That was certainly true. Bella had Sarah down to a T. Steph too most likely.
What the hell was I even thinking? How could I have been about to make that woman my wife?
God, he’d given up so much for Sarah over the years, he didn’t even know who the hell he was anymore.
“So?” Bella’s dark brow arched. “Are we going to jet it? I have a rental car out back. We could make a run for it. Just- get lost for a couple of days, until it all dies down.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Sarah will get over it. She has Bob, after all.” His mind did a crazy, whirling thing where it wondered if Bob was actually a guest at their wedding. Had she invited her lover to see her get married? To screw her after when she disappeared to go freshen up or some bullshit?
“Don’t think about it,” Bella whispered. “All my life, I felt like an outcast in my own family. It wasn’t until I got away that I felt like I could breathe. You’ve just been suffocating for a long time. You’ll feel good again, like yourself soon. I promise.”
Who the hell is this woman and how can she be a Berns?
“Yeah…” Rhett’s hand shook when he scrubbed it over his clean-shaven jaw again. He’d spent so much time getting it just right. All of it. From showering that morning, carefully shaving, styling his fucking hair right down to his damn tux and the square-toed Italian leather shoes that pinched his damn toes and blistered his heels.
He was suddenly suffocated, just like Bella said. He was too hot, sweating in his tux. His hands tore at his clothes before he knew what he was doing. He ripped his jacket away, the expensive cufflinks flying and landing with little pings on the floor. He threw the jacket aside, rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt, tore his tie from his neck, and slowly sucked air into his lungs again. He stood shakily and kicked off the freaking shoes he hated so much.
There. He felt human again.
He studied Bella, who got slowly to her feet. His eyes raked up from her cat shoes, up her shapely legs, the tattoos hidden slightly under her dark hose, up her dress, to her curvy hips, her narrow waist, those breasts that were enough for a handful… to her face.
Rhett nearly blushed when he realized what he’d just done but Bella stared him down boldly, like she knew, but didn’t care or like she knew and did care, but she’d excuse him for acting like a dick just this once, given the circumstances.
“So?” she held out a hand, palm up. Hell… there was a tattoo on her palm, just a pattern of dots spreading out in a mandala type thing.
Was that what those things were called? Rhett didn’t even know. Who the hell tattoos their palm?
“Yeah,” he nodded; his voice strangled. “Get me the hell out of here.”
It was all the encouragement Bella needed. Her grin was absolutely devilish, like she was having far too much fun in thwarting her sister’s big day- not that her sister hadn’t done that herself already.
Her much smaller palm took his. Long, slender fingers wrapped around his. He realized he was cold. Ice cold. Her warmth seeped into him and even that made it easier for him to take a breath.
“I’m sure there’s another way out of here where we don’t have to pass that room again.” Bella winked. “Don’t worry. I’ll get us out. Very spy-like. We just need some dangerous, up-tempo theme music playing in the background.” Her eyes flicked to the ceiling. “Not that organ shit going on up there. God. Who wants to get married to that? It sounds like a funeral.”
Rhett laughed. It was the full belly kind of laugh where his diaphragm actually hurt a little after. He hadn’t done that in a long, long time. Laughed. And truly meant it.
He hadn’t done much of anything that he truly meant lately.
For like, the past seven years.
Go fucking figure.
He was so busy trying to think of how to make a life where Sarah was happy that he’d forgotten how to live at all. He’d forgotten what it meant to try and be happy himself.
And that’s how Rhett found himself sneaking through the basement of an ancient church, led to freedom by his unlikely savior, shoved down into the backseat of the world’s tiniest, neon green, rental sedan, leaving the huge church further behind with each minute that passed.
Heading to… god, he had no idea where he was heading, but freedom was a hell of a start.
CHAPTER 3
Bella
For all intents and purposes, she’d just kidnapped the groom. Stolen him away to the promise of a better life.
She really did believe that the poor lost soul in her backseat, who also happened to be blue-eyed, tall, and hot enough to freaking lick, really was better off without her sister.