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My eyes widen, and my gaze snaps to his. “Thisyear?”
He smirks. “Yes.”
His mother clasps her hands together. “A December wedding, then. Oh, it will be beautiful. I’ll make some calls tomorrow to see what will need to be moved around to ensure you get the venue you’d like. Do you know where you’d like to be married?”
I shake my head. I didn’t even know Iwasgetting married so soon. Since the engagement happened so quickly, I figured we would take our time walking down the aisle. “I don’t know what we’ll be able to get on such short notice. My bridal knowledge consists of only what I’ve seen in rom-coms, but aren’t places usually booked like a year out?”
Melanie waves me off. “Richard will make sure that’s not a problem, won’t you, dear?”
“I’ll handle it,” he confirms.
My gaze flits to him. I can’t help being suspicious. “You’re just going to convince people who have spent a whole year planning their wedding to move it?”
He smirks at me. “I’m pretty persuasive.”
That’s true.
Melanie goes on. “We host a big Christmas party every year, so I’m already working with a great team of vendors and event planners. We can use them for the wedding, too. They do excellent work so I know everything will run smoothly for you. Richard and I got married at a beautiful historic church downtown, the same one his parents were married at. Would you like to see pictures?”
“Oh. Sure.” I nod and smile, trying to keep up with her enthusiasm. She heads toward the bookshelves and opens a bottom cabinet to pull out a leather-bound book.
“Would you like to see a picture of Katherine? It’s her ring Silvan gave you.”
“Oh yes. Please. I’m heavily invested in their story.”
Richard cocks an eyebrow like that’s an odd thing to say.
“Not that… your parents’ marriage is a story,” I add awkwardly. “But Silvan told me a little bit about them, and…”
“She’s a bigBeauty and the Beastfan,” Silvan says by way of explanation.
My face heats, and I look over at him. “Thanks, babe. Big help.”
“He was a beast, all right,” Richard murmurs, glancing back at his wife as she comes at us with an armful of family photo albums.
“And she was a beauty,” she says, carefully dropping the treasured books on her husband’s desk and flipping the first one open. I walk over as she turns the pages until she finds the one she’s looking for. “There she is.”
I lean in and peer at a portrait of a beautiful brunette with thick dark eyebrows and piercing eyes. She’s alone in the photograph wearing an ivory satin wedding gown with a matching stole draped around her slender shoulders. She’s the picture of luxury, no doubt the envy of her friends, but something lonely and fearful glints in her eyes, something that echoes the thought I had earlier about her regretting the life she got pulled into.
“She’s lovely,” I say softly.
Melanie nods her agreement.
Then she turns the page. “And this is James.”
The breath is momentarily sucked from my lungs when I lay eyes on the man who created the emotional problems of all the people in this room.
I can see so much of Silvan in him, with Richard’s aura of danger—but amplified because this man’s danger isn’t quiet and capable of catching you by surprise. One look at him and you know he’ll absolutely ruin your life, but something draws you in anyway. He’s handsome, sure, but there’s more to it than that. A sense that he’s wounded, that he’s a man who’s never known happiness.
The temptation to believe he can be fixed is so strong, I feel it even though I know how the story ended.
Some version of it anyway.
I suppose I only know how their relationship looked to certain others, much like Silvan judges his parents’ relationship one way, but when I look at it, I see a much different picture. I didn’t come in at the same moment he did, and the image I have of their relationship is two people deeply in love who would do anything for one another.
A picture of the bride and groom together is on the next page, and maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I see his possessive grip on her waist and wonder if there was more to the story than what I’ve heard.
I think of Silvan’s brutal side, the ruthless Viking spirit I can’t help but enjoy. I can see it coming from this man. His lips look like they’ve never smiled. His eyebrows are set at a fearsome slant that leaves no doubt he is, in fact, a beast.
