Beauty (Prescott Family #1.5; Love In All Places #1.5) Read online

  However, it was easy to tune her out when I was surrounded by the positivity that were my soon to be sisters-in-law—not that Jenna wasn’t one of those, too—best friend, and Ryleigh.

  After hair, makeup, and donning our dresses, the photographer brought all the girls out and did a bunch of group shots and individuals.

  At one point, after we saw the boys arrive—while we were in hiding, of course—Jenna left to join Jonny. Good riddance. We took a few more pictures before we all went inside our room again, waiting for the ceremony.

  “I’m so excited for you and Cael!” McKenna gushed. Of the three girls, she was just as Caleb described her once upon a time. Definitely a girly girl. Her brown curls were swept to the side in a messy-styled chignon, showing off her elegant neck.

  I smiled wide. “I am, too.”

  Before I could hug her though, there was a commotion outside the window.

  Myke stood there, peaking past the curtain. “Um, Syd? You have a guest…”

  Chapter Five

  Caleb

  “Hey, Cael?” Porter said from the window in the room we were getting ready in.

  After we got back to the house, we all showered as quickly as we could with the minimal bathroom situation and hightailed it to the barn. I had to admit, it was pretty nice all dressed up for the wedding.

  We were all changed now, just waiting for the photographer to pull us out for more pictures.

  And for Jonny to get back. Jenna pulled him aside, but he needed to get his ass back for pictures.

  There were a lot of damn pictures being taken.

  It’s a good thing I loved my soon to be wife, I thought with a chuckle.

  “What’s up, Ports?” I asked, moving toward my kid brother.

  “Isn’t that that dude?”

  I grinned crookedly. “You’ll have to elaborate on that, man.” I looked around my brother and out the window. “Fucking A.”

  Porter grinned over his shoulder at me, the mirror image often taking me aback. “It is the dude, isn’t it?”

  “What dude?” Winski asked, leaving his cell phone on the table he’d been occupying and coming over too.

  “Fucking Tony,” I mumbled, moving toward the door.

  “The guy from the show?” he asked to my back.

  I nodded and started to unbutton my cuffs to roll my sleeves up but Dad stopped me. “Do you really want wrinkled sleeves, Cael? Wait for the reception.”

  I grumbled, agreeing with him, but still walked past him to exit the room.

  “Don’t be stupid, Cael,” he warned me, causing me to turn back.

  I continued walking, albeit backward, toward the front of the house. “I won’t, but he’s not welcome here. We told him we didn’t want him here.” I turned back toward the door and was surprised to find Jonny already talking to Tony when I got outside.

  “—your cameras back to LA,” he was saying, his arms crossed over his chest and looming over the guy.

  Tony started to reply but saw me coming and lifted a hand. “Caleb! It’s so great to see you.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, not even noticing how much Jonny and I looked alike at the moment, blonde to dark. When Tony’s camera guy lifted the monstrosity of a camera to his shoulder, I lifted a brow. “I wouldn’t do that. You weren’t given permission to film here,” I told the camera man before stopping right next to Jonny, across from Tony.

  “What brings you here, Tony?” I asked with a calmness I wasn’t feeling at the moment.

  “I was hoping we could get something, even just a thirty second clip, for the next season. You won’t even know we’re here.”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Twenty seconds?”

  Again, I shook my head. “No.”

  “Fifteen seconds and ten grand.”

  I fought from rolling my eyes. The man was persistent. Or thought he was.

  “No. Sydney doesn’t want you here. I don’t want you here.”

  “Twenty grand. You two were the talk of the show.”

  I started shaking my head when Tony’s eyes lit up, looking past me. “Sydney!”

  I groaned, rolling my eyes upward, before turning to face my girl. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but my redhead beauty in a skin tight gown with capped sleeves and sparkly shit all over it was not it.

  “Shit, she’s beautiful,” Jonny murmured beside me. I was having too hard of a time picking my jaw up off the ground to agree with him.

  Her hair was down and her hands fisted in her skirt as she stomped over toward us. “Tony Cruz! You are not welcome here!” she yelled over the short distance.

  Good God, she was gorgeous.

  “We told you no! We told you no last year. We told you no six months ago when you called. We told you no last week. If you want pictures, buy them from People.”

  Shit, I forgot about People. Thankfully they were just working through the photographer.

  Sydney reached for my hand, shaking me from my headspace and knocking me back into the here and now. “Thank you but no thank you, Tony. We’re just not interested. Not right now.”

  “But it’s the wedding everyone’s talking about! NHL’s Hart Trophy winner, the couple from Beauty… My show!”

  I was about to tell the man no—again—when Sydney jerked her chin up. “You can be at the reception for five minutes. First dance. And then you are being escorted out.”

  And then Sydney, not waiting for a response, pulled me away from Tony.

  “Find a place to stay for the next two hours. You can’t be here,” I overheard Jonny tell him as Sydney pulled me away.

  When we reached the side of the barn, she sighed then looked up at me sadly, her beautiful golden eyes a little more sad than I ever wanted to see, let alone on a day like today.

  “What’s wrong, beautiful?” I asked, putting my hands on her hips and bringing her close.

  “Damn Tony. Now I won’t be able to get the epic reaction from you when I walk down the aisle,” she pouted.

  I grinned, couldn’t help it, and bent down to press my lips to her forehead. “Trust me, Chief, you’ll get plenty of epic moments today.”

  She pouted a moment longer before looking beyond me, then twisting to look behind her. “We have ten minutes before the ceremony starts,” she said coyly.

  God. Just like that and I was hard.

  I pressed her close so she could feel, groaning slightly when she rubbed her stomach against me. “Shit, Syd… No. I’m not ruining that pretty dress.” I closed my eyes when her hands found their way between us and she cupped me through my slacks.

  “No one will be able to tell the difference,” she whispered, squeezing me gently and rising on tiptoe to kiss the underside of my chin. Then she licked me.

  I was impossibly hard now. Fuck.

  “Sydney… Chief, no, we can’t.”

  “But we can,” she whispered, kissing along my neck and sliding her hand away from my cock, thank God, to my back.

  Where she just stuck her fingers into the top of my pants. Shit.

  “C’mon, Cael. Show me how good you are.” Her impish smile was taunting me.

  Resigned, but so fucking turned on right now, I bent and lifted her over my shoulder.

  Chapter Six

  Sydney

  My pissiness at Caleb seeing me before the ceremony quickly went away. I mean, fuck Tony for ruining my moment, but…mmm. I got to spend secret time with my soon to be husband.

  Five minutes was going to be a little quick for us, sure, but I’d take it.

  The secret loving.

  Loving while in our wedding attire, before the wedding.

  We had to get it in while we could, after all.

  I loved it.

  I loved him.

  Behind the barn where the reception was taking place was a storage shed where they kept the chairs and tables between weddings. Caleb walked us there, me hanging over his shoulder, and opened the unlocked door, stepping into the
darkness. I reached down and squeezed his ass before he set me down.

  But, like he always said, payback was a bitch and my grab earned me an earsplitting grab of his own.

  Laughing, Caleb covered my mouth. “Shh!” he said, his laughter not letting up.

  I reached for his sides but he slammed his elbows down into them and pointed a finger at me, the most serious look to ever cross his handsome face aimed in my direction. “Don’t you dare. We have five minutes, Chief.”

  At the reminder, I attempted to lift my skirt, but the minimal tule mixed with the white gems decorating the entire dress made it hard to do.

  Caleb turned me around and slowly unbuttoned the back. He pressed his lips to my shoulder, causing a shiver to run through my body, before lowering the dress down. Before it could pool on the floor though, he picked it up and found a place to hang it on a wayward nail in the wall.

  When he turned back toward me, his face? It was that epic moment I wanted on camera.

  But this memory would more than suffice.

  “Fuck, Syd,” he said, taking in my semi-pointless lace strapless bra and garter belt. My panties were lace too but I’m pretty sure those went without notice.

  “You’re so Goddamned beautiful,” he murmured, stepping close. He swept his hands down my arms and took my hands in his, squeezing them both once as he took me in. I smiled up at him, wondering how in the world I got so lucky to meet a guy like him.

  He looked at me like he’d never stop loving me.

  I honestly didn’t think he ever would.

  And as much as I’d love to stand right here for however long he wanted to take his fill, “We’re down to two minutes, Cael.”

  “Fuck ‘em. Can’t have a wedding if we don’t show up,” he answered, letting go of my hands to undo the button and zipper on his slacks.

  “But they’ll know.”

  “Like I said. Fuck ‘em.” He was grinning though. I knew he’d probably care a little bit if people were talking about what we had to have done prior to the ceremony. Just a little bit.

  I started to remove my panties but he shook his head. “Leave ‘em.” He freed himself from his slacks, letting the fabric sit around his hips.

  “Fuck, Chief. There’s not a good place to do this.” He looked around the dark space before looking back at me, I shrugged.

  “Work your magic, Mr. Star Athlete,” I taunted.

  His grin was feral. “Challenge accepted.” This time when he reached for me, he lifted me high off the ground and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He kept a hand under my butt, and reached behind and between my legs to pull the lace covering me aside. With practiced accuracy, I angled my hips as he thrust up, putting him where we both wanted him to be.

  Our moans echoed in the empty space.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought my mouth to his, tightening my legs around him and locking my ankles at his back, lifting and rising against him. I could feel his ass cheeks clenching under my ankles as he moved with me.

  We kissed deeply, gasping into one another’s mouths as his thickness brought me closer to my peak. I knew he was close too, if the heavy grunts he made when pulling his mouth away were any indication.

  I squeezed down on him, needing to feel the shattering an orgasm would bring me. But for every action there was a reaction, and Caleb spun us toward one of the walls, crashing us against it. He braced us by putting his hand on the wall, behind my back and saving my skin, and began the ruthless rhythm I knew was going to get us to the top and over.

  I unwrapped my arms from his neck so I could hold his face so mine. I kissed him once and pulled back just enough to look at him, sharing oxygen with the man who was twenty minutes away from being my husband.

  “I love you,” I whispered, two seconds away from orgasm.

  “Fuck, Chief,” he mumbled, nipping my bottom lip. He pounded up once more and that was my go time. I threw my head back, feeling my hair brush my ass as he thrust, thrust, thrust again.

  “God, I fucking love you,” he said, kissing my exposed neck right before shooting his seed into me.

  Chapter Seven

  Caleb

  I stood at the front of the area we were using for the ceremony, with a smile on my face that was probably a little more satisfied than necessary.

  Sydney and I were a little late, but not much.

  I’d do it all over again, so I didn’t care.

  Jonny stood next to me in his spot as Best Man, fighting from chuckling. He kept looking at me and shaking his head. Beside him, standing as my other two groomsmen, were Winksi and Jordan. Jordan’s eyes were fixed at the end of the aisle where the girls were starting to line up. Winski looked at me, shook his head, and grinned wide, no doubt coming up with his own conclusions as to why Sydney and I were late.

  He was probably right, I thought trying to fight back another grin. Hey, he had his teeth in, at least.

  I looked over Syd and my friends and family. My youngest three siblings sat with our parents, right next to the Ketterhagen family. A few rows behind them was Conor O’Gallagher and a very pregnant woman. His arm was around her though, so I’d have to ask about that. I grinned at the thought of playboy Conor settling down with a woman.

  Sydney’s family was all here and if I had to guess, Sawyer had a thing for Grace. He kept turning in his chair to look at Sydney’s bridesmaid, the one friend she made in Hawaii.

  And I knew Sawyer was looking at Grace, because every time she moved, Sawyer followed her. Hm. I wondered if Sydney was aware.

  When the music started, I shifted, standing a little bit taller. It was starting.

  In just a few minutes, Sydney would be my wife.

  First down the aisle was Myke, followed by Grace, and lastly, Syd’s college friend, Anna, who stood as her Maid of Honor. I didn’t know her incredibly well, but the few times she came out to San Diego she’d been a blast to hang out with. She was ruthless in Cards Against Humanity—something Jonny grumbled about to this day.

  Finally, the decorative door that had been shielding Sydney opened and out she stepped, with her dad at her side.

  Sydney wanted an epic moment and was afraid she wasn’t going to get it.

  But the emotion of this moment, knowing that she was walking to me for the last time as a Meadows?

  Yeah well, there were tears in my eyes.

  And I’m not too manly to admit it.

  Her smile as they walked closer grew larger and larger. I couldn’t help but smile back at her, even if it were through a veil of tears. She must have noticed them because I watched as her own eyes watered.

  I stepped down from my place to meet with Sydney and Sam.

  “I know you’ll treat her well,” Sam told me, tears in his own damn eyes. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I looked from him to his daughter. “Every day of my life.”

  I shook Sam’s hand before placing my hand on Sydney’s back, bringing her to front with me. We were that much closer to rings and kissing.

  And kissing, and kissing, and kissing.

  Chapter Eight

  Sydney

  “Kiss, kiss, kiss!” cheered through the barn as glasses were clinked on. I laughed and looked at my husband, a perma-smile on my face.

  “My lips are starting to chap,” he complained but with a similar perma-smile on his own face.

  “Let the people have what they want,” I told him, reaching for his face and bringing it to mine.

  After his lips were on me though, Caleb stood, tipping me backward in my chair and kissing me real good.

  Real good.

  I laughed into his mouth, so incredibly happy.

  He pulled back and pecked my lips once more, much sweeter this time, before sitting down next to me. He took a drink of his water and threw a wink in my direction.

  “Love you, Mrs. Prescott.”

  “Love you, too, Mr. Prescott.”

  “So when can we get out of this place?” he asked, wiggling his eyes brows
suggestively.

  I grinned. “Behave, Cael. You’ve had your fun already.”

  “Oh, but not nearly enough.” When the clinking happened again—I swore people were telling their kids to play music—Caleb kissed me nicely.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” the DJ sounded over the room. “May I have your attention. Could our bride and groom please take the floor for their first dance.”

  I grinned, standing and pulling on the skirt of my dress as I did so. Caleb took my hand and lead me toward the floor, swinging me in front of him. I had kept my hair down for the ceremony and because of that, Caleb brushed my hair back gently and pulled it over one of my shoulders, smiling down at me.

  We chose a song that wasn’t overly popular, and the piano version was even less so. When the opening of SafetySuit’s “Never Stop” rang through, I smiled again and reached up to put my hands on Caleb’s neck. I lost my heels some time ago and was barefoot out here on the dance floor, really showing off my vertically challenged self.

  That didn’t stop Caleb from bending down and taking my lips with his, kissing me as we swayed back and forth to the lovely words that resonated so deeply with me when it came to this man.

  I had no intention of ever stopping watching him, holding him, loving him.

  As the reception continued in to the night, I smiled as I watched our friends and family celebrate with us. Everyone was getting along incredibly well and for some people, it was going even better.

  I smiled as I watched Grace and Sawyer dancing in the corner. They had been side by side during the Cupid Shuffle and had danced at least two other slow dances together. I was curious if anything would happen there.

  Currently, I swayed back and forth to the music and Caleb stood behind me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders. We stood talking with Trevor and Jordan, as well as a few of his other teammates. Earlier, we met with Conor from O’Gallaghers and his girlfriend, Mia. She was so incredibly sweet. I couldn’t wait to hang out with her back home.

  Right now, though, Jordan’s eyes kept drifting to Anna.