CHAPTER TWELVE

ADDIE

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The night tapers out.

With Iris seething alone off to one side, the very air has become softer, satin almost. The lights shimmer in the cool dusk, challenging the stars pinned to the velvet canopy overhead. Music and wine flows through the crowd as smooth and natural as the laughter and chatter.

It's perfect.

Everything about it is exactly the way the night should have gone from the beginning.

"You were insane!" Clio crows at one point, her heavily lined and shadowed eyes enormous against the white powder caking her face.

I don't think I've ever seen my cousin look so elated. Her soft, round features were usually a drab mask of impatience and teenage angst. But lips slathered in thick, black lipstick are bowed into the widest grin.

"I would give anything to talk to her that way. Mom would kill me."

While my love for the vile woman is nonexistent, I took no joy from telling her off. I didn't feel better for it. I didn't take pleasure in hurting Oz's feelings or ignoring Mom's pleas. But ten years was long enough to sit back and listen as someone tries to tear your mom down and watching your mom always strive to be the bigger person by turning the other cheek.

I am not the bigger person and enough is enough.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," I tell the girl instead, knowing it's what Mom would want me to say for causing such a massive scene.

"Dude, it was fucking epic. I wouldn't miss it."

I couldn't argue. At eighteen, it would have rocked my world, too.

Thankfully, the funeral march went off on Clio's phone and the girl rushes away to answer it, leaving me to stand at the porch railings alone and watch my parents sway to some sultry jazz number.

Oz and I make eye contact, and I offer him the smallest grin, feeling pretty terrible about causing so much chaos on his big day. Sometimes, my temper gets the better of me and it doesn't always end well.

"Hey, dimples."

I glance up and my heart leaps in my chest as Rhys moves towards me, big and powerful. His hair tossed by the wind and his eyes fixed only on me.

"Hey stranger," I say, resisting the urge to step into his chest and let him hold me.

He takes the piece of railing next to me, just close enough to bump my shoulder with his and I am immediately enveloped by his warmth.

"What do you say we blow this popsicle stand? I want to show you something."

I peer up into his face, into his gorgeous eyes and heart-breaking smile. A rogue lock of hair tumbles over his brow and I'm helpless to stop my fingers from reaching up and brushing it back.

"I'll go anywhere with you," I tell him quietly.

The teasing glimmer of amusement darkens, sharpens to a fine point of need so serrated, I'm not capable of thought when he captures my hand and holds it. His callus thumb rubs my knuckles. Traces a circle across my palm. Sends electric currents up my arm before he frees me.

"Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?" At my subtle head shake, he reaches up and captures a lock of my hair caught on a breeze and brushes it back. "You took my breath away coming down those steps, Addie."

My heart skips in my chest. My lungs hitch. It's such a simple statement, but the way he stares into my soul ... the way his voice deepens to a husky drawl when he practically growls my name...

"Rhys..."

"Hey, you two."

Mom and Oz are moving towards us, and I quickly struggle to school my features and straighten away from Rhys. My very soul is trembling, and I can't bring myself to meet Mom's eye when she approaches.

"Why are you guys just standing all the way over here?" Mom asks.

Rhys offers the briefest little shrug. "Just talking."

The pair exchange glances. Mom touches Oz's arm gently as if in support and he takes a breath.

"I owe all three of you an apology. Rhys tried to tell me that Iris was overstepping boundaries, but I didn't give it the attention it deserved. She's my sister. I know she's abrupt and brash, and opinionated. She always has been, but that does not excuse her behavior towards my family. Ten years is ... inexcusable. The fact that you thought you ever had to put up with anyone disrespecting you to keep me happy..." He touches Mom's face with such a loving skim of his fingers, I almost sigh. "Never. Absolutely never. I don't care who it is. No one is ever allowed to hurt you. You three are my world. I would die to protect you. I'm sorry I failed you."

"No!" Mom cries. "That isn't true."

Oz put a hand up. "I have ten years to make up for and I hope you will give me the chance."

"If you forgive me for ruining your anniversary dinner and calling your sister a few choice names, we can call it even," I offer.

Oz chuckles. "It wasn't the best time, I won't deny it, but you were standing up for your mother, a job that should have been mine. I'm proud of you."

I'm trying hard not to grin at the praise.

"Just keep her away from me," Rhys requests. "You might be forgiving, but I'm not. I don't want her anywhere near Addie ... and Paloma," he adds quickly, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek.

Oz inhales deep and gives a slow nod. "I will be having a very long discussion with Iris once the party is over and things settle down. I will be very clear that she is not welcome in this house if her behavior doesn't improve and that she owes each of you an apology. You especially, my love."

Mom immediately starts shaking her head. "I really don't feel—"

"It will be done," Oz insists, cutting her off. "I will not accept anything less if she wants to continue to stay in my life."

Mom sighs heavily but doesn't argue. Her green eyes move to my face, then shifts over to Rhys's. "Thank you both for protecting me. I'm grateful."

I move away from the railing and pull her into my arms. "Always." Then, just for her ears, I whisper, "I will still slap the fuck out of her. Just blink twice."

Mom bursts out laughing as I pull back. "No, please don't."

I shrug. "Well, the offer stands."

Rhys gives her a tight hug next. Whatever he murmurs to her has tears glistening in her eyes when they separate. She touches his cheek warmly. "I am so lucky to have you both in my life."

With a teary wave, she lets Oz guide her back to the dance floor and I'm turning to face Rhys.

"I'll tell you what I said if you tell me what you said."

Rhys only grins and starts to reach for me but stops himself. "Come on a walk with me."

I raise an eyebrow but let him guide me down the steps onto the lawn. I pause at the bottom to struggle with the strap at my ankle. The tiny buckle is impossible to make out in the dark and I'm not breaking an ankle trying to walk across soft grass in heels.

Rhys bends at the knees and brushes my hands aside. His large, warm ones replace mine and he nimbly threads the strap through the loops. Each shoe is peeled off gingerly and placed next to the stairs. He straightens and I smile up at him.

"Come on, dimples. I need you to myself," he says, placing the full weight of his palm against the small of my back and guiding me along the familiar path down towards the lake.

His touch never lifts and I let my body tip into his as we move further away from the crowd. My head finds his shoulder and I breathe in the heavy musk of wet sand and pine. It's the smell of home. The smell I have missed. Not to mention the security. I can completely let my guard down without the stress of being attacked by a mugger. A terrible habit I took with me to the city; it's a miracle I survived as long as I did.

"Addie?"

Basking in the familiar tickle of grass beneath my bare feet, the humming silence of endless nature, I keep my eyes closed when giving a quiet, "Hm?"

"Move back with me."

My lids open slowly to the rolling darkness tinted with edges of navy. "What?"

Rhys stops walking and turns to face me. I can barely make out his shape, but I can feel his heat inches away.

"Will you move back with me?"

Yes! My brain screams. My heart screams. My very soul screams.

"I told you, I'll go anywhere with you, Rhys." I touch the hard muscles of his chest through the cotton of his top. "But if we move back, we'd have to live in constant fear of getting caught. We'd have to watch how we look at each other, careful not to touch too long. I hate the city, but no one there will judge us. I can kiss you in public. I can go to any restaurant with you and hold your hand. I can only pretend I have a masked weirdo waiting for me for so long before people start thinking I'm making him up, and you, you can't be a bachelor living with your sister forever."

His hands find my waist in the darkness, and he pulls me flush into his chest. "I already told you, sweetheart, I don't give a shit who knows I love you. I'm going to marry you, baby. I'm going to start a whole life with you next to me. I just need you to say yes."

My heart is hammering in my chest with a vengeance that's making it impossible to breathe. "Are ... are you asking me to marry you?"

His fingers touch my cheek, slide down to my chin and tip my face up. "Are you surprised?" He kisses me so softly that whatever little air I had in my lungs vanishes. "We've known each other for ten years, Addie. We've been best friends for eight. Been together for two. You're it for me. I want my name officially at the end of yours. I want my ring on your finger and my baby inside you. I want to build you a home and sit on the porch with you and watch our kids play in the same lake we grew up in. I want to stand right here on our ten-year anniversary and make plans for the next sixty."

He brushes away the tears running down my face with his fingers, then his lips. He scatters tiny kisses all across my upturned face, my damp cheeks to settle over my lips again.

"I don't have a ring, not yet, but I have the land. I have the tools, and I'll get the ring."

Sniffling, I pull back just enough to try and squint at our surroundings. Mom's place is the only glowing beacon for miles, a glistening shimmer across the rippling lake.

"It's a fifteen minute walk to see your mom," he murmurs into my ear. "Close enough that you'll never be too far from her, but far enough that she can't hear you scream when I chase you naked through the woods."

I feel his grin against my jaw when I burst out laughing.

"Are you serious about this?" I croak.

"Baby, this is all I've thought about since that night in the parlor. I already talked to my dad. The land is ours. I can break ground as soon as we plan the layout. It's a bit backwards, I know, but I want to give you a home, Addie. A home with me. Want to be the place you come to every night and—"

I kiss him. I wind my arms around his neck and squeeze him hard as I grind our mouths together like I can't exist without him. I'm sobbing and I can't stop, but I try to speak.

"Yes. Yes! I'll marry you. I'll build a house with you. I'll have your babies. I want everything."

With a growl, he lifts me off my feet and sweeps his tongue between my lips to find mine. My legs around his waist and somehow, I'm on my back against the sharp blades of grass. Our hands are fumbling and tearing away clothes, not stopping until he's buried deep inside me.

We're not fucking.

This is a promise between us as the stars spin overhead and the wild things watch from the trees. We make love where we're going to build our future, immortalizing our passion with every rise and dip of our bodies, every meeting of lips and skimming of hands.

Rhys puts me on top and lets me ride him with slow, deliberate rocks while he worships my breasts. He paints my skin with his tongue, and I beg him not to stop as a whole galaxy implodes behind my closed eyelids. He holds me as I shudder and milk his cock. He tells me he loves me over and over until he's filling me with his cum. Seeds that spill out of me to become an offering to the earth.

"We should talk to our parents," I whisper minutes later as I lie snuggled against Rhys's side, his shoulder serving as my pillow. His arms my blanket.

"Tomorrow," he says simply. "After the party."

I agree.

"I'm so excited." I go up on my elbow to peer into the shadowed place I think his face is. "I want to tell everyone."

Rhys laughs and pulls me back to him. "Good. Me too."