Page 121 of Runaway Bride's Guide to Love

Which of course I’m going to do because I love the hell out of that woman. But I’m not going to be happy about it.

“You know I love you, right?”

“Yup!” she says as she jumps up and down in a victory dance. “Now grab your book and your sunscreen. It’s beach day!”

She kisses me one more time before skipping out of thebathroom. I finish getting ready, flip the light off, and walk back into the master bedroom of the rental house we’re staying in.

And not just any rental house.Therental house. The Destin house where so many memories were made and started it all.

It’s where I first fell in love with her, though I didn’t know it at the time. It’s where she tried to beat me with a shoe, and where she rediscovered her love of Alfredo sauce. Where I held her for the first time as I buried myself inside her. Where we spent nights wrapped up around each other and mornings lazily in each other’s arms.

I’ve already talked to Simon about buying the house, which Stella doesn’t know about yet. Not that I don’t want others to live here—it’s just that this is our house in so many ways. I want to come here with her whenever we want. I want to skip away for weekend trips. Bring our kids here one day. Though we won’t have our honeymoon here—well, not the official one at least. When that happens, it’s going to be the trip of our dreams.

But that’s a long way down the line. We’ve only been together officially for three months, and most of that has been dealing with the Duncan fallout. That’s partially why we’re here. Stella’s birthday is next week, and to say she’s been a ball of stress is an understatement. So I told Simon we were skipping out for the week and I whisked her off to Destin. It was the perfect way to make her unplug, relax, and let me celebrate with her privately before her family birthday festivities next week.

The festivities she knows nothing about, that Ainsley and I are planning.

When I walk into the bedroom, I see Stella sitting on the bed in her bikini, and while I’d love nothing more than to peel that thin fabric away, I realize the happiness she had just a few minutes before has faded away.

“What’s the matter?” I say, taking a seat next to her. She tilts her phone for me to read, which is an email from her father.

“He pled guilty,” she says, the relief evident in her words. “It’s over.”

Unfortunately, the saga with Duncan, the civil suits, and the fallout with the law firm took much longer than any of us would’ve liked. Granted, we all wanted for this to be over and done in a day, which we all know was a bold ask. And relatively speaking, it was quick. It just seemed to drag forever.

The video and audio footage we gathered that day was swiftly, and anonymously, sent to the attorney general, the SEC, the partners at Carter, Banks, and Fairchild, as well as Mr. Banks. When William asked Simon about it, he denied up and down that he had anything to do with it. All of the sisters followed suit. But the look of pride in his eye when he realized all of his children were full of shit was undeniable.

Because this was considered an anonymous tip, it was enough for the investigators to start digging. And lo and behold, if people looked past the surface of Stella’s passcodes being used and her bank account funneling the money, the next person was Duncan. But the giveaway? The moron used her passcodes during the two weeks she was away in Florida with me.

I was fucking her, and he was fucking himself. I think that’s quite poetic.

We knew Duncan was being questioned this week because of William, which was another reason why I wanted to get Stella the hell out of Dodge. I didn’t want her worrying about whether or not he’d lie his way out of it again. The investigators seemed to believe that Duncan really did it the last time we talked to them, but who knows what he’d say to change their minds.

“Dad said that he confessed to everything,” Stella says as she reads the email. “To using my logins and passwords. To using the bank account. Every stock he bought and sold, some of which they didn’t even know about. He admitted to it all for a shorter sentence.”

“Damn.” It’s good to see he did the admirable thing and pled guilty. Oh, who am I kidding? He did it to save his own ass. I have a feeling poor little Duncan wouldn’t like being spanked inprison as much as he did by Nadia. “I can’t believe he’s going to jail.”

“Neither can I. Granted, it was jail or pay the money back, according to what Dad told me. This means he doesn’t have a penny to his name. So if pleading means a shorter sentence, he’s going to sing like a canary.”

I bring Stella into my arms, holding her tight as he finishes reading the email from her dad.

“It’s over…” she whispers. “It’s finally over.”

I feel the immediate weight off my shoulders. And if that’s the relief I’m experiencing, I can’t imagine how she’s feeling right now.

“It’s over.” I repeat, kissing her temple. “You never have to worry about him again.”

“It doesn’t feel real,” she says. “This has been my life for weeks now. And just…all of a sudden…back to normal? What is normal? Is normal before I even met Duncan? I definitely haven’t been normal since we’ve met. Things are going to be boring. Oh no…what if now that I’m a regular person without lawsuits and federal investigations you’re bored and break up with me?”

I flip her over onto her back, kissing her because I need her to be quiet. Also this bikini has slowly been killing me since she first showed it off. I am but a weak man who’s obsessed with his woman. “Stella Banks, you are the farthest thing from boring.”

I quickly untie the top of her bikini and push it to the side so I can start peppering her chest with kisses. Unfortunately, that’s not a good enough distraction, as she keeps rambling.

“How do you know that? You’ve never met me without catastrophic things happening in my life. You’re assuming now, Cap, and it’s not good to assume.”

I sit up on my knees and pull at the strings of her bottoms. Again, she’s rambling about something, and I don’t even think she realizes that I’m stripping her, between her thoughts of being boring and if she should go on social media and make a multi-part series about “the man I almost married.”

I stand up, figuring I might as well take off my clothes while she’s distracted. It’s not until I grab her legs and pull her so far down the bed that when I sit her up and she’s in eyeline with my cock, does she truly realize what’s going on.

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