Chapter 24

**Blue**


“Good Morning!” The sound of a voice has me startling awake.

My heart races and sends me scrambling to sit up. I blink a few times to see Rhea standing in our room…again.

“Dammit, Rhea! Have you ever heard of personal space?” Artemis growls.

Rhea just laughs and walks around to my side of the bed and climbs on to sit next to me.

Okay then…

“Morning my lovely soon-to-be sister-in-law! Ready for wedding planning?” She asks giving me an eager smile.

“What?”

“We have three days to plan and that means there is no time to waste! So get your butt up and let’s do this thing! Oh, and you guys have a package.” She stands and saunters out of the room like she didn’t just burst in here.

“I swear I’m not above murdering her,” Artemis grumbles.

I snort a laugh and playfully smack his arm. “You wouldn’t. Besides she’s the only one in your family who seems to like me. You can’t kill my only ally.”

That seems to get his attention because he rolls over to face me. “I’m not your ally?”

“I mean, are you? You’re going to be off being a tech genius while I’m home alone probably dealing with your family. So I need someone who doesn’t hate me to help me weather that.” I say with a shrug.
He pushes himself up to sit back on the headboard making the blanket fall and giving me another view of his naked chest.

I want to curse him out again, but it’s clear he doesn’t care so I’ll have to try not to ogle him. Which will be a very big test of my restraint since he looks amazing. His morning bedhead just makes it even worse. God, I hate him.

Rhea appears again with a huge box in her arms.

“It looks like someone did some online shopping!” She says carrying the box over and setting it down in front of me.

“How did it get here so fast?” I ask as I pull the sides of the box back.

“The store is not far away and you’re Tech King Artemis Rhodes’s fiancé.” She says as if that explains everything.

“I guess there are some perks to this marriage business,” I say making her laugh.

I pull out the first item and rub the material between my fingers. It is so soft that I know for a fact it has to be expensive. Abigail had helped me order a few things and wouldn’t let me look at the prices. I’ll have to thank her later because how can I feel guilty for wearing this if I have no idea how much it costs? One less thing to be anxious over.

“Wow, that looks cute,” Rhea says taking the shirt from my hands and looking it over while I pull a pair of ripped jeans out.

Who knew it was in style to buy clothes that are already destroyed? The next item is a distressed band t-shirt, and so on. By the time I’ve unboxed it all I hadn’t noticed Artemis getting ready as well.

“Are you happy with what you got?” He asks.

I look at him for the first time since Rhea brought the box in and I am startled by how good he looks. He’s gone with all black today and it makes him look like a dark prince. I’m game for this look!

“Where are you off to?” Rhea asks him.

“Work. Just because I’m getting married it doesn’t mean I can miss work. You don’t need my help with anything and I’ll send Bryant and Dane with Blue.” He looks at me next. “I’m going to be interviewing some new security but until then I’ll leave my men with you.”

“Cool. I like them. Especially how cuddly Dane is.” I’m being sarcastic but Artemis looks genuinely confused.

“I wouldn’t describe him as cuddly.” He says and I break out laughing.

“Go on. Rhea and I will be fine.” I wave him off but he gives me one more curious look before turning for the door.

He stops short and turns back to me. “Are you feeling better today?”

Uh, I was hoping we wouldn’t bring up what happened last night.

“Yep! All good!” I say quickly.

He nods and turns back to the door. I hear him in the main room talking to the guys shortly followed by the sound of the front door closing. Now I’m left alone with his sister who I can see watching me in the corner of my eye.

“Were you feeling sick again?” She asks pushing the box aside so she can sit in front of me.

“No, I had an upset stomach. I must have eaten something bad, but getting some sleep helped a lot. Your brother was very helpful.”

Her brows lift nearly to her hairline. “He was? I’ve never known Artemis to be helpful to anyone. The guy can be a selfish prick.”

You would think saying something like that about her brother would be accompanied by anger or sadness, but she doesn’t show either of those. She says it like it’s endearing for her brother to act that way.

“I could see that, but he did help me. I don’t know why he bothers. He sort of made it sound like we would hardly see each other with him being so busy with work, but he’s been in bed with me every night so far.”

She smiles at me and grabs one of my hands. “My brother doesn’t know how to take care of people, not even himself. You are changing that and I’m glad. He’s been going through life with nothing to live for. It’s all been to separate himself from my father for good and it’s consumed him. Once he’s broken ties with my father for good, I don’t know if he will feel lost. He’ll have reached his goal and then what? With you at least he’ll have something to look forward to.”

Her words are sweet and even though he has shown me kindness, it has only been a few days. I am not convinced yet that he will change entirely. Today he’s going back to work, and who can say if it won’t take over his life again? I’m not holding out hope that he will always be around. He made sure to tell me the truth about what my role in his life is, so how can I let myself believe that has suddenly changed? I need to be careful not to let those small sweet moments he shows me turn into hope for more.

Hope only brings disappointment. Out of all things I’ve learned in my life, this one has been the truest. As a kid, I hoped for a new family when my current one was just another nightmare. I hoped a loving family would adopt me and I would be able to be happy. Those hopes led to nothing. All I got were memories I want to forget. Memories that were brought up again by seeing two people who stared in them for too long. Another thing I had hoped for was that someone would find out what they were doing and never let them near a child again. That clearly never happened and now they took things too far.

“Blue?” Rhea waves a hand in front of my face and I focus on her. “Why don’t you get changed and we can leave once you’re ready.”

She gives my hand a squeeze and stands. I wait for her to leave the room but I don’t get up right away. My mind is reeling and I need a minute to focus on what I need to do right now. I need to get ready for a wedding. A fake wedding.
With that reminder in mind, I pick out what I want to wear and head for the bathroom. I quickly shower and pull my hair back in a ponytail. If we’re just doing planning today then there’s no reason for me to get dressed up. That’s why I go for a loose-fitting t-shirt and some plain jeans. I also don’t bother putting on the little makeup I was left with from yesterday. Again what would the point be?

Once I’m ready I meet Rhea in the main room and see the table is covered in a variety of breakfast foods. So much of it that I wonder if anyone else will be joining us.

“Is all this for us?” I ask Rhea.

She’s sitting at the table with a cup in her hand and a plate with a croissant and some fruit.

“Of course! We’ll need our energy for today.”

“We can’t eat all this alone.” I point out.

She waves her hand. “They will leave most of it here unless we ask them to take it away. And the cold stuff can go in the fridge until you want it again.”

A fridge? Where could a fridge be in this place?

I figure I can ask later and sit down at the table as well. There are so many yummy things that I don’t know where to start.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.

“Miss Blue.” Bryant walks quickly into the room and sounds out of breath.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him.

“We have to leave. Now.”