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Chapter Fifty Six

Author: Sammy
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

Cyn.

We had been driving all night. I was asleep most of that drive.

I could tell we were getting closer to the oasis when the sparse scrub brush that lined the road began to grow taller, the color deepening, giving way to a line of cypress trees that reached to the faded blue sky.

“You were right,” I said softly, my eyes trained on the horizon, on the flat topped rocks that looked as though they had been set right on top of the red sand, “it is beautiful out here.” I had doubts about coming here, but mostly it was because I was afraid of being with him alone. Not after what happened between us.

“And dangerous.” he chimed in.

“Life is dangerous, though, isn’t it, Paul?”

I noticed his knuckles whiten as he gripped the steering wheel of the off-road vehicle more tightly.

“It can be.” he said, his knuckles still holding on tight.

“You know that more than most people, don’t you?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because you are always telling me how much life experience can take from you. I
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  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Fifty Seven

    Paul. I watched Cyn run her fingers lightly over the furniture. My body tightened as i imagined those delicate hands on my body, even as my stomach churned with rage at the thought of her with Ace, sleeping together, him touching in all the places I wanted to touch her, having his children, she should have been mine. She deserves so much more, more than she got. Her father was dead now so the contract might as well be void. I didn't care that it was my boss she was married to, he did not deserve her. I had brought here here, to my family home, she had nowhere to go and I could not just turn her away.She needed help, and I gave it to her. Ace did not know about this place, which is why it was the perfect hiding place for her. He would never find her. I had brought her here for my own selfish reasons too, to prove to myself that i could master my desire for her. And i could.There was no other option. It didn’t matter that she appealed to me more than any woman in my memory. My j

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Fifty Eight

    Cyn. It was going to be a really long night. I had tossed and turned a million times and it was still nine. I couldn’t sleep. It was comfortable in the tent; the night air of the desert was cool. I could hear thick drops of rain hitting the canvas roof, beating on it mercilessly. I knew that sudden downpours, along with flash flooding, were common in this region.But it wasn’t fear that kept me awake.No. I was so hot inside. Burning. Emotions were at war with desire, a desire that was growing quickly into a need as powerful as my need for food. Water. Breath.I didn’t know what it was I felt for Paul. I wasn’t certain I wanted to know. It was nothing I had planned. I had wanted to get to know myself better. To find out if I liked blue because I liked it, or because my father had told me it flattered my colouring. I had found a lot more than that, and with it smit had started a battle inside myself.I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, padding out into the living area

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Fifty Nine

    PaulI let her play with my chest, my scars for a while longer, unable to stop her. I didn't want to stop her, I wanted her to continue, I wanted this feeling to last forever. But I also knew I could not let this happen, if I let it happen I would never be able to stop myself. I wanted her, I craved her, I even had dreams about her. But she was forbidden, the one woman I was not supposed to touch. I stiffened, pulling away from her hot touch. My heart was hammering in my chest, my muscles so tight they ached. My whole body ached for her, for her to flatten her palm against my skin, to continue her exploration into more intimate territory. I should stop her. Should have stopped her the moment she placed her hand on me. Yet i had been held a captive of what she was doing to me, of what she made me feel.It had started out as an innocent, comforting gesture. Because Cyn was an innocent woman, A woman i had no business touching.Some of the fractured light from the overhead lanterns da

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Sixty

    CynI gasped as Paul tightened his hold on me, pulling me onto his lap, bringing me into contact with the hardened length of his erection the evidence i needed to know that he desired meas I desired him.Excitement, fear and need slammed into me. My entire body was shaking with it. Then he leaned in, taking my mouth with a ferocity i hadn’t expected, his lips firm, insistent, his tongue hot as it slid between my lips. I moaned, all the fear deserting me. This was Paul. The man i desired above all else.I could have lived my entire life without having my picture taken in front of the Eiffel Tower. I would have been fine if I had never been to a cinema. But this … i could not have lived never knowing what it was to make love with Paul.I pushed his shirt from his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor.The sight of him in the flickering lantern light was enough to push my arousal to unbearable heights. I moved my hands over his shoulders, across his back, loving the play of muscles be

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Sixty One

    AceI couldn’t believe it. My Cyn was back.I stood just inside the door of the gym and watched her as I’d done so many times in the past. She was humming just under her breath, some pop song that I vaguely remembered being popular years ago. Cyn was an amazing artist, but she wasn’t much of a singer. But I didn’t care. This was the Cyn I had known, the Cyn I fell in love with.When Margaret called and told me she was working on the mural again, I was livid. I couldn’t believe that Margaret would do this, that she would bring her here without talking to me first. But now…let’s just say I was a little less peeved than I was before.“This is familiar,” I said.Cyn looked up and smiled widely. “Hey.”“Hey to you, too. What are you doing?”“Margaret came by the house to tell me about the opening here tomorrow night, and I thought seeing the building might help me remember something.”“Did it?”She bit her lower lip, a touch of sadness coming into her eyes. “Not really. I mean, I don’t spe

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Sixty Two

    Ace.“Mr. Boggs,” the maître d’ said, as we walked through the door.“Hello, Johnson.”The man’s eyes fell on Cyn and his smile widened. “Ms. Alistair.I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see you again.”Cyn blushed, but the pleased smile on her face hid any discomfort she might be feeling.“Thank you,” she said.The maître d’s smile widened, as he grabbed a couple of menus and led the way into the dining room, causing a few people who’d clearly been waiting for a table to groan. We were regulars here, and I’d arranged an upgrade on the security system my company provided for the restaurant, so we often were treated with preference. That sort of thing was a way of life in Los Angeles.We were seated across from each other, and Cyn studied the menu with an intensity that would have made me laugh if I hadn’t known about her memory problems. She’d done that in the past, too, but always ended up picking the same thing: chicken parmesan.It amused me, as well, how oblivious she was to

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Sixty Three

    CynI waited until Ace went to work before I made my way slowly upstairs to the master bedroom. This was the first time I’d come up here, thanks to the cast I’d had on my leg for so long. I had to stop for a second at the top of the stairs to admire the layout of the second floor. There was so much light, most of it coming from a skylight that was centered over the stairway. I hadn’t realized just how high that ceiling was, or that there was, apparently, a room designed around the open skylights. It’d never occurred to me to wonder what was up here, or what might be above this, before. I mean, you could tell from the outside of the house that it had three floors.But I’d never thought to ask what was on the third floor.What better time than now to find out?There was another set of stairs tucked into the back wall at the end of the hallway. I’d already decided that the master bedroom was behind the double doors at the end of the hall that much I remembered from the memory I’d had ab

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Sixty Four

    AceI walked into the house after arguing with Jonnie over the phone all the way home. She was unhappy with a new client I’d elected to take on, telling me that we should be choosier now that the company was on steadier feet. But I figured that, as long as the client had the money, we had the service. It was our clients that made our reputation. We could both use that argument until we were blue in the face and both be right. And I was the boss.But you’d think that it was Jonnie’s name in the door, the way she hammered at me over these things. And she had been in charge so much lately, what with the attention I was giving to Cyn. I was grateful to her, but I was going to take on the clients of my choosing.I just wanted to see Cyn’s face. I was so exhausted. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to this party tonight, no matter how many times I’d promised Margaret I would. But Cyn wasn’t in the sitting room. She wasn’t on the porch, either.I went through the maze of rooms at the back of the

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  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Eighty One

    Cyn. Nine Months LaterI started to laugh as my little sister twerked her way down the aisle of my parent’s Baptist church. If Daddy walked in and saw that, there would be hell to pay.Ace pulled me back against his chest as he, too, laughed, a rumbling laugh that came from deep in his chest. I loved to hear him laugh like that.“Do you dare me to do that during the ceremony tomorrow?” Shelly asked.“I’ll pay you five hundred dollars if you do,” Charlie called to her.I smacked my brother on the arm.“What?”“Don’t encourage her.”“Hey, someone’s got to inject a little levity into this whole affair.And it can’t be at my wedding because if you think our parents are bad, wait until you meet Vanessa’s.”“When’s Vanessa going to be here?”“In the morning.”“Cutting it close.”Ace’s arms tightened around my waist, his hands wrapping around my swollen belly. “I think we all are, aren’t we?”I groaned. This whole wedding thing wasn’t my idea. It was my dad’s. He insisted that we be married

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Eighty

    AceCyn was taking so long getting the ice cream that I finally went to find her. As I was coming down the stairs, I thought I heard voices. And then I turned the corner into the sitting room just as a gun fired.All I could thing was, Fuck!Margaret was on the floor with Cyn tangled up next to her, and they were struggling over this damn big gun. I reached in, tried to untangle them and get one or both up on their feet. And then Margaret pressed the barrel of the gun against Cyn’s side and wrapped her finger around the trigger. I did the only thing I could think of and that was to grab her wrist and yank. I felt something give and then the gun went off.The next thing I know, Margaret’s on her feet, the gun pointed at my chest. There’s blood, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from. And Cyn is still on the floor.“Why, Ace?” Margaret asked, her wrist limp where I broke it trying to pull her away from Cyn. She calmly changed hands, holding the gun with her other hand now. She pointed

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy Nine

    CynI curled up in the bed next to Ace and took another bite of pizza.“I’m sorry,” I said, as I nibbled at a slice of pepperoni.“For what?”“For not remembering you. For putting you through that whole ordeal.”“It’s not like it was your fault.”“It must have been hard, though, living here with me when I didn’t even know who you were.”He reached over and rubbed a smear of grease off my chin. “It was rough,” he said, his eyes softening as he studied my face, “being near you and not feeling free to touch you.”“It must have been surreal.”“It was…difficult.” He chuckled a little as he picked at his own piece of pizza. “I thought it was all over when your parents showed up and demanded that you go home with them.”“Yeah?”“I thought for sure that you would agree to go. I mean, I was standing there, imagining you and your mom in the spare room packing your things while your dad lectured me about forcing myself on you after you made it clear that you no longer wanted me.”“He would have,

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy Eight

    AceI wanted her to stay at the house, but she refused. She clung to my hand as we walked into the restaurant, so tight that my bones were rubbing together. She was scared So was I.I spotted him at a table closest to the kitchen, a busy area that was a little concerning. I wasn’t sure how we could talk freely with all the traffic that was going past there, but, then again, it seemed logical. Everyone was so busy going about their own business that they wouldn’t even remember that much about us, let alone overhear much of our conversation.I don’t think I would be good at this terrorist stuff. I was too honest.The man Colin Francis. stood as we approached the table.“Cyn,” he said with genuine affection in his voice. “How are you?”Cyn smiled politely. “Good, thank you.”“And Ace.” He studied my face for a minute, then offered his hand with a polite smile. I shook it because I didn’t know what else to do.He gestured for us to take a seat. Cyn snatched my hand under the table once we

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy seven

    CynI wanted to stay there for…well, forever. I didn’t want him to let me go. I didn’t want his kiss to stop lingering against my lips. I wanted to feel his heart pounding under his shirt and the heat of his skin, the heat that proved just how alive he was, to forever warm me up. He was my reasonfor getting out of bed in the morning and for facing life with a smile and a little skip in my step.“I love you,” he whispered against my lips.“I love you, too.”He ran his finger along the angle of my jaw. “I kind of like your hair like this. I can see every inch of your face all the time.”I groaned. “You would.”“Don’t you like it?”I laughed. “I should go to the hospital for all my haircuts.”He chuckled before pressing his lips to my forehead.“You look like a pixie. Or a little fairy.”“Gee, thanks.”“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”I ran my hand up his chest again before letting it slide down, hooking my fingers under the waist of his slacks.“If you like it, I would go bald. Wear a

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy six

    AceCyn was hiding something from me. I wasn’t sure what it was, and I didn’t like it. But I told myself she wouldn’t do it if she didn’t think it was important.I watched her pace the porch outside the back doors, the way that boot caused her just the slightest limp. Two months ago, the doctor said she would have a definitive limp if she ever woke up. Her recovery was remarkable, but everything about Cyn had always been remarkable.“How can you be with the woman who might send me to jail?”“How can you be with the man who got us all into this position in the first place?”My mom crossed her arms over her chest, a defiant look taking over the attractive features that once made her a very beautiful woman. Now she was tired. A very tired and broken woman.“I trusted that Grant would do the right thing.”“And I know that Cyn’s only doing what she thinks will protect us all.”“She almost went to the press with paperwork that shows Grant was working with terrorists. If it didn’t send him t

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy Five

    CynI had dreams about her even when I didn’t know who she was.Dreams that I knew now were a mixture of memory and something else, something angry inside of me.As I came out of my coma, I dreamed I was in a dress shop with a dark-haired woman I didn’t know. I remembered thinking this woman had betrayed me even though I couldn’t say if she had been a friend or a foe.And then again, later, I had the same dream. But this time we were arguingabout Ace, about the marriage I hadn’t learned about until the day Ace and I went to get our marriage license.We did fight about it. Not in a bridal shop. My mind had mixed that up for some reason. But the words had been the same.“I can’t believe you would betray me that way! Why wouldn’t you tell me something like that? I thought we were friends. You were supposed to be a part of my wedding, for God’s sakes!”“It wasn’t my place to tell you. Ace should have done it.”“But we worked together all this time”“I thought he’d already told you. I tho

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy Four

    Ace “Mom.”I wasn’t downstairs five minutes when the doorbell rang and my mom shoved past me.“What are you doing, Ace ? Why do you have that woman in this house again?”“Hi, Mom. Glad to see you. Come on in.”She whirled around and looked at me as if I had lost my mind.“Answer my question. Margaret tells me she has been here for weeks and younever bothered to tell anyone. She says you wouldn’t have told her if it weren’t for the fact that Cyn was still working on that damn mural thing at the center.”“Cyn was in an accident. She cracked her skull and was in a coma for a little more than two weeks.”“Months ago.”“And she woke up with amnesia.”“So you say. But how do we know it’s true? After what she did…”“She didn’t actually do anything.”My mom glared at me as if I’d said that the sky was green. She shook her head, pacing the length of the room, pausing briefly at the back doors. When she lifted her hand to touch the cool glass, I could see that it was shaking.“You are worried

  • ALPHA'S LAST MINUTE BRIDE   Chapter Seventy Three

    CynI must have fallen asleep. I rolled over and Ace was gone. I could hear the water in the shower running and the slight buzz of a cellphone vibrating. It took me a minute to realize the cellphone was in the pocket of my sweats. I leaned over the bed and grabbed them, freeing the cellphone just before the call would have been sent to voice mail.“Hello?”“I didn’t think you were going to answer!”“Sorry. I got a little distracted.”Paul cleared his throat, his imagination clearly supplying information I hadn’t. “Yes, well,” he mumbled as he cleared his throatagain, “he has agreed to meet with you today.”“Good.”“He’ll meet you at Conti’s. Do you know where that is?”“Yes, I think so.”“Two o’clock.”“Thank you, paul.”“Be careful, Cyn. The last time you went to meet with this guy…”“I know. I will be careful.”I disconnected the call just as Ace appeared in the bathroom doorway, nothing but a towel around his waist.“Who was that?”“Paul.”I climbed out of bed and went to him, kis

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