27.

Elise

It’s not easy organizing a wedding while in lockdown. But Liv and I haven’t been allowed to leave the compound since we got back from Chicago. I’m not complaining. Getting kidnapped and having your friends almost die tends to put the world in perspective.

Trisha’s had a harder time adjusting, only being allowed away from the club when she’s at work. She and Sneak have even been staying in his room down the hall from ours. Even though she never had relations with Logan, Sneak was so freaked out by what happened to Liv, he promised her they’d start work on a family that night if she’d agree to move into the club until the Houdini threat was neutralized.

That was seven weeks ago. I’ve been cleaning all day getting the spare rooms ready for outside guests who will start arriving tonight. Brothers from all over showing up to celebrate mine and Beau’s impending nuptials tomorrow.

His eyes. I will never forget his eyes when the invitations arrived in the mail. Black cardstock. A raised, embossed flaming devil head, proud and prominent, at the top of each. The words Brimstone Lords spelled out in old English lettering across the top. Live. Ride. Brotherhood. Etched below. A perfect replica of the patch the brothers wear, not only across their leather cuts, but also inked onto their backs as a sign of devotion. It was that moment as he read the words we’d picked, inviting his brothers to join us because there could not be a brotherhood without family, that he understood I got it. I’d told him before, of course. But sometimes words are just words. Those invites were my testimony to my devotion to him and his place, and by extension, my place in the club.

My concerned biker keeps trying to get me to take it easy because of the baby. But with so much left to do, how could he expect me to slow down? I’m the VP’s old lady. Period.

By the time I finished the last room, he’d taken to physically forcing me to “Sit your ass down,” which I did for his peace of mind. The prospects had made my white bean chicken chili per my precise directions. Only I wasn’t allowed to leave my stool as they prepared it.

Now after the “Fuck, this shit’s good.” And “Damn, Boss’s one lucky bastard get a girl can cook.” I’m having a great time listening to glory days stories of biker rally pasts. Someday, when all this Houdini nonsense is behind us, I hope he’ll want to take me to one, so we can make our own memories.

Beau was right, we’re giving them exactly what the club needed after Liv’s kidnapping. She’s over talking with a visiting old lady from the Illinois chapter, while Chaos engages her old man in conversation. He won’t go far from her. Constantly shooting eyes her way, refreshing her drink, using the excuse he needs another one whenever he sees her low.

All’s not totally right in our world, though. Blood shoots her and Chaos glances too, but his come from an entirely different place. He still won’t talk to either Chaos or Livvy. He only agreed to stand with Beau at our wedding tomorrow so long as he’s not standing directly next to Chaos.

I know Duke’s losing patience with him. Even he can’t deny how Chaos is with Liv.

But as fun as biker rally stories, and as intriguing as Liv and Chaos watching are, I’m wiped. I’m wiped and don’t want dark circles around my eyes in my wedding photos.

“Gentlemen.” I stand, pushing away from the bar where we’ve been sitting. “Growing a child is tiring, and I need my beauty sleep.”

“Brothers. I’ll be back.” Beau stands, too.

“No. Stay. Have fun.”

“Woman,” he whispers. “I wanna help my old lady to bed, I’ll do it.”

Well okay, then.

As soon as he gets me inside the room with the door shut, he presses me up against the wall and locks me there with his hips, his mouth taking mine hard and hungry. “Since this’ll be the last time I get to fuck Elise Manning,” he says after tearing his lips away. “Tomorrow I’ll be fucking Elise Hollister.”

I might have been tired before, but as he kisses me, I claw at the button on my jeans then rip apart the zipper.

His hands go from caressing my face to shoving those jeans down my legs along with my panties, taking care to not put too much pressure on the tiny baby bump just starting to show, at fourteen weeks. It’s a baby bump he’s inferred he finds sexy as hell, I might add.

“Still hard to believe this is all mine,” Beau murmurs, with his forehead pressed to my cheek.

While I turn clawing fingers to his fly, he decides against taking me against the wall and move us, as I walk backward toward the bed, with our lips still connected. Once my knees hit the edge of the mattress I go down gently onto my back, hair spread out over the pillow, thus ending the clawing to his fly. It doesn’t matter. His hands work just as well for the job.

Before the frantic starts up again, Beau catches my eyes and holds them. “Love you darlin’. Love you with everythin’ in me.”

At his beautiful words I take a beat to just stare back. I’ve seen, I’ve memorized so many of his looks but this one is new, even to me. It’s a look which says everything.

I blink, then he blinks. Then my soon-to-be husband descends slowly to recapture my lips. “The brothers can continue without me,” he says. “What I got in here is so much more pressin’. We’ll get back to the frantic after we make it through the slow, and I plan to make the slow real good for you, baby girl. My Elise.”