Beautiful Thorns (Boys of Bellerose, #4)

by Jaymin Eve

He’d been closer than we realized the entire time. And now he had my Angel. Fucking hell.

I should have known it’d be Billie who brought us back together. We were all hers now, the boys of Bellerose indeed.

“As for you, Billie Bellerose,” Rhett continued, ignoring Grayson. “You’re—” “Our heart,” Jace said softly,

“You’re the one who reminded us all what it feels like to love… and be loved. You’re the sunshine creating a rainbow out of our miserable, wet day.”

“I’m being serious too. I’m all in, Rose. All the fuck in. And I will wait as long as it takes for you to believe me. The love between us never went anywhere, but it was the trust that ended up damaged. And whatever the fuck it takes, I will rebuild the trust between us.”

“I will be there to celebrate every high in your life, Rose, and when there are lows, I will lay in the ditch with you and protect your soul and heart with my own. No grief or loss will you face alone, and if there’s a chance for me to take the burden, I will do so with zero regrets. My heart is yours. My love is yours. I am yours.”

I’m sorry.” Two words. Straight to the heart like an arrow from the devil’s bow. He has a bow; it’s obvious.

“I’m sorry that when you told me about the baby, my first instinct was to fall into my own pain once more. For that, I will be eternally sorry. Blaming you, when in reality it was me I was mad at, is one of the most fucked up things I’ve ever done. I should have been there with you, Rose. I should have fucking protected you.

“You have always been selfless, Rose,” he whispered. “Your lie was for me, and my reaction was for me. There’s been too much me in this journey so far, and I’m ready for there to be so much more you.” “What about an us?” I choked out.

“There’s always been an us,” he told me, his thumb caressing my cheek as he wiped tears away. “And there always will be. We were a forever from the first moment we met.”

When we eventually pulled apart, I tilted my head back to stare into his beautiful face. A face that, for once, held no anger or pain or resentment. He looked free in a way I hadn’t seen in years. Young and free from the burdens of our lives.

Jace had been my first in all ways. First love, kiss, sex. Angelo had been my second in all things.

“I love you, Rose,” Jace whispered

“I love you too,” I replied. “Always have, always will.”

It wasn’t just my Angel missing. Jace had just as much to lose here. His brother.

“Do you have a secret pirate ship that we’re not aware of, Thorn?”

We still good up there, Big Bird?” I snorted at her chosen codename for Grayson and caught his glower in the corner of my eye.

I was floating on cloud freaking nine. Cloud dirty-anal-sex nine. Fuck yes, achievement unlocked, and I was into it.

Rose thought me mentioning daughter-in-law was a big deal, but she had no idea. It was ‘til death do us part for me. Now and always.

It was odd how quickly this town was starting to feel like home to me, in a way that Siena only ever had when Jace and Angelo were there. Maybe that had been the secret all along. As the old adage says: Home is where the heart is.

And all it would take was for him to sacrifice a part of his body… and a larger part of his soul.

Rhett was forced to make a decision that no person should ever have to make. To save the life of a great evil. One that had almost destroyed him more times than I cared to think about. Fuck.

Fucking hell, this chick destroyed me. She owned me. I hoped that I’d get to hear her off-key singing in the shower for the next seventy years. That way I could die a happy man.

I knew exactly who that was strapped into the chair. Tom Tucker the fucker.

she hadn’t played to the common narrative of Billie Bellerose the homewrecking whore. Instead, she’d gushed over how nice I had been and how all the haters needed a reality check because Rhett Silver looked happier than he’d ever been.

I hadn’t expected my staunchest supporter to be a thirteen-year-old fangirl. But it was nice to show Jace and prove that not everyone wanted to hurt us.

My kinks went much darker than I’d ever expected, and if we all survived—no, fuck that, when we all survived—I would be asking for them to keep their black clothes and Kevlar on for a few more hours. And the guns. Especially the guns.

Evil never thrived as strongly in warmth and light. They were its natural enemy. Or some shit like that.

When the noise and light subsided, I turned back with my ears ringing to find nothing but debris and flames left of the yacht. And half the damn docks.

“You are our heart and our soul, and neither of those are weak. In fact, they’re the strongest parts of us. Not shooting him even though you thought it was expected of you is strong. Your moral compass is strong. Without you, the rest of us would just be fucking savages. You make us better. You are our strength.”

It was official, my friends were insane. And… Tom was finally dead.

I was on another planet. Planet Orgy, meeting with their leader, President Orgasm. It was a happy place to be.

No matter what it was, I would be there for him, and I would fight every fucking secon— “Appropriate to find my son’s whore on her knees.”

“Ah, women are so stupid it’s almost amusing. No, you dumb bitch. You are his life. You’ve been his fucking life since he met you as a child, and I wish I’d followed through on my desire to drown you in the backyard pool.

“That’s so typical Jace, staying all squeaky clean while the rest of us are the children of murderers.”

the universe brought us all together because we’re just fractured parts of one heart.”

“I guess that makes me a liar,” I murmured, feeling dead inside. “But the world is better off.”

“Every single time you hide me away while you face danger without me, it feels like you’re stabbing me in the chest. I feel like you’re putting me in a gilded cage, separate from you all, and I don’t want that. Not now or ever.”

It was time to wipe the slate clear and move forward from this.

As my boys surrounded me, I knew that unlike her, I had everything to live for now, and I planned on doing just that.

And I’ll be buying Beautiful Thorns the moment it’s available.”

The next Bellerose album. The accumulation of the last year of work and pain and change and loss but, most of all, the last year of love.

Through the sorrow and pain, across the lies and the shame, we broke through the chains. The oceans may fade, and we bleed through the rain, but our heart will never change. Not through this or the fame. Heeeere we stand. Together and stronger than ever before. Heeere we stand. Saying no fucking more. We lead from the heart, and we won’t be torn apart. We broke through the chains, we annihilated the pain, and we lead from the heart. No fucking chance for regret, no more loss or demands, we are stronger than ever before.

It was the eyes that got me first, little girl of green, As you stole my rock collection and my heart, as it may seem. The one who challenged us through the years as we all fought against the fall. But there’s no way to fight fate. Billie Bellerose, you’re our greatest love of all.

With the help of the band, Jace wove our story into the most beautiful song I’d ever heard. Piece by piece, broken shards were made whole again, until the moment we stood here tonight, with thousands watching us.

And when all of my boys joined him for the last line, “Billie Bellerose, you’re our greatest love of all,” I wasn’t the only one crying. The entire fucking stadium sang along, all of them bawling as hard as me, and now I knew this was the moment. The best moment of my life.

It was only going to get better from here.

“I know it’s something we’ve kind of joked about before, but I can’t get it out of my head and… I just know I’m ready. We’re ready.”

I sank slowly to my knees on the carpeted floor in front of them. My boys.

“Will you…” Oh shit, was I brave enough to really ask for what I wanted? Yes. Yes, I was. “Guys. Will you… try triple penetration with me?”