Closer

Ten

Lucas

I see out of the corner of my eye Ava walking away and I just won’t have that. Not now. Not ever. With another punch, the asshole who put his hands on her is on the ground and I’m going after her.

“Ava, wait!” I call out, and when she turns around I see she’s got tears in her eyes.

“Oh no, petal, don’t cry. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“It’s not that. It’s everything.” She waves her hands around the room and I understand what she means.

“I broke a promise to you when I said we’d only stay ten minutes. I shouldn’t have even come. You are so much more important to me than that. And I won’t ever break another promise to you again.”

“Is everything okay?” My mother comes over with tissues and holds them out for Ava.

“Thank you,” Ava says and takes them from her.

“Don’t worry about the makeup running. You’re absolutely stunning no matter what,” my mother says, and Ava pauses and sniffs.

“You think I’m pretty?” she asks, her voice unsure.

“Are you kidding me? When Lucas said you were one of Rebecca’s models I expected you to be a cookie-cutter airhead like those tramps on the balcony. No, I could tell you we’re different and I liked you from the moment I saw you two together. I asked you to leave because I knew my son wouldn’t want you to see him like that. He’d want you out of harm’s way.” I have to bite back a smile at my mother calling someone a tramp. “But in walks my son with the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. I hope my grandbabies have your hair and eyes. They’re going to be so beautiful. Now, you two aren’t going to make me wait long before you get started, right? I’m not getting any younger, and I want at least four. Two girls and two boys.”

“That’s enough, Ma,” I say and go to step between my mother and Ava. But to my surprise, Ava pushes past me and wraps her arm around my mom.

“I’m so happy,” Ava says, and she sniffs again.

“I’m so happy, too,” my mom says, and I can hear her whispering about having a wedding next weekend, so I pull Ava away.

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I say to my mom as I hold Ava snug against me.

“I’ll call the club. We can have it there. It will be perfect,” my mother calls from behind us as we leave.

“I thought this was going to be a disaster,” Ava says when we get outside.

My driver is there waiting with the door open, and I help her into the back.

“How could it be a disaster when it began so beautifully,” I say as I get to my knees in front of her.

“Again?” she asks, her voice low but full of excitement.

“And again and again and again,” I say as I kiss my way up her thighs. “Until my last breath.”

“I never thought fairy tales came true,” she says as she spreads her legs wider.

“Come closer, petal, and let me show you.”

Epilogue

Ava

One year later…

I sit in the chair still tired from the night before. It has been a long flight and the makeup artist keeps giving me glares because I’m trying to eat while she’s putting on my makeup, but she won’t say anything. I’ll just keep getting the looks.

“Trust me, if I don’t eat my breakfast Lucas will be more trouble than we want to deal with.” I hear Rebecca snort-laugh from behind me because it’s the truth. It’s our first morning in Fiji, having gotten in late last night. I missed breakfast because my husband decided he wanted to have me for breakfast, making me late to the shoot to begin with.

He hadn’t been happy with my saying I’d wait until lunch to eat. I wasn’t at the location of the photoshoot for more than five minutes, my ass had barely hit my chair, and eggs benedict was being delivered right to me. It’s my weakness…well, my second behind my husband.

“Take ten,” Lucas says as he comes strolling into the tent like he owns the place. I guess he kinda does, but unless it has to do with me, he doesn’t interfere all that much.

He’s dressed in casual khaki shorts and a soft white cotton shirt. Still somehow he looks like a billionaire that owns the world, even without one of his suits on.

“Take your ten, but that it’s. The sun is an issue. Even you have no control over it,” Rebecca reminds her brother. I fight a laugh at his face because I know the look. He’s actually thinking of ways he could possibly control the sun.

“Ten is good, Rebecca,” I cut in before they go into one of their mini fights that can be rather adorable, but we don’t have time for one right now. She’s right. If we want a sunrise shoot we need to stick to the time schedule or we’ll be back here tomorrow morning cutting into Lucas’s and my plans for our second honeymoon.