Unfortunately, I do **OLD VERSION**

Chapter 8 - The Best Friends

Jace's POV

We had been at our engagement party for almost 2 hours now, and there was still no sign of Tyler and Olivia, which was strange. Tyler is my best friend and I know he wouldn't have missed this, and they love a good party too. And Olivia is the most organised person you could meet so I know they couldn't have forgotten.

A slow song started to play, and I looked over at Leah, and couldn't help but admire her beauty. I offered her my hand and asked "Would you like to have this dance with me?" just like a gentleman would. She smiled that beautiful smile I am falling in love with and tucked her hand into mine.

"Yes, I would love to" she replied, I gently pulled her up onto her feet and led her to the dancefloor. She put her arms around my neck, and my hands around her waist, slowly swaying to the music and gazing into each other's eyes. The song was Perfect by Ed Sheeran. I've never been much of a dancer but I will do anything for this woman just to see her smile.

We danced for a few minutes until the song was coming to an end, and I don't know why, but I leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss. It was slow and passionate, and again I could feel my heart leaping out of my chest. This moment was perfect.

Until I felt a presence behind us, I stopped the kiss and turned around, only to be met with a man around Leah's age, scowling at me. Leah came into view and automatically, his scowl turned into a smile once his eyes laid on her. She brushed past me and jumped into his arms, and he held onto her as tight as he could, not wanting to let her go. I could feel my fists clenching hard and my jaw ticking. Who was he? Why are they close like that?

Before I could think more of it, Leah ended their hug and stepped back into my awaiting arms, which had my heart soaring, knowing she came back to me. I gave the man my best cocky grin, which he obviously didn't like if his fists had anything to say about it the way they started to clench and turn white.

"Jace, this is my other best friend Danny, we've known each other since we were both in diapers," she said with a laugh. "And Danny, this is my fiance, Jace"

I lifted my hand to shake his "It's nice to meet you Danny" I said with a fake smile, to which he replied with a nod.

"How have you been flower? It's been a while since I saw you, you've been too busy with your new man candy to come and see me" he stated with feigned hurt but said 'man candy' with disgust as he looked at me.

"Aww, don't be like that Danny, I'm getting married, so we've been spending time together, and also learning each other's businesses, we've both been too busy to see anyone" she reasoned with him. I could tell she didn't like the way he spoke but tried to cover it up.

They were chatting for a few minutes about what's been happening for the last few weeks, and someone in the corner of my eye caught my attention, heading towards us, as we were still standing on the dancefloor.

Tyler and Olivia came striding up to us, and Tyler put his arm around me in a bro hug, while Olivia stood watching us with a smile on her face. When Tyler pulled back he congratulated me on my engagement. Tyler knew about the arranged marriage because he was helping with the business, I treated him like a business partner, more than an employee.

"So where is the beautiful bride-to-be?" Tyler asked and Olivia nodded agreeing, wanting to meet Leah.

I stepped over to Leah and Danny, with Tyler and Olivia following, and wrapped my arm around her waist. "Leah, id like you to meet my best friend Tyler and his wife Olivia. Guys, this is my stunning bride, Leah" I introduced them.

Leah lifted her hand to shake theirs and said "It's lovely to meet you both" with a big smile on her face and glanced at me, with a slight blush.

"The pleasure is all mine. It's nice to finally meet the woman that has managed to calm this ass down" Tyler laughed nodding towards me with his head, which made us all laugh with him, apart from Danny, who still had a scowl on his face because I interrupted his conversation with my fiance. Suck it up Danny I thought to myself with a small lop-sided grin.

"I'm so happy to meet you, Leah, I can already tell we are going to be best friends" Olivia stated while bouncing up and down excitedly, causing us to laugh again.

But before Leah could reply, Danny jumped in the middle and abruptly said "Leah already has me as her best friend, she doesn't need another one" he scowled.

"Danny, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you being like this? I can have as many friends as I want, I don't need permission from you or anybody who I can and can't have as my friend, so just fuck off!" she said sternly before grabbing my hand and walking off to the bar to get herself another drink. Tyler and Olivia followed, not wanting to be stuck on the dance floor with Danny.

"Baby, are you okay?" I asked Leah and stopped her from walking so I could look at her face, only to see her eyes welling up with tears. I hated that Danny had to spoil a fun night for her. I quickly wrapped her up in my arms not wanting her to be hurt by anyone again, trying to protect her from the vicious world and the people in it.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just don't understand why he was being so defensive. He's my best friend, he's like another brother to me. I love him so much but sometimes he can be a dick," she sniffled a little and I pulled back so I could look at her face again, noticing a couple of tears that escaped her eyes, which I wiped off her cheeks to stop them from ruining her make-up. I don't want to see Leah crying unless it's with happiness like when I proposed to her. I placed a lingering kiss on her forehead before hugging her again and leading us both to the bar, to get ourselves a drink.

It was getting close to the end of the night. Leah had taken her shoes off complaining that the heels were killing her feet, which I'm not surprised with a 6-inch heel. And plus, with the amount of alcohol she had consumed, she was wobbly on her feet so I'm glad she did take them off. We were having fun dancing, drinking and talking to our friends and family.

Mason and Ava never left each other's sides all night and were sharing flirty looks and sneaky kisses every so often. We all know where that's going to lead by the end of the night.

Throughout the night, I kept stealing little kisses from my fiance when I could, and she seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did. We were practically stuck at the hip together all night, barely leaving each other's sides, apart from when either of us needed a bathroom break but then we would always manage to find our way back to each other.

Leah could barely stand at one point so I suggested we should head back home. We didn't see Danny for the rest of the night, so I'm guessing he had already left after that little scolding from Leah.

We said our goodbyes to everyone, and they all congratulated us once again before we headed back outside to the limo, both of us stumbling, and me trying to keep Leah upwards, which I will admit was kind of difficult to do with the state we were both in. Once we got into the limo we started to head home. I could feel Leah's eyes burning a hole in the side of my face so when I turned my head to look at her, she threw herself on my lap, straddling me and smashing her lips onto mine.

My hands immediately found their way to her hips and I held on to her tight and pulled her closer to me so our chests were touching. She swiped her tongue against my bottom lip, coaxing my mouth to open, as soon as it did, her tongue swept across mine, and we were both fighting for dominance, which I won. The kiss quickly became more heated, and our hands started to explore each other's bodies. My hands crept up her sides and landed on her breasts, giving them a small squeeze, and her hands stroked my chest.

Not long after, we made it home, Leah slid off my lap so I could get out of the car and help her out after. We stumbled to our front door, unlocked it, and after walking through and locking the doors once again, I pushed Leah against the door and smashed my lips on hers again.

After a few minutes of our heated kiss, we broke apart and she whispered seductively in my ear "Let's take this upstairs" before pulling my head and leading me up the stairs and into our bedroom.