Sorry for the wait people! If you follow me on Tumblr, you probably already heard about the chaos that were the last few months of my life!
But here's chapter 6, and I promise the other updates won't be as long to come :)

Thank you for your comments, it means the world!

As they entered the reception room for the rehearsal dinner, Rhys followed Feyre to the round table in the middle of the room, where both her sisters were already seated. There were four empty seats at the table, but Rhys didn't wonder much about it. He knew no one at that wedding, and had no idea who was to seat with them apart from the groom and the two best men. Once they were seated, Elain excused herself, got up to greet some guests, and Nesta immediately turned to Feyre.

"Tamlin was such a jerk this afternoon. I can't believe you ever dated that man."

"I know, I felt so bad," Feyre answered.

"And he's not even entitled to be angry at you."

"Yeah, we broke up four months ago, he should have moved on by now."

Nesta stopped for a second. "Oh, yes of course. But that's actually not what I was referring to."

"What?"

"Didn't Lucien tell you? Tamlin came with a date."

"What?! And he dares yell at me for not coming alone?! What was he expecting? That I'd spend the weekend miserable and alone while he got to flaunt some bimbo around?"

Nesta snorted. "I know. He's ridiculous. He couldn't get over the fact that you dumped his ass so he probably wanted to make you jealous or something, I don't know. Anyway, is your room any good? Mine is on the other side of the hotel and I don't have a view of the ocean."

Rhys then listened to his date and her sister talk extensively about what they thought of the hotel, and weighed in a few times on their conversation. Feyre leaned closer to him during the time they spent talking before dinner, and when Elain, Lucien and the best men joined them at the table, she had a hand resting gently on his knee, and his arm was looped around the back of her chair. It all seemed so easy, being close to her and touching her, he barely registered the new people at the table. Lucien sat beside his future wife, his cousin beside him, and Tamlin sat down next to them, leaving an empty seat beside Rhysand.

Feyre's ex was not what he had expected. With long blond hair tied up in a high ponytail, very pale skin and clear green eyes, he would have almost looked like a prince from a fairy tale. But from what Rhys had seen of him when he'd come in, he was less of a prince charming and more of an angry man who thought he was entitled to his ex's affection.

The meal started, and they made it all through the food without anyone raising their voice, even though he could sense Feyre tense every time Tamlin opened his mouth. If all the weekend went by that smoothly, it would be much easier than what he'd imagined.

This thought was washed away when Tamlin got up to go to the lobby, and reentered the room five minutes later with a beautiful blonde woman by his side. Feyre's fork fell down from her hand as she took in the woman, and she said in a half voice "you have to be fucking kidding me." Then she grabbed Lucien over the table, interrupting his conversation with Elain. "Did you know he was bringing her?"

His smile fell and he looked worried. "No, Feyre I swear, I only learned of it this morning. I knew he was bringing someone but I had no idea it would be -"

"Lucien," the woman interrupted him, laying a possessive hand on his shoulder to make him turn around. Rhys saw Tamlin avoiding Feyre's stare, as well as Lucien's cringe at the woman - Ianthe's - touch. He couldn't help but smile at how smooth but firm Elain acted in that moment. She clearly didn't want Ianthe anywhere close to Lucien, but she remained polite enough to not make a scene. Both women started talking, still standing, and beside him, Feyre had grabbed her fork again. She was clenching it so hard that Rhys considered the possibility of her breaking it. He nudged her on the shoulder and whispered to her "are you alright? Do you want to leave?"

She gave him a very strained smile and shook her head before answering in a similar low voice. "No, it's fine, thank you. I'll be fine, there's only the cake left before the meal is over."

But she didn't speak another word during the rest of the dinner, and Rhysand was forced to listen to all the things Ianthe was talking about, and after ten minutes, he couldn't wait for the cake to be served and eaten.

It became polite to leave only after forty minutes of dessert, when some people from the other tables came up to Elain and Lucien to bid them good night. Rhys let another ten minutes go by, and then he gently slipped a hand in the small of Feyre's back and made her get up.

"Elain, Lucien, is it okay with you if we leave you now?"

"Oh, absolutely Rhysand! It's getting late, we should all go to bed if we want to enjoy ourselves all day tomorrow!"

"Oh yes," Ianthe said, "I can't wait to see what you have planned for us, Elain!" And then, she very ostensibly slipped a hand very high on Tamlin's thigh and said with a direct look in Feyre's direction: "We should also go to bed, shouldn't we, Tam?"

Feyre didn't react, she simply bent down to kiss Elain and Lucien, and then she was walking to the lobby, up the stairs and into their bedroom. She locked herself in the bathroom before he even entered the bedroom, and he started changing out of his suit to wear a loose pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. She hadn't come out after twenty minutes, so he strolled to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Feyre, are you okay?"

She took a minute to answer. "I am."

"Do you… need anything?"

"No." and after a pause. "Thank you."

"Okay. I was just wondering because -"

She opened the door to the bathroom and he found her wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts, her makeup gone and her hair loose on her shoulders. He wondered for a second how she could be even more beautiful now than she'd been before, but then he took in her angry look.

"Don't you get that if I lock myself in a room, maybe it means I don't want you to bother me?"

"I'm sorry, I was just worried and -"

"There's no need to be worried," she answered in a harsh voice, pushing him out of the way to go to the wardrobe and put her dress on a hanger. She then sat cross legged on the large bed and proceeded to ignore him. He mumbled a "sorry" and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. She hadn't moved when he came out later, and he went to sit beside her.

"You know, Feyre, it's understandable that you feel bad after tonight. I mean, if you feel jealous about -"

"I'm not jealous."

"Oh. I just thought, maybe if you're not completely over your ex yet, it would -"

"I am completely over him," she interrupted him again, and this time she turned to him. "Don't act like you know me, Rhys. You have no idea how I feel, so stop trying to analyze me and just leave me alone, okay?"

He stared at her for a second before backing down. "Okay," he said, leaving the bed and opening the double glass doors to the small terrace. He sat down on one of the chairs and looked at the ocean in front of him. He understood why she was angry. To some extent, at least. He too had some exes with whom he had a bad history, and he could obviously understand why she wasn't willing to talk to him about it. Of course she considered him a stranger. They had talked a lot over the last week, and he'd somehow built up the illusion of knowing her, understanding her. But she obviously didn't feel the same, and he understood that.

He heard the door move behind him and he felt the light touch of a hand on his shoulder. And then she talked, a mere whisper. "I'm sorry, Rhys."

He turned towards her and smiled. "It's okay, you don't have to apologize."

She sit beside him. "Yes, I do. You were great today, and tonight… Getting us out of there early, you were wonderful. I have no right to lash out at you, it's not you I'm angry at."

They fell silent for a long time after that, because Rhys could feel she wasn't done talking. She snuggled into the chair and continued: "I'm not jealous about Tamlin bringing someone to the wedding. We've been apart for months and I don't care about him that way anymore. It's just… It's the woman he brought with him that makes me feel so bad."

"Ianthe? She seems like a piece of work, huh?"

She laughed only a little. "Yes, she really is. But it's not because of her awful personality that I'm angry." She paused, let out a long sigh, and talked, stumbling over her words a few times.

"A little over four months ago, I was out of town for a business trip. I went to the other side of the country with some colleagues, and was away for a few days. When I came back, Tamlin was much nicer than he normally is. He bought me gifts, he was much less angry than usual, and we had a great couple of weeks together." Oh, he knew where this was going. "Then I had to use his computer for work one night, and I opened his emails to log into mine. That's when I saw the conversation. Messages they'd sent to each other about the weekend I was away, about what had happened between them. Apparently, she came over to talk to him about something from work and… They ended up spending the night together. And then the next day, and the next night. I confronted him that night, and he didn't deny it. He said it was a one time thing, a stupid mistake, he said it would never happen again." Bullshit. "I left him the next day." She turned to him, and he saw her eyes were bright with tears, so he leaned over and offered his hand. She gave him a weak smile and took it. "So you see, the reason why I'm so angry is not jealousy. It's just… I can't believe he brought her this weekend. I mean, I'm with you, but I didn't ask you here to taunt him. I just let myself get carried away when I told Lucien about you. I shouldn't have told him I had a boyfriend. But I just didn't want to spend the weekend alone with him there. He brought the woman he cheated with. And he thought I'd be alone, too."

He could feel the hurt in her voice, and he wanted to do nothing else than take her in his arms and comfort her. But he settled for something less demonstrative.

"No offense, but he seems like an asshole."

"I wouldn't have agreed a few months back but now… you're right."

They fell silent, fingers intertwined, the only sound around them the waves rolling on the beach. After a few minutes, a shiver went through Feyre, and Rhys let go of her hand, took off his hoodie and handed it to her. She murmured a 'thanks' and put it on. Then she looked at his bare chest.

"You were right earlier."

"What?"

"I wasn't looking at your tattoos."

He let out a cry of triumph. "Ah! I knew it, I am irresistible."

She snorted. "You're insufferable is what you are. But really though, your tattoos are beautiful."

"Thanks."

"Do they have a special meaning?"

"They do. I'm half Illyrian, these are tattoos from my mother's family."

"Oh, I had never seen tattoos like these before."

"Each one is unique, it tells the story of your family, your story, and your future."

"Like a prediction?"

"Not exactly, more like guidelines of sorts."

"What do your guidelines say?"

He smirked at her. "They say that I'll fake being a boyfriend for a beautiful lady with a mean smile."

She punched his arm slightly. "Oh shut up!"

But she was blushing.