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Seeing him, I took off running and threw myself into his arms. He caught me around the waist as I circled his hips with my legs. “Take me upstairs,” I purred against his lips. “I need you to fuck me. Hard. Right now.”
I felt his growl rumbling in his chest before it reached my ears. “Fucking missed you tonight, Angel.”
The next morning, the news hit the papers that Claudia had killed herself. She’d left behind a note saying she couldn’t take the pain of losing her son anymore—or the guilt of trying to scare Arella. I texted Jordan the link to the article and then sat back to enjoy the breakfast my husband made for us.
After the breaking news, Drake had nearly fallen into his chair at the table as the stress finally left him. I’d wanted to take away the fear for Arella, but I’d wanted to ease the load on Drake’s shoulders too. If that had meant adding to my own, then I would have been okay with that. Neither of them suffering was all I’d wanted.
But oddly, I hadn’t added to my own stress.
It was all gone.
Leaving behind only peace, along with love for the man who would always be at my side and our children.
Book 3
Chapter 1
Shaw
Jenner stopped outside the posh boutique but didn’t try to get out of the front seat right away. Beside me, Violet huffed, her purple gaze on the vultures who were already flashing their cameras at the SUV.
“This is nuts. You would think your engagement to Jags was announced yesterday, instead of months ago. Why do they even care that you’re picking up your dress today?”
I gathered my hair and put it in a quick, extra-messy knot on top of my head before stretching my neck left and right. If we were going to need to make a run to and from Riley’s store, then I needed to loosen up more than I already was.
“It’s because everything about the wedding is top secret,” I informed my best friend as I tried to limber up. I really shouldn’t have eaten a heavy breakfast, but I’d been so excited about picking up my dress that I’d completely forgotten about the paps that had been stalking me since a photographer had spotted me going in for my first fitting.
Riley didn’t even do wedding dresses, but she was like family. When I’d been inundated by offers from wedding gown designers, all of them begging me to wear one of their creations at my wedding, I’d been so overwhelmed that I’d thought about just walking down the aisle naked. But then Riley had offered to create one for me and sweetened the deal by allowing me to help her design it. I’d found I liked that side of the fashion business more than I’d ever thought I would.
My life had revolved around modeling clothes for the hottest designers—Riley included—but I’d never once thought about trying my hand at actually creating clothes. Riley was so impressed by my ideas that she’d asked me to collaborate with her on her spring line for the following year. My name would be on anything she liked of the designs I came up with. So far, I’d already gotten ten pages of outfits drawn, and I worked on more every night before bed.
Maybe one day I’d have my own line, but for the moment, I was content just to play around with Riley and continue my career as a model.
But I still needed to pick up my dress after trying it on one more time to ensure it fit as perfectly as it was supposed to. The wedding was in two days, and Riley would be at the wedding, so if there were any last-minute issues, she would be available to fix them, but I wanted the dress with me until then.
“Are you up to running?” I asked Violet as the paps tried to get closer. But as I watched, two more bodyguards appeared and pushed the vultures back so that Jenner could finally get out. He stood outside Vi’s door, waiting for her to give the okay to open it. “I can go in and get the dress on my own.”
“I need to do a final of my own dress,” she reminded me, running her fingers through her hair. Since the death of her husband, she’d tried to shy away from the public eye as much as possible. But now that she was officially Luca Thornton’s girlfriend, she couldn’t hide away from the press any longer.
They had a field day when it was made public that Love Bug’s birth certificate had Luca listed as her father. But that was months ago, and they’d quickly moved on to invade other celebrities’ personal lives. Like mine, and the secret wedding Jags and I were having.
I’d wanted something small and intimate. But the world thought it should be a three-ring circus. Every client I’d ever worked with wanted me to wear their products. Wedding dress. Lingerie. Makeup. Perfume. I even had one client who thought I should wear their sunglasses during my wedding reception. They went through my agent, who thought every one of the offers was a great idea.
I’d told her to go fuck herself and leave me alone until I returned from my honeymoon.
Thankfully, my soon-to-be mother-in-law was handling all the details for the wedding, including security. Every aspect of the wedding was so secret that the guests had no idea where it was being held—and wouldn’t until they arrived by private plane. Between Emmie’s, Barrick and Braxton’s, and Violet’s jets, there was just enough room for everyone to make one trip to the small island in Hawaii the morning of the ceremony.
The plan was for me to be on one plane with all the girls, have a little bit of a party in the sky before we landed, and we would then get ready for the sunset beach event. Jags would do the same with the guys on one of the others’, while anyone who didn’t want to participate in the parties would be on the third plane with the younger kids.
“This sucks,” Violet grumbled as she seemed to mentally prepare herself to step out of the vehicle. “I wish Luca were here.”
I grasped her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m just glad his coach is letting him out of the game this week so he can come to the wedding.”
She chewed on her bottom lip while she nodded. “Yeah. It’s just a preseason game, and when Luca tossed out Remington’s name, the man didn’t hesitate to give him the week off. I guess my husband arranged to have Luca’s every need met when it comes to Love Bug or me before he…died.”
“Hey.” Grasping her chin, I turned her to look at me instead of the flashing of the cameras outside the blacked-out SUV. Sadness darkened her pretty eyes, and I felt my stomach clench. The memory from high school, when she’d been so lost in a dark place only she could wade through, always came back to haunt me whenever I saw the light was faded from her eyes. I never wanted to lose anyone, but if I lost Violet or Jagger, it would destroy me. They were the two halves that made me whole. Maybe in different ways and for different reasons, but my life was worthless without either of them.
“It’s okay to be happy right now, Vi,” I assured her. “It’s what he wanted. Fuck, it’s probably what he expected. He didn’t want you to get lost in your depression over missing him. That’s why he sent Luca to you when he died. All he cares about is that you and his baby girl are happy.” She swallowed roughly, and I lowered my head, taking a deeper look at her face. “You are happy, aren’t you?”
