Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Orla
Sheridan was pulling up outside just as I finished putting my makeup on. I was still in my robe, and realised just how fucking late I’d gotten up this morning. Fucking Bear hadn’t woken me up.
The asshole.
I’d left the door unlocked so she could easily get in while I finished up. The door unlocked and I heard her calling out to me.
“Be there in a minute!”
Her laughter carried down the hall and soon she looked in to see me still trying to curl my lashes.
“You’re not ready,” I said, looking over at her in jeans and a top.
“No, I’ll get dressed there. So will you. Get something on and let Shona finish us up.”
She was right. It was a hot day in Kilkenny today, so we’d probably sweat off anything I did here anyway.
I pulled everything into my cosmetics case and followed her down to the hall to the front door.
Grabbing my phone from the kitchen bench, I realised I hadn’t responded to her last night.
Bear had put it on charge for me, the fucking beast had a heart at least. As we got in the car, I turned to her.
“Are you nervous?”
“Nope,” she replied with a cheeky grin.
“You?”
“Why would I be?” I laughed as she started the car and headed down the road. She turned to me, the confusion written all over her face. Soon, she turned back to the road, a smile on her face.
“What? Oh…shit I forgot to look at my phone to respond last night. I’m sorry, but when Alex gets all naked, I lose my mind.”
Sheridan shook with laughter. “I know the feeling.”
“Did you send me another message?”
I tried to locate the phone, but I must have thrown it in the back with my cosmetic case.
“No, it’s all good. We’re almost there.”
We pulled up and I saw that the compound was a flurry of activity.
Sheridan ushered me inside, grabbing a couple of bags which I assumed was her dress and maybe my bridesmaid dress, and I grabbed my cosmetics case.
Shona and Maree were fussing over the twins as they got them ready.
They were dressed in bright red dresses and looked like young women.
I almost teared up at seeing them look so grown up.
“Get in the chair,” Shona issued to me. “I need to do this hair.”
I rolled my eyes as she painfully yanked my hair from my hair tie and messed with it.
“Why is it so knotty?”
“You can thank Bear for that with his constant tangling his fingers in it and yanking.”
“Ew!” Ryleigh protested. She and Shauna left the room to everyone’s laughter.
“Ah hell, they’ll figure it out sooner rather than later,” I said to Sheridan who rolled her eyes.
“Don’t remind me. They’ll be looking to lose their V cards soon, and I don’t think Coop is ready for that.”
I laughed, but I knew no man would be safe near those girls. Cooper could be intimidating as fuck when he wanted to be.
Shona made quick work of my hair and shoved a mirror in my face. My hair was piled half up on my head with curls coming down to frame my face.
“Damn,” I said. “That was quick.”
“Go get your dress on,” she said to me. Confused, I looked from her to Sheridan, who smirked over at me.
“What dress?”
“You might want to check your messages,” Sheridan offered as Maree tousled her hair. I moved over to where I’d set it down and looked down at the text chain between me and Sheridan, only, I hadn’t written any of this.
My eyes went wide when I saw the last few messages had come through when I’d been sleeping. Bear and Sheridan had set this up to be a double wedding.
I was getting married today.
“What the fuck?” I shot back at her.
“Hurry up,” she told me. “We don’t have all day.”
I moved down the hall to the office where two dresses hung from the door.
Sheridan’s dusty pink dress was perfect for her.
There was a large split up the side so she could easily get on the back of the bike when they rode off into the sunset, and it would show her busty cleavage just enough to entice Cooper to forget where he was too.
Good girl, I thought.
The dress next to her was a black shimmery mini dress. It would come to my mid thigh, with a low cut V down between my breasts. The straps came up to wrap around my neck, giving the scoop of my cleavage plenty of time to shine.
I bit my bottom lip as I slid it from the hanger, quickly holding it up to myself as I looked in the mirror.
My god.
It was perfect.
Quickly, I rid myself of my clothes, and grabbed the pasties from the bag of tricks Sheridan carried in with the dresses. Sticking them over my nipples, I slid into the dress and tightened the back up.
Damn.
I was getting married today.
To Alex.
The door slowly opened and Shona moved inside. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.
“Bear is going to lose his shit when he sees you like this,” she said, smiling and handing me a drink to calm my nerves.
“The little shit didn’t even tell me.”
“Sher just told us what happened,” she laughed. “Today is going to be epic.”
I nodded in agreement. “Finally, we can relax a little and enjoy our men.”
Shona looked away. At first, I thought I’d said something wrong considering what happened with her husband and how he had betrayed the club, but instead, I saw her cheeks flush.
I’d noticed a few things over the last few weeks, and seeing the way Savage and Shona avoided looking at each other wasn’t lost on me. There was something there, but I didn’t think Shona wanted to do anything with anyone anymore. She’d been truly heartbroken when Dog betrayed the club.
“You good?”
She nodded. “Of course. Come on, let’s clear the room for Sheridan.”
I followed her outside where Ryleigh was talking with the newly minted Fury.
His jaw was still blue and black, but it was healed enough to talk.
Shauna was sitting with Morena playing cards while they waited for us to be ready.
My hands were shaking, nerves taking over as I wondered if he had gotten scared and taken off.
“Damn you scrub up nice,” I heard Valkyrie say from behind me.
I turned around to see her in her cut, with the Kilkenny patch underneath her call name.
I’d been so happy to hear that they had patched her in at this chapter.
We’d had many drunken nights where she had told me about her relationship with Dempsey.
No one else knew how much she had fallen for the git and he’d just taken off.
Bear had sworn me to secrecy about why he’d actually broken up with her, and why he was incommunicado. I wished I could tell her, to ease her pain but I knew eventually, he’d come back and all would be right again.
“Thanks,” I said. “The cut looks good on you.”
She looked down at it, a smirk making its way up to her face. “I think I have Bear to thank for the endorsement.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Everyone loves you here, Shae.”
She smiled again, uncomfortable with emotion unless she was drunk, and she moved off outside. Hawk opened the door to the clubhouse.
Hawk made his way over to me, a wink telling me he appreciated the dress. “I’m going to walk you two down the aisle, if that’s okay? I feel it’s only fitting since it was always us five in school.”
I nodded. Both Sheridan’s father and my own had let us down and definitely had not been alerted to the fact of our pending nuptials, especially since I’d only found out today of my own.
“I’d love that actually,” I said, reaching up to place a kiss on his cheek. “Why aren’t you marrying your one over there today too?”
His face drained and he looked uncomfortable as I saw Morena sidle up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Come on, Orla, don’t scare the boy. I’ve only just gotten him to put his laundry in the hamper.”
We both laughed just as Hawk’s eyes moved behind me. I turned to see Sheridan, standing there like a goddamn angel in her dress, with a split that went to her pantyline.
Damn.
“You ready?” Hawk asked us. Sheridan moved to one of Hawk’s sides, and I moved to the other. The clubhouse emptied and we waited for the music to play.
“Last time you guys have the chance to run now before it’s too late,” Hawk said. Morena shot him a wary glance before she moved down to where everyone was sitting. I chuckled and Sheridan knocked him on the back of the head.
“I’m so telling Alex you said that.”
Hawk’s smile dropped. “Jesus, give me a five minute head start, will you?”
“How about we just walk down there and marry your best friends?” Sheridan offered.
“Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
No One Like You by the Scorpions played over loudspeakers as we moved down the stairs of the clubhouse and toward the chairs set out behind the garage.
The large archway we’d decorated sat at the end of the aisle, another two arches on either side so we didn’t have to squash in.
Butch stood in the middle, Ace and Bear had their backs to us as they stood in their cuts and black jeans at the end.
Ryleigh stood off to the side of Ace, and Shauna stood off to the side with Bear.
Each of them standing for us. Fuck I loved those girls.
Like they were my own.
Hawk walked us down the aisle, and although I was terrified of everyone’s eyes on me, I kept them glued to the back of Bear’s head.
Hawk stopped when we got to the arches and handed us off to his best friends.
Bear turned around, his eyes falling to my chest, then my legs, and back up to my eyes.
I saw the desire in them, and suddenly I was wishing we had done this sooner.
His hand moved out to take mine, a slow smirk making its way onto his lips.
“You could have warned me.”
“Where’s the fun in that, babycakes?” he asked. Butch cleared his throat, silencing us. I wanted to reach out and kiss that mouth but I knew if I did that, Bear would carry me off and spend all night making me scream out his name.
No.
Today, I became Orla O’Leary.
Tomorrow and the rest of our days, he could carry me off to make me scream.
And boy, did I look forward to that.