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I was her protector. I knew I had to step up and be there for her from the moment I met her in my sister’s old room, and now I’d gotten her to move out from under Dad’s tyrannical control and into my house, where I could watch out for her like I wanted to watch out for my late sister Chelsea. Now, though, the silly blackmail I thought I needed to get her here felt like a half-forgotten memory. After I saved her from those muggers, she was more than happy to be here, safe and secure in my arms.
Our parents wouldn’t be so understanding, I realized. I honestly didn’t care for whatever my dad would have to say—he was an ass, and he was the whole reason I had to get Mackenzie out of the house in the first place. Mackenzie’s mom Julie, though, might be a different story. From what I could tell, she was a sweetheart, so Mackenzie would have to break the news to her gently. Just the news that she’d moved in with me, that is. The rest…well, nobody needed to know about that. It wasn’t like we could expect anyone to understand.
About an hour later, while I stood over the stove making a few pancakes for breakfast, I could hear Mackenzie making the call from my couch. Since she hadn’t come home last night, Mackenzie found a half dozen missed calls from her mom on her phone, and twice as many texts. From the sounds of it, the conversation was going about as well as I’d worried it would.
“No, Mom, he isn’t like that, he’s actually nice once you get to know him. But— no, Mom, I’m not coming back for— I’m fine, and he’s right, I’m better off away from Todd, I heard how he was yelling about Cole the night after the dinner. You know that kind of temper doesn’t just— what?! No, that’s not what I meant. Mom, I—”
It went on for a solid half hour. Mackenzie tried to get a few words in edgewise, and when she did, it only seemed to escalate what I figured was Julie’s panicking on the other end of the phone. Julie just didn’t understand, I knew. How could she? She was still star-struck by her new, wealthy husband Todd. There was no way she could see my dad for the selfish bully he really was. I wondered if Julie knew that Mackenzie had come to meet with me last night. If she had, then Dad almost definitely knew about it by now, and I could only imagine the storm he’d already be preparing.
But I still had more dirt on Todd than he could ever hope to match on me. Any legal move to get Mackenzie back to the Van der Hausen manor would have to be on Julie’s part, so the conversation Mackenzie was having with her was all the more important. If he could have his way, Todd would doubtlessly send the police to kick their door down, but as long as his precious “family man” ruse needed to stay intact, they were safe from him.
Finally, wiping a few tears from puffy red eyes, Mackenzie hung up the phone as we finished breakfast.
“I think…I think she’s going to be alright with it,” she said, sniffing. “It’s just going to be hard for her, since it’s just been the two of us all this time. For this to be so sudden…”
I scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her closer to me and letting her rest her head against my shoulder, and I kissed the soft hair on her head while rubbing her reassuringly.
“She needs to get out of there too,” I noted, “and the sooner she can see how much happier you are when you’re away from that asshole Todd, the sooner she’ll realize that this isn’t the way for her to go.”
“It might be too late for that, Cole,” Mackenzie’s voice quivered. “The wedding is next week.”
I clenched my jaw. That soon? So there really wasn’t any hope of getting them to break off the engagement. But I knew we couldn’t let them think we were just running away together. Cole van der Hausen didn’t run. I knew what we had to do.
“We’re both going to be there.”
Mackenzie’s eyes fluttered and she looked up at me, more astonished than distressed by the news. Her sparkling eyes looked up at me with such wonder and beauty that I wanted to fall into another flurry of passion with her right then and there.
“He won’t throw either of us out at our own parents’ wedding,” I explained, knowing that Todd’s pride wouldn’t let himself look bad at what was sure to be a hugely publicized event. It was a bold statement, and I could see the glimmer of admiration in Mackenzie’s eyes. “Besides, that might help your mom be a little more understanding about this whole arrangement. So we’re going to be there, and before Todd can try to do anything to stop us, we’re going to be public about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that if we’re going to go to a wedding,” I smiled at her as I leaned in closer to her, brushing her cheek with my stubble as I drew her closer and felt a quiver of excitement run up her spine, “we’re going to need to get outfits.”
Blushing Bridal Boutique was relatively quiet, because it was the sort of place that only high-profile clients could get into. Actors and actresses made up most of the clientele, followed by other influential people who got significantly less media attention. Being the son and daughter of a couple that was already
causing a hell of a stir around town, Mackenzie and I were hit with more than a few snapshots on the way into the boutique. Still, the paparazzi weren’t allowed inside, and we managed to get a little privacy once we’d gotten through the doors.
I’d never been to this particular place, since it was a dress emporium. We’d already stopped by a tailor to get my suit made. I didn’t want it to be as big of a deal as picking out the dress. And seeing the excitement that now animated Mackenzie as she walked up to meet the owners, I could see why moving from home to home would be a scary deal for her. The rush of all this glamour could make you terrified of losing it all.
Mackenzie already had a dress back at Todd’s house, but as much as the thought of my breaking into the house to steal it for her excited her, we thought it would make a good statement to pick out the dress for ourselves. Besides, she didn’t know I’d already broken into the manor once, and if she showed up in a dress that had been stolen, that would almost certainly be the last straw for any hope of avoiding legal interference with our relationship.
Selene and Roselle, the tanned and Botoxed owners, brought out some of their best designs for Mackenzie to evaluate after we’d explained the basics of what we were looking for. She waved off the first few offers, of course—this one was too tight around the neck, she wanted to show a little more back, that one was too hard to walk in, she wasn’t sure the colors would line up just right, that one had far too much going on in its pattern, all the usual problems. Then came one that made Mackenzie’s eyes light up—a full-length dress with one shoulder strap, featuring a bodice and a draped skirt, all in the color of a night’s blue sky. Selene, who had brought the dress out, knew to go ahead and take Mackenzie back to the dressing room by the mere look on her face.
I was stunned by how Mackenzie looked when Selene led her out of the dressing room. I could tell Mackenzie felt just as special in that dress just by looking at her, its hem flowing playfully around her as she moved her hips to show off the ensemble. Something about the way her slender frame wore the garments, framed by the lighting in the boutique that was made to accentuate the beauty of the look, set something off in the both of us.
“Kenz, you look…stunning,” I said after a moment, and she gave me a look of excited anticipation as silence hung in the room for a moment. “Give us a sec, will you?” I asked Selene, who had been simply standing aside to allow her clients to appreciate her work. “Think we’ve got our choice, but we need to talk a few things over first.”
“Of course, sir,” she smiled and gestured her hand towards the door to the front of the store, “I’ll be right outside whenever you’re finished.”
As Selene’s figure vanished behind the closed door, I wondered only a moment about whether she had picked up on anything strange in the air between Mackenzie and I. The next moment, Mackenzie was in front of me, running a hand up my back and looking hungrily into my eyes.
“Think I’ll take this one,” she whispered before biting her lip and looking up at me expectantly.
“Yeah?” My hand slid onto her ass, feeling up the rounded form through the expensive fabric. “I think we need to try it out a little more, first.”
There was a velvet ottoman in the room, the same dark purple shade as the rest of the interior’s design, and we made for it immediately. My strong hands hoisted her up easily to carry her over there, and as soon as I did, her lips met mine, one hand on the small of my back and the other on my head, pressing my face into hers as she devoured me.
“Someone’s gonna hear us,” she warned, breathless.
