“Excuse me?” Rex glares at me.
“I think you are jealous of Luke. I think you’re constantly puttinghim down because he is the man you will never be in every single way. And you know what? When I was young, I was dumb, and I had a little crush on you, and it went nowhere, and boohoohoo, but I am over it. You should get over it too. You know what? I don’t care if you think I’m hot now. I don’t care if you think I’m sexy. I find your comments to be extremely disrespectful to me and to your fiancée and to your brother, who I am in a relationship with. Do you think I’m going to choose you over this amazing man who has always been there for me? He is smarter than you. He is funnier than you. He is sexier than you, and he’s more intelligent than you.”
“I kind of think smarter and intelligent mean the same thing,” Luke says, grinning. I just shake my head at him. “But continue, my darling.”
I laugh and then turn back to Rex. “I chose Luke because I know his heart and I know he’s a good man. And I choose to not want you in my life, Rex, because you’re horrible. You’re absolutely horrible. And the best thing you ever did for me was reject me. I thank God that you rejected me because how horrid would my life have been if I had been with you? We never even kissed, Rex, and I’m glad for that.”
Rex looks absolutely stunned at my comments. I’m kind of stunned that I made them.
“And just so you know, Rex, Luke is an amazing lover, and he satisfies me, and he makes me orgasm like I’ve never orgasmed before in my life.”
I look over at Andi, and I’m pretty sure that she can’t say the same thing because I don’t know what’s going on here, but she looks miserable—maybe because she realizes she’s marrying a jerk.
I take a deep breath. “But I will not let you talk to me like that again. I will not let you talk to Luke like that again. You can fuck all the way off, okay? I don’t know why your parents did what they did, and that’s on them, but Luke doesn’t need you or your family’s money. And frankly, you’re lucky he took time out of his busy schedule to come and support you. You should thank him.”
I hear clapping from behind me, and I turn around in shock. Juniper, Wendy, Silvie, Summer, Dayton, Rafe, Carter, Cal, my grandmother, and Luke’s grandmother are all standing there, clapping.
Juniper gives me a big thumbs-up and whispers, “Well done.”
“Come on, Luke,” I say, grabbing his hand. “We need to talk.”
He nods, and we head out of theballroom.
When we exit the door, he turns to me. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
“But I had to do that, Luke. I have known you your entire life, and I know your childhood—you’ve always been compared to your brother. Your dad’s a jackass for that, and your mom was not cool for letting it happen. And I know you’ve always felt inferior, and I know Rex says and does things to you, and he still gets under your skin. And I know you know you’re better than him, and you always stick up for me. And I know you would’ve beaten his ass tonight, and I love you for it. But I can speak up for myself, and I can speak up for you, and I can put him in his place because I am fucking Mia Bishop. And, yeah, I’m just a girl, and sometimes, I cry at movies, and I cry when I see animals looking lonely, and I cry when I don’t get to speak to you, and I cry when I read books that make me sad. I laugh, and I joke around, and I’m goofy, and I do all sorts of things. But I know how to stick up for myself. And your brother is a bully, and he is a jerk. He has insulted me, and he’s insulted you, and I’ve had enough. I have had motherfucking enough, okay? From the moment I got that invitation, I should have told him where to stick it.”
“I’m kind of glad you didn’t,” Luke says, his lips twitching.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m kind of glad we both got incensed and we decided to fake date.”
“And why is that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because it led us to having to share a hotel room, which led us to having to kiss …”
“Which led us to having sex.”
“Which led us to making love,” he corrects, a soft look in his eyes.
“You really think we made love?”
“I know I made love to you. Did you not make love to me?”
“Oh, I totally fucked you, Luke. I bounced up and down on you like you were a cowboy. I was riding in the Wild, Wild West.”
He starts laughing. “Well, cowgirl, are you ready to go again?”
“I think so. Are you ready for me to ride you all night long?”
He grabs my hand and pulls me into him.
“But we’ve got a lot to discuss, don’t we?” I say, because this feels too complicated, too real, too emotional.
“Yeah. There’s something I want to tell you.”
“What?”
