Four Brothers and a Bride novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Sketchbook

For one second, I wanted it.

Just his name.

One word out of Whit's mouth, and I'd know which of these four faces had stood in a chapel and promised me every morning.

I looked at them.

Cian, white under his stubble.

Fenn, gripping the arms of his chair.

Bram, with his fists closed.

Ewan, holding the pen, not looking at me at all.

"No," I said.

Whit blinked. "No?"

"I'm not buying my husband's name from you. I'll hear it from him." I pointed at the elevator. "Go home, Whit. Bring my money tomorrow."

Bram walked him out.

He didn't touch him.

He just stood so close behind Whit all the way into the elevator that Whit had to walk fast to stay ahead of him.

The doors shut on Whit's face.

Ewan put the pen down very carefully, closed the checkbook, and walked out of the room without a word.

Nobody followed him.

Fenn found me on the terrace twenty minutes later.

"I'm going home," he said. "To the house. There's a library. It's the only room in it I like." He hesitated. "Would you come?"

The library at the Chisholm house was two stories tall, with a spiral staircase and a ladder on a rail.

A window seat looked out over the whole valley.

There were books everywhere.

Not decorator books, bought by the yard.

Real ones, cracked and dog-eared and stacked on the floor.

"These are yours," I said.

"Most of them." He took his glasses off and rubbed his left eye. "The contacts burn. I only wear them when I'm him."

"You hate being him."

"I hate the suit."

He sat on the window seat, and after a second, I sat beside him.

The light was gold and slanting.

"Can I tell you why there's only one Wyatt?" he said. "I don't tell people. But you're married to it."

"Okay."

"When I was seven, I was last out of school. A man in a brown car asked if I was the Chisholm boy."

He said it plainly, looking out at the valley.

"I said yes. He put me in the trunk."

My hand found his before I'd decided to move it.

"They kept me three days in a motel off Boulder Highway. They kept calling my father and saying they had his son. His only son."

He almost smiled. "Our father never let the four of us be photographed together. People knew there was a Chisholm boy."

"They didn't know there were four."

"What happened?"

"On the third day, one of them saw a newspaper photo of Bram at a Little League game. Same face. They panicked."

"They left me at a gas station in my socks."

He looked down at our hands.

"After that, I was never Fenn outside this house again. Not once. Not at school, not at my own graduation."

I couldn't speak.

"I don't like trunks," Fenn said. "Or being called the wrong name. That's all. I'm fine. I'm actually very fine."

"Fenn," I said.

He looked at me.

"Fenn," I said again, and I watched it land on him the way it had landed on Cian, like water on a dry plant.

He reached out and took the pencil out of my hair.

My curls came down over my shoulders.

He looked at them for a long moment, and then at my mouth.

"I drew your hands that night," he said. "I wanted to draw the rest of you."

"So draw me."

"Later."

He kissed me.

It was slow and careful, and then it wasn't.

His hand slid into my hair and tightened, and he tipped my head back and kissed my throat.

His voice changed when he spoke against my skin.

Quieter. Lower. Absolutely sure.

"Lie down," he said.

I lay down on the window seat.

The gentle one, I thought, dizzy.

Cian had been so wrong.

His mouth moved down my throat and I stopped thinking.

"Fenn."

"Shh."

He undid the buttons of my blouse one by one, watching his own hands.

Not rushed.

Like he was learning the way each one gave.

"Tell me what you want."

"You."

He smiled against my collarbone.

"Be more specific."

"I want your mouth on me."

He pulled the blouse open and down my arms.

My bra went next, and he sat back far enough to look at me.

Just look.

The gold light from the window caught the lenses of the glasses he'd forgotten to take off.

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend