Page 11 of The Rogue

So she had a lot of intuition when it came to his feelings. Though, he would claim he didn’t have any. But it was a lie. When Justice was unsettled, a little bit of physical touch always seemed to quiet him. It wasn’t like they werehugelytouchy with each other. That would be weird. But this—her casually touching his hand—was a habit that went back to their school days.

He wasn’t really that much help with the flowers, but he reinforced her decisions. All of her ribbon choices, all of her little charm choices for the ends of the ribbon. And then the wrap for his boutonniere.

She didn’t have any bridesmaids. It was just Justice. He was the one constant in her life. She wouldn’t have any family at her wedding. It would be Asher’s family, and the Four Corners crowd. She felt... sad about that. Maybe sadder than she should.

“Do we have time to grab a bite before we head back for your fitting?”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s pretty early for lunch.”

“That’s what brunch is for, Ruby,” he said, grinning.

“You’re very practical.”

“Don’t say that, it will ruin my rep.”

The way he was with her would ruin his rep. If anyone know he was so damned sweet they would question everything they knew about legendary seducer Justice King. She had to admit, she liked that.

She had this part of him.

Only she had it.

They went over to a small cafe and Justice ordered astronomically sweet-looking pancakes, and encouragedher to get even sweeter looking French toast, which she did.

She wondered if this would change when she got married. Or, rather, probably not so much when she got married but at the end of Asher’s contract with the military.

Right now, part of why she and Justice spent so much time together was that Asher was usually out of state, or even out of the country. They had definitely talked about her following him, but they had done their whole relationship like this. Spending time together when he was on leave, her coming out to visit when he was stationed somewhere, it was difficult, but they had managed. And there had always been an understanding that they would marry and he would take a job with his dad at his pipe-fitting business. And during that time he would use his military benefits to go to school. He wanted to be an engineer. It was all coming a little bit later, but that was because of how he had chosen to balance things.

They had a plan. A good one.

But yeah, she would be eating breakfast with him most mornings. Dinner at night. So it would change the amount of time she and Justice spent together. But that was a good thing.

That was the point of getting married. You were making a new life. Making a family. With the person that you loved, and she did love Asher. Their relationship had always been so easy. He made her feel good about herself. He was so much like her. Organized and certain. Neat as a pin. They had fun planning their future together. He was going to give her that continuedstability. And for a control freak like her it was literally the best-case scenario.

He was a man whose ideals matched up perfectly with her own. She really couldn’t have asked for anything better.

But there was definitely a small hint of sadness. For the thing she would be leaving behind. For the fact that she and Justice wouldn’t be able to be just like they had always been. It was hard for her to let go of anything. Justice had always provided a certain amount of stability, security and emotional support. Asher had always been totally comfortable with the relationship, and she knew that was weird. She wasn’t just going to find that with any guy. In fact, a couple of guys she had made vague attempts at dating prior to Asher had all stopped very quickly in part because they had been completely weirded out by Justice’s continued presence.

And she hadn’t wanted anything remotely resembling jealousy in her vicinity.

That was too much like her parents. Accusations of cheating, and then real cheating, and she just couldn’t abide it.

Infidelity was an absolutenofor her. But jealousy? That was even worse. Well. Not worse, maybe, but she just was never going to get herself tangled into something like that. She wasn’t going to cheat. And she couldn’t handle being with a man who was going to be insecure about that. It was just a hard no.

They drank way too much coffee, and were buzzing on that and sugar by the time they got back into his truck and headed toward the house for her dress fitting. She knew a moment of extreme nervousness.

Justice was going to see her wedding dress.

She didn’t know what kind of reaction she wanted from him. Just that she needed it to be a big one. She had been very certain about what she wanted, and even though the woman at the bridal shop had told her that she would end up buying something completely different than what she had in mind, Rue had known that wasn’t true. She had known exactly what she was going to get. A strapless gown with a belt at the waist that had a small detail, and an A-line skirt. Not a ball gown, but not clingy either. She knew she wanted heavy satin, and not much adornment. She had gone and gotten exactly that. The dress was entirely white except for the sash around the waist, which was a lovely taupe color that went with her crimson flowers. And the sage green, crushed velvet ribbon she had chosen today complemented it all beautifully. Subtle pops of color, nothing too wild.

A little Valentine flavor without being the full-on Cupid.

She was utterly pleased with herself. But, because she had been so certain of what she was buying she hadn’t brought Justice in with her. Otherwise she might have. But she had just known. She had a vision of herself that was so clear it had transcended any uncertainty.

So yeah, really nobody but the seamstress had seen the dress, and she really wanted him to like it.

She realized that the look on his face when she came out in the dress was incredibly important to her.

It was too late for her to get a new dress, so if she didn’t get a reaction out of it, then that was just goingto be terrible. Of course, Justice and Asher were very different men. She didn’t want Justice to react the way that Asher was going to anyway. Besides, Justice would probably want to marry a woman in a minidress that had a plunging neckline.Obviouswas his stock-in-trade.

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