Page 1 of Have To Be Mine

1

DASH

Weddings had always been prime hunting grounds for me, where I was the apex predator. Everyone looked their best, love was in the air, and dancing was an awful lot like foreplay. But since this was my brother Sebastian’s wedding, I had been asked to be on my best behavior.

As such, while everyone was celebrating, I was dismally bored.

I swirled the whiskey and ice cubes in my glass as I leaned one elbow on a high-top table and surveyed the reception space. Bernadette, Sebastian’s wife and my newest sister-in-law, had nice taste, and she had worked with Mandy, the famous wedding planner and my brother Briggs’s new wife, to make the day everything she had ever dreamed of.

I could see glimpses of her in the blush pink roses and glitter dusted on their petals as they burst from obnoxious centerpieces filled with water and crystals. But even though this whole day had been planned by the two newest members of the Blackwell family, the whole thing was trademark Blackwell.

Sleek, luxurious, black and gold, nothing out of place. The wedding looked like it could be a set for the cover of a magazine, aside from a few drunken guests wandering around.

On my left, a pair of young girls, probably just shy of legal drinking age, sauntered up to the bar to try their luck at ordering shots. They were denied and sulked off to the dance floor, where the shorter one tripped on the taller one’s dress, and both went down in a heap of silk fabric and giggles. To my right, a married couple who I’d seen at recent family weddings were murmuring sweet nothings to each other while she reached behind his back and squeezed his ass shamelessly.

I chuckled when she locked eyes with me and turned neon pink. I shot her a wink. No shame in that game. I respected it.

With my three older brothers all married off and starting families of their own, I remained the last Blackwell standing. My older brother, Adrian, probably saw that as a liability. I saw it as a one-way ticket to getting naked with whatever lucky lady I brought home with me tonight.

Although, admittedly, I kind of missed the competition. Now it was more about getting what I wanted without ruffling everyone’s feathers. Adrian and Briggs were so concerned with our “reputations” these days.

When our father passed away two years back, he’d left his company, Blackwell Couture, to us, and we had all jumped in to make it more successful than ever. Despite that, my brothers were eager to prove to the world we were worthy of carrying on the family business, and they wanted us all to avoid any scandals.

Adrian and Briggs were like mother hens, watching my every move at this damn wedding. I swore, they would have handcuffed me to a table if they could have gotten away with it. Just to make sure I didn’t do something stupid tonight.

Which brought me right back to how absolutely bored I was feeling.

Then I spotted a gorgeous blonde in a pastel yellow dress with the longest legs I’d ever seen. She moved like a dancer through the crowd toward the terrace, presumably for fresh air, and glanced back over her shoulder as if she felt me watching her. A smile curved her perfect lips when we locked eyes, and I grinned.

Boredom cured.

Pushing away from the table, I headed toward the exit to join her under the starry night sky, a perfect place to sweep her off her feet in typical Dash Blackwell fashion. But when I reached the exit door, someone blocked my path.

Adrian.

My oldest brother wore the same expression he always had when I had done something that didn’t meet his very high standards. The problems was, I hadn’t actually done anything. Yet.

“Yes?”

“I need a minute,” he said.

I gnawed at the inside of my lip. A minute in Adrian’s world was never a minute. Whatever he wanted to talk about would be even less riveting than listening to the wedding band playing stale old songs, but the hard set to his jaw suggested I didn’t have a say in the matter.

“Fine,” I said.

I followed my oldest brother through the crowd, past the bar, and the table where Sebastian was currently feeding Bernadette a piece of cake while she laughed. Adrian led me out through a side door that led to a wide, quiet terrace overlooking midtown. Sadly, it was not the same terrace the blonde had chosen.

The music thrummed through the glass against a backdrop of soft, muted laughter from inside. I moved to the railing and looked out at the city lights spanning below and beyond. Meanwhile, Adrian moved stiffly to stand beside me and braced both hands on the concrete railing. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, just like our father used to do before he hit me with a “you’ve been a bad boy” speech.

“You’ve been a dipshit,” he said.

“I haven’t dipped into any kind of shit tonight. So maybe save the lecture until after I fuck up?”

“I’m not talking about tonight,” he said. “How many calls has it taken to get a hold of you in the last two weeks?”

“Is this a riddle?” I shook my head. “How the fuck should I know? And I return the calls I miss.”

“Greece,” Adrian said.