A/N: Sorry it's been so long, guys! I had an inflamed cornea in one of my eyes, which I know doesn't sound like a big deal, but was actually super painful and I couldn't see for a fairly long period of time. So again, sorry it's been so long! I'm trying to update every week or two, but this is one of those stories that just won't leave me alone even when I'm not writing it; so fear not, I will finish it at some point! Now without further ado, read, review, and enjoy!
Chapter Three
The Ark Estates bustled with activity as the wedding preparations were well underway. Jasper held a clipboard in his hand as he hurried through the kitchen. He'd been tasked with handling the photographer for the duration of the week. He was to coordinate with him, make sure he knew everyone who needed to be in photographs, and right now he had to deliver the must-take photo list.
Jasper thought back to the bet he'd made with Monty. Looking back, it probably was not a good idea to bet one women. For one, there was a very slim chance they would even find women in the first place. But if they happened to find some poor woman who fell for one of them, she probably wouldn't be too happy that a bet had been placed on her. Deciding the best course of action was to end the bet before it really began, Jasper quickly delivered the photo list and returned to the room he was sharing with Monty.
"I gotta talk to you, man." Jasper said as he burst into their hotel room.
"Dude, I told you, you don't need to tell me you need to use the bathroom if I'm not in there." Monty laughed.
"It's about the bet," Jasper insisted, rolling his eyes. "We need to stop this."
"We can't stop it, we shook on it!" Monty protested. "And have you seen the girls here? They're so hot!"
"And we have such a great track record with hot girls."
"Not the point, man. This time will be different!"
"No time will ever be different, Monty. This was stupid. And if by some miracle it were to work, I highly doubt girls would be okay with the fact that we were betting on them."
"We will cross that bridge when we come to it. But you're not getting out of this bet."
"I'm not going through with it. This was a really bad idea."
"Well, then, I guess you forfeit. You're not going to get out of it without any punishment."
"Fine, I forfeit."
"So you'll be cleaning my house, thoroughly, next weekend? I can assure you all of my cleaning supplies will be available to you, and I'll even buy you some toxic waste bags to properly dispose of everything."
"You suck."
"Still want to forfeit?"
"You suck."
"Not an answer."
"Yes, I un-forfeit. Happy?"
"Very."
"If you get punched in the face because some poor girl finds out you bet on her, don't come running to me. And don't come running to me if you can't find anyone, either. All consequences are on you."
"I accept that."
They shook hands again.
Octavia stood in the event hall, surveying the preparations for the reception. Between the funds her parents had left her and Bellamy's decision to leave all the inheritance to her and the money Lincoln had made from his time in the military and private security, their wedding could rival celebrity weddings. She was helping with arranging the tables when Finn and his girlfriend walked into the room.
"Octavia!" Finn waved her over.
"Hey, Finn, I'm a little busy right now, can you make it quick?" She asked when she reached them.
"Yeah, I just wanted to introduce you to my girlfriend, Lexa."
"Hi, Lexa, it's nice to meet you." Octavia shook the other woman's hand, silently judging her as she did. She made it a point to judge everything about Finn Collins, from his shaggy haircut to his bitchy-looking girlfriend.
"You, too. Finn tells me you both went to high school together?"
"Yes, he was a year ahead of me."
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I need to run to the restroom. It was nice meeting you as well." She exited the room and Finn was left standing in front of Octavia.
"So how have you been? I haven't seen you in like three years." He pushed his hair behind his ears.
"Look, we both know we're not really friends. You don't have to try to get to know me."
"Well, I was hoping we could change that. I mean, you're marrying one of my best friends, I think we should get to know each other a little better."
"I'm actually perfectly fine with the way things are between us right now. I don't particularly like you, and I don't feel a need for that to change."
"What have I done to you? You've hated me for as long as I can remember."
"Oh, well, see, there was this thing in high school where you cheated on my two best friends with each other. Ringing any bells?"
"Okay, yes, I remember that, but in my defense, I thought Raven had moved away. And I know that doesn't excuse everything, but it's as good as I have. And I've learned from my mistakes. I've even kind of mended things with Clarke and Raven. Why are you the holdout?"
"Because someone needs to defend my friends, and if they're not going to do it for themselves, I will do it for them."
"They are both more than capable of taking care of themselves."
"Yes, they are. But if they let someone who's wronged them that badly back into their lives, I need to be there to make sure that person is terrified that I will murder them if they ever hurt my best friends again."
"Okay, well, consider me warned and sufficiently afraid. Now can we move past this and try to be friends?"
"As I stated earlier, I have no interest in being friends. To make this week, and for the sake of Lincoln, easier, I will concede to being civil. I don't want to argue with you and I definitely don't want worry about you this whole week. So if you'll agree to keep your contact with my best friends to a minimum, I'll keep my insults to a minimum."
"Alright, fine. You got a deal."
"Okay, good. Now please leave so I can get back to my table arranging."
Finn stared at her for a moment, then he shook his head and left the room. Octavia spun on her heel, clutched her clipboard to her chest, and turned back to the crew hauling tables.
"Hey, Atom!" Lincoln chased down the musician as he was headed down the stairs.
"Lincoln," Atom said when he turned to see who had called him. "What can I do for you?"
"I just had a quick question."
"Alright, what's up?" Atom tilted his head.
"How do you know Octavia?" Lincoln asked. Octavia hadn't told him how she knew the frontman of the band, but clearly it had rattled her when she'd seen Atom. And Lincoln was an extremely protective guy. If there was something he should know about Atom and Octavia, he wanted to know.
"Oh, um, we actually… we dated for a little while in college."
That was what Lincoln had been worried about. "How long is a little while?" He wasn't a man of many words, but he would use as many words as possible to get to the bottom of this issue.
"It was about two and a half years, actually."
"Two and a half years?" That was way more than Lincoln had been expecting.
"Yeah, um, it was a long time ago. But we finally broke up when her brother found out and flipped a shit."
Well, that was one thing he could comfort himself with. This guy had been too much of a pussy to stand up to Bellamy, and though Lincoln knew Bellamy wasn't his biggest fan, Lincoln had never backed down under his disapproval. "You hid your relationship from him for two and a half years?"
"Yeah, we jumped out of a lot of windows and ducked under a lot of beds," Atom laughed.
And there was another thing he had over Atom. Octavia had never hidden Lincoln from Bellamy. "Sounds like an adventure."
"Yeah, but the sex was great." Atom glanced over at Lincoln just as his jaw tensed. "But, I'm sure you knew that."
Lincoln narrowed his eyes at the other man. He had always been protective of Octavia, but he wasn't used to the surge of jealousy he was now experiencing. He'd never had a reason to be jealous of anyone Octavia had dated, because she'd never really had any other relationships. And her eye didn't wander after they had gotten together. But now, he had to tamp down the urge to punch Atom in the face for insinuating he and Octavia had had a lot of sex.
"Right, man, well, I've gotta get back to getting ready for this wedding. You know how Octavia can be at these things. I mean, I'm guessing." Lincoln never would have thought he would be getting passive aggressive with anyone, let alone another man. But here he was, finding himself dropping the most passive aggressive hints about the lack of depth in Atom's relationship with Octavia.
"Yeah, sure, man. I'll see ya round." Lincoln could have sworn Atom glared at him on his way back through the hall.
"Not if I can help it," Lincoln whispered to himself, watching the other man walk away.
Raven crossed the kitchen of Ark Estates, making her way over to the prep tables. Octavia had instructed her that she would be helping to prep the wedding cake. Apparently the baker's assistant had come down with the flu, and Octavia was freaking out about the wedding week from hell. And Raven stopped short when the tables came into sight.
She wasn't informed that she was going to have a partner.
But there stood Wick, looking all masculine and capable… she needed to sit down or her knees would give out. She had never had such a strong attraction to someone before Wick. Even with Finn, she'd never felt her whole body heat up just from looking at him. With Finn, though, there had been the whole being in love thing.
She must have made a noise, because suddenly he had turned to face her. A crooked smile made its way onto his face. "Hey. You're Raven, right?"
"Oh… um, yeah. Right. Raven. Is me." She could have sworn she was blushing, which was shocking in and of itself. And it had definitely never happened in front of a guy before.
"Well, I've been here for about an hour now, so I can help you learn the technique. Come on over." He sent her that smile again, and she grabbed the table. She hoped it just looked like she tripped, but she seriously doubted she had managed to pull it off. She made her way over to where he stood next to the metal table.
"Okay, so this sheet of fondant is already rolled out, but I'll show you how to do that later. First, you're gonna take this pizza roller-looking tool and cut it into a square." Wick demonstrated each step as he instructed her. "Next, you're going to cut it into vertical strips. Taking each strip, you're going to take this little stamp thing, and press it into the strip. It'll make a cut, and you've got the trim down. We're not putting them on the cake yet, we're just cutting them out. And when we're done with this, we've got some frosting flowers to make. But don't worry, those are pretty easy, too."
Wick lifted the stamp tool to show her the shaped piece of fondant trim he'd just created. "How are you so good at this stuff?"
"Don't worry, I've had an hour's worth of practice. I promise you, it's not too hard."
And it wasn't, really. The hardest part about it was standing a foot and a half away from him and having to breathe in his delicious scent and feel his arm brush warmly on hers. But when they moved onto the frosting flowers, the real problems began. The frosting proved to be a little messy, and getting the technique right was a little tricky for Raven.
And that was when Wick stepped behind her to help her move the pastry bag in the right shape to form the roses. She could barely concentrate with the heat of him pressed all up and down her back. And his nose brushing against her hair was pure torture.
"Hey, look, there you go. You're getting it." His voice was softer and deeper than it had been before they'd started. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought he was just as affected by their nearness as she was. But she knew that couldn't be the truth, he'd barely even given her a second look when they'd met casually at dinner the night before.
"Thanks," Raven said, glancing over her shoulder. His face was right next to hers, and she let herself take one deep breath before she forced a smile on her face and backed away. So close, but yet so far.
"Hey, Bell, are you almost done in there?" Clarke yelled through the bathroom door of their hotel room. She'd had to pee for half an hour and he was taking his sweet ass time in the shower. If she didn't know him better, she would have thought he was taking care of business in there.
"Calm down, Princess-" That was as far as Bellamy got before his bare chest smacked right into her face. His bare, dripping wet chest. It might have been the first time Clarke had ever really thought about Bellamy in a really male sense, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.
The sculpted muscle was firm against her cheek and the light dusting of hair across it tickled. She inhaled, and instantly she knew that was a mistake. He smelled like the sharp, clean, male scent of his body wash. She didn't know where he bought it, but she felt like she might start washing her clothes in it.
"Um." Her brain may have short circuited, too. She couldn't form words and the mere fact that all this was happening because of Bellamy Blake was almost proof enough that it had.
"You okay there, Princess?" There was amusement in his voice, but it also held a gruffness that she'd never heard before. It was enough to make her realize that this was indeed Bellamy Blake she was plastered against, and even though her traitorous hormones were having a ball, he was probably pretty pissed about the fact that she'd almost bowled him over in her irritation.
"Yeah, um, sorry." She backed up and tried to keep her eyes anywhere but his exposed chest. And his face. She had no interest in seeing his "I'm pissed" face. She'd seen it often enough in the past.
"I'm surprised you know that word. I've never heard you use it before." That pissed her off enough to glare at his face. But when she looked up, she saw a look she'd never seen on his face. He looked amused and almost… satisfied. But he was still standing very much in her personal space, so she could have been hallucinating.
"I've apologized before. I just don't apologize to you because I've never done anything to you that warrants an apology." At least she was still sane enough to organize an argument. Argue with Bellamy without knowing your point and he'll eat you alive.
"What about my college graduation party when you dropped cake all down the front of my pants?"
"You bumped into me. And I clearly recall that I was looking where I was going and you were walking backwards after blowing a kiss to whatever girl of the week you were dating at the time."
"Ah, so that's why you did it. You were jealous that I was blowing a kiss to some other girl and you decided she wouldn't be interested in me if I had cake on the front of my pants, so you dumped yours."
"What?" She may have sputtered a little, and she was more embarrassed than she cared to admit. "That's not what happened! I was bringing a slice of cake to my boyfriend at the time!"
"Finn? Oh yeah, because we all knew that was going places."
"Wow, now who's jealous?"
"Not jealous, Princess. I just take pride in your terrible taste in men."
"Now for once, you're right. I do have terrible taste in men. I mean, I associate with you, don't I?"
"Low blow, Princess." But his voice was still amused. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he enjoyed fighting with her.
"Well, it's not like there's anything important to hit below the belt." She smiled with exaggerated sweetness and began to push past him into the bathroom. If she didn't get him out of her personal space very soon, she was going to go up in flames.
Before she could make it into the bathroom, he grabbed her elbow, spun her around, and she found herself plastered back against his half-naked body. "Do you want me to show you the important things I have below my belt?" He growled into her ear. "Because I am more than happy to."
She wiggled to try and escape, and that's when she realized that he really would have been happy to show her. Or at least, little Bellamy would have been happy to show her. The bulge hidden underneath his towel was growing harder and harder by the second.
"Um, no, that's… okay." Clarke tried again to wriggle out of his grasp, but he had hands of steel. She sighed in defeat and glanced up at him to find his face seriously close to hers. His eyes traced the planes of her face for what felt like an eternity before he cocked one side of his mouth up.
"Have a good shower, Princess."
Good or not, it was going to be cold.
