Bliss Series Boxed Set: The Whole Damn Harem (111 page)

“I’m not ‘fawning’, I’m just getting acquainted with Dr. Taylor here.”

“Another fucking Roberts’ woman swooning over the Walking Dildo. What a surprise,” Zander mutters, which just makes Noah chuckle quietly.

Mom squares my brother with a take-no-shit mom stare as she walks over to him and reaches up to fix his black bow tie. “Zander Jeremy Roberts, watch your mouth. Zoe wouldn’t choose another bad boyfriend. Noah is lovely. But, what do you mean walking d-”

“Doesn’t matter, Mom,” I quickly interject.

Noah takes pleasure in my mother’s reprimand and holds out his hand to me, running his thumb over my knuckles. The intimate gesture makes me want to kiss him, hug him, and jump him all at once. But circumstances prevent me from doing all of that, so I give him a gentle squeeze of encouragement. I lean into his side and kiss his cheek. “You scrub up mighty fine, Taylor.”

His head turns so his mouth is by my ear. “You keep looking at me like that and I’ll book a room for us so fast your head will spin, right before I drag you away to rock your world
before
the ceremony even begins.”

I lift my hand to run across his suit-covered shoulders. “Keep talking like that and I’ll give you an excuse to find out whether I’m wearing panties under this dress.” His body stills and I high-five myself for one-upping the king of tease.

That’s until his hand moves over my hip and his palm glides over the silky material covering my ass, his answering growl gratifying and definitely a sign of the trouble I’m going to find myself in later if I keep this up.
I can’t fucking wait.

“Remember what happened last time I told you to take your hands off my sister? Or do you want a reminder?” Zander calls out across the room. Turning my head toward the sound, I see him frowning at me in the reflection of a mirror where he has a front-row view of Noah and I trying not to jump each other.

Danika looks over her shoulder at me and pulls a grossed out face. “Get a room, guys. There’s a teenager present.”

“Yeah, Zo. Get a room. Preferably naked,” Noah murmurs in my ear as he leans down and places a soft open-mouthed kiss full of promise on my bared shoulder. Jeez Louise, maybe panties would have been safer than risking a wet patch.

Daniel chuckles as he pours four glasses of whiskey at the suite’s dining room table and jerks his head to the guys to join him.

“I think that’s our cue to leave them to it,” Mia states as she does one last spritz of hair spray on Danika’s hair and walks over to where Noah and I are standing.

“Let my sister go, you animal,” she says jokingly. “You have a drink to enjoy with my brother while he enjoys his last few moments as a bachelor. Besides, my sister looks ready to throw in the towel and give in. Plenty of time for that later, kids.”

“Fucking smartass,” I mutter under my breath.

“Zoe Rachel Roberts, language!” Mom calls out. Her power of supersonic hearing knows no bounds. Did I mention how much I love not living at home anymore? I can drop as many F-bombs and S-bombs as I like. Being able to make out with my boyfriend on my couch and test out sex toys in every room of the apartment is just a
very
awesome added bonus.

“See you soon, sweetheart,” Noah whispers as he kisses my cheek and moves his mouth to my lips. “And I look forward to having that dress hitched around those hips when I bend you over and fuck you speechless.”

Jesus. Is it go time yet? I try to think non-sexual thoughts to cool down my libido as Mia bursts out laughing—having obviously heard what Noah said—and pulls me away from him, leading me out of the room behind Mom and toward the elevators to the ballroom downstairs to watch my big brother marry his dream girl.

∞
∞
∞

As far as bridesmaid's dresses go, Kate has more than looked after the three of us. The dresses are Grecian themed, all soft and floaty with a fitted one-shouldered bodice and waves of blush pink chiffon dropping down from the silk-belted waist. I feel like a goddess, and walking down the aisle behind Mia, with Mac— the matron of honor — following behind me. Kate told us she's always wanted the perfect princess wedding. In this case though, she's the queen, and we're all her loyal loving subjects. I reach the raised platform where we were told to stand and turn around in time to see the vision that is Kate McGuiness, the bride slowly gliding down the aisle. Her dress is beyond gorgeous. It puts every bride I've ever seen to shame.

The top is sheer cream-colored lace with a deep scoop neck. Embellished lace and hundreds of beads cover the bust down to an ivory satin belt dropping to layers upon layers of cream chiffon drapes falling to the floor, a modest peek-a-boo side split showing a flash of leg with every step she makes closer to her waiting groom. To finish, she’s wearing custom-made pink heels, which look like ballet slippers on steroids with matching pink ribbon adorning each ankle. They’re the most gorgeous shoes I have ever seen and they just top off the princess bride look, perfect for Kate.

I tear my eyes away from Kate and look over at my brother, my breath catching at the look of pure adoration and love in his eyes as he watches her walk towards him. His eyes are shining with tears, which threatens to start me off.

Biting my lip, I look to the rows of wedding guests and see Noah sitting with my mom and Danika. He watches Kate’s back until she reaches the end of the aisle. Then he looks over toward me, the intensity in his eyes making the lump in my throat feel as if it’s going to choke me. Those eyes are full of emotion and feeling, as if he could see us sharing a wedding just like this—my brother giving me away, and my sisters standing up to witness me vow my eternal love to him.

Then I remember last night—amazingly—and this morning. It’s a similar look to the one he gifted me when he made love to me, soft and slow. And it was totally making love. Gone was the hot and heavy fucking I’d grown accustomed to with Noah. It was beyond sex. The feeling of him sinking inside of me with nothing between us felt like the last frontier and from here on in, I don't ever want there to be anything between us.

The wedding celebrant starts the ceremony and I’m forced to tear my eyes from the man consuming my thoughts and focus back on Zander and Kate.

“Zander, will you have this woman to be your wife; to live together with her in the covenant of marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful unto her as long as you both shall live?”

“I will,” he answers quickly, his voice loud and certain.

“And Kate, will you have this man to be your husband; to live together with him in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful unto him as long as you both shall live?

“I . . . I will,” she struggles to say, as her chest heaves with emotion.

“Now the bride and groom will recite their vows to each other. Zander, I believe you have written your own vows for Kate?”

“I have.” He looks back from the minister to Kate. He lifts her hand to his mouth and kisses her knuckles before lowering her hand back down. Mac, Mia and I all sigh loudly, which earns a collective laugh from the congregation.

My brother smirks before he clears his throat and begins his vows. “Kate, you amaze me every day with your inspiring approach to love and life. You make me want to be a better man, for both myself and for you. I want to spend the rest of my life starting and ending my day by your side. I want to grow old with you, raise a family with you. I’m going to dedicate my life to making you smile and laugh, and never give you reason to doubt my love. This is my vow I make to you. Now and forever.”

Daniel steps forward and hands a handkerchief to Kate, who has tears streaming down her cheeks while smiling up at Zander.

“And Kate, are you ready to recite your vows to Zander?”

She wipes her cheeks and sniffs loudly before handing the handkerchief back to Daniel, who grins at her and steps back to his position alongside Zach.

“Zander, I grew up with the knowledge that I would one day find my one true love. And being the dreamer that I’ve always been, I didn’t just want a good love or one of those everyday loves that I had heard about. I wanted the kind of crazy love you’re warned about. The kind of love that would make my heart skip a beat. The kind of love that would make me want to dance in the rain, and bottle up the sunset, while screaming at the top of my lungs about it. The kind of love that authors would write about, musicians would sing about, and lovers would dream about. I’ve always wanted true total body, mind and soul bliss. And after years of looking, I finally found it with you. I promise to spend the rest of my life showing you every day how much I love you and giving you back everything you give to me.”

“Oh god,” I stutter as the tears take hold and I bawl like a baby.

Honored to share such a special moment alongside Kate and Zander and their friends, and filled with all of the emotion that weddings bring out in a woman, the moment I hear the minister pronounce them husband and wife, I look at Noah and whisper the words I’ve never said to a man before. “I think I love you.”

And when his eyes widen with shock, obvious as hell to me even from a distance, it hits me what that fuck I’ve just done.

“Like I Can”

Noah

Surely my lip-reading skills must be deceiving me, because I can’t have just had Zoe tell me she loves me when I’m not close enough to touch her, kiss her and do what I want to her and for how
long
I want to do it for.

Her face morphs into a look of “oh shit, what have I done” and as much as I try to school my expression, she’s obviously read something into the look on my face to immediately want to backtrack. Something I do not want and will not let her do.

But I’m forced to hold myself back as she walks down the aisle with her arm looped in Zach’s and row-by-row the guests filter out of the room toward the bar, where we have been told to go after the ceremony.

I lead Zoe’s mom and younger sister Danika out and scan the bar for Zoe, but by then she is nowhere to be seen. We congratulate Kate and Zander—who squeezes my hand extra tight just for good measure—and I pick up two glasses of champagne and a glass of juice, one for each of the three of us.

“That ceremony was beautiful, don’t you think, Noah?” Zoe’s mom asks me, distracting me from my search.

“It was. You raised a fine man there, Mrs. Roberts.”

“Oh, call me Julie, honey.” I nod at her and smile. Zoe looks a lot like her mom—the same color eyes and matching dimple on the left-hand side of her cheek.

“You seemed to be watching Zoe a lot,” Danika teases.

“She’s hard not to look at. Must be a thing with you Roberts women.”

“Charmer,” Danika retorts.

“I like to think of myself as smart, but if the shoe fits . . .” Both women laugh, and I feel Zoe’s phone vibrate in her purse. She’d given me her purse to look after when she left Zander’s room to finish getting ready.

Pulling it out, I see there are five missed text messages on there. I can’t see who from, but my curiosity is definitely piqued.

“There she is!” Julie calls as Zoe enters the room and walks toward us. She seems to have recovered from her moment of panic and smiles brightly when she reaches us. Her face still seems flushed, but she seems to have tidied up her make-up and touched up her lipstick.

“Hey. Wasn’t that a beautiful ceremony? I bawled like a baby,” she says, commandeering a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. I look down at her and she smiles quickly before turning her attention back to her family.

“I think Zander cried too. I’m gonna give him so much shit for that.”

“Danika—mouth!”

“Sorry Mom,” she mumbles into her glass as she takes a sip of juice.

“I can’t believe one of my babies is married now. Soon they’ll be having babies of their own.”

“Don’t get your hopes up on that happening too quickly, Mom. Zander wants to enjoy his new wife for a while.”

“I bet he does,” I retort without thinking, and am met with Zoe’s wide ‘oh fuck’ eyes again while Danika and Julie giggle quietly.

“Noah.” Zoe’s voice is low, a veiled warning if ever I heard one.

“Sorry, that was inappropriate. I just meant—”

“We all know what you meant, Noah,” she snaps, which just makes me smirk at her.

“Please explain, Zoe. I’m not sure I’m up to that topic in my health education classes.”

I snort loudly at Danika. It seems Zoe isn’t the only one with a good sense of humor in the family.

“Will you two excuse us for a moment? I need to talk to Zoe quickly,” I ask the women as I grab my girlfriend’s hand and lead her out of the bar and into the corridor outside.

“Noah, what on earth—”

I cut her off by pushing her into the wall and slamming my lips down onto hers, not giving a fuck about the freshly applied lipstick that will probably end up all over me. My tongue plunges into her mouth and her hands grip on to my shoulders before she sags against me and gives in, looping her arms around my neck and running her fingers into my hair. It’s my favorite kind of Zoe kiss.

My hands run up from her hips, to her breasts, to cup her cheeks, and I slowly ease my lips back, leaning my forehead against hers as I try to catch my breath.

“Noah, I was caught up in the—”

Her body tenses up against mine, but I don’t give her the opportunity to backtrack. No fucking way. “Don’t! Don’t take it back. I hope like hell I understood what you said correctly, because I love you too. I didn’t know what it was that I was feeling, but last night something changed. I panicked when you said you needed to break up with me and that panic—even though you were drunk and talking bullshit—made me think about why I reacted like that. I’ve fallen for you and I don’t want you to take it back because I won’t. I mean every fucking word.”

Her mouth drops, and never one to miss an opportunity, I kiss her again, slow and soft, pouring everything I feel for her into it.