At first he looked confused, like he couldn’t quite place the person he was looking at, but it only took a second before his face tightened in anger. I’d seen Tommy mad plenty of times, but I’d never him livid. It was practically rolling off him as he stepped forward.
I glanced to where he seemed to be looking and my stomach sank. My parents were standing in a little group with my aunt and uncle, and right in the middle of them was Devin. Even though Mel had told me he was there, I hadn’t quite believed her until I saw him with my own eyes.
“Tommy,” I said as he continued to move through the crowd. He didn’t hear me so I said it a little louder, trying to get his attention, but it was no use. He was headed straight for Devin, and by the look on his face he was going to kill my cousin.
“Tommy!” I yelled again, catching the attention of Will and Casper who were just ahead of me.
I picked up my skirt and rushed forward just as the men turned to look at me. Something must have shown on my face because without a word they were turning to look for Tommy in the crowd and were suddenly jogging toward him.
“Tommy,” I said again, trying so hard not to make a scene as I pushed through the crowd. People were starting to notice me, and everyone had grown quiet by the time Will grabbed his brother around the chest and yanked him backward.
I couldn’t hear what Will was saying into Tommy’s ear, but it didn’t seem to be making a difference. My future husband pulled so hard against his brother’s arms that the tendons in his neck were bulging. He didn’t even seem to register the people around him that were rounding up the kids and ushering them back inside. He just stared straight at Devin, who consequently looked like he was going to piss his pants.
“Thomas,” I said when I was finally close enough for him to hear me.
“Stay back,” Will warned, his arms flexing as Tommy pulled against them.
I snorted and moved closer until I was right in front of them.
“Hey,” I said, reaching up to put my hands on his cheeks. “Tommy.”
He looked down at me in surprise and his body relaxed a little, but not much.
“How do I look?” I asked, giving him a small smile.
“Beautiful,” he said softly, turning his head to kiss one of my palms before his eyes shot back up to my cousin.
“You need to calm down,” I murmured, rubbing my thumb over his jaw. “I can’t marry you if Will can’t let you go.”
“That motherfucker—”
“I know, baby,” I said, moving even closer and making Will curse. “We’ll make him leave.”
“He shows his face at our goddamn wedding?” he growled, jerking at Will’s arms. “Motherfucker didn’t learn his lesson the first time.”
“Tommy,” I snapped, making his eyes meet mine again. “I’m not playing with you. Calm your ass down so we can get married or I’m leaving your ass at the altar.”
“You think I’m gonna let that piece of shit walk away again?” he argued.
“I think you’re going to stand here with me,” I replied, ignoring the sound of disbelief he made. “And your brother is going to go tell him he’s not welcome here.”
“Not happenin’,” Tommy spit out, jerking against his brother’s arms.
“Alright,” I said, dropping my hands from his face. “Then Will’s going to hold you while I go tell him—”
“You take one step in his direction,” Tommy warned, his eyes meeting mine again. “One fuckin’ step, Heather—”
“Then you have to stop,” I said quietly. “You need to calm down if you don’t want me to go over there.”
He glared at me, his nostrils flaring, but slowly his body started to relax.
“Thank you,” I whispered, reaching out again.
Just as my hands made contact with his chest, he yanked away from Will who’d loosened his hold. For a second, my heart stopped, but then his arms were around me, pulling me up until my feet no longer touched the ground.
“Get him outta my sight,” he growled at his brother.
After that, there was a commotion behind me but I didn’t try to turn and watch. I could hear my uncle and aunt protesting as Will pushed Devin through the crowd, but I didn’t care. They didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered to me in that moment was calming the man whose arms around me were shaking with fury.
“I told you not to do that shit,” he growled, his arms tightening. “I fuckin’ told you.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” I asked smugly, letting out a yelp when he dropped me abruptly to my feet.
“You fuckin’ kiddin’ me right now?” He took a step back and suddenly, I was cold. Really cold. “It’s the one thing I fuckin’ asked!”
“Shut up, Thomas,” I spat, crossing my arms. “The only thing you get to say to me right now is how pretty I look.”
“You know you look gorgeous,” he snapped back, running his fingers through his hair.
He was pissed, but I could see the tension slowly leaving his shoulders once my cousin was out of his sight. I swallowed hard, the shock of the entire situation finally hitting me. I’d seen people angry plenty of times. I’d even seen the Hawthorne temper on full display before. But I’d never seen anything like Tommy when he’d seen Devin. He’d looked possessed. And like it usually happened when I got myself into shit without thinking it through, once it was over I began to freak out.
I was just about to open my mouth to say God knows what, probably something stupid, when Molly came up beside me and wrapped her fingers around my arm.
“We ready to do this the right way?” she asked drolly, glancing between Tommy and me.
“Yeah,” I rasped, nodding my head. I turned away and began to walk back toward the building when Tommy called out.
“Hey, sugar,” he said, roughly. “I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
My lips twitched and the nervous knot in my stomach unraveled as the words I’d said to him that morning came back to me.
“Hell yeah, you will,” I replied, glancing back over my shoulder.
He gave me a small grin and nodded once.
Then it was time for everyone to sit down so I could make my grand entrance…again.
* * *
“You look hot as fuck in this dress,” Tommy said a few hours later, his hands skimming down my back to grip my ass as we swayed from side to side.
They hadn’t set up a dance floor, but there was music pouring out of a pretty incredible sound system and we were at the edge of the crowd enjoying the little bit of privacy we’d finally found.
“Thanks,” I said with a chuckle. “But not exactly what I was going for.”
“Stop,” he mumbled, leaning down to kiss me softly. “You look beautiful.”
I grinned.
“You just also look like you’d enjoy me bending you over and taking you hard.”
The grin fell off my lips and I smacked his chest. “Jesus, Tommy!”
“What?” he asked, laughing. “It’s all legal now.”
“It wasn’t illegal before,” I muttered, twisting in his arms until my back was nestled against his front.
“Do you think this is going to work?” I asked as I watched his family and friends visiting and laughing in small groups all over the yard. “Do you think it’ll make any difference?”
“Will it keep me out of jail?” he asked. I nodded.
“Probably not,” he said, gripping me tighter so I couldn’t turn around to argue. “But if it comes to that, they can’t make you testify and I’ll know you’re taken care of out here.”
“I don’t need protection,” I murmured, lifting a hand to wrap around his forearm.
“It’ll make me feel better that you are,” he murmured back, kissing my temple. “Got a feelin’ that somethin’ with the Russians is brewin’.”
“Why do you think that?” I asked, leaning back against him. He was wearing a black button down under his leather vest, and I could feel the buttons pressing against my bare back.
/>
“Just tension around the clubhouse,” he replied. “Somethin’ ain’t right.”
“They’d say something, though, wouldn’t they?”
I glanced around the crowd, picking out the faces I knew. My parents had left right after the ceremony, but Tommy’s parents were still there, laughing at something Farrah was saying. Her husband Casper was shaking his head, but he was grinning, too. Will was dancing with Molly, Rebel pressed in between them, and Leo was twirling a giggling Lily around while Cecilia did the same to one of Trix’s boys. They all seemed to be having a good time, and from the outside it didn’t look like anything was wrong. But as I looked closer, I noticed that at any time there were at least a few men missing from the festivities. They’d show back up for a while, but others would leave. Almost as if they were taking shifts.
“Don’t keep me in the loop,” Tommy said in frustration. “But don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” I lied quickly, my stomach knotting.
At some point, between the commune living and the wedding shopping, I’d come to care for the people out there in the yard. I’d wormed my way in somehow, and I couldn’t see them as separate from me anymore.
“What did I tell you?” he whispered, nuzzling my neck. “Hmm?”
“You’ll take care of me,” I muttered in mock irritation, giggling a little as he tickled me.
“That’s right,” he promised. “I’ll take care of everything.”
With one last kiss against my neck, he pulled away and tugged me toward the rest of the party.
“I thought you’d dragged the poor girl off,” Casper called out as we crossed the blackened grass.
“Nah, not yet,” Tommy joked. “She’s only gettin’ one wedding, so I figured we’d stay a while.”
I squeezed his hand in annoyance, but he ignored me.
“I think I need my septum done again,” Farrah announced, staring at my nose.
“No you don’t,” Casper replied. “We’re too old for that shit.”
“Speak for yourself!”
“Baby, you’re older than I am,” he said, making her gasp in indignation.
“Guess who isn’t gettin’ laid tonight,” Grease muttered into his beer, making a giggling Callie elbow him in the side. He raised his eyes to me. “Welcome to the family.”
I snorted, but couldn’t help but smile at the way Farrah was glaring at her husband. He seemed to be sober, but she definitely wasn’t, and as she glared he just stared back at her calmly, a little grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Wilfred!” she called, raising her arm to wave it at Will. “Who’s older, your uncle or me?”
Will barely lifted his head from Molly as he called back, “Casper.”
“Pussy,” Casper mumbled, making Grease laugh.
“You want a drink?” Tommy asked me as he ran a hand down my arm.
“No, thanks.” I wasn’t willing to risk spilling something on my dress. I’d stuff my face and have something to drink later after I’d changed.
“Thomas,” Grease said before Tommy could walk away. “Here.” He took something out of his pocked and handed it over.
“What’s this?” Tommy asked, looking down at the little card in his palm.
“You shouldn’t spend your wedding night at home,” Callie joked, shrugging her shoulders. “You’ve got years to do that.”
I looked down at the card and recognized the name written on it as a pretty ritzy hotel downtown. The room number was scrawled across the little paper sleeve.
“Thanks,” Tommy said in surprise, glancing at me. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Grease cleared his throat and nodded. “Get started out on the right foot,” he said gruffly.
The guy was impossible to read, so I didn’t know if the gesture was a sign of approval… but it was still a really nice thing for him to do.
“Thank you,” I murmured, meeting his eyes.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Tense. Then all of a sudden I was off my feet as Tommy slung me over his shoulder to the amusement of our guests.
“Tommy!” I screeched, making everyone laugh.
“This changes things,” I heard him say as he strode across the yard. I assumed he meant the hotel key card.
“You gonna try to get her on your bike like that?” Leo asked in amusement as we passed him.
“Nah, I got the Nova.”
“You’re dead,” I muttered as he rounded the building, never setting me back on my feet. “My boobs are falling out of this dress and I’m pretty sure I just flashed your dad.”
“Lucky him.”
“And Leo,” I griped.
Just like that, I was back on my feet.
“That’s not funny,” he muttered, grabbing my hand to pull me along behind him.
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. I’m not wearing a freaking bra.”
“I noticed,” he said with a small noise of approval.
It didn’t take long to get to the Nova, and I cursed when I saw what someone had done to it. There were condoms taped all over it. They were everywhere, from the front bumper to the back window, and in every shade of the rainbow. Not the wrappers, either. The actual condoms. Hanging there like multi-colored deflated penis balloons.
“Assholes,” Tommy chuckled, shaking his head. He went to open the passenger side door for me, but I took a step back and scoffed.
“I’m not riding in it like that,” I said, glaring at the car. “No fucking way.”
We started pulling them off, one by one, and the longer it took the more we started to laugh, until both of us were almost hysterical.
“My hands are covered in lube,” I gasped out, tears streaming down my face. “This is so disgusting.”
“Well at least they were concerned for your pleasure,” Tommy retorted, swinging a ribbed condom from his fingertips.
“Oh my God, can you imagine if we took all these with us and then next week told them thank you, like we’d actually used them?”
Tommy roared with laughter, ripping a purple condom off the hood. “That’s happenin’,” he announced with a nod, trying to catch his breath. “Fuck, they better not have fucked up my paint.”
Twenty minutes later we were flying down the highway with a pile of what looked like used condoms in a gooey mess on the back floorboard.
Chapter 12
Thomas
“You realize we won’t be sleeping here, right?” I asked Heather, pausing in front of our hotel room door.
“What?” she asked distractedly, looking around the fancy hallway. I waited, watching as she took everything in, then tried to keep a straight face as her wide eyes met mine. “What?” she asked again, this time in disbelief.
“We’re not sleeping here,” I said again, letting that sink in as I opened the door for her.
“Why the hell not?” she protested as she pushed past me into the room.
I stepped in behind her and let the door swing shut as I reached out to grip her hips. “Because we won’t be sleeping,” I murmured in her ear.
I wrapped one arm around her waist and used the other to lift her legs off the floor, laughing at her surprised yell. The bed was massive and when I dropped her down in the middle of it, I couldn’t help but smile at the picture she made. The hotel we were in was an old one. Old and fancy. And she looked like some movie star from the forties with her hair all curled up and her old-fashioned dress on, lying in the middle of that fancy ass four-poster bed.
“Wow,” I said, looking her over.
She lifted her arms until her head was resting on her hands and bent her knee, making her dress slip all the way up her thigh.
“It’s about time you noticed,” she said smugly, relaxing back against the bed.
“Oh, I noticed,” I mumbled, dropping my cut on the floor.
Usually I was more careful with the leather when I took it off, but I couldn’t look away from her long enough to find somewhere to set it down. There was som
ething about the fact she was my wife that made her infinitely more attractive. I hadn’t even known it was possible to want her more than I already had. I thought about her constantly, no matter what I was doing, but when we’d been saying our vows, something had shifted.
I’d already claimed her at the club, but this was different. What had seemed like just a piece of paper before had somehow solidified into something way bigger and way more important than that. She was mine. She could leave me at any time, walk away and never look back, but the fact would remain that at some point I had been her husband. She’d stood up before a group of people, her parents and mine, and made that commitment to me.
And I’d made that commitment, too.
I knew without a doubt, no matter what happened or how things played out, I’d always keep that promise. She could always depend on me. Even if she left. Even if down the road we decided we couldn’t do it anymore. If she needed something, I’d do my damnedest to make it happen. Always.
“You’re staring,” she said softly, pushing herself up on her elbows.
“You’re my wife,” I replied, just as quiet.
I unbuttoned my shirt as I watched her, taking in the rise and fall of her chest and the way she fluttered her feet to kick off the flip flops she’d worn under her dress.
“You’re my husband,” she replied with a huge grin.
I shrugged my shirt off my shoulders, and felt my chest puff out a bit at the way her eyes followed the movement, her head tilting to the side just a little, like she was trying to see me from every angle. Then as I was unbuckling my belt, her eyes dropped, and her tongue swept along her bottom lip… and I was done. What little reserve I’d had disappeared and within seconds my jeans and boxers were around my ankles while I tried like hell to get my boots off.
Heather giggled as I lost my balance and fell sideways onto the bed with a curse.
“Need some help?” she chirped, grabbing handfuls of her dress and hiking it up so she could crawl on top of me.
I rolled to my back and groaned as she lowered herself onto me, her pussy rubbing against my stomach.