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This is happiness. Peace. Acceptance. Belonging.
Family.
Fragility revered in the formidable.
“I choose you, Liam Graves. Today and every day. Heaven or Hell. It’s the easiest decision I’ve ever made. In fact, you aren’t even a choice. You’re just mine.” I glance away for the briefest of seconds to admire the four others who have helped to make me whole before returning to him. “And so are they.”
He sweeps my hair behind my shoulder, his fingertips perusing my ear and jaw. Neck and awakened pulse. “We had a plan.”
“A plan for what?” I ask, thrown by his response.
“To get you out.” He kisses my forehead, and I feel the heaviness he’s evidently been carrying wash over my skin. “I never doubted that you’d pass, but … you come first, Celeste. Not just for me. For all of us. You’ll always come first.”
“I know,” I promise. It’s the truth.
Even when I thought we were all facing the worst, I knew he’d come for me. He might be a lifer with KORT, but that doesn’t change how he’ll show up for me.
“Do you, baby girl?” Those dreamy eyes hitch to mine again. “Because you’re right. You had no choice. I was always yours. And you were always mine. Mine to fight, to chase, to protect, to love. Mine to see. But always mine. Ours.”
“Yes. I feel it.” Joyful tears brim in my eyes, swirling with the truth of that.
Liam always captivated my attention, even when it was my wrath or irritation. He ignited a flame that had been snuffed out, one I couldn’t ignore.
“I’ve spent my entire adult life broken and hiding,” I confess. “Trying so hard to carve out little snippets of life from exhilarating rushes, to chisel moments that would remind me to live, convince me to wake up the next day, so I didn’t choose to drown. But I was approaching it all wrong.”
He lifts my chin, knuckles catching the drippings of my dissipating grief before his hand laces into my hair, angling my head where he wants it. His lips nearly graze mine with the tease of a kiss. “Your last name is Carver—for about another week—so trying to carve things is probably in your blood.”
“It wasn’t the carving that was wrong; it was the sources I was choosing to sculpt. Nothing ever rekindled my flame for living.” I let my mouth brush his, my eyes capering all over his beautiful face.
Mine.
“I’ll rekindle your goddamn flame right here, Carver,” he says before impatiently seizing me for an all-consuming devouring that should have me blushing.
We’re in a chapel filled with a cohort of clandestine cabal leaders. But this is about as private as Liam takes it, and I’m proud to be the one he wants to flaunt.
So, I reciprocate with abandon until he slows to ask, “What should you have been carving, Ace?” between nips and pecks and decadent nibbles.
I could tell him that he’s my golden god, my sunrise, the spark that finally illuminated my painfully dark soul. That I could’ve searched the world over and never found an ember apart from him. But he sees all I am, understands what’s between my words, grasps the full scope of my heart, no matter what game I play. So, maybe someday I’ll share all that, but today, I keep it simple.
“I should have been Carving Graves.”
TEN DAYS LATER
LIAM
Current view: the most exquisite creature in existence.
My wife.
Yep. My fucking wife. My seductive, strategic, compassionate, loyal, hot-as-sin, perfectly poised wife.
And my body is in an all-out war with itself. A lump is balled at the base of my throat for the gifts of this girl, this family, the love I never believed I’d have—the only things I couldn’t steal. My heart rate is clambering to meet that lump because she’s mine. Officially. A done deal. No more games.
Chained to me for fucking eternity.
And my cock is eager to jump right out of my pants and consummate this union because my other half is dancing and so damn sexy.
We’ve been married for about an hour and a half. Originally, I had planned for our ceremony to take place at La Lune Noire. Celeste harbors some hurt over missing Ivy and Wells’s wedding, so I thought maybe that would be a nice touch. But there’s some tension with the Noires, so while they’re celebrating with us, being confined to their turf wasn’t the most positive scenario. Plus, I had a better idea.
