“ALEX!” I CALLED, SORTING THROUGH the boxes littering my entryway with a scowl on my face.
“Just a sec!” she called back from our bedroom.
Cal was on the couch, drinking a beer, entirely too comfortable in his new role as Alex’s best friend and maid of honor. Honestly, it was some kind of twilight zone shit having Cal, a man I’d once watched remove someone’s eyelids while they were still alive, as my Alex’s favorite gal pal and confidant.
It had been six months of bliss.
One hundred and eighty days since Queen and his cronies’ diabolical plan had failed. Sure, it was a little jarring to find out the man who’d tried to destroy me, and kill the one person I loved the most in this world, was my brother, but I refused to let that revelation have an impact on me as a man.
I’d looked into it. I’d confirmed it. But I didn’t let the truth settle into my soul. I didn’t let it change me or the memories I had of my father.
I didn’t have the answers as to why he hadn’t bestowed the same life on his other son. All I knew was that John Hadder had taken me under his wing. He’d raised me. Loved me. Given me a generous start in life. I owed him nothing but my gratitude.
I had no control over my father’s past decisions. Just like I’d had no control over Queen’s. I could only make my own. Sometimes, life handed you gold or it handed you shit, but no matter what, it always moved on.
Over the past six months, Wonderland had experienced big changes in organizational structure, and every day, my little Alex and I grew stronger, closer.
I loved that woman with an intensity that often stole my own breath.
Wonderland had once been my life, but now, it played second fiddle to my one and only true love. She was and always would be my top priority.
I’d proposed to her three days after I’d brought her home from the hospital. It also just so happened to be the same day I’d had all of her stuff moved in to my penthouse. Being the demanding bastard I was, I hadn’t even given her an option, merely hiring the movers and settling her into my place before she even realized it was happening.
Of course, she’d had a few sarcastic comments in response to that, but the instant I got down on one knee and asked her to spend the rest of her life with me, she’d changed her tune.
My Alex might have been feisty as hell, but to her core she was also a little romantic softy. I loved that about her. Hell, I loved everything about her. In my eyes, she’d always be the most beautiful woman to me.
Obviously, I was biased, but I guessed that was when you knew it was love, when your bias stemmed from absolute adoration.
Fuck, if it were up to me, I would’ve married her the day I asked her, but my little softy wanted to plan our wedding. She wanted to pick out the flowers and the cake and her dream dress. She wanted it all, and I wanted to give her the world.
As I glanced around the spacious living room of our new home in Beverly Hills, I sighed at the mess of boxes scattered across the floor. We’d hired movers to ease the process, but I had a feeling my woman’s stubbornness was the reason behind the current mess.
“Where are the movers?” I yelled toward her again, and she huffed.
“I said just a sec!” she called back from the upstairs.
I turned to Cal and glared. “They were supposed to unpack everything too. Not just drop it and run.”
He shrugged. “Alex wanted to do it herself. Something about never finding stuff again if she let them put it away.”
I peered into the nearest box and scoffed, yanking out the half-used bottle of dish soap that sat on top. “Oh, yes. It’d be truly traumatizing if they put this soap under the kitchen sink where it belongs.”
Cal laughed. “Hey, talk to her, not me.”
Just then, Alex strolled in, her hair up in a high ponytail, a pair of short jean shorts barely long enough to be legal. Goddamn.
Her smile for Cal was huge as she spied him on the couch. “Want another beer, Cal?”
His grin was fucking annoying. “Sure, Alex.”
“He can’t have one,” I interjected. “He’s leaving.”
“Oh, come on, Matt!” Alex teased. “You’re the one who says someone has to be here with me all the time.”
“Yeah, and now I’m home, so bye, Cal.”
Alex pouted as Cal laughed and stood from the couch. “All right. I’ll be heading out. We’ll talk about flowers tomorrow anyway, Alex,” Cal muttered.
Alex smiled and clapped her hands together. “Yes! Flower market day! I can’t wait to pick out our wedding flowers.”
“Our wedding flowers,” I emphasized as she gazed lovingly at Cal.
He laughed again, and she rolled her eyes. “Of course. Geez.”
“Alex.”
“Uh-oh, baby,” Cal mumbled. “Sounds like his serious voice.”
“You know, I’m really not a fan of the chumminess between you two.”
Alex giggled, skipping over to me and jumping into my arms. Both legs wrapped around my waist, and the hold her arms had on my neck was gratifyingly tight. “Don’t be jealous, Matt. I’m marrying you.”
I squeezed her ass tightly as the door clicked shut behind Cal. “Fuck yeah,” I growled.
“Mmm,” she moaned as I buried my face in her neck and began to suck. “Matt.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, grazing the line of her throat with my teeth.
“I have to unpack,” she said, breathing heavily.
“You wouldn’t have to if you’d let the movers do their job.”
“They’re fucking miscreants.”
I shook my head and nipped at her plump lips.
“They’re top dollar.”
“Yeah, well, so was that apartment you moved me in to before, with shitty water and too high rent.”
I guffawed. “We charged you less than you were paying for that shithole you lived in, you little con artist.”
She blushed and smiled at once. “Yeah.”
“How’s the rent now?” I asked, knowing she wasn’t paying a fucking dime.
Her smile was coy as she winked. “Still too high.”
“That’s good,” I said, carrying her to the bedroom. “I know another way you can pay it off.”
She giggled as I jockeyed around the boxes in the doorway and dropped her to the bare mattress. Impatient, I put my hands to her shorts and pulled them down. I only stopped when she grabbed me by the hair and forced it.
Her face was doe-eyed and content, and I was lost. “I love you, Matt.”
“You have no idea.”