Chapter 38
SHADE
“Shit,” I mutter when I pull up outside the towering castle of a house.
It’s closer to a mansion than anything else, but I’m still not sure if this is actually where Millie lives or if this is a resort. Surely, she didn’t grow up in a resort, but I can’t comprehend living somewhere like this.
It’s three stories high with a wide, curling driveway in front and dual balconies attached to both sides.
The exterior is a dark stone with a white-and-black double-sided door, because obviously, one wasn’t enough.
The longer I look at the place, the more I hate it.
This type of flashy wealth has never appealed to me.
When someone bleeds money like this, they always make a show of making sure everyone who stumbles upon them knows it.
I don’t need to look inside the separate eight-car garage to the left of the main house to know it’s crammed full of luxury cars that never get driven and every toy imaginable.
Side-by-sides, dirt bikes, maybe even a boat with a giant ski tower on it.
They’ll never get dirty or feel the rock of a wave, but when it comes to giving a house tour, they sure will draw a few surprised approvals.
Shelly knew exactly where she was sending me when I asked for the address.
When Millie filled out all of the paperwork to stay at the campground, she didn’t know she was giving Shelly permission to Google stalk her house.
The nosey woman probably looked that first night and kept her opinions on the place to herself this entire time.
Pulling up beside the giant water fountain in the middle of the driveway, I try to ignore my discomfort. It doesn’t matter what these people say to me or about me. I’m here for Millie, and I’m not leaving without her.
There must be people trapped in the goddamn shrubs because I can feel myself being watched the moment I step out of the car. I can’t spot anyone lingering out here, but they’re around somewhere. It’s enough to have my skin crawling.
I don’t bother locking my car before heading for the front door.
Nobody here is going to try to steal it.
The closest they’d get is having it towed so it didn’t sit like a shit stain on their driveway for too long.
Fuck, I don’t know how Millie lived here for so long.
I’ve been here for three minutes and can already feel the poison in the air start to affect me.
Skipping both of the stone steps, I knock on the door and ring the doorbell twice.
It’s not snowing here the way it was the first half of my drive, but the ski hill I had to pass on my way up here was still busy, thick with it.
The fake kind of snow that sticks beneath your boots and gets as slick as ice after a wet freeze.
The door opens after a minute. I hold myself steady when a woman appears in front of me, somehow glaring down her nose at me despite being far shorter. Dark hair is swept tightly behind her head as she taps her hip impatiently.
“Who are you?”
Jesus, she reminds me of Bryce’s mother.
From the smug expressions to their hoity-toity voices, I have to do a double take to make sure this isn’t actually her.
The solidifying difference is that not even Bryce’s mother could afford earrings with diamonds that big.
They damn near look painful as her lobes droop.
I skip her question entirely, my gut telling me she already knows. “I’m here to see Millie.”
“Oh, I bet you are,” she snips, giving me a brutal up-and-down look. Her disgust seems to triple by the time she’s done. “You can leave now.”
“Nah, not yet. Let me see her.”
“Do I need to call my husband?”
I chuckle, flattening a hand to the door when she tries to shut it in my face. “Yeah, you go do that.”
“This is breaking and entering!”
“Call it in and I’ll report you for kidnapping.”
Her gasp is dramatic as hell, nude-painted lips spreading wide. “That’s outrageous. You don’t have the nerve.”
“Try me,” I dare, voice low.
She doesn’t hesitate to jump out of my way when I push past her and enter the house.
It’s worse inside than outside, all high ceilings and chandeliers that glimmer from the exuberant number of crystals on them.
I fight a cringe and continue walking, not stopping until I’m at the bottom of a rounded staircase that looks up onto a balcony.
“Millie!” I shout, caging my mouth with my hands. “Millie!”
I can hear high heels clipping on the floor behind me. “You need to leave.”
“Not without your daughter.”
Her mother grabs my wrist and tries to pull me. “Now!”
One tug and she’s releasing me, leaving red marks from her nails. I step away from her and go to the stairs, glancing back for half a second.
“Is she upstairs?”
Her lips clamp shut, eyes glowing with silent rage. It’s the only answer I need.
I take the stairs two at a time, shouting when I get halfway up. “Millie, it’s me!”
There’s a loud clang from behind me as I pick up my pace and tear down the hall. Passing door after door, I move quickly, knowing it’s only a matter of time before her father pops out like a fucking ghoul and tries to push me back down the stairs.
We’ve been apart for two goddamn days, and if I don’t get to her soon, I’m going to—
It’s got to be a joke from the universe when the fucker she was supposed to marry butts into me instead of her. The sight of him in her house is bad enough, but throw in the curl of his lip when he notices who it is he just ran into and I’m on a hair trigger.
“Get out of my way,” I grit out.
Chadwick pushes his gelled hair back and tries to stand off against me. “You’re not welcome in the Harringtons’ home.”
“Are you a long-lost brother or something? Why the fuck are you speaking on their behalf?”
“You’re the reason she’s not the same,” he spits, smashing a hand to my chest. “You changed her, and now everything has gone to shit.”
Alarm blasts through me. “What do you mean?”
“You and those drawings all over your skin! She was perfect. A sweet, quiet girl meant to be my wife. Now, she won’t keep her mouth shut and let things be the way they were supposed to!”
“You need to shut yours before you say anything worse than what you already have,” I warn softly, meeting his glare with one far worse.
Chadwick doesn’t stop while he’s even marginally ahead. He pushes me harder, further, until I’m positive I’m going to smash his face into a thousand unsalvageable pieces.
“She’s worthless to this family now that you’ve soiled her. If she chooses you again, she’ll be nothing worse than a degenerate like you.”
I don’t think. In a blink, I have my arm pulled back and fist raised. It’s not me who punches him, though.
I’m shoved to the side a mere second before a much smaller fist is flying through the air and smashing into his nose. He goes stumbling backward, shock and pain registering in his eyes before he falls onto his ass.
“Shit!”
A familiar curse snaps me into action. Whipping my head to the side, I find Millie clutching her hand, bent over at the waist. My body focuses on her as I turn away from the whimpering, bleeding idiot on the floor and scoop her into my arms.
My chest loosens while my heart ramps up, filling my ears with a quick thump, thump, thump. Millie’s blue eyes are wide when they meet mine. I laugh without meaning to, letting it fill the gap between us before I’m pressing her to the wall, filling my hands with her thighs.
“Is it broken?” she asks, reminding me of her knuckles.
While a little red, they’re fine. “No, princess. His nose must have been made of rubber.”
Her smile is bright, so pure it makes my knees shake. I use my body to pin her to the wall and bring a hand up to cup her cheek, stroking the soft, warm skin.
“Two days have never felt so long to me, Millie. Not once in my entire fucking life have I missed anyone the way I missed you.”
“What took so long?”
I quirk a brow. “What?”
“I’ve been ready to go back since the moment I got here.
Before that, even. I should have never gotten in that car,” she declares, bringing both her hands to rest on my shoulders.
“I was waiting for you to tell me to stay so I didn’t have to make the decision on my own, when that’s what I’ve always needed to do. ”
“I should have told you I love you weeks ago when I started realizing I couldn’t shake you.
The moment you started infiltrating my thoughts at all hours of the day, I should have known something was going on.
When I couldn’t help but ask you to live with me—to share my place and rearrange my things without giving a shit what you replaced them with.
That’s never been me, Millie. But then I woke up one day, and suddenly, it was.
“I don’t know how you did it so effortlessly, but you’ve become so engrained in my life that I don’t want to spend another day, let alone two, without you beside me again.
It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting in another one of your book clubs or watching you across the studio as you sketch away at your desk.
The only thing I want is to be close to you.
All I need you to do is decide that you want that too. ”
Her eyes shine as she exhales a near-silent breath and nods, her thighs tightening around my waist. “I love you, Shade. Every coloured, cocky, yet patient and talented inch of you. You helped me find who I am, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for that.
But you also encouraged me to take that person and grow into a version of myself that I didn’t think even existed.
I’ve never been as happy as I was with you in Oak Point.
Not once, and I know I won’t be until I’m back.
So, all I need is for you to take us home now. ”
I drop my chin and claim her lips, kissing her the way I wish I had two days ago.
She meets me with equal strength and loops an arm around my nape, pulling me closer.
I squeeze her thighs, reacquainting my palms with the lack of tights on her bare legs.
My smirk forces our lips apart when I run my hands higher beneath her short skirt, opening my eyes to see her trying not to laugh.
“Jesus,” Chadwick grunts.
I roll my forehead across hers and look at him on the floor, still clutching his nose. Millie doesn’t let go of me, so I keep her right where she is.
“Problem?” I ask him.
“This is her parents’ house,” he hisses in disgust.
Millie wiggles then, so I let her down. She’s wearing her heels inside the house here when she never did back home. It’s such a small thing to notice, but it doesn’t slip past me.
“It was you who said the minute I chose Shade, I wouldn’t be a Harrington anymore, so why should I care whether it’s their house or not?”
My groin tightens at her attitude before I tug her waist and bring her back to my side. “You’re not leaving without your things this time, princess.”
“Right. My room is down the hall.”
She takes my hand and leads me past Chadwick. I keep him beneath my stare until I’m positive he isn’t going to follow. And once we’re slipping into a pink room, he’s the last thing on my mind.
“I’ve already packed,” she reveals, heading for a giant sliding door.
With a tug, it starts to glide on a track, revealing a deep walk-in closet. I blink a few times, trying to get used to the sight of it before she’s no longer in sight. Waiting in the middle of the room, I slip my hands into my pockets and stare at the empty spot where she just was.
“I came here with a whole plan,” I start, hoping my voice carries to where she is.
“Are you going to tell me what it was or keep it a secret?”
“Come out here first.”
Peeking her head out, she tries and fails to hide a grin. “Well?”
“I wasn’t exactly anticipating you coming to my rescue and punching someone in the face for me today, so you threw a wrench into everything.”
“Well, sorry for trying to show off for you.”
I roll my eyes, taking a handful of steps in her direction. “Never apologize for that. All it means is that I get to beg for forgiveness without the fear of you rejecting me after all.”
“So, technically, I did you two favours,” she teases.
“Christ, baby. Stop picking on me for a minute.” With a low laugh, I reach into the back pocket of my jeans and pull out what I brought with me.
She freezes, staring at the hot pink leather collar like she doesn’t know whether to chuck it out the window or ask me to put it on her. Heat flares in my stomach at her second reaction before I clear my throat.
“Is that supposed to be a gift for me?” she asks, pitch rising.
I almost whip it across the room. “No. Fuck no. It’s more of a figurative thing.”
“I’m so confused.”
“Just remember you’re responsible for me doing this, okay? You’re not allowed to get the ick and leave my ass after I’m done.”
Her brows pinch together as I drop to my knees and throw away my ego for as long as it takes to do this.
Without hesitating any longer, I drop my head back and start barking like a fucking dog. The instant alarm in her eyes is quickly overcome with amusement. Her hand presses to her mouth, hiding her loud, carefree laugh.
I grin as I howl, soaking up the bright sound of her happiness. It feels like it goes on forever until she drops to a crouch in front of me and shuts me up with a kiss. I palm her back, holding her in place before letting her pull back, shaking her head at me.
“I thought you said you’d never bark for a woman.”
“I said a lot of shit that isn’t true anymore, Millie. Turns out I just hadn’t let myself accept that I’d do anything you asked, as long as it meant I got to keep you.”
“The collar was a nice touch,” she says, taking it from me. Twisting it around, she pinches the single charm hanging from the leather. “A cowboy hat?”
“I don’t have one to put on your head, but I was hoping it would still count.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You don’t seem to mind too much,” I drawl.
“I’ll suck it up, I guess.”
And then she’s kissing me again, making it true.