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Sparky’s grin eclipsed his face. “November.”
“November!” Ivy shrieked in a voice way too high as she slapped his arm. “Why’re we only finding out now?”
“We wanted to keep it to ourselves a while.”
“For six months?” she questioned incredulously.
“We’ve never made it past the three. She made me promise to wait, then wait some more. They’re keeping a close eye on them, but they don’t see any reason why she won’t go to term. She finally gave me the okay to tell people.”
Ivy rubbed her hand up and down Sparky’s arm. She remembered how hard the miscarriages had been on them before, and she could see the loss as a shadow in his eyes behind the joy. “I’m so happy for you, Sparky, anything you need or Debbie, anything at all.”
“Right now, I need you to sleep. Any concerns, you press your panic button head to the panic room and notify me from there. I don’t care if it’s just a big ass spider, you get your ass in there.”
“What if its mate is lurking there, waiting, knowing I’ll retreat? It’ll have time to prepare, spin its webs.” Ivy gestured wildly as she spoke, adding drama to the imagery her words conjured. She could see it all so clearly. A shudder chased down her spine as what started as a joke played through her mind like a scene from a horror movie.
“Want me to do a spider check?”
Ivy laughed, but met his eyes and nodded her fingers sliding over the loose necklace she’d agreed to wear. All it took was a press of the button and the entire security team would be there in a flash to do battle with the deadly arachnid. Sparky chuckled, giving the rooms a final sweep, before leaving her for the night with a kiss on her forehead.
Once Sparky had left, she grabbed her kindle and settled into the bed, tossing and turning until she found just the right position. She ran her fingers down the Paperwhite with an appreciative smile. For Christmas, Miles had brought her an Oasis, but it was wider than the Paperwhite, which slipped perfectly into her small bag or leggings pocket, and since she only used it to read, it seemed a lot of money just for a button that turned the pages. As cool as it was, she was set in her ways, her heart belonged to the Paperwhite.
Slipping the necklace onto the bedside table—just in case she lay on it in the night and was woken by the door being broken down and the whole building security descending on her—she turned on the kindle. The book opened on the last page she’d read, and she smiled to herself, recalling the heroes’ adventures up to that point. Fantasy was one of many genres she could lose herself in, and this book’s journey into The Depths of Acheron had her hooked from the opening scene. In a few days, she’d be spending her last night as a bachelorette and be settling down to sleep in the hotel, it was hard to believe everything she’d ever dreamed about was just a few days away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Miles sat on the hotel’s couch, sinking back into the rich upholstery. He usually preferred a leather sofa, but there was something about this soft fabric. He could just imagine Sin running her fingers over it, savouring the silky soft texture, but those thoughts soon shifted, and it was no longer the upholstery her fingers caressed. Taking a deep, relaxing breath, he let his head fall back, his gaze lifting towards the cream-coloured ceiling. It was only seconds later he heard his best man clear his throat, two glasses in his hand to toast to his final night as a single man.
Tomorrow, he would place a ring on Sin’s finger, binding her to him in yet another way. That stunning goddess would be his, but he already knew that for some, unspeakable reason, he had been blessed with that amazing woman’s heart. He wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve such a blessing, such a boon, but he’d spend every day of the rest of his life trying to prove he was worthy.
He had done terrible things, things which still woke him some nights as days of war and impossible choices replayed in his dreams. It was one of the many reasons he, on some level, had understood her fear of sleep. But her nightmares didn’t just confine themselves to slumber, nor had his at first.
He was so proud of her, so amazed by her strength. She had come so far, accomplished so much, and he was proud to have been by her side for it, honoured that she chose and trusted him.
She never failed to surprise him. She was turning the Hell she’d endured into a lesson for others, reaching out on both fronts, firstly to abuse victims, trying to give them back their power, and secondly starting a school that would help teach Doms and Subs so many aspects of the lifestyle. Courses were being arranged for beginners, how to spot fake Doms and Subs, what to watch for, all the time stressing that the kink lifestyle is not abuse. Education and learning skills were but one of the many things her vision had to offer.
He’d been concerned when she told him her plans to tell her story to the reporter who’d first reached out to them when the pictures arrived on her doorstep. He feared what reliving parts of it would do to her. But it seemed his mother had left her with no choice.
His mother.
Cold rage filled him at the thought of her. She hadn’t been the woman he remembered for a long time, so long that he wondered if the memories of the woman jumping in muddy puddles and creating scavenger hunts had been nothing more than a figment of his imagination. She had changed so much since then, held grudges, and become a person he didn’t recognise almost overnight.
He had known something was going on between them, but he hadn’t realised exactly how bad things had been. Ivy had never spoken a word against her, but as his father had filled him in on what he knew he felt that deep pitted rage beginning to burn. Especially when he discovered the challenge she’d issued at the door of his childhood home. Of how he’d discovered his mother had been into the safe and taken the images that had been left on Ivy’s car.
Mother or not, that woman was dead to him. No one treated his queen like that.
He couldn’t believe she’d go so far as to write notes and vandalise property to terrify the woman he loved. Let alone try to publicly humiliate her by sharing pictures of her when she was at her most vulnerable.
It was unforgivable.
He shuddered to think of all the things she’d endured as she let the woman who’d given her a blank cheque to walk away, have input on their wedding.
A blank fucking cheque! What the fuck! There was no level she wouldn’t stoop to. Nothing she wouldn’t try.
And from the conversation he’d had with Amy just yesterday, it seemed his mother had attempted to steamroll everything. Something must have flipped somewhere, because Ivy had taken control again, reverting to her original plan. Mostly.
Oh, his little vixen was in trouble for not talking to him about this. But he blamed himself. He’d seen the despair in her eyes when she spent time with his mother. He should have tried harder to stop her from doing it. Not like she would have listened. When she set her mind to something, that was it. He wished he’d never put the idea there in the first place, but his mother had played him as well, leading him to believe she was capable of change, asking for a way to get to know her. He should have known better, should have seen through her plot.
“I still can’t believe my mother wrote those notes. The stalker angle ensured we’d not be looking at her, but it all makes sense now, who else had access to those photos? I can’t believe she’d do that.” Anger gnawed his gut, his fists clenching and releasing several times as he tried to rid himself of the storm her felt building within. She had sabotaged enough, he wouldn’t let her have this effect on him, not anymore.
