After a long ride on a boat, they all made it to the other side of Sitka where a huge house stood there, accompanied with multiple buildings, and behind them stood three mountain peaks covered in snow. It was a beautiful aspect. The wooden texture gave the feeling of winter. Once off the boat and onto land, Mor commented. "Here we are. We're home." She smiled, holding her arms out at both sides. Nesta was utterly speechless by the mere size of the house. Hell, there was even a lighthouse.
"That is your home?" Nesta asked Cassian as he only smiled with a nod. "Who are you people?" She asked again, still shocked. Emerie and Mor chuckled at her astonishment. As they walked to the house, she asked Cassian midway. "Why did you tell me you were poor?"
Cassian looked at her before focusing on the path. "I never said I was poor." He replied. Nesta stumbled to his side and glared at him.
"But you never told me you were rich." She shot at him, Cassian untied his man bun and shook his head. Goddamn him and his silky looking hair! She cursed mentally.
"I'm not rich. My brother Rhysand is rich. He just gave us access to his bank accounts." Cassian shrugged with a smirk.
Nesta rolled her eyes and shot. "Ok, you know what? That's something only rich people say." She said, to which Cassian only laughed. Before Nesta could start her argument, a group of people walked by and waved at them.
"Hey, Cassian! Welcome home!" A woman shouted with a wave.
Cassian waved back. "Hi!" He smiled before glaring at Mor. "Mor, what is this?"
Mor turned to him with a grin. "Nothing. It's just a little welcoming party. Is that a crime?" She asked.
"How many-" Before he could ask, Emerie answered.
"Just 50 of our closest friends and neighbors. And all excited to meet you, Nesta." Emerie smiled as She and Mor proceeded to walk. Amren didn't say a word as she followed suit.
"Oh, good. Good." Nesta chuckled nervously as she and Cassian shared a concerning glance. Totally weren't expecting that.
"A party?" She asked under her breath. Cassian sighed heavily.
"Yeah, I guess so. Come on. Let's go. The ant is moving faster than you." He said before hearing a slight distant shout.
"I heard that ya giant brute!" Amren shouted. Cassian fought the urge to laugh. Nesta was just exhausted as she dragged her luggage.
Once inside, the smell of the food on the buffet filled Nesta's nose to the point her mouth started to water. Yet, she fought the urge as she was greeted by a nice woman. "So nice to meet you, Nesta. Welcome to Sitka." She said in a way of greeting.
"Rita? Hi!" Cassian gave her a hug. Nesta held her hands and forced a smile.
"Nice to meet you." She replied.
"Our pleasure." Rita said and proceeded to keep the food in order. Nesta slightly ran behind Cassian in order to keep up.
"Why didn't you tell me you were some kind of Alaskan Kennedy?" She whispered, almost shouting. Cassian gave her an awkward grin.
"How could I?" He answered in a form of question before adding. "We were in the middle of talking about you for the last three years." He said. Nesta yanked him to a corner so they could stop walking and talk properly, but she kept whispering.
"Ok, know what? Timeout, ok? This bickering Bickerson thing has to stop." She said while Cassian just waited for her next reply. "People need to think we're in love. So let's…" He cut her off.
"That's no problem. I can do that. I can pretend to be the doting fiancé. That 's easy." He said before smirking. "But for you, it's gonna require that you stop snacking on children while they dream." He failed to contain a small chuckle.
Nesta shot him an annoyed glare. "Very funny. When are you going to tell them we're engaged?" She asked. Cassian held her shoulders when people stared their way and forced a smile.
"I'll pick the right moment." He said but the people who were staring called out to him.
"Hey, Cassian. Hi!" Called a woman wearing a beautiful white sweater with black pants and matching sandals. Her wavy hair resembled raging fire.
"Vassa. How are you?" Cassian smiled and shook her hand.
"It's really ice to see you." She smiled slightly before glancing at Nesta.
"This is Nesta." Cassian held Nesta's shoulders as she smiled nervously.
"Hi. Pleasure." Nesta greeted. Vassa squeezed her hands lightly.
"Nesta. Interesting name" She said before commenting. "So I always wanted to know, what does a book editor do?"
"That's a great question!" Said a voice behind Cassian, to which he turned wide eyed. "I'm curious to know the answer myself." Nesta turned to see him herself. She hasn't seen anyone so beautiful, skin color almost matching Cassian's but his eyes were of intense blue, almost purple.
"Rhys!" Cassian shouted cheerfully as the two males gave each other a firm hug. "It's so good to see you!"
"You didn't think I was working my ass off while you returned home? Like hell I'll do that!" Rhysand said with a chuckle as Cassian gave him a nudge. "This must be Nesta." He held his hand out to her in greeting.
Nesta accepted and shook his hand. "Uh, yes that's me."
"Rhysand. Pleasure to meet you." Rhysand offered her a grin.
Nesta found her voice and replied. "Pleasure's mine."
"So why don't you tell us exactly what a book editor does?" Rhysand took a glass of vodka and held it near his lips.
"Besides taking writers out to lunch and getting bombed?" Cassian joked, to which Nesta slapped his arm in annoyance. "Ow! Im joking." He chuckled.
"Now that sounds like fun. No wonder you like being an editor." Vassa said to Cassian.
"No hang on. Cass, I thought you were her assistant." Rhysand looked at him before glancing at Nesta. "And that Nesta here was the editor."
"So you're actually… Cassian's boss?" Vassa asked Nesta to which she replied.
"Ah yeah. I thought he told you that he was promoted a few weeks ago?" Nesta said, knowing it'll make Cassian uncomfortable, which worked. He shifted on his feet and cleared his voice while looking at the wooden floor.
"Well. How about that? I'm impressed." Rhysand grinned as he finished his vodka. "I think I'll get a refill."
"Charming. Uh… You said he was turning 35?" Nesta asked cassian. "He seems of 30."
"Yep, glad you are considerate." Cassian smirked and followed his brother.
Once Rhysand had a new refill, he faced Cassian. "So! You show up after all this time with this woman you hated, now she's your girlfriend?" He raised a perfectly fixed brow. Cassian chuckled, trying to come up with something.
"Well it was a secret. We just got here and I have a feeling Nesta and Amren will throw the kitchen sink at each other." Cassian got himself his own glass of vodka as Rhysand chuckled.
"Just never figured you for a guy who slept his way to the middle." Rhysand comenta, making Cassian almost choke on his drink.
"I'll have you know that that woman in there is one of the most respected editors." He said, voice a bit raspy. "Plus, I need to make an announcement."
Rhysand ten asked his brother. "What, that you two are getting married?"
"Yep." Cassian said lamely. Now it was Rhys' turn to choke on his drink before spitting it from his mouth. He coughed a few times before looking at him wide eyed.
"Are you serious!?" He shot.
"I'm getting married." Cassian reaffirmed as his brother chuckled and gave him a side hug.
"You're one lucky bastard, you know that?" Rhysand smiled at him, to which Cassian returned the gesture.
Nesta was just walking through the house when she almost bumped into a tall man, pretty much the same aspect of Cassian, only that his skin was much darker and his hair longer, past his shoulders. He offered a tray of what looked like wrapped fish. "Oh! Hi, how are you?" He asked rather nicely.
Nesta eyed the tray before replying. "Uh, good, good. Thank you." She said, eying once again the tray.
"Name's Helion. Care for some hors d'oeuvres?" Helion asked and held one to her. Nesta held her hands, slightly shoving it.
"I'm fine. Thank you very much." She replied, holding back her disgust.
Helion insisted. "It's a tradition."
Nesta swallowed before pointing. "It's the texture. I'm not a fish person."
"Oh, I think you'll like it." He kept insisting.
"You're very sweet. But-" Nesta tried to say as Helion shoved the hors d'oeuvre right in her mouth. She fought the urge to gag as she took slow munches.
"Well?" Helion asked with a grin.
Nesta had to admit it was quite good. So she said, "Thank you so much." SHe then heard a familiar voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very important announcement to make." It said, She didn't pay much mind until she heard the next sentence. "Nesta and I are getting married."
She spat the food into Helion's dressing shirt and coughed. He flinched but held her elbows. "Are you alright?" He asked a bit concerned as he gave her a napkin.
Nesta held the napkin to her lips, still coughing as she quickly replied. "So sorry."
Helion just clicked his tongue and gave her a reassuring smile. "That's ok. It's wash-and-wear." He chuckled.
Meanwhile, everyone looked at Cassian with either wide eyes or jaws dropped. "Yep!" He said and looked around. "Honey? Where you at?" He asked and saw Nesta coming from behind the wall with a serious glare. "Here she is." Cassian sighed and held his hand to her. "Come on down here, pumpkin." He forced a smile. Nesta fought the urge to roll her eyes and forced a smile as well, walking to him as everyone began to clap and cheer for them. "All right. OK. Oh, look at her. Look at her." Mor and Emerie were more shocked as Amren just clapped her hands lamely. "Right there, ladies and gentlemen. There she is." He held her hand. The two gave each other an uncomfortable glance as they smiled at the crowd.
Rhys clapped at his brother before nudging his shoulder. "Congratulations, Cass."
"Thank you, Rhys." Cassian smiled at his brother while the rest of the people gathered to congratulate them. Nesta only took a glance to see how joyful his family was and how they treated him, even his brother was overjoyed. Right there and then, Nesta felt like she was just watching from outside the window, far away from people who laughed, cheered and cared. For probably the first time, she felt a little alone. She then noticed how Cassian looked at her in awe, realizing she's been staring at him the entire time. She quickly snapped her glance away from his and faced Emerie.
She gave her a knowing look, probably because she noticed how she was looking at him. "Congratulations." She said, holding her hands with a gentle squeeze.
Nesta felt somewhat comfortable and gave her a genuine smile "Thank you very much."
"Time to celebrate!" Mor cheered and went to another room while adding. "Let's get the champagne!"
Rhysand followed behind her. "I'm guessing you're getting the best from my personal storage?"
"Hell yes! Why do you even have it there!?" Mor ranted at him.
Nesta gave Cassian a glare and asked. "So that was your idea of the perfect time to tell them we're engaged?"
Cassian replied with a smirk as he whispered to her. "Uh, yeah. 'Cause it was brilliant timing." He purred, making her squirm a little.
A woman with dark brown hair got closer to him. "Cassian. Hi." She seems a bit awkward.
"Tanie? Oh, my God. Hey, hi. Wow." Cassian hugged her gently. He then pulled away, still holding her shoulders. "How are you doing? I didn't know that you were gonna be here."
"Yeah Mor probably wanted it to be a surprise. So... surprise." Tanie smiled with a shrug and glanced at Nesta. "Right. And… Uh, we're being completely rude. Hi." She said to him and held her hands in greeting.
"Oh, God. Um…" Cassian cleared his voice and said to Nesta. "This is my ex…" He said. To which caused Nesta's eyes to shoot wide open.
"Hi. I'm Titania. But you can call me Tanie." Tanie said cheerfully.
Nesta felt something heavy on her chest but she shook Tanie's hand. "Oh, wow. Wow! Uh, nice to meet you."
Tanie clapped her hand with a smile. "Well, congratulations, you guys."
Both Cassian and Nesta replied in unison. "Thank you."
"So did I miss the story?" Tanie shot a glance at the two of them.
Once again, they asked at the same time. "What story?"
"About how you proposed." Tanie chuckled at their confusion.
Mor added. "Oh! How a man proposes says a lot about his character."
"Yes. Yes, it does." Tanie nodded and took a seat.
Emerie then answered. "I actually would love to hear the story, Cass. Would you tell us?" She asked. The people around them agreed to the idea as they paid attention to listen, even Rhysand joined the group.
Cassian ran out of excuses at this point and looked at Nesta with a smirk. "You know what? Actually, Nesta loves telling this story, so I'm just gonna let her go ahead and do that." He said and sat next to Mor before joking. "'Cause I think we should just sit in rapture." Everyone chuckled.
Nesta made a slightly furious expression before laughing a bit sarcastically. "Wow, OK." She thought for a moment. "Wow, where to begin... this story." She glared at Cassian, to which he grinned and made a gesture for her to keep going. Even though Nesta fought the urge to sit on his lap to make him blush, no matter how sexy he sat, she stayed there. She began telling the story. "Well… Wow." She cleared her voice and found her words, yet she still stumbled on them a little. "Yeah. OK, well… Cassian and I… Cassian and I were about to celebrate our first anniversary together. And I knew that he'd been itching to ask me to marry him." Nesta gave him a grin as she shot in revenge. "And he was scared."
"Like a little tiny bird." Emerie commented, making Mor choke on her drink as Rhysand chuckled. Cassian on the other hand pressed his lips to prevent a smile.
"So I started leaving him hints here and there because I knew he wouldn't have the guts to ask, but…" Nesta shrugged.
Cassian quickly interrupted. "That's not exactly how it happened."
It was Rhysand's turn to ask. "No?"
Cassian shook his head. "No. No." He then added. "I mean, I picked up on all her hints. This woman's about as subtle as a gun." He looked at her with the joke as everyone snickered. Yeah. What I was worried about was that she might find this little box…"
Nesta interrupted him. "Oh! The decoupage box that he made where he'd taken the time to cut out tiny, little pictures of himself."
Cassian grinned. "Yes."
"Just pasted all over the box. So beautiful." Nesta said and continued. "So I opened that beautiful, little decoupage and out fluttered these tiny, little hand-cut heart confettis. And once they cleared,I looked down, and I saw the most beautiful, big…" Nesta gestured with her hands as if holding a box before being interrupted again.
"Fat nothing." Cassian shot bluntly before realizing what he just said. Nesta almost slapped the back of his head.
"No ring." Nesta covered up and Cassian couldn't be more thankful.
Mor and Rhysand asked at the same time. "No ring?"
"What?" Emerie was now confused.
Nesta quickly shot. "No. But inside that box…" She thought quickly. "... Underneath all that crap, there was a little handwritten note with the address to a hotel, date, and time." Nesta stumbled on her words once again.
Rysand chuckled and commented. "Real Humphrey Bogart-type stuff."
"Masculine." Amren shot sarcastically while taking a sip of her red wine.
Nesta and Cassian chuckled nervously before he resumed the story. "Anyway, naturally, Nesta thought…"
She interrupted. "I thought he was seeing someone else."
"For real?" Vassa asked, surprised.
Nesta quickly nodded. "Yeah, it was a terrible time for me, but I went to that hotel anyway. I went there and I pounded on the door, but the door was already unlocked. And as swung open that door, there he was..." She said before glancing at Cassian, who was smiling. And that smile was pretty much to annoy her but she couldn't stop the heat on her cheeks. She cleared her voice. "He was kneeling."
"Like a man." Cassian shrugged.
Nesta added. "On a bed of rose petals, in a tuxedo. And he was choking back soft, soft sobs."
Rhysand gave Cassian a smug, to which he looked away with a snort.
Nesta continued. "And when he held back the tears and finally caught his breath, he said to me…"
Cassian cuts her off to finish the story before he gets more irritated by his brother. ""Nesta Archeron, will you marry me?" And she said, "Yep." The end." He clapped his hands. Everyone was mesmerized by the story. "Ahem! Who's hungry?" He tried to change the subject.
"That is quite a story." Rhysand crossed his arms, now smirking.
"Oh, Cass! Gorgeous!" Mor said with tears.
"You are so sensitive." Amren rolled her eyes.
Tanie then shot. "Hey! Let's see a kiss from you two cuties. Give her a kiss!" She said excitedly. Nesta swore this was Gwyn's replica or something, which made her fight the urge to smile.
Cassian held his hands. "No. Come on."
Mor cheered "Oh, yeah. Come on!"
Cassian sighed. "Ok, all right." He said, which caused Nesta to look at him with shock. Was he really going to kiss her!? "Ok. Here we go. Ready?" He asked more to himself and held Nesta's hand. Her heart was going crazy but almost stopped when he kissed the back of her hand instead of her lips. Nesta didn't know if she felt relieved or disappointed.
Amren saw how uncomfortable Cassian was and shot loudly. "What is this? Kiss her on the mouth like you mean it!"
Mor then began to cheer. "Kiss her. Kiss her! Kiss her!" Soon everyone joined in. "Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!" She cheered louder and louder.
Cassian sighed frustrated. "OK!" He said and everyone stopped. "Ok. All right. Ok." He still held her hand but kissed her cheek instead. Nesta's heart was beating fast, if not, faster.
Mor groaned and shouted. "Cass! Give her a real kiss!"
Cassian tried to object. "Mor."
"A real one!" Mor insisted.
"Yeah. You can do it!" Rhysand joined in. Cassian questioned on what side Rhysand was on.
"Just do it? Let's do it really fast." Nesta mumbled to him, knowing these people will keep at it.
Cassian gulped. "Yeah. Ok. Ok." He held her cheeks and pulled her lips towards his. And oh God, Nesta wasn't expecting his kiss to feel soft and yet rough. She fluttered her eyes closed as he claimed her lips long enough for everyone to enjoy. Thankfully, they cheered for them and Cassian let go of her lips and cheeks. She swore she saw him lick his lips as she looked away, forcing a smile, letting her boiling blood rest on her cheeks.
"I'm so happy for you two!" Mor ran to the and gave them a bear hug. "So happy! So happy!" She said as Cassian and Nesta hugged her in return. They only glanced at each other before looking away in utter embarrassment.
"Let's get the champagne!" Someone shouted as they resumed the party.
Rhysand, on the other hand, went outside to get fresh air. Knowing Mor will probably empty his stocks, he smiled to himself. He wasn't aware that he walked to the docks until a boat arrived. He took a long glance and recognized the two people on the boat as he shot a grin. "Didn't know you handled boats so well, Azriel."
"Feast your eyes, you'll only see me driving once." He said and helped a redheaded girl up. along with two other girls, hair color identical to Nesta, and another guy that was helping with the bags. Azriel held the redhead's hand. "Rhys, this is my friend Gwyn. She's also Nesta's Best Friend and Bridesmaid"
"Hi! The name's Gwyneth Berdara!" Gwyn said joyfully. "You can just call me Gwyn"
"Lovely name." Rhysand smiled and glanced at Lucien, who was helping one of the other girls. "I see you got yourself someone lovely Lucien.~" He teased.
"We just met on the boat!" They both said blushing. Lucien cleared his voice.
"This is Elain, Nesta's middle sister." Lucien let go of her hand and presented Feyre. Rhysand's eyes were on her in an instant. "And this is Feyre."
Rhysand bowed with his head. "Nice to meet you." He said and quickly clarified. "Both of you. As you may know, I am Rhysand Paxton"
"Thank you for receiving us Mr. Paxton." Elain smiled.
"Please, call me Rhysand. And the pleasure is all mine." Rhysand said before noticing Feyre eying him. She cleared her voice.
"So.. you're the birthday boy Cassian was telling me about?" She arched an eyebrow. Rhysand blinked once, twice, three times at her comment. "Sorry that was rude, it's just…" Feyre tilted her head. "You seemed younger."
Rhysand smirked deviously. "Well, glad someone noticed that. I have a feeling we'll all get along very well. Feyre, darling.~" Rhysand purred. She flinched, blushing like mad as she quickly looked away.
"God, you're such a prick.." Feyre mumbled.
"Ouch." Rhysand chuckled. "Quite the tongue you got there." He smirked at how she shrunk on her shoulders. Azriel cleared his voice and Rhysand nodded. "Right, where are my manners? Follow me this way." He said as the five followed him.
"My oh my, you sure you wanna share a room with me?" Elain asked as Feyre shot her an incredulous glare. Gwyn chuckled as they proceeded to the house.