she could in the mermaid-style gown.
“You look so beautiful. This dress is so you.” And then I realized it was Hunter’s first time seeing my wedding dress.
In a perfect world, she would have been there to help me choose it.
In fact, I never imagined it going any other way.
“Thanks,” I said quietly.
“And Hunter, you also look stunning, baby,” Effie complimented.
Hunter beamed. “Thank you, Mrs. K.”
“I told you,” my future mother-in-law gently reminded her. “Call me Effie.”
Hunter glanced at me, probably feeling like she was encroaching on my future mother-in-law. Seeing that I wasn’t going to descend into a jealous rage, she conceded with a shy smile. “Okay. Effie.”
“This was such a great choice, Coby,” Ocean’s mom praised while studying Hunter more closely. “I think the color goes beautifully with the theme you chose.”
My gaze slowly met Hunter’s in the mirror. “Yeah… I think she looks beautiful.”
It didn’t occur to me until I saw Hunter look away that Effie had asked how I felt about the dress, not how it looked on Hunter.
Officially embarrassed and unable to trust myself around anyone right now, I excused myself and hurried off the dais. I had to lift the ample skirt of my gown to move as quickly as the satin and crystal Christian Louboutin pumps would allow.
The bridal dressing room was the size of an oversized closet to accommodate all the extra material in the wedding gowns.
It even had mirrors with built-in LED lighting to taunt me with the glimmer of the tears I had yet to shed.
I put my face in my hands, my shoulders trembling with the effort it took to hold them back.
Eventually, I collapsed into a sea of white satin and lace, and that’s where I stayed. I stewed in my misery until the curtains were ripped back without warning. Fearing it was Effie, I snatched my hands away and stood with some excuse ready on my lips, but it was worse.
It wasn’t my future mother-in-law who had snuck in while my wounds were wide open.
It was the one who’d dealt them. My best friend. My ride or die. The one person I would let hurt me over and over.
Hunter.
Today was her debut as my new bodyguard, so she was dressed once again in her all-black uniform—skin-tight cargo pants, boots, and a shoulder holster over her shirt. She was armed to the teeth with her long braid cascading down her back and her baby hairs laid.
The moment I finished eye-fucking her through my tears, she shoved me against the mirrored wall—much like I’d done to her last night in Glamis’s lavish kitchen—and got in my face.
“What is it with you, Coby? You’re either being stolen away from me or running away all on your own. I’m getting sick of it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said pathetically. “I fucked up.”
“Shut up already.” Hunter gave me no option but to obey when she pressed her soft lips against mine, hard enough to steal my breath.
Ocean’s kisses always felt like the stars were aligning.
With Hunter, I heard them sing. Her hands glided over my bare shoulders, down my arms, and circled my wrists.
“If you don’t know that I never stopped wanting you,” she whispered between kisses, “you’re not as smart as I thought. ”
“You said we had to stop. You said we couldn’t be like that because one day it might end and we’d lose each other forever.”
“I know.” Hunter ended the kiss and exhaled heavily as she shook her head. “I’m not very smart either.”
Was I dreaming? Or was this really happening, meaning I’d died and gone to heaven?
Hunter kissed me again as if she’d heard my thoughts and wanted to prove that it wouldn’t be like last time. I waited for this to feel awkward or wrong, but it didn’t. Not now and not then.
When Hunter applied pressure to deepen the kiss, I didn’t back down this time. I granted the access she demanded and sighed into her mouth when I felt the tip of her tongue lick mine.
“Hunter,” I moaned. “What do we do now?”
Her hands grabbed the skirt of my gown and lifted it, gathering the satin around my waist. Knowing what she was after, I reached down and held my dress up for her to free her hands.
Her fingers began tracing the hem of my panties, and I parted my thighs, moaning when she bent and nipped the swell of my breasts spilling from the tight bodice.
“What do you want to do?” she returned coyly.
“I want you to touch me.”
I needed so much more than that, but for now, this would have to do.
Hunter was still a flight risk. She always had been.
The trail of broken hearts she’d left behind whenever things got too deep spoke for themselves.
I’d been the only one Hunter had ever let stay once in, but then she’d torn her own heart apart just to keep it from ruining me.
“Do you remember when I used to sneak into your room and play with you?” she asked, lowering my panties down my legs and following them until she was crouched.
“Yes.”
“I’d touch and kiss you here,” she whispered, brushing her knuckle against my warm slit. “You squirmed for me. Remember that?”
“Yes, Hunter,” I whined. “I remember. Stop teasing me. Please.” Hunter shifted her hand and slid two fingers deep.
My lashes fluttered as I leaned against the mirror.
My head fell to the side, and one glance in the mirror showed Hunter’s hand hidden underneath the heavy skirt of my wedding dress.
“God, yes,” I moaned as I rode her fingers. “Don’t stop, Hunter.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” she taunted. “You squirm for him now. Not for me.”
I opened my eyes enough to see jealousy and guilt warring within her own as she played with my pussy. “And you don’t?”
Hunter shoved to her feet and pushed her chest against mine, fucking her fingers in and out of me harder and faster. I could hear the proof of my want echoing around the small room. The wet slap of her fingers tunneling in and out. Even her warm breath on my hot skin was an aphrodisiac.
“Just say it, Coby.” Her eyes were dark and vengeful now, like she wanted to punish us both for falling for the same man. “I know you know.”
“You fucked him,” I accused.
“Yes.”
I came, my walls squeezing Hunter’s digits as she ground her heel against my clit to prolong it. My hips moved without any discernible rhythm, the rustle of the satin swishing as I chased my orgasm to the very end.
“Would you like to know how it happened?” Hunter teased as her fingers kept going.
My eyes drifted closed. Lord, help me. I nodded.
“Ocean undressed me, sniffed me, teased me…and then he bent me over the table while you were in the shower,” she told me.
I could already feel a second orgasm rushing to meet the first as she tormented me with her betrayal.
“My pussy was so tight, but he made me take it anyway. I wish you could have seen how hard he fucked me. How much he wanted it. I thought about you while your man was inside me. I fantasized about what it would be like if you had touched me, too. I came so hard for him, Coby. I left my cream all over his big, black dick, and I wanted so much for you to taste it. Taste us.”
“Oh, Hunterrrrrrr. Oh, fuuuuck.”
“I know,” she cooed. “Come for me, bestie. Please?”
My lips parted to cry out, but Hunter kissed me, swallowing my scream as I came even harder than the first time.
I’d forgotten my future mother-in-law was waiting on the other side of the curtain for us—possibly hearing every word, every sound.
I swore and pushed Hunter away.
She was breathing too heavily to say it, but her eyes told me we weren’t done yet.
My dress was still bunched around my waist, my expensive lace panties discarded and forever ruined. I let the hem of the gown fall, but I could still feel the evidence of what we’d done running down my thigh. My pussy was throbbing like it had a pulse, and I wanted more.
Hunter lifted her hand and held my gaze as she repeated my lewd actions from the night before and slipped both fingers in her mouth. “Mmmh,” she moaned. “Still as sweet as I remembered, bestie.”
I felt like I was tied in so many knots—Ocean, Hunter, the wedding, my brother…
When had life become so complicated?
Standing there, feeling thoroughly fucked, all I wanted to do was unravel.
It was the only explanation for why I rucked up my wedding gown again and pushed my best friend to her knees.
Hunter didn’t fight or question what I wanted as I desperately straddled her face without a word.
She simply watched me with possession in her eyes as her tongue darted out and began lashing my sensitive pussy.
The mirrors all around us made it impossible for us to hide from the lines we were blurring once more, but that was okay because I was done denying myself what I wanted.
Instead, I reveled in the sight of how we looked together.
Hunter dressed to kill with my pussy in her mouth.
And me, dressed to offer my hand in marriage to the man who had stamped his ownership over it.
I was very much aware that Ocean wouldn’t like me disobeying him, but I couldn’t bring myself to care as I swiveled my hips and rode my best friend’s face.
With tears streaming down my face, I stared at the scandalous vision we made as Hunter moaned and licked me into a third orgasm.
I was still mid-scream—muffled by my own hand over my mouth—when I heard a polite knock on the wall next to the dressing room and then the bridal stylist’s high-pitched voice penetrating my post-orgasmic bliss.
“Um, sorry to bother you. Mrs. Kilpatrick had to step out, but Mr. Kilpatrick is waiting for you in the lobby.” There was a pause and then. “He’d like to speak to you both.”
The stylist’s footsteps quickly hurried away.
“Shit,” I swore as Hunter’s head popped from underneath my dress. “Do you think they heard us?” Hunter’s face was blank as she gave a careless shrug. “Shit!” I cursed again. “Ocean can’t see me in my wedding dress.” Assuming there would even be a wedding after this. “Help me.”
I turned around to face the wall.
I waited several agonizing moments before Hunter stepped forward and helped me.
The gown fell to the floor with a heavy thud, and I quickly redressed in the clothes I came in. Before we left the dressing room, though, I couldn’t resist kissing Hunter one last time, tasting myself on her lips that were still glistening with my juices.
“I love you,” I whispered.
It wasn’t the first time I’d told her so, but it was the first time I’d meant it as anything but a friend. I didn’t give her time to reject me before I hurried out of the dressing room.
Hunter fell three steps behind me like Abel had reminded her before we left Glamis this morning.
I was careful not to meet any of the stylists’ and seamstresses’ eyes just in case they’d heard us.
It was eerily quiet in the boutique, adding to my nervousness, and I realized why when Hunter and I reached the lobby.
A tree-trunk of a man in an expensive suit towered by the door with two armed men guarding it, but it wasn’t Ocean waiting for us as we expected.
It was Malcolm Kilpatrick.
Ocean’s father.