manage to lose a woman?

Sure, the reception hall was completely packed, but it should be difficult to not notice the only one in all-white. Somehow, we got separated on our way here even though we were in the same fucking building.

We stayed behind for pictures as most of the guests headed to the reception, but the second the photographer clicked the last picture, Kimberly bolted out of there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of white and headed in that direction. But, my feet stopped after seeing the navy-blue following her to the bridal suite, most likely.

I wanted to go after her for some reason. A small—very, very, small—part of me cared if she was okay, especially after her breakdown at the treatment center. But there was nothing I could do that Vivian couldn't.

That bothered me more than it should've. I should be glad—extremely fucking glad— that we would be able to live our lives separately, but I couldn't muster a single grateful fiber in my body.

"How does it feel to be a married man?" A familiar arm hooked around my shoulders. Emre Osman was my closest friend for as long as I could remember. Even though he was a colossal ass, I loved him like a brother.

"You know it's not..." I trailed off, not wanting to publicly declare our fake relationship.

"You're so fucking lucky it is. When I found out about your engagement, I was this close to getting on a flight to beat you the fuck up for not telling me first," he joked, shoving me to prove a point.

Emre, like me, was also a big guy considering we played football together in high school and college. But he was shorter than me by two inches. Theoretically, considering my six-five height, two inches was nothing, but I liked holding it over him.

"I'd like to see you try, short-ass." I shoved him right back.

"Who the fuck are you calling... who's that?" His eyes trailed to someone at the other side of the room.

I tried looking in that direction, following the path of his eyes, but there were too many people here. "Who?"

Emre was a natural flirt, so I knew he was looking at anyone in attendance. "The one who looks like she'd rather be anywhere but here. She looks so familiar."

It clicked at that moment. I snorted. "That's Addison, Kimberly's cousin. We all went to UPenn together, remember?"

Emre shook his head, a shit-eating grin on his face as he kept his eyes on my wife's cousin. "Huh..."

I turned my head to see Kimberly re-enter the hall. "Kimberly's here."

My eyes locked onto hers as she made her way over to where I was standing with Emre.

She ditched the overskirt, the dress hugging every single one of her curves, especially her ass that my hands were itching to hold onto. She was a vixen in every sense of the word, and she fucking knew it.

She was more calm and at peace compared to how she was at the ceremony, and from the looks of it, it was due to the necklace that made its way back onto her neck.

Sure, I always had a chain around my neck from my mom, but I didn't feel restless without it. I couldn't wrap my head around her attachment to the rather inexpensive jewelry.

But, as she approached us, the fake smile brightened, not at all like how she was not too long ago.

"You must be Emre. I've heard so much about you." She held her hand out for Emre to shake.

Instead, the dumbass I had the pleasure of calling my friend took her hand and brought it up to his mouth to kiss it.

The fucking flirt.

Kimberly's smile widened, not expecting him to do that. "All bad things I hope." The fucker had the audacity to wink at her.

I'm about to beat this asshole up.

"Savannah was so right," my wife flirted back, much to my annoyance. "You and I are going to get along splendidly. It's a shame the two of us aren't married instead. I'm stuck with this grumpy guy." She jabbed a finger in my direction.

I knew it. I knew getting the two of them to meet would be the worst mistake I could ever possibly make. The two of them were way too similar for them to not be cut out of the same fabric, the only difference being that Emre couldn't fake a smile for shit.

"I think the officiant is still here," he played along with her joke. "If not, I can have us on a plane to Las Vegas in twenty minutes."

"Tempting, but I don't think my husband would approve of these plans." I couldn't help but notice the way she hesitated on the word 'husband'.

I knew what Emre was going to say before he even opened his mouth, ready to punch him.

"I'm not opposed to threesomes."

"Asshole," I said at the same time, shoving his shoulder.

To my surprise, Kimberly led out a laugh, taking me back to the night of the engagement party. I haven't heard her laugh like that until now.

She looked so beautiful.

Stop. For fuck's sake, stop.

"Not a bad idea."

I had the urge to push Emre out of her line of vision as she eyed him up and down coyly. I knew she was joking. I swear I knew. But, I wanted to take her out of the room and remind her of two major components of our contract: I'm the only one who can fuck her.

Based on the way she was looking at me, she knew too.

Emre started looking between the two of us with a smirk on his face, but I knew the ass long enough to know what he was thinking. "I'm gonna go find Van. Have fun eye-fucking each other."

I reached my hand out to hit him again, only to find him practically sprinting away, his head thrown back in laughter.

The two of us stood in silence, hesitant to speak first. This was the first time all day that we had a moment to ourselves. But, now, we stood in front of each other as husband and wife. The times before when we would mockingly call each other by the respective names would no longer be a joke.

It was real now. Well, real for a marriage we were planning to end.

"Emre's great," she spoke, breaking the silence. "He's like your Vivian. Well, technically, he's the Kimberly to your Vivian."

I nodded. As much as he annoyed the shit out of me, he was there by my side through everything. The first day of kindergarten, the day I became head quarterback in high school, the day we got into UPenn, the day I found out my mom had cancer, the day Alex came into my life. Literally everything.

My lack of a verbal response put us back into the silence she tried to break. There was so much I wanted to ask her. Tell her. But, I didn't know how to put it into words.

This never happened to me.

I hated it.

"Thank you," she suddenly blurted.

I raised a brow in her direction. "For what?"

"For not..." she trailed off, looking down.

"Not what?"

"Kissing me, jackass," she whisper-yelled, embarrassed to say the words aloud.

"Kimberly, when I kiss you, it's going to be because you want it." The shock was evident in her eyes as she looked around to see if anyone overheard. "I don't need to force myself onto someone, so don't thank me for doing the bare minimum."

"I know, but still."

"No." Temptation got the best of me as I placed my thumb on her bottom lip, running it across the softness of her skin. I had been thinking of the sensation ever since our staged kiss. "Plus, when I kiss these, I want them red. Got it?"

She nodded dumbfoundedly.

"Words, Kimberly."

Her tongue darted out of her mouth to caress the pad of my thumb, her eyes darkening as she completed the gesture.

There's my Venus.

"Yes."

♕♕♕

KIMBERLY

Parties were my forte, especially big ones.

And, seeing as your wedding reception was one of the biggest parties of your life, I had no problem navigating myself through these with ease.

Remembering Jace's anxiety from the night of our engagement party, I made sure to be by his side at all times, chatting the guests' ears off for the two of us.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, was here.

Small parties didn't exist in the lives of the elite. 'Go big or go home' didn't even begin to cover it.

After Jace and I had that interesting conversation, the two of us made our way around the room, people congratulating us on our union. We accepted their felicitations with a smile on our faces, knowing this would all mean nothing in two years.

When we had enough of the small talk, I dragged Jace over to my comfort group of people: Vivi, Ash, Audie, Gigi, Ana, and Lia.

Addison was off sulking somewhere, and I wasn't in the mood to let her kill the semblance of neutrality I felt at this moment.

"I don't know how it's possible for you to look more beautiful than you did at the bridal store, but you do," Camelia complimented endearingly.

"Camelia's right," Audie replied. "I hope I can look half as beautiful at my wedding. I'm blaming you for stealing all the good genes in the family."

Gigi scoffed. "Auds, are you kidding me? If I looked the way you do when I was your age, I wouldn't stop admiring myself in the mirror."

With a light laugh, Ana replied, "As if you don't do that now."

We all laughed at her comment, while Gigi chastised her twin. Ana may not speak that much, but when she did, it was worth listening to.

"They're all right," Ash added with a sly smile. "You look less like the Loch Ness Monster than usual. Good job, dummy."

Three pairs of hands slapped his arm for that comment.

Smirking, I addressed my cousin, "Ash... it's my wedding, you could've at least tried to look nice."

Ash stuck his middle finger out at me, only for him to instantly lower it with wide eyes.

What's got him so scared? Come to think of it, why does everyone look petrified?

I turned around, finally understanding all of their expressions.

In front of me stood the scariest woman I have ever met: my grandmother. Eleanor Astor was a petrifying woman, and not in a good way. She was a judgmental old lady, who I was glad I barely saw considering she lived alone in California and I did my best to avoid the West Coast.

I had many reasons not to like her, but first and foremost was how she treated Mom.

It was no secret that I loved my mother more than anything. But Grams hated the fact that Dad married an orphan from Spain rather than the wife she hand-picked for him.

Ever since they got married, Grams would make snide remarks about Mom that had me ready to fight the old lady.

Plus, Aunt Lucy always had a rough relationship with her. None of us knew the full story, but Grams apparently wanted Aunt Lucy to get married to someone at eighteen. Aunt Lucy obviously protested and fell in love with Uncle Eli.

Uncle Eli was new money—something that Grams didn't approve of—so she was really condescending towards all of them.

Lastly, there was when that happened, but none of us ever brought it up.

"Grams," I announced blankly. "I didn't realize you were coming."

To my knowledge, no one invited her.

"As if I would miss my granddaughter's wedding," she replied before turning to Ash. "Ashton Nixon Raines, it is wildly inappropriate for you to make obscene gestures at your cousin's wedding."

"Sorry, Grams," Ash squeaked, taking the smallest step back.

"Audrey," Grams moved to her next victim. "Are your studies going well? I hope you're paying more attention in school than your mother did." Audrey nodded frantically. "Words, Audrey."

"Yes, Grams," she replied.

"Genessa... Anastasia." For some reason, she had something against Alex's family too, which was odd since she was like besties with Alex's parents.

The two girls smiled in greeting.

"Grams," I started, trying to dissolve the tension. "You remember Vivian and Camelia... Ashton's girlfriend?"

"Yes." She nodded at both of them in greeting. "This must be your husband," she addressed Jace indirectly.

"It's a pleasure to formally meet you, Mrs. Astor," Jace greeted, offering her his hand.

She shook it. "Call me Eleanor. It's nice to see you have decent manners given the circumstances of your birth."

What the fuck did she just say?

Jace stiffened beside me. "Excuse me?" It was a miracle his tone was still polite considering how close I was to throwing hands.

"The illegitimate nature of your birth is no secret," she replied, coldly. "I don't know what my son was thinking... marrying the sole heir of the Astor fortune off to you."

The world outside of the little bubble we were in kept going about their night, oblivious to the words being exchanged here. Everyone in our little group was rigid, standing in complete disbelief over what was just said.

"Get out." My voice was dangerously low. I felt the snap of everyone's head as I defied the one woman who made people piss their pants.

Grams narrowed her eyes at me. "What did you say, young lady?"

"You heard me. Get out." I nudged my head towards the door. When she made no motion to leave, I continued, "You insulted my husband, and you're expecting me to let you stay at my wedding?"

"It seems your mother never controlled that temper of yours," she gritted out.

"Don't bring my mother into this," I replied darkly. "Because you're right about one thing: I am the sole heir of the Astor fortune, meaning the house that you're living so comfortably in is under my name. You may think I'm bluffing, but everyone here knows that I don't bluff. So, unless you want to be escorted out by guards, apologize to my husband and get the fuck out of my wedding."

This wasn't the first time I called my grandmother out on something, but this was definitely the first time I ever cursed at her.

It came out before I could control it. I mean, I didn't even want to control it. She could say shit about me all that she wants, but Carina and Jace didn't deserve the poison she spewed out of her mouth.

We kept our gazes locked in a staring contest before she relented, gritting out an apology and leaving.

I waited to see her leave through the doors before turning back to everyone. Jace looked at me with such a softness in his eyes, I had to look away to prevent myself from losing all grips in reality.

"Damn, Kim," Ash muttered, the aftershock of our grandmother's presence getting to him. "I promise to never get on your bad side."

♕♕♕

The romantic music of the bride and groom's first dance filled the air as Jace took my hand, leading me to the dancefloor.

"I thought you didn't dance?" I asked, recalling the night in the club.

"I don't," he admitted. "Watch out for your toes."

A deep laugh came out of me as he held onto me. It held the same intimacy as many of the other moments we shared, but there was something more light about it than the other passionate embraces.

The flashing lights from the media didn't even bother me as I looked up at him, the two of us swaying together to the music.

"Thank you," he said after a few moments of silence.

"Don't thank me for doing the bare minimum," I repeated his words from earlier with a smile. "If anything, I'm sorry you had to meet her."

"I can't believe that's your grandmother," he huffed out. "She doesn't seem like the rest of you guys."

"Different generations," I shrugged. "Dad and Aunt Lucy don't like her that much, so they decided to raise their kids differently... for the most part."

He nodded. "But... I do genuinely thank you for that."

"Your mom's the best, and—as much as I fight with you—you're not half bad," I teased.

"Wow," he feigned excitement. "What a compliment."

"Don't get too used to them."

He poked my forehead, eliciting a laugh from me. The two of us danced like this—smiling and laughing like a real couple—for the rest of the song.

Considering the 'awws' and cheers from the crowd, I'd say we did a good job convincing everyone about the stability of our relationship.

Maybe a little too good of a job.

***

get ready for some conflict...

first, imma fight that bitch.

second, i love emre. do yourselves a favor and imagine him as can yaman.

lastly, i apologize for what's coming next considering how cute this was.

i hope y'all enjoyed.

love, zia.