Our Finest Moment ✔️

23

COLTON

The days blur together, becoming weeks before I realize it. After my family visited, Liana left me alone, just like I asked. I've seen her in passing in the house, and I've gotten updates from Dorian that they're having a good time together.

I can't get rid of the damn brick in my abdomen every time he tells me about a new inside joke between them, or counts how many times she calls me an ass during the day. So far, her record is twenty-one, but Dorian is very sure she'll break that easily once I start involving myself with her again.

Which will happen any minute now.

I texted her to let her know we have an appointment with a wedding planner in fifteen minutes, and when I offered to drive, she insisted on meeting me here. I guess she still hates me just as much, and I don't really blame her. I've been an ass. I am an ass. But I'm not going to change. A part of me hopes she'll fight my every opinion today, that we'll look like we're bickering like couples do, and that I can drag her home and push her over the kitchen counter when we get home and smack that gorgeous, round ass of hers.

As much as I hate to admit it, the round we shared in the basement has been on my mind several times a day since, creating such a pressure in my lower region that I've had to relieve myself. More than once. With the sound of her screaming my name in my head.

Another part of me hopes she'll be a good girl and just smile and nod, and let me take care of everything—but I know she isn't that kind of girl.

We have two weeks left until the wedding. The invitations were made and sent a week ago. Today, we're settling on location—which of the big rooms inside the hotel I chose—decor and food. I don't care about any of it, I just want it over with and finished, so I can call in my newest members and put them to work. Thankfully, I've heard nothing new from Kenneth either, and I've set a couple of guys to watch him and his detectives closely. I even have someone pretending to be a tech intern at the precinct.

But there's nothing, and it worries me.

"Hello, fiancé," Liana spits at me as she walks up. Clad in a thick woolen coat and tight jeans, she looks like she's never had to fight for warmth and food at all. Even her legs look a bit thicker than when I first met her, signaling she's eating.

My chest feels weird as I make the connection, and she tightens the belt on her coat as I nod firmly as a way of greeting. "She's waiting," I mutter, and turn to open the door to the fancy establishment we're visiting.

No one can say I don't care about my bride, because why else would I pay with a lung and a half for this so-called award-winning event planner to handle our wedding? Liana sneaks in and thanks me halfheartedly for opening the door for her, and I grunt a response. I wish her coat was shorter so I could see if her ass has become thicker as well, but my thoughts evaporate as the woman I've talked to on the phone sidles up with her arms wide open, and a smile so big I want to know what sort of thoughts she has to be able to handle all that positivity.

I nod at her too, and sneak an arm around my fiancée's waist as Gianna hugs her. "So nice to meet you, Mrs. Radley," she says with a wink. I expect Liana to protest, because she isn't Mrs. Radley yet, but she doesn't.

"You too," she replies excitedly. "I'm so looking forward to this. I hope our timeframe isn't a very big issue.." She steps into my embrace and puts a hand on my chest, as if fully in love, and lets out a giggle like nothing I've ever heard before.

This might be way easier than I imagined.

"Oh, not at all," Gianna says, waving it off. "I'm just happy you want me to help!" She sends us both a huge smile, before gesturing for us to follow her.