“I hate myself for being so upset about that photo when I just received such devastating news about my mother’s car accident, but I can’t help myself, Alec. Both events feel equally painful to me. I’m trying so hard not to be affected, but I can’t. I can’t do it. I can’t pretend not to care.”
I press a kiss to her forehead and sigh. “You don’t have to pretend, Elena. I’m your husband, and I’m not always the best communicator, so I need you to tell me these things. I need you to tell me when I hurt you, when I do something stupid. I will always listen, Elena, and I will always work on the things that are within my power. That goes for the photo you saw today, and for the news you received today.”
She looks at me in question, and I lean in, kissing the tip of her nose. “I’ll be sure to keep my distance from her, okay? If you don’t want to see me with her, then I’ll make sure I stay away from her.”
I see hope bloom in her eyes, and it kills me. It kills me that this is all I can give her. That I can’t promise her the one thing she wants most. It kills me that she wants it at all. Love won’t last. When it all fades, we’ll still be tied together. I don’t want her to resent me in the end, and if we ever fall for each other, she will.
“As for your mother, I’ll use every connection at my disposal to help you unravel what really happened. Elliot is probably already on it, if it’s Lucian that asked him for a favor,” I say, a smile on my face.
Elena nods and threads her hand through my hair. “Thank you,” she whispers, and I lean in to press a chaste kiss on her lips.
“If it’s your father that did this, I’ll take him down. I’m already working on putting a hostile takeover in place, but it’s taking some time. Not everyone wants to sell their shares, and I need to do this slowly, undetected. I can’t hit him until I have enough shares.”
She nods, looking far more relaxed than she did earlier.
“This… this is enough, Alec. I’ll take every bit you’ll give me, and if this is all I’ll ever have of you, it’s enough. You are enough.”
I fucking hope so, because I can’t even imagine my life without Elena anymore.
Chapter 41
A lexander
I’m oddly impatient as I wait for Elena by the entrance of the restaurant. I told her I’d take her to the opening of our latest restaurant, and she told me she’d meet me here. I smile to myself when my limousine pulls up to the curb. I walk up to the passenger door and open it, my breath catching when I see her.
She’s wearing a stunning black dress that hugs her figure beautifully, but it’s her eyes that get to me. It’s the way she looks at me like she and I are the only ones that are in on a secret.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her as I help her out of the car. Elena smiles at me, and my heart skips a damn beat.
“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she says, her eyes roaming over my body. “Though I think you’ll look even better on top of me tonight.”
My eyes widen in shock and Elena smirks in satisfaction. She’s getting more and more brazen with the things she says to me lately. She loves provoking me, shocking me. I grin at her and pull her closer, kissing her right in front of the restaurant. The flash of dozens of cameras go off at once, and I hold her a little closer.
When I pull away, Elena has a torn expression on her face. I lean in and brush my lips over her ear. “That wasn’t for show,” I whisper. “This is.”
I kiss her again, slowly, until she melts against me. My heart is racing by the time I pull away again and I shake my head. “I’d better stop,” I murmur. “Or I’ll be giving them a real show.”
Elena laughs and I offer her my arm. I don’t remember the last time I felt this way. I’m excited for a date… with my own wife.
Elena freezes when we walk into the restaurant, and I follow her gaze. I spot her father and the rest of her family at one of the tables. Matthew has his arm wrapped around Jennifer, and she looks up at me, our eyes meeting across the room. I expected to feel something, but instead there’s just… nothing. I’ve held onto her for so long, letting her go feels freeing. In hindsight I don’t even understand what I saw in her. Part of me feels like it isn’t her I was so upset about, but rather, the betrayal itself. I spent years convincing myself that I wouldn’t end up like my mother, but I did. I smile to myself and Elena tenses next to me. She attempts to pull away from me, and I hold her even closer.
Matthew stares at me, and he looks annoyed at my lack of reaction to seeing him with Jennifer. Even the last time I saw them together I was more concerned with irritating Matthew than I cared about hurting Jennifer. It’s only now that I realize that. I grin and press a kiss to Elena’s temple, enjoying the way his hand fists into a ball.
“Elena, Alexander Kennedy,” Alaric Rousseau says, nodding politely. He calls a waiter over and asks for two more seats, and Elena tenses. “You must join us,” he says. I look at Elena, but her expression doesn’t give anything away.
“Father,” she says, nodding at him. She doesn’t acknowledge the rest, and a small smile tugs at my lips.
“Come, come join us,” he says. “How have you been?”
She freezes, and I can tell that she’s caught between the love she has for her father, and the hurt she’s still trying to heal from.
“I’m good, father. We’re on a date, so we cannot join you today. Perhaps some other time.”
“Nonsense. You must join us.” I see the calculative glint in his eyes, and it makes me more determined to take everything from him. Elena wasn’t worth a dime to him until news about us reached his ears. I’ll be damned if he uses her in any way, ever again.
“No,” she snaps. “I was trying to be polite,” she says, looking around at the countless faces turned toward us. “But since you can’t take a hint, let me remind you of the words you spoke when I left home, and then again when I begged you to help me save my mother’s life: I’m no longer part of your family. And quite frankly, I’d rather eat shit than sit with people that’d happily let my mother die.”
I try my best to bite back a smile, but I can’t. Eat shit? A low chuckle escapes my lips and I nod at Alaric. “The lady has spoken,” I say, leading Elena away without a second thought.
The waiter leads us to a table by the window, and even I have to admit that the view is stunning. I pull Elena’s seat out for her and she glares at me. “Are you sure you don’t want this seat?” she asks, her jaws clenched. “You’ll have a better view of Jennifer from here.”
I raise my brows and bite down on my lip to keep from smiling. It’s crazy, because usually jealousy irritates me, but on Elena it merely amuses me.
“Are you going to sit down or do you need me to kiss the hell out of you until your knees give in?” I ask her, hoping she’ll challenge me further.
Elena huffs and sits down, her gaze trailing back toward her father. She looks so incredibly hurt, and I don’t know how to make it better. I brought her a small present, but I’m not sure if even that will cheer her up.
The waiter brings us champagne, but Elena doesn’t even notice him. She’s lost in her thoughts, a pained look in her eyes.
“I know it isn’t the same, but my family is yours now, Buttercup.”
She looks into my eyes and nods. “Hey, why do you even call me Buttercup?” she asks, clearly not wanting to talk about what just happened. Very well.
“You really don’t remember? I’ve called you that since you were about six and you were obsessed with The Powerpuff Girls.”
Her cheeks turn bright red. “You’re kidding me, right? You named me after the most violent one of the three? I don’t have a violent bone in my body. I’m clearly Bubbles.”
I smile at her outrage. “Buttercup is also the bravest and the most headstrong, baby,” I say, pacifying her.
She glares at me, and I can’t help but laugh. I lean in to kiss her shoulder, and she narrows her eyes at me as though she just thought of something, her gaze suspicious.
“Hey, what’s my name in your phone programmed as?”
She grabs my phone, but it’s password protected. She lifts her brow in expectation.
“Don’t tell him, but it’s Lucian’s birthday backwards.”
Her eyes widen when she successfully unlocks my phone.
“No way. Lucian would love this. You know you’re his hero, right?” she tells me.
I shake my head in denial. “Maybe once upon a time I was, but these days we aren’t that close anymore.”
Elena smiles at me and shakes her head. “The way you protected him when all that stuff with Marcus went down? I’m not sure what was going on when I wasn’t part of your lives, but right now you’re his hero.”
I smile at the thought of that. Elena has managed to bring me closer to my own family. It’s something I never asked of her, but she did it nonetheless. That’s just who she is.
Elena uses the search function to find her phone number, and I see her outrage when she finds out she’s programmed in as Buttercup Kennedy. I chuckle as she changes it into Wife.