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Edible Arrangement

Mia

“Okay, I know today is all about you and Aleks and this beautiful wedding, but can I just gloat for a second because… Garrett is getting absolutely roasted online right now.”

Isabella did a little happy dance with that announcement, shimmying her shoulder as one hand scrolled though her phone and the other plucked the olive from her martini and popped it into her mouth. Her bright pink hair was pulled into an elegant bun at the nape of her neck, the top of it slicked back, and her eyes were dramatic and emphasized with a dark cat-eye line. Her piercings glimmered in the light, tattoos standing out against the black spaghetti strap dress she wore.

“Everyone is saying he’s unreliable and that he’s become a resentful old man with some weird fetish with trying to take you down,” she continued, her eyes alight with glee as she shook her head and kept scrolling. “Some are even saying it’s Austin still trying to control you after your breakup, that Garrett is his little puppet.”

I listened with a soft smile on my lips, heart full as I looked around the house at all our family and friends gathered together. Warmth spread through me like a cup of hot tea, the snow outside making the scene inside feel even cozier, somehow.

My eyes caught on where Aleks was across the room. He stood with Will Perry and Vince Tanev, the three of them chatting animatedly while they sipped an old expensive scotch my father had broken out for the occasion. When my husband’s eyes found me, the corner of his lips tilted, and heat spread through me again at the way his gaze dragged from my head all the way down to my satin Gianvito Rossi heels.

Husband .

The word curled around my heart, snug and warm, like an animal burrowing into its forever home.

“ God , this makes me so happy. Look! People are making the best fucking memes.” Isabella shoved her phone in my face, and I snort-laughed at the image of Garrett with an orange face and little devil horns, his expression enraged as he watched an image of me covering my mouth as tears flooded my eyes the first night at MSG when the audience screamed for an encore.

“I just hope we can finally put this all behind us,” I said, meaning every word. I found that, for the first time in my life, I didn’t care what anyone thought about me or my relationship with Aleks. I had nearly melted down when the exposé came out, and yet Aleks had remained calm, his hand in mine as he found a solution. I realized that day that I don’t have control over what anyone thinks of me, but I do have control over what I think of myself .

I know my heart. I know my intentions. I know my talent, my music, my journey.

And now, I had a man who wanted to proudly stand by my side and remind me of that power any time I lost sight of it.

He was the miracle cure for any anxiety I had left hanging on, and staring down the barrel of forever with him, I found I didn’t have a worry in the world.

“I did not see this coming, you know,” Isabella said, and when I blinked out of where I’d been yet again staring at Aleks from across the room, I found her with a knowing smile. “You swore to me on that plane to New York that he didn’t mean anything to you, and I foolishly believed it. Don’t get me wrong,” she added quickly. “I saw the way you looked at him, the way he looked at you. But I never thought either of you idiots would admit it. I fully expected to have to pick you up off the floor when this was all done.”

“That makes two of us,” I admitted softly.

“I also expected a banger album full of angsty love songs,” she said with a dreamy sigh. “Alas, my dreams are shattered.”

I smirked.

“You better still be able to write music when you’re all happily married and getting dicked down on the daily,” she threatened, her long stiletto nail circling my nose before she booped it. “Otherwise, I’ll be calling up Aleks and telling him to do something stupid to get you in your sads. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Hate to break it to you,” Aleks said, making Isabella jump a bit as he rounded from where he’d walked up behind her and put his arms around me. He pulled my back to his chest, kissing my neck as I flushed red hot. “But I used up all my stupid in the years I didn’t admit how I felt about our girl. Afraid I’ll be nothing but a loyal, devoted husband now.”

Isabella pouted. “There goes our future Grammies.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure,” Aleks said, kissing my neck again. Chills swept over my skin. “I’ll give her plenty of inspiration. Promise.”

“Ew,” Isabella said, but she smiled as she said it. “That’s so cute. I hate it. Is there traffic on this street when it’s snowing? Think I’d like to throw myself in front of a plow right now.”

I rolled my eyes at her dramatics, kissing her cheek when she shoved Aleks off me long enough to give me a hug.

“I’m happy for you, babe,” she said sincerely. “Now, go enjoy the rest of your wedding night. We have a flight in the morning.”

I smiled, both at her sentiment as well as the fact that the flight she mentioned would carry us to yet another sold-out stadium show. It would be my first performance as a married woman, and I couldn’t wait to share that with my fans.

When Isabella left us, Aleks wrapped my hands up in his, kissing my knuckles before he toyed with where my engagement ring hugged the new diamond wedding band beneath it.

“Let’s grab you a coat and some boots,” he said. “I’d like to take my bride for a walk in the snow.”

· · ·

The soft sound of snow beneath our boots was the only sound breaking the stillness of the night when Aleks led me outside. It was still snowing now, and it was the soft kind of snow that made it seem like the whole world had turned down the volume, a kind of quiet like nothing else.

Through the windows of the house, I could still see our family and friends in the warm glow of candles and fairy lights, all of them smiling and laughing and eating and drinking. It warmed me in a way I couldn’t explain, to see our worlds mixing like that — Giana and Isabella taking selfies, my mom holding Ava’s hand as she pointed out each of our Christmas ornaments, my father geeking out as he talked hockey with Vince, Jaxson, and Carter.

Aleks had been a part of our family for years, but this felt different. It felt… permanent.

It was permanent.

I leaned into him as we strolled past the twinkling lights strung up along the path in Mom’s garden, his arm wrapped firmly around my waist as snow fell on our heads and shoulders. The garden didn’t look like much right now, but it bloomed beautifully every spring. And in a way, the plants hibernating for the season felt right tonight. It felt like the end of one season in my life and the promise of another on its heels.

My breath puffed out in little clouds, mingling with his as he turned to kiss the top of my head.

“Sorry we have to wait to take our honeymoon,” I said softly, glancing up at him. “We should be exiting under a stream of sparklers and rushing to the airport right now.”

Aleks shook his head, his dark eyes glinting under the soft glow of the lights, snow clinging to his lashes. “I’m not sorry. I’m excited for you to tour, and I have my season ahead. We can vacation in the summer.” His lips curved into a wicked grin. “Until then, I very much look forward to fucking you in every hotel from here to Tokyo.”

“Tokyo, huh?”

“You’ve got a show there, don’t you?”

“Not yet.”

“ Yet being the keyword.”

“I do have a European leg kicking off in February, though. What do you think about London?”

“I think anywhere with you is exactly where I’m meant to be.”

My eyes flicked between his, heart swelling at his words, at the sincerity I saw behind them.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” he said, voice soft as he swept my hair back with glove-covered hands. “I can’t believe you said yes.”

“I’ve always crushed on you. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that.”

“I thought you did in high school,” he said, his breath visible against the dark night. “But after that drunken attempt at a kiss, you blew it off like it was nothing. And then you were dating every guy who was the exact opposite of me.”

“You wouldn’t touch me.” I argued, poking his rib.

“Your father made it clear I couldn’t.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“Trust me, that was the hardest night of my life.”

“What about after?”

“Well,” he said, sighing like there were a hundred regrets in that one word, “like I said, you blew off what happened like it was a mistake. I thought it was just a drunken slip. And the one time I did get the nerve…”

“You flew to L.A., and I was with Ian,” I finished for him, remembering our conversation the night we’d finally admitted our feelings. “ God , I wish I’d have known. Ian was such a loser. The guy only wanted to talk about his music or how saintly he was for all his charity work — that I’m pretty sure he only did to hear people tell him how amazing he was.”

“I was going to tell you everything,” he said. “I had this whole speech…”

“Oh?” I snuggled into him as we wound closer to the lake. “I’d love to hear it.”

“Don’t get greedy. You’ve had enough of me groveling at your feet, haven’t you?”

“Never enough.”

He smirked. “My question is why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“After you rejected me?! Yeah, wasn’t exactly in the mood to get told you saw me more like a little sister.”

“I never saw you as a sister,” he said darkly.

“Well, I know that now . But… I saw you with all these gorgeous models and women who lived out loud, and I… I just assumed I wasn’t your type.”

“And I assumed I wasn’t yours.”

“Remember how we said fuck our thoughts ? Well, I’m pretty pissed at our assumptions, too.”

Aleks chuckled, warming my arm with his hand as he pulled me to a stop at the side of the house. We’d walked the path and circled back, but I guessed he wasn’t ready to go inside just yet.

“I don’t regret much in my life, but I do regret not telling you how I felt sooner. Then again… this whole pretending to date thing has been pretty fun.”

I threaded my arms around his shoulders, and his hands found my waist and pulled me flush against him. “If you could have read my mind when you kissed me on that beach…”

“You were wet, weren’t you? Dirty girl.”

I shoved at him playfully, rolling my eyes, but he held me tighter.

“Maybe I should write Garrett Orange a thank-you card. If it weren’t for him being a little twat, this might have never happened. We might have never happened.”

“You’re right,” I said, pressing up on my toes to kiss him. “We should send him flowers.”

A kiss.

“And chocolates.”

Another kiss.

“Gift cards.”

A deeper kiss now, each of us moaning.

“Maybe an edible arrangement.”

“I’ve heard you can send a bag of dicks to people. Gummy dicks,” I clarified, grin growing wicked against my husband’s lips. “Seems more his style than an edible arrangement.”

“Hmm… I can think of an edible arrangement I’d very much like to sample right now,” Aleks said, hands sliding down to grip my backside and pull me against him.

I laughed. “That was not your best.”

“What can I say? You render me stupid,” he said. But then, the teasing was gone, his kisses deeper, more urgent, the snow falling harder as if it sensed the shift in energy, too. “Here, let me make it up to you.”

His lips claimed mine, the snow swirling around us as the world disappeared. We were on the dark side of the house, the one with very little windows, no viewing access for our guests inside. And I didn’t mind the bite of the cold as Aleks pressed me into the old, worn brick. I didn’t feel cold at all when he bunched the fabric of my dress, pulling it up, up, up, until he had access to my lace panties beneath.

He groaned when he felt me through the lace, fingers skating a teasing dance from my clit to my entrance and back again. I hiked my leg around his hip, begging for more, and he answered with a finger slipped beneath the fabric and pressed deep inside me.

“Mine,” he said, voice low and gravelly in my ear as he curled that finger. “All fucking mine.”

I bucked against his hand in answer, fingers deftly shoving his coat out of the way so I could work on his belt, his pants. When I had them unzipped, I shoved them down just past his ass, and Aleks didn’t seem to mind the cold either as he pulled me into his arms and ripped at the dainty lace fabric of my panties until they shredded.

“Aleks,” I said on a laugh of disbelief.

He didn’t apologize, just shoved the ruined panties into his coat pocket and put his hands on me again. He held my ass as he lifted me, my legs wrapping around him, and then I was pressed into the wall, spread open, and claimed.

Aleks took one hand off me only long enough to line himself up, and then he flexed in, slowly, inch by inch, our foreheads together and breaths puffing out in hot white steam between us. It was still so quiet, the snow snuffing out every noise. All I heard was his low groans and pants as he worked himself inside me, my heart thumping loud in my ears.

My orgasm built lightning fast. He was my husband now, and something about that, combined with the fact that we could get caught at any moment, had my body bubbling like a hot spring.

“Mine,” he ground out, his voice strained against the shell of my ear as he thrust deep.

“Yours.”

Another thrust.

“Forever.”

“Always,” I echoed, and Aleks picked up his pace, pressing more into me so he could balance my weight as his hand slid between us. He circled my clit, kissing me hard enough to draw blood, and I came with a whimper against that possessive mouth of his.

I was still moaning and shaking when he caught his own release, and the feel of him emptying inside me egged my own climax on, lengthening it until I thought I’d pass out from the vibrations. I was on birth control. I didn’t want babies right now. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t hot when he spilled inside me like that, that I didn’t think about how mad with desire we’d both be when the time came for this man to put a baby in me.

For now, I was perfectly content being a lovesick newlywed fucking in a dark corner as the snow fell down around us.

And I liked his plan — traveling the world together, him flying to see my shows and me flying to watch his games.

One day, we’d settle down.

But right now?

We were just taking off.