Page 94 of Bound

There will, of course, be a rainbow sponge wedding cake, covered in fluffy buttercream as well as a donut cake, each tier being a different flavour of a very well-known American donut brand.

She tells me that she’ll organise tasters of everything, and we set a date of next Wednesday at some place in town to try all the food and make sure it’s what we want. She lets me know that almost everyone who has received an invitation either via courier if they’re in the US or email if they’re abroad, has accepted. Excitement runs through me at the idea of seeing Lexi and Ryan again so soon.

Friday rolls around and I find myself once again tired but less exhausted than I was last week. Willow informs me that it’s because I’m now in the ‘glowing’ phase of pregnancy where I look radiant, no longer need to pee all the damn time, and generally will find things a little easier. I must admit that I don’t feel sick all the time, although I have banned Kai from preparing any fish dishes in the kitchen as the smell turns my stomach.

I’m walking back to the dorms with said bush baby fairy—totally a thing—when I remembered something that I wanted her advice on.

“If someone wanted to, say, get revenge on a predatory cougar, what, theoretically, would be the best way to go about achieving it?” I bat my eyelashes at her, causing a throaty laugh to erupt from her lips.

“Hmmmm,” she murmurs, a serious look coming over her face. “One could, in theory, leak video footage of said cougar to the police, reporting the abuse,” she answers, an excited gleam coming into her eyes. “Oooohhh! Could you also discredit her with Julian somehow? Like, make out that she’s disloyal to Black Knight?”

I pause, my head tilted to the side as I think on her suggestion.

“It would be funny to see her carted away in cuffs,” I muse, liking the idea. “And you’re definitely onto something with casting her in a black light with Julian…”

“Lilly,” she says, interrupting my internal plotting. I look at her, pausing when she lays a hand on my arm. “I know that there’s more going on here, with Julian and Black Knight, than you can tell me, and that’s okay. Just know that I will help you however I can. My brother...he has connections and I will use them if need be.”

My eyes soften as I study her, my hand resting on top of hers and squeezing gently.

“You are an awesome person, Willow Anderson, and one of my favourites.”

But then a fissure of worry runs through me, and I bite my bottom lip. “But how would Loki feel? To be exposed so publically?”

“You could ask,” she replies as we resume walking. “It probably should be him who makes the final call after all.”

She’s right. It definitely should be his decision. He was the one that suffered the abuse. I just hope he goes for it, as I can’t help feeling that it’s the closure he needs to finally see that it wasn’t his fault. That she was a predator, and he an innocent.

“I’ll ask now,” I tell her, reaching my door and turning to face her. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, you bad bitch,” she says, darting in to kiss my cheek. “I’ll catch you tomorrow?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely!” I respond, chuckling as she gives me a dorky as fuck wave, before walking off down the hall to her own room.

Miraculously, she managed to snag a room all to herself, all of the dorms being full after my arrival. She claims that palms were greased, which doesn’t surprise me in the least given this place, and the way money seems to talk.

Taking a deep breath to still the butterflies suddenly fluttering in my stomach, I put my key in the lock and open the heavy wooden door. Pausing in the doorway, I take a moment to admire the guys. My loves. The other parts of my soul.

Kai’s in the kitchen, preparing something that makes my mouth water and my stomach grumble,asNothin but a Monsterby Ari Hicks plays softly in the background. Jax and Loki are sitting on one sofa, Ash on another, all clutching gaming handsets, and playing what looks like a pretty violent game if the blood and gore on the screen are anything to go by. Loki shouts at the screen as something appears to kill his avatar, Ash’s lips lifting in a smirk as Loki swears at him. Jax laughs, the sound deep and low, making my nipples pebble even from here.

“You’re a dirty fucking cheat, Ash!” Loki shouts, throwing his controller down in disgust, getting up, and finally spotting me as he turns. “Pretty Girl!” he exclaims, leaping over the back of the sofa and rushing towards me.

He wraps me up in a breath stealing hug, like he literally didn’t see me just this morning. My arms go round him anyway, inhaling the vanilla scent that smells like home.

“I missed you,” he whispers in my ear, nuzzling the side of my neck, goosebumps appearing across my skin where he touches me.

“I missed you too, love,” I reply, finding his mouth with my own, and losing myself in his plush lips and soft tongue. My whole body relaxes into him as he kisses me back, all of the tension I didn’t know I was holding escaping out of me with a sigh.

Reluctantly, I pull away, looking into his eyes. My lower lip slips under my teeth as I try to think of the best way to broach the subject of Clarissa.

“Out with it, baby,” Loki tells me, keeping his arms round me as he arches a brow.

“I’ve been thinking about Clarissa,” I blurt out, wincing at my own bluntness. His arms stiffen, feeling like solid marble as they hold me, but he waits for me to continue. “And, uh, how we should deal with her.”

His lip twitches on one side, a mischievous glint entering his eyes.

“You planning to seek revenge in my honour, baby?” he teases, some of the tension leaking out of him.

“Yes.”

---