CHAPTER 6
Ares hopes and dreams for happily ever after might have bitten the dust—but that didn’t mean he believed the same was in store for Darius. He’d seen the pure love in Nathalie’s eyes. No one could fake that. He’d never doubted Nathalie, never doubted Darius.
It was his own judgment he doubted.
The group of well-wishers around Darius and Nathalie was still too large to wade into, so Ares watched from the side of the room. In the opposite corner of the living room, Hector was mixing a drink for Kelsey. Probably his “famous” Top-Notch cocktail.
Despite knowing better, Ares couldn’t stop his gaze from tracking the formfitting lines of the sea green dress Kelsey wore. Her
natural beauty—especially when she laughed at something Hector said to her—was enough to steal Ares breath right out of his chest.
He’d forced himself to step away from her last night, but he hadn’t been able to stop their intense and heated kiss from following
him into his dreams. In the dark of his mind while he’d slept, he’d tasted her again, steeped himself in her scent and the seductive
feel of her curves pressed against him.
George clapped him on the back, breaking Ares out of his forbidden longings. “Nifty wedding, wasn’t it?”
Ares smiled. “Best Baddrick wedding yet.”
George didn’t let go of Ares shoulder as he turned serious. “I’m glad you apologized to your mom. I know things are rough on you right now, but she was real hurt when you didn’t come home for Christmas.”
Guilt twisted in Ares belly. “I was wrong. She didn’t deserve that. And neither did you.”
“Takes a man to admit when he’s wrong. We all love you, and we’re rooting for you. Things are gonna work out in the long run.
Don’t let that bi—” George stopped himself before the word came out. “Sorry. Sally would let me have it for cussing on the wedding
day. Just remember we’ve got your back.”
All the Baddricks did. Just as he had theirs.
But what would they say if they’d seen his kiss with Kelsey last night out on the deck? Where would all their sympathy and
understanding go if they’d witnessed him turning from his wife to her sister in barely the blink of an eye?
Surely, if anyone had caught so much as a whiff of the passionate kiss, they’d be all over him now. And he’d deserve every last
ounce of their censure.
On the far side of the room, Perseus and Sam joined Kelsey and Hector. Zeus held his arms out for Kelsey, and as she hauled him up,
she whispered something that made the little boy laugh.
“He’s a cutie, isn’t he?” George observed. “That kid’s the apple of his dad’s eye. And he loves Sam to absolute pieces.”
But Ares wasn’t looking at Sam. He couldn’t take his eyes off Kelsey. She was so good with Zeus, with kids in general. She’d chosen
family therapy because she loved bringing families back together. He had no doubt that she would make a wonderful mother one
day. Unlike her sister…
“Looks like the throng is thinning out,” George said, herding Ares to the arbor beneath which Nathalie and Darius stood.
They looked so good together. He truly couldn’t be happier for them.
“Nathalie.” Ares enfolded Darius bride in his arms and hugged her hard. “There was never a prettier bride.”
He shook hands with Darius, then pulled him into a hug as well. “You done good. Real good. And Zion certainly approves.”
Nathalie smiled with a fond look across the room at Zion, who was circling Zeus, his arms out like airplane wings, making the boy
giggle. “Zion had Darius picked out even before I did.”
“I’ve always said your brother’s got damn good taste,” Darius said on a happy laugh.
The photographer signaled then, indicating it was time for family pictures. The slim gray-haired man arranged them all in front of
the fireplace, with Darius and Nathalie central in the arbor, Zion on Nathalie’s right, and everyone else fanning out from there. Diana
and Argus stood hand in hand by Freyah’s walker. Perseus and Sam surrounded Zeus. Hector and Hera stood next to their parents.
Ares tried not to feel like the odd man out.
“Kelsey, what are you doing back there?” Darius called to her from across the room. “Get over here.”
“But…it’s just family.”
Darius gave her a look like she was nuts. “That’s why we want you here.”
Sally added, “Don’t be silly, dear. You’ll always be family.”
They all joined in. The only one who couldn’t find his voice was Ares.
Because he couldn’t stop thinking about their kiss.
It hadn’t been a kiss he’d give a sister. Instead, it had been like his first taste of water after years in a desert, and he hadn’t been able
to get enough, hadn’t even come close to satisfying his thirst.
Before he realized what was happening, the photographer placed Kelsey next to him, probably because they were the lone man and
woman in the group.
The silk of her dress brushed his hand—and just like that, he was back outside in the snow with her, the silk of her hair against his
fingers as he kissed her, as he devoured her mouth.
He was desperate to feel and taste her all over again.
But he couldn’t trust his judgment or his emotions anymore. He just plain couldn’t trust, so he knew he had to stay away from
Kelsey until he had himself totally under control again. Especially given that Keira had left his bed cold since her last fake
miscarriage as the distance between them grew into a deep chasm.
Last night’s kiss with Kelsey had stirred up not only emotional longings, but physical ones too. Yes, he desperately needed to blow
off some sexual steam with someone, but he knew damn well that the worst woman he could do that with was Kelsey. She was kind,
giving, caring. And he wouldn’t just end up hurting her badly.
He’d lose her friendship forever.
Yet he still couldn’t stop reliving their wild, insane, sexy, mind-altering kiss.
The photographer took dozens of pictures, then rearranged them all again for more shots from different angles. “You two here,” he
said, pointing in front of the arbor.
Before he, or Kelsey, could explain that they weren’t a couple, they were moved into position by the assistant, and more pictures
were snapped.
Hera stepped between them as soon as the photographer finished and linked elbows with them. “What do you say the three of us get
some champagne and start ringing in the New Year?”
Ares looked at his watch. “It’s only four o’clock.”
Hera rolled her eyes at him. “It’s never too early to celebrate a new marriage and a new year.”
He should be grateful for the way Hera had just separated him from Kelsey. Had it not been for her interruption, who knew what he
might have said? Or done.
Because the kiss he and Kelsey shared had not only scrambled his brain, it had made it nearly impossible to remember who he was.
Who Kelsey was.
But no matter how much he wanted to kiss her again, forgetting wasn’t something he could allow himself to do. Not ever again. For
both their sakes.
Especially hers.
