The Avoidance of Love (The Daniels' Sisters Book 2) (30 page)

Jace out did himself with his apology. He claimed he was just taking advantage of my extra horny hormones but I didn’t care.

We talked about the baby. Jace told me that since I had never mentioned children, he accepted that I didn’t want any so he didn’t give it more thought, but he was more than happy and if I wanted to have more after he would be more than compliant in putting in the effort for us to achieve that goal.

What surprised me was that he brought up the subject of our wedding. He knew we hadn’t had a traditional wedding. In two weeks, we would be renewing our vows in Florence where he realized he was never going to let me escape him.

My whole family had travelled out to Italy for our wedding. I didn’t even know how Jace had managed to arrange everything until we got there. He had called Alex, the man he had nearly got into a fight with over me, to help him. Alex and I had kept in contact and so had his cousins, Max, Gio, and Nico.

The day before the wedding, they had arranged for a party at their restaurant. It was wonderful. Part of the reason Jace had arranged it in a hurry was because he knew Dana wouldn’t be able to fly again very soon and I would want her there.

All night, Nico had been flirting with Tara. My poor sister had been about as red as her hair all night with all his chat up lines and sexual references he had directed at her.

Tara was now engaged, but we had met her husband-to-be and none of us were impressed. He was an arrogant prick from where she worked. So, none of us tried to help her avoid his advances and her blinding engagement ring didn’t seem to make him hesitate either.

Jace tore me away from watching my sister and pulled me up to dance.

“Are you happy, Mrs. Bryce?”

“Very happy, Mr. Bryce. Thank you for doing this for me.”

He gently kissed me. It was full of love and tenderness. “I’m not selfless, BonBon. When you’re happy, I’m happy. When you’re ecstatic . . . I get to keep you in bed and not leave for days.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. I spent the rest of the evening dancing with my family and my husband. We couldn’t stay late as the wedding was in the morning and Lana was already throwing a massive fit about us seeing each other the day before the wedding. I told her that it didn’t count since we were already married. She still didn’t want me having bad luck, so I complied and followed her to return to our hotel.

I gave John a kiss on my way out. He had done well at rehab and was now completely sober. At first he hadn’t wanted to come back to live with Jace and I. I could understand his reasons but it all came down to his pride and to me that was no longer a good enough reason to make any decision. I’d worn him down and he’d moved back home with his son.

“Have you seen Tara?” If things didn’t start running like clockwork soon I was pretty sure my sister was going to explode. The last time I had seen her, she was dancing up a storm with Coops trying to avoid Nico in vain. Coops hadn’t really helped by pushing her back into Nicos direction whenever possible. My assistant and best friend was consistent in being a traitor.

“No. Maybe she went out for air.” We walked outside; Dana waddled after us. We were all staying in one room so we could get ready together.

“I heard talking round the side of the building. Maybe she’s there arguing with Nico again.” Dana was laughing. We had never seen Tara particularly flustered over any man. She took the logical approach even where they were concerned. They had chemistry, or they didn’t. They were going to have sex, or they were not. She had a mind box for everything.

We strolled to the corner, and all came to an immediate halt. We found Tara all right. Up against a wall with Nico. It was feral.

“Back away. Back away.” Dana whispered. We all moved in unison at once.

“I don’t think I can unsee that.” I felt ill, and it wasn’t morning sickness. “I can’t unsee it.”

Lana looked just as disturbed. “Well, this is going to be interesting.” She looked down at her phone and held it up for me to see the text message.

Adam: Tried calling Tara. Phone must be switched off. Please let her know I will attend the wedding after all and will see her in the morning.

“Her fiancé is on his way.”

I just want to say thanks to my special people . . . Jemma Scarry, Rachael McClusky, Louise Kemp and Jodi Negri. If you guys hadn’t kept pushing me to write Mara’s story I might have taken another two years!

Love you guys! x