THE CONTROL: An Arranged Marriage Romance by Elena Monroe (ebook reader android .txt) 📕

the counter. “He’s been through a lot, sweetie. I know he’s somewhere inside there, somewhere down deep, so we keep trying. He’ll come back to us when he’s good and ready.”

All I heard was a plea to get her son back, and it dampened all the hope I had in getting my Bowey back.

Opening the garment bag she had hung over on the chairs at the counter, she unzipped it, showing me a delicate, black cathedral veil. My jaw went slack just looking at all the detailing on the lace that would be dragging behind me. “For me?”

“It was mine from when I married Bowen’s father. I had it dyed black; it’ll be your something old.”

My cheeks flushed a scarlet red thinking of the traditions I had pushed out of the forefront of my mind. I had been hyper focused on winning Bowen over before our walk down the aisle that I forgot I needed borrowed, blue, new, and old.

I had the something blue permanently etched on my thigh. The thought had me pressing my thighs together to hold down the butterflies flapping their wings in the pit of my stomach.

I just needed borrowed and new.

VIC

We were late and I wasn’t sorry for it. Justice eyed me like a warhead and definitely sucked the sour from my soul before we even left the house and then inevitably hit traffic.

I had only been to Bowen’s house in Calabasas a few times, and only in the dead of night. It was beyond me why he lived in the nightmare city filled with designer bags and tits.

Hiding in plain sight?

Jus was chomping at the bit, foaming at the mouth, and excited enough to practically roll out of the car before it was parked. I stopped her when my hand closed around her thigh, forcing her to stay in place a little longer. “You know what happens when you tell me what to do…”

It wasn’t an empty threat; it was always a promise. If I forced her into anything, she would do exactly what I didn’t want. I caught on to that a while ago.

Parking in the driveway, I turned my eyes to land on her. “You know I hate secrets. You can uncover them all, snoop, find the locked doors—just don’t get caught. I’m too young to be a widower.”

Letting my hand slip from her thigh, I could see the confusion pour over her features as she tried to navigate my reverse psychology.

Laughing, I grabbed our garment and overnight bags. Apparently, Bowen was opening up his house to overnight guests, and I was contemplating if my best friend still existed.

This was another reason to dislike Eve besides stampeding on guy’s night. She was just supposed to pick his drunk ass up, not scatter the dynamics.

Holding everything in my arms and somehow managing to close the hood of my Porsche, my eyes found Jus again, they always did, as she stood there waiting on me.

“I know what you’re thinking, Vic. I should help, but I know how much you love asserting that dominance…” I saw her lip buckle under her teeth and that pink hair get pushed to one side, showing off her neck I was fond of biting down on.

She had me by the balls—nothing was equal in our relationship. I would hold up the world for her and still pride myself on being an alpha in the room.

“Hey, Peace Corps, ring the damn doorbell.” I gave her my best smirk, knowing exactly where this kind of foreplay leads.

Not long after, a very drunk Bo yanked the door open so hard it sounded like it hit something while his arms slid up the frame, leaning into us. He was holding a bottle of Henny and wearing a powder blue robe loosely tied in the front.

Whoever this was, was not the Bo I knew.

Pushing the bottle up with half of it spilling over his mouth, he laughed and greeted us with slurred words. “Buuuddddy! You came, come in…” Leaving the door open for us, I debated just closing it and driving our asses back home. Whatever this was, wasn’t for me.

Jus turned back, her head over her shoulder, giving me a dirty look like I was responsible for overserving him. Dropping our bags at the front door and hanging the garment bags on the corner of the mirror, I took a deep breath before stepping to the living room.

“Who the fuck is this drunk who looks like Bo?”

Khaos’s wide eyes met mine, and his hand dusted his own throat like I needed to just go with it. He was about to have the world’s biggest headache for his wedding day.

Giving him a perplexed look, I shook it off, letting Bo being whatever kind of drunk he wanted. In this case: sloppy. I knew he drank daily, more than the average person, but I still hadn’t ever seen him wasted. He was too controlled, too well-behaved, too loyal to the Clave to not be immersed in their rules.

The room was a lot lighter than I expected, everyone staying true to our dynamics. Only this time, we were supposed to be coming together for a good reason not a horsemen problem.

Grace and Eve were the troublemakers, without any doubt, mixing drinks behind a bar that was probably the most used space in the house. Jus had wide eyes that might as well have made this Charlie’s Chocolate Factory and her the spoiled girl who was going to get everything she wanted as she started to take steps in the opposite direction.

Grabbing her elbow, I brought her back to my side whispering, “I suffer, you suffer, pretty sure it was in the vows we agreed to.” I could feel her devious smirk acting like the match when I tilted my heads