Arranged love

APRIL

“WE’RE READY.” THE wedding coordinator that Emilee hired calls out, entering the bridal room.

Emilee spins around, smoothing her hands down her Marie-Chantal Miller wedding dress. She looks like royalty in the white lace material. It’s an off-the-shoulder, backless dress with a royal train. It was made for a queen. “How do I look?” she asks nervously.

“Gorgeous,” Jasmine tells her before taking a sip of her champagne.

“Absolutely stunning,” I say with a smile.

“Thank you.” She walks up to me and takes my hands in hers. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

My cheeks heat up as I look around the room full of women that quickly became my best friends. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Yes, you did.” She let’s go of my hands and pulls me in for a hug. “You took my dream and turned it into reality.”

I pull away and try to fight back the tears that want to fall. “I couldn’t have done it on my own.” She makes it sound like I planned this entire thing from the ground up. All I did was make flower arrangements. I didn’t even do it on my own. Me, Haven, Jasmine, and Emilee worked day and night on these. Even Alexa helped me when she had free time.

“Come on, ladies. It’s time to go.” They start to usher us out of the room. I hear my cell ringing in my purse and I quickly grab it and walk out with the girls.

I press ignore but it instantly starts to ring again and this time I press answer. “I can’t talk …”

“April, I’ve been trying to reach you.” I hear a familiar voice on the other end.

“Now is not a good time,” I whisper, coming to a stop with the girls in front of the closed double doors.

“I’ll make it quick.”

“I …”

“They took your offer,” she interrupts me.

My mouth drops open at her announcement. “What?” I ask, making sure I heard her.

“They accepted your offer, April,” she repeats excitedly.

“That’s … amazing.” I breathe.

“It is. I know you’re busy; I just wanted to tell you the good news.” She hangs up before I can even respond.

I pull the phone away from my ear and then Sarah, the wedding coordinator, snatches it out of my hands, pocketing it.

“You okay?” Jasmine asks me, her green eyes full of concern.

I nod. “Yeah, I am.”

GRAVE

I sit at the long bridal party table at the head of the ballroom. I watch Titan dance with his wife on the black dance floor in front of two hundred and twenty people. I look over their faces, recognizing most of them. Some I couldn’t even guess who the fuck they are.

Titan has always been a showoff. And that’s exactly what he’s doing with the reporters and guests here. He’s showing the world that he is one of the luckiest Kings on earth, marrying Emilee. Because they’re not here for Emilee. She couldn’t care less.

My brother sits next to me. A glass of bourbon in his hand. He speaks to a guy by the name of Avery and his brother Tristan. The Decker brothers are friends of his.

Being sober shows you how alone you truly are. I never got close to anyone. They’d see who I really was.

I take a sip of my water as a woman I know well walks up to our table. Marsha Wells. A reporter who slept her way to the top in Vegas. She’s always the first to break a juicy story. Her pussy has gotten her all the best connections.

“Bones?” Her eyes stare at him hungrily. I’m pretty sure he’s fucked her before. But I could be wrong.

“Marsha.” He nods to her, throwing back his drink.

The Kings have always been in the media spotlight. Our fathers started Kingdom-The Three Wisemen weren’t any better than we are. I can’t even count the stories that have been written about us. Some true. Some not. I ignore them. They don’t mean anything to me.

“I was wondering if you had anything to share with me?” she asks him.Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.

He tilts his head to the side and looks her up and down. His eyes starting at her pink heels and running up her cream-colored dress before meeting hers. “I might have something.”

She smiles and he gets to his feet, buttons his suit jacket, and walks around the table. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” he tells the Decker brothers. Taking her hand, he leads her to the dance floor.

I take another sip of my water as my eyes catch the most beautiful woman here. April stands across the ballroom. Her dark purple hair styled in an updo. Pieces falling down and framing her face. She wears a strapless, black silk dress.

I swallow nervously and stand, wanting to talk to her. I make my way around the dance floor and over to her. She has her back to me, talking to Jasmine.

Jasmine looks up and spots me coming. She brings the glass of champagne to her lips and tilts it back, winking at me. “I have to go,” she tells April the moment I get close.

“What? Where do you have to go all of a sudden?” she calls out to Jasmine’s back.

“She’s my wingman,” I tell her. Jasmine has always had my back. She understands that we’re not all the same. That some of us feel too much while others don’t feel at all.

April spins around and looks up at me. I reach my right hand out. “Dance with me?” I hold my breath. Still unsure how she feels about me. The horrible situation I’ve put us in. Sitting alone in a room with nothing but your thoughts for weeks on end hasn’t been good for me.

She doesn’t say anything, just takes my hand, and I pull her into me. God, I missed this. Holding her. Everything about her was addicting.

But what little hope I had dies when she speaks. “I can’t.”

I let go of her and run a hand through my hair. “Okay,” I say, hating that I’ve hurt her. I understand that just because I’m trying doesn’t mean I deserve the chance to make it right.

“I mean.” She sighs. “I need to talk to you, Grave.”

Her words don’t help the bad feeling in my gut that I’ve gone too far. I did too much. She isn’t Lucy. April demanded all of me and what I gave her was a watered down, drug induced version. “Yeah, sure. I guess there is a lot we need to discuss …”

“I didn’t get pregnant on purpose,” she rushes out.

I frown. “I never said that you did.” That thought never even crossed my mind. It took the both of us to make our baby. I knew the possibilities when I chose not to use a condom.

“I’ve been going crazy thinking. Finally I remembered that a few weeks before you came into Roses, I was sick. I was on antibiotics. I didn’t realize they could disrupt birth control.” She licks her lips. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking …”

“Hey, it’s okay.”

“I don’t want your money, Grave. And if you want to walk away, I understand,” she adds.

“What?” I blink.

“I don’t want you to be stressed. If you don’t want to be part of his or her life, I also understand.”

She’s not making sense. What the hell has she been thinking while I’ve been in rehab? I should have reached out to her. But there was a very short list of people who I could have contact with. I wanted her to focus on the baby, not my recovery. “April …”

“I know things aren’t ideal.” She sniffs and averts her eyes to her heels.

I place my hands on either side of her face and she looks up at me, her ice blue eyes full of tears. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t want to put any pressure on you,” she whispers.

“You’re not.” I assure her. She’s the only thing that I know I can’t live without. I need her more than any hit I’ve ever craved.

She bites her bottom lip. “I’m afraid.” Her watery eyes dart around the room.

“Of what?” My chest tightens. “Of me? I promise you, April. I will be better for you and our baby,” I quickly reassure her.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” A tear rolls down her face.

“What do you mean?” Her bottom lip begins to quiver. “Hey, talk to me. Please.” Whatever it is, I’ll do whatever it takes to make things right. But I can’t guess what she’s thinking.

She lets out a shaky breath. “I’m afraid you won’t love me sober.”

My tight chest constricts like a vice at her confession. How could she think that? What have I done to make her think I could love her any less? I love her more. I did this for her. I’m demanding more of myself because she deserves that. “April …”

“You almost kissed me in your car but stopped,” she adds, interrupting me. “And I realized that maybe you don’t want …”

I cut off her insane words by pressing my lips to hers. Her arms immediately wrap around my neck as she parts her lips for me, allowing me to deepen the kiss. My hands tangle in her hair, loosening her updo, and I tilt her head back to give me better access to her lips. I devour her. Drink her in as if she is the cure to a disease.

I pull away and she opens her heavy eyes, lips parted as she sucks in a breath. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving to you that I love you.”