Chapter 32 – One Week Later #2
I don’t have many options. I never did. It's either I fess up to my father and face the consequences or risk seeing the only man I’ve ever cared about marry someone else. And not just anyone else, but my own fucking sister. Their marriage will always be in my face. I’ll never be able to escape it.
“Fuck!” I shout, hiding near Michael’s golf course, far away from the outdoor wedding.
Sitting on a bench, watching the water fountain illuminated with bright blue lights, I think about when I met him. Back then, I thought he’d be a fun little hookup. Pretty sure I didn’t see any of this coming.
Maybe if I had a penny, I could drop it in and make a wish.
“Wish for what?” I say to myself. “A happily fucking ever after?” I snicker.
“Talking to yourself?” Hadleigh’s voice looms.
I gasp at the sudden realization that I’m no longer alone.
She struts down the grass from my right, her gown trailing behind her as she comes to stand before me.
“I’m having a day.” I hunch over, face in my palms. “Let me live.”
She lowers to the empty space beside me and shoves her shoulder into me playfully. “Wanna talk about it?”
“Not particularly,” I grumble.
I’ve liked Hadleigh since the moment we met back when she was just dating Hudson.
She’s one of those genuinely nice people.
So nice that she has no idea that most of the people her husband represents, the people he’s been friends with—like us—have blood on their hands.
She thinks we’re just rich folks with too much money and too much time.
In her mind, the Mob and the Mafia are just fables, nonexistent in the perfect world Hudson made her believe they’re living in.
She has no idea what I do or whose daughter I am.
To her, I’m Iseult, trust-fund kid of one of the richest families in Massachusetts.
I sometimes wonder what she’d do if she were to find out that Hudson has lied to her about the kind of life he leads.
Would she still love him? Would she leave? They’re so nauseatingly in love that it’d be awful to imagine if they weren’t.
From the moment he met her, she’s been all he talks about. I don’t know what he’d do if he ever lost her.
“Does it have anything to do with your sister marrying that dashing man?”
I keep looking at the water, hoping she stops this line of questioning before I confess all my sins.
“No.” I glare at her without blinking.
“Really?” Her voice rings with amusement. “Then why do you sound like someone died? Would think you’d be happier.”
“I am happy. See?” I grin all facetiously, and she bursts with laughter, her hazel eyes gleaming.
“Geez. If that’s your happy face, Iz, kinda would be afraid to see what you look like when you’re angry.”
Definitely don’t want to see that.
“I just think my father’s rushing it, and on top of that, Eriu doesn’t really want this,” I explain.
“Yes.” She nods. “Hudson did mention the marriage is for business purposes, which to me sounds quite archaic.”
“Have you met my father?” I pop a brow.
She laughs again. “I can’t imagine being in love with Hudson and then being forced to marry someone else. I’d probably pack my bags and run.”
Then you don’t know my father. There’s no running from him.
“I’m not in love with Gio.”
“Have you told your face that?” She curves a brow.
“Shut up, Hadleigh.” I swat her arm with the back of my hand. “Who asked you, anyway?”
“I wish there was something I could do.” She lays a hand on top of my knee. “I’m sorry, Iz.”
“It’s whatever. We can’t all be perfect like you and Hudson.”
She releases a burdened sigh. “Believe me, we’re not.”
I sit up straighter, concern filling my gaze. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” She waves off my concern. “Nothing we can’t handle.”
“You can talk to me if you ever need something,” I say. “I hope you know that.”
“That means a lot. Thanks, Iz.”
I nod. “I’m glad Hudson met you. He was quite pathetic before you came along.”
“I find that hard to believe.” Her full mouth bends up, her eyes full of adoration.
But she has no idea who Hudson was when my father found him. She has no idea the kinds of things he’s done. And she will never know.
“I should probably get back,” I say, quickly rising to my feet before she starts prodding even more.
This woman is too easy to talk to. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself spilling all your secrets before you realize what you’re doing. She should’ve been a therapist, but I guess a teacher is not that far off.
She follows me up, and together, we start back to hell. And by that, I mean the tent. I just want to be away from everyone.
“What were you doing here anyway?” I ask her as we stroll, bathed in peaceful darkness.
“I saw you leave the party and wanted to check on you. It looked like you were upset.”
“Oh.”
That’s all I can manage. What else can I say?
Just as we return, I find Gio pacing right at the entrance of the tent. As soon as he sees me, he looks up.
“Where the hell did you go? I looked all over for you.”
Hadleigh looks curiously between us. “Well…I shall leave you two alone.”
She pinches her lips and scurries inside.
“Are you crazy?” I whisper-shout.
His eyes are cold and hard. The muscle in his wide neck tremors before he blows a breath and grabs my wrist.
“We need to talk,” he says through clenched teeth.
He forces me away, taking me to the back by the thick shrubs lined neatly in the grass. When we’re alone, he throws my body up against his, his arm snaking around my lower back, dragging me so close, his hot breath slinks across my lips.
“I’m done pretending.” His eyes bore into mine, and even in the moonlight, I can see them talking to me, begging me for something I’ve always been afraid to give: my heart.
“I want you more than I need my last breath.”
“That sounds ridiculous, because then you’d be dead,” I whisper, even as my throat clogs with emotion.
“Fuck, you’re such a pain in the ass, Red.” His responding laugh is thick and heavy with emotion. His knuckles softly brush down my cheek. “But you’re my pain in the ass.”
My heart flips in my chest.
How can this hurt so much?
“We’ll give your father and my mother a few days, but after that, we’re telling him.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You have nothing to lose,” I say bitterly, burrowing into his firm palm, wanting nothing more than to be touched the way he’s touching me.
“That’s not true.” He grips my jaw with his free hand. “I lose you. And I can’t live in a world where you’re not mine, Iseult Marino.”
Tingles and warmth breathe life into my body, like every cell only knows him.
“You don’t understand, do you?” he asks.
“Understand what?”
“That I’ve been a man with a body, but no heart, until you, and that’s because you are that heart, Red. Are you truly willing to rip it right out of me again?”
“Will it hurt?” I twist my lips and fight my insurmountable emotions.
“So damn badly,” he whispers, lowering his mouth to mine until it lingers there, the erotic current between us zapping through my body.
“Then yes…” I kiss him once. “I’ll take my time carving it out of you.”
With a growl, he fists my hair, teeth grazing my jaw as he yanks my head back. “You damn insufferable woman.”
Then he smashes his mouth to mine, kissing me raw, with unrestrained savagery while he practically rips my dress, yanking it up until his fingers find me bare and wet.
“Fuck,” he grunts as he winds back. “You had no panties on for me all night?”
“Who said it was for you?” I challenge. “Maybe it was for one of the other handsome men at the wedding.”
He rocks with a cold laugh, fingers languidly playing with my clit until his eyes narrow. “I don’t find that funny, baby.”
He thrusts his fingers inside me until I gasp with a throaty moan.
“There is no other man for you, Red. You’re mine.”
Then he proves it. Over and over again, until he practically has to hold me up as we make it back to the party, pretending he didn’t do what he just did.