Blended (Redemption #1) (49 page)

I take her hand and lead her to her bedroom, away from the stares. She takes a seat on her bed and puts her head in her hands while I go to her closet and pull out a large bag to transport some of her clothes in.

I pull some sweaters, jeans, and pairs of underwear out of her closet and set the bag next to her on the bed before kneeling down in front of her and placing my hands on her knees.

“Is there anything else that you’d like me to pack for you, Rye?”

She shakes her head in answer and lowers her hands from her face, revealing the tears that she was hiding.

“God, Rye. Come here.”

I get up and take her into my arms, maneuvering her onto my lap where I am able to hold her against my chest. “Talk to me.”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s much more than nothing, Hadley.”

“I just . . . I thought that they’d be happy for me.”

“Listen to me,” I tell her and run my thumb over her lip. “Lola is delighted. Holden is less than delighted due to the fact that you’re officially mine and he’s jealous. I would have reacted the exact same way that he did if you decided to be with him.”

“But—”

“I understand that it’s difficult, but it must be for him as well, seeing as he seems to be hung up on you.”

“I don’t love him.”

“I never said that you did. Just that I understand why he reacted the way that he did. Now. If you’d like to leave, then we’ll go, but it’s Christmas Eve, and I’m sure they would like to spend it with you.”

She sighs and leans her head against my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I overreacted. I’m just . . . you mess with my emotions.”

“Don’t complain.”

“I’m not, Whiskey.”

After she’s settled down and taken a few deep breaths, she lifts her head and gazes up at me before she locks her lips with mine. “Take me home?”

She keeps calling my place home, and it does something to me—it stirs my insides and makes me want to protect her even more. As if an animal instinct kicks in, and takes over me, I need to keep her safe and blissful.

“Come.”

She gets off of my lap and walks into the bathroom. I follow her in with her bag and hold it open for her as she places multiple objects and bags inside before she turns to the mirror. I watch her wash her face with a warm washcloth before she sets it aside and lets out a breath.

“Okay, I’m ready to leave.”

I hold out my hand to her, and she takes it before I lead her out of her bedroom and to the foyer where we’re met by Liam and Lola.

They both step forward as we approach.

“Are we leaving?” Liam asks as Lola steps forward to hug me.

“Don’t go. Had-Lo needs to celebrate Christmas and your engagement.”

I give her a halfhearted smile and hold her at arm’s length. “Fine, but I’m not going to deal with Hold being a dick toward me.”

“Owen is speaking to him right now, and I’m sure pouring some amount of craft beer down his throat.”

I laugh and throw my arms around her again. “There’s something else that I need to tell you.”

“Well? Spit it out. Are you already married?”

I shake my head at her. “No, I wouldn’t get married without you by my side.”

“All right, so what is it?”

“I’m moving in with him.”

Liam and Wade both walk out of the foyer, leaving Lo and me alone.

“You know,” she says, “I’m not even surprised. Not by any of it. I’ve never seen you like this before, and I’ve known you for more than half of my life. He’s good for you, Hads, and I think that you’re making the right decision. Being engaged kind of sets a lot of things in motion and moving in with him is one of them. You have my support for both, and you need to know that.”

Lola Marc isn’t normally the person to give out little speeches like the one she just did, and in doing so, I know that she’s being truthful. Regardless of my past and my obvious bent for self-destruction, she has always been my constant . . . for other than sex, that is.

“Thank you.”

“Can we drink now because we need to celebrate?”

“I think we need to break out more than just the whiskey,” I tell her as she leads me into the living room where people are mingling and eating, and my handsome-as-fuck fiancé is leaning his shoulder against the wooden frame of the patio door. He straightens himself when he sees me and gives me that special grin that I’ve noticed he reserves only for me.

I’m drawn to him, my craving, so I squeeze Lola once more before walking across the room to get to him.

“Is everything tolerable?”

“For now,” I tell him and place my hands against his chest to kiss him. When we pull back from the briefest of kisses, he gives me his tumbler of whiskey and leans against the frame again. “Are you in pain?”

“I’ve taken my medication that Liam brought, so I won’t be drinking for the rest of the evening. Why don’t you enjoy yourself?”

“Enjoy myself?”

“Have a drink or two. However, I want you to eat first.”

I purse my lips and lean up to place a kiss at his jaw. “I love you.”

“As I love you.”

Liam clears his throat, which draws our attention to him. “I’m fucking starving. Can we eat?”

Wade shakes his head, and the three of us walk to the buffet set up in the kitchen, which is now filled with people. The same group of women who were running their mouths about me at Lola’s birthday party have their eyes locked on Wade and me. I roll my eyes at the thought of them as we move forward in the buffet line.

“Wade?”

“Yes?” He says as he squeezes my hip.

“Go grab us a place to sit down and I’ll bring our dinner over. I don’t think that you should be standing for much longer.”

“I’m fine.”

I turn toward him as Liam grabs us some plates. “Please?”

“Rye, don’t push it. I said that I’m all right.”

“I’d prefer to have my groom standing at the end of the aisle when I walk toward him,” I tell him truthfully and run my hands down his chest.

He seems to think it over for a moment before he nods and walks out of the kitchen.

“You’re good for the fucker, you know that?” Liam says as he hands me two plates.

“He’s good for me, too.”

“I can tell,” he says as he helps me plate some of the food. “He seems to be content when he’s around you instead of the asshole that I know he can be.”

“He’s far from it, Liam.”

“I don’t think that you realize just how much of an impact you have on him. He would keep to himself, and when he didn’t, he could be brutal toward those who work underneath him.”

“How do you know this?” I ask as I pick up some silverware.

“I’ve been seeing Adriana off and on ever since he hired her.”

“You have? But you live in Australia.”

“Nothing gets past you, does it?”

We walk out of the kitchen and toward the dining room. “Oh, hush.” Liam might be a jerk, but I believe that he’s got a soft spot inside of him somewhere.

“She flies back and forth as do I when we’re able to get away from work, but we keep that to ourselves.”

“Well, does she know that you’re here?”

“Not yet. I was planning on surprising her tomorrow morning.”

“I’m sure that she’ll love to see you. I’ve only met her once or twice, but I really liked her.”

We find Wade, and I take a seat beside him. “Rye.”

“Hi, Whiskey, did you miss me?”

“More than you know.”

He places his hand on my knee and squeezes once before we each start to eat. I turn to him. “We should invite Adriana to join us for Christmas tomorrow.”

“Adriana?”

“Mmm-hmm, since Liam here has quite the romance going on with her.”

I watch his eyebrows raise, and I realize that he didn’t know. Liam’s gaze moves from mine to Wade’s as if he’s waiting for a reaction.

“You’re with Adriana?”

They exchange a few looks back and forth between them before Liam answers him. “On occasion.”

Wade stays quiet instead of responding to Liam’s truth. Both of them seem to grow tense until Lola joins us. “Hi, fuckers.”

“Jesus, this one has a mouth on her as well,” Liam says, and it seems to break the tension for now. These two men are going to make me go gray. Wade smiles and intertwines his fingers with mine.

“I’m sure you enjoy it, Liam,” Lola says confidently.

“Possibly, but you might get more joy out of it than you care to admit.” Liam responds.

I’m taken by surprise that Lo is flirting with Liam while Owen is in the other room. I down the remainder of Wade’s whiskey. He glances at me before getting up and disappearing without a word. I turn my attention back to Liam and Lola as they start to laugh at something said between them.

The three of us get lost in conversation, and when Owen and a few others join us, we’re joking about something Liam did on his last trip to Fiji. This man has been to places that I only wish I had the guts to travel to.

I look around the room, now filled with people, most of whom I remember from Lola’s birthday party, but I cannot find the one person I’m looking for. I stand from my seat, feeling the tequila that Lola has fed me as it runs through my veins.

I make my way out of the room, but he’s not in the living room or in the kitchen. I try the patio doors, but they’re locked. I purse my lips as I walk from one side of the apartment to the other, looking for him.

“Whiskey?”

I open my bedroom door and step inside, shutting it behind me when I flip on the light switch. He’s sprawled out on my bed, on top of the covers with his eyes closed and his breathing is shallow. I turn off the blinding light before it wakes him.

I walk up to him and kick off my shoes before I climb onto the bed next to him. He’s so still, even when I move to his side and curl up against him. It’s only when I move his arm around my waist that he stirs.

“Hadley.”

“Hi, Whiskey.”

His eyes close again, and I hear him swallow before his fingers grip onto the top of my thigh. “I’m sorry,” he says in a raspy voice.

“No, don’t apologize. What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

“Quite a bit,” he says as he pulls my black sweater up until he’s able to caress the bare skin underneath the lining of my panties.

“I should call your doctor.”

He moves his head on the pillow to face me and closes his eyes. “No. I’ll tell you if I need you to, though.”

“All right. Go back to sleep. I shouldn’t have woken you up.”

“If you want to leave, just let me know, and don’t let me keep you from enjoying your evening.”

“Waylon Brass, there is no one else that I would rather be with than you.”

“Very well.”

His body relaxes into the mattress, but I decide to get up and pull off his Oxfords before going to my closet and grabbing my cream-colored chunky-knit blanket. I join him on the bed again and pull the comfortable material over us before settling in at his side.