Blazed(45)

I didn't know the name of the hotel but it had Henry's hoof-prints all over it. The room we'd woken up in had been no less than a suite. The bedroom was excessively large, the enormous wooden, queen-sized four-poster bed decorated in rich blue and purple linens and throw cushions. That stemmed off into a private sitting room full of couches that looked no less impressive for housing a thoroughly unconscious Esme. Although the underlying palate was very stark, you could almost taste the expense injected into the room by the bold splashes of colour in the furnishings and the top range electronics tucked away in the blackened glass cabinets lining the walls.

It would probably have taken a year for me to save up for one night in that kind of suite on bookshop wages and I would have felt awkward about touching anything. Just another little thing that made me so different from my family; extravagance that came at a high cost made me uncomfortable. Presumably, that was why Blaze hadn't shoved his money in my face and gone for a platinum engagement ring with bigger stones. What he'd given me was modest enough for me to pretend it had cost less than it probably did but still brag about the size of the emerald. I loved that he understood my quirks so well.

The reception area of the hotel was equally as intimidating as the suite. The front desk reminded me of a judge's bench minus the gavel, and the finely preened staff who manned the phones there looked equally as judgemental. Thankfully we bypassed that area completely and head straight into a dining room with wooden floors so buffed you could see your face in them.

"So what do you hunger for, Miss White?" Blaze swayed into me playfully when I raised a suggestive eyebrow. "Something that doesn't involve one or both of us making sex noise."

"But where's the fun in that? I'm actually jonesing for black coffee and scrambled eggs."

"After the pounding you just got, are they not already scrambled?" I gaped up at him in disbelief and snatched a menu off a table as we passed. I loved playful Blaze as much as I loved horny Blaze and serious Blaze. It just still shocked me when he said anything vulgar because it didn't seem like something someone so gorgeous was capable of.

"Look, see. Scrambled eggs on toast. Perfect. If I eat real quickly, we can get back up to that big ol' bed before check out time and you can bash my head against the headboard a few more times."

"Okay!" Blaze swung his hand back and slapped me hard on the backside, making me yelp. "Chop chop, vixen. I have plans for us this afternoon."

"Oh?"

"Not those plans. God, woman. You'll kill me before the honeymoon."

I turned away with a blush. In the cold light of day with no alcohol addling my brain, marital buzz words seemed so foreign and terrifying. I was happy to partake in the bravado, but I was definitely not at the point of shopping for a wedding dress.

"So you know, I'm really in no rush to—"

"Me either." Not even pretending to not look relieved, I stepped right up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. Thank god. We were on the same page, and that meant no nasty surprises for either of us. "I'm still not done terrorising you. It's been less than a day, there's no need to rush it all now when we have all the time in the world."

If I was any other woman, I might have worried about the sudden reluctance to start talking flower arrangements, but I was too grateful for the lack of pressure and distracted by the sigh of Esme limping towards us looking horrendous. Everyone suffered when Ivy Tudor spent a night pouring their drinks, and Esme definitely looked to be suffering from the mother of all hangovers.

"Breakfast?"

She groaned and raised a hand to me, rubbing at her stomach with the other. "God no. Bloody Mary, please, and don't skimp on the 'bloody'. I'll be sitting outside seeing if I sparkle in sunlight because, honestly, I feel like I've been dead for a thousand years."

Blaze and I made our orders for breakfast and fooled around like we had in the lift while we waited for our coffee. 'Happy' wasn't a word I could apply to my life often, but that morning, I could. It was short-lived.

We carelessly stormed through the glass doors, attached by the mouth, out onto the terracotta tiled terrace leading out into the hotel's small but luxurious garden. Only Blaze's fast reaction's saved our coffee from spilling when I froze solid, eyes wide.

"Emmeline?" I opened my mouth and croaked, stepping back from Blaze like I'd been caught in the middle of something heinous.

Henry, Ivy and Tallulah Tudor stared at me from a round white table looking almost as shocked as I did. Esme gave me her best 'caught with my pants down' look and inched down a little in her chair. Like us, my family were in the same clothes they'd worn for the mixer, which meant they'd stayed in the hotel too. Of course. Ivy would have had us put in one of the nicest suites and insisted that we didn't pay.

"Oh, um... hello."

"Henry," Blaze took my coffee from my hand and ushered me over to the table calmly, "you know of my best girl?"

"I should say so," Esme, Ivy and I winced pre-emptively, "as your best girl is also my best girl."

The noise that came out of my mouth was the strangest I'd ever heard. It was half strangled laugh coupled with a dry heave and a definite sob. When I swayed on my feet, Blaze pulled me back into the dining room by the elbow so he could plant me down into a chair.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me Henry and Ivy are your parents?" Shit. I knew he'd be angry.

"You didn't ask?" His eyes narrowed to slits and made me squirm. "You know enough about my family to know that I'm not an active member. If it doesn't matter to me, it shouldn't matter to you."

It felt like we'd glared at each other for an eternity when he said, "you're right," and pulled me back to my feet. Taking advantage of my stunned silence, he pulled me into a deep, lush kiss and gave me a 'f*cklust' stare of his own. "So if you don't mind, I'm going to go and find out if you come with a dowry."

"What? Hey!" With a laugh and easy grace, Blaze took our breakfasts from an oncoming waiter and paced back out onto the terrace, setting my plate down at the table between Esme and Ivy before I could argue.

"Henry, old boy. I believe it's customary for me to seek your blessing. Let's take a walk."

Dumbstruck, we watched the manly backslapping and negotiations head down the garden to a trellis that reminded me of the screens at the restaurant for our first date.

Esme broke the silence. "That went rather well."

"It did somewhat." Confused, I wilted into my seat and stabbed at the scrambled eggs I didn't really want anymore. "I guess we don't have any more secrets left." And yet, I felt uneasy and mithered. All of our revelations had been too easily handled and drama free. There had to be some fallout somewhere. My anxiety was not helped by Tallulah snorting across the table at me before she lifted a magazine to cover her smirk. "Problem, Tally?"

"Oh no, I'm just imagining how awkward your wedding ceremony is going to be when his wife turns up."

I dropped my fork with a loud clatter. "Come again?"

"Wife. The thing you're not allowed two of in this society."

Ivy laid her hand over my bunched up fist and admonished her eldest daughter with a sigh. "Don't be rotten, Tally. I didn't bring you up to tell ugly lies."

"I'm not lying." Tallulah turned the page of her magazine without looking up, face trained into a smug but unsmiling, contemptuous expression. "He left his band to look after her when she got ill. They did the ceremony privately and didn't intend on telling anyone. I just happen to be privy to the information is all. Can't see her being awfully happy about moving you in though, Emmy. Not enough space in the marital bed for three."



THE feelings that collided inside me in the following seconds ranged in extremes— vehement disbelief and a will to defend the accusation melded with ambivalent disappointment, apoplectic rage, and a strange kind of pensive tranquillity like I'd known all along. Not one of them showed on my face when I pushed to my feet and turned my head fractionally towards Esme.

"We're leaving."

"You should talk to him about this." Yes, I should have. But it all made too much sense. He seemed too perfect but talked about being damaged, so logically he had to have something this twisted working against him. When life posed an obstacle that threatened my mentality, I had no choice but to walk away from it. I left Hunter behind in Cardiff. I could leave Blaze behind in this hotel.

"We've been talking for months, Esme. He had his chance to tell me himself."

Ivy stood and looked out across the garden. I could see in her eyes that she was somehow trying to twist the situation around to not be so grim. She'd never been wrong about a couple's compatibility before and she'd be damned if her first failure would be the one that would hurt us all the most. "Would it have made any difference if he'd told you himself? It may not be as simple as you think."