CHAPTER 34
BELLA
The flames from the campfire are warm against my face, adding to the heat already coursing through me from the two bottles of beer I’ve drunk tonight.
The sun setting behind the mountains casts a purple hue across the sky above us and the sounds of birds chirping has faded more with every minute as night falls.
Hunter and Noah are perched in their fold out chairs along the edge of the creek, a cool box sitting between them. Savannah leans back in the chair beside me, a contented sigh leaving her. “I love being a mum, but man… it’s so nice to have a night to ourselves.”
I chuckle, twisting my head to look at her. “How are the kids?”
I haven’t seen a lot of my nieces and nephews recently and it feels shitty. Kids grow so fast and I can’t help but feel like I’ve been missing out on some of the most important moments of their lives while being wrapped up in my own issues.
“Reign is seven going on seventeen.” She shakes her head with a laugh, face glowing with a love reserved for mothers. “That girl is going to be a handful when she’s older. God help the man she ends up with. And Crue is just the sweetest boy.”
“I miss them,” I admit, my gut twisting with guilt.
Savannah turns her head, her green eyes softening on me. “They miss you, too. You should come over for dinner one night, I’m sure they’d love to have auntie Bells around more.”
“Yeah. Just give me a day and I’m there.”
She looks at me, an unfamiliar expression on her face as she shifts in her seat. “I need to ask you something, and you can tell me if I’m crossing a line, I won’t mind. But it’s something that’s been bothering me.”
I swallow, a knot of dread forming at her words. “What is it?”
Savannah takes a deep breath, her face completely serious. “Did Justin ever hurt you? Like, physically?”
The knot of dread sinks further. I look away from her for a minute, needing a reprieve from the thick emotion in her eyes.
“He didn’t hit me, no. But there were a few moments where I thought he had it in him.” I pause, looking down at my nails as I quietly admit something I’ve only told one other person. “He uh, tried to force himself on me on the day I left.”
Her green eyes shine with unshed tears as she reaches over and grips my hand. “Bells, I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
I shake my head, giving her a tight-lipped smile. “I thought it would affect me way worse than it did. Honestly, I just felt relieved to get away from him before he had the chance, but I ran into him this morning and when he touched me, I felt fear for the first time since that day.”
“You ran into him today?” She asks, the worry evident in her voice. “What did he do?”
I blow out a breath. “He begged me to talk to him and when I tried to leave, he grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let go.” My eyes trail off toward the man sitting down by the creek. “Until Noah showed up.”
Green eyes widen in my direction. “How did Justin react to that?”
I shake my head, a small smile playing on my lips as I recall the expression on his face when realisation settled in. “About as well as you could imagine.”
Savannah smile mimics mine as she nods her head in the direction of the two men down by the water, thankfully moving away from the subject of Justin when she asks, “What’s going on there?”
I feel myself blush and I avert my eyes, picking at the label on my bottle. “I think we’re together?”
Savannah laughs. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
I shrug, a shy smile teasing my lips. “He says I’m his.”
Her eyes light up, understanding flashing in them as she nods. “Ahh. Yeah, you’re together.” She leans her head back against the seat, her gaze turning dreamy as she stares up at the sky. “I remember the first time Hunter called me his.”
I watch her curiously, taking a swig of my drink before responding. “Oh yeah?”
She nods. “I was working in The Boot and Sam Thompson was trying to get my number.” I don’t miss the way she flicks her eyes my way at the mention of Justin’s brother.
“He’d been bothering me all night and Hunter just so happened to walk in right at the moment Sam grabbed my wrist and leant over the bar to whisper in my ear. ”
“And then what happened?” I ask, smiling at the way her cheeks heat up, her face taking on a look I can only describe as giddy.
“Hunter stormed over all alpha-male, grabbed Sam’s hand and declared that I was his.”
My face falls slightly, expecting there to be more to the story and Savannah looks over at me and laughs, clearly seeing the disappointment.
“Don’t worry, that wasn’t it. I was pissed.
He hadn’t even told me how he felt or given us any kind of label, and he thought he could just storm into my place of work and stake his claim in front of everyone. ”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “So, then I stormed off and of course, he followed and next thing I knew we were locked in the staff bathroom, and I was chewing him out for being an asshole and he was declaring that I was in fact his whether I liked it or not.”
My eyebrows raise, and I’m about to ask her what happened next when she stares at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes and shrugs. “And then he fucked me on the bathroom counter.”
I choke on my own saliva before bursting into laughter at the crazy turn of events and the way she so casually announces it. She laughs along with me and it’s not long before our loud cackles draw the attention of the two men sitting less than ten feet away.
“Goldie,” Hunter calls, a smirk on his face.
“Yes, Cowboy?” Savannah answers between giggles.
“What’s funny?”
“I was just telling Bella about that time in the bathroom at The Boot.”
I watch as Hunters eyes narrow before widening in recognition and he chuckles, shaking his head. Noah looks confused as he watches the three of us and it isn’t until Hunter mutters something to him that he nods in understanding and his chest rumbles with a laugh of his own.
Eventually Hunter and Noah abandon their fishing rods and join Savannah and me around the fire and the rest of the night continues like that, with the four of us sharing stories, some from before Savannah got to town and some from after.
Noah’s body is sprawled out in the chair I was occupying with me sitting across his lap, a blanket wrapped around my body as he traces small, delicate circles on my thigh that makes the butterflies in my stomach work double time.
Savannah is positioned in pretty much the same way as the two men recall a story from their younger years.
Everything is perfect, from the heat radiating from the man below me, to the soft sounds of wood crackling and tree’s blowing in the breeze. Until Hunter says something that makes my blood run cold.
“Remember that time you threw a huge birthday party for Killian on Halloween when me, mom and dad were out of town?”
My heart skips a beat, the breath freezing in my lungs and Noah’s body tenses beneath me, his thumb faltering against my thigh. It goes eerily quiet for a beat before I feel his chest vibrate against my back as he responds. “I didn’t think you knew about that.”
Hunter laughs, completely oblivious to the panic threatening to claw its way out of my throat. “You posted pictures all over Instagram. Of course I knew.”
One of Noah’s hands moves to the scruff of his jaw, and I feel him bob his head behind me. “Ah, I did do that.”
“You were there too, right, Bella?” Hunter asks me and I’m suddenly grateful for the orange glow of the fire as I feel all the colour drain from my face.
I nod. “Uh, yeah.”
My heart hammers in my chest and I clench my hands beneath the blanket, my nails digging into my palms. I need to change the subject before I pass out from holding my breath.
I open my mouth to speak but Noah beats me to it. “Are you excited for the bachelor-bachelorette this weekend?”
Breathing a sigh of relief, I let myself relax back into Noah’s hold, thankful that I won’t have to have an awkward conversation about the events of that night.
It’s something that has been playing on my mind since the night Noah and I first slept together again. So many times, I’ve had the words on the tip of my tongue, but I’ve swallowed them back every time in fear of the truth being the thing that ruins it all.
How do you tell the man that you’re having sex with on the regular that he was the one who took your virginity, only, he doesn’t remember it.
I’ve replayed the night millions of times in my head, and it still doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand how he doesn’t remember a single thing. I was sure I had drunk more than he had in his bedroom and I still hadn’t been so far gone that I woke up the next morning with no recollection.
The whole thing doesn’t sit right with me. It makes me feel dirty and wrong and the more time goes on without my bringing it up, the more it eats away at me.
“Yeah. Just means I’m one step closer to marrying my soulmate,” Hunter says, his arms tightening around Savannah and she rolls her eyes with a giggle.
“Unless you want me to get pregnant again, I’m gonna need you to stop saying things like that,” Savannah says, the alcohol making her bold and Noah sputters around the mouthful of beer he was about to swallow.
His hand flies up to his mouth to keep him from spitting all over me and I break into a laugh.
All the tension from moments ago vanishing when he smiles up at me, instead replaced with those same butterflies.
“Sorry, baby.” His hazel eyes are locked on mine, his cheeks slightly tinted beneath the scruff on his jaw, nose ring glinting under the flicker of the fire and my breath catches in my throat at how beautiful he is.
Without thinking, my hand moves up and I wipe away a droplet from the corner of his lips, bring my thumb to my mouth, my eyes never leaving his as I lick it clean. His throat works with a swallow as he leans in, his lips a breath from mine.
“Stop looking at me like that, Bells.” His voice is a quiet warning, and I look up at him, blinking innocently.
“Like what?”
“Like you want a repeat of earlier.”
I bite my bottom lip, knowing that it drives him crazy. “What if I do?”
The last thing I hear is the growl that rumbles in his chest before I’m lifted from his lap and tossed over his shoulder as his hand comes down on my ass, hard.
My head lifts in surprise, eyes finding Savannah as she hoots from her perch on Hunter’s lap. The latter merely shakes his head with a laugh as I’m carried away caveman style by Noah.
“Challenge accepted, babybell.”