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“What can I do to make you happy?”
Tyler’s gaze coursed over her collarbone area, the bruising that had developed a greenish-black coloring this week. “Maybe punch me in the face. I was an animal. ”
“Don’t apologize for it. ” She said it fiercely, surprising him with her passion. “We both know it’s not needed. I want to make you happy. I want to love you. Tell me how to start, how to put my feet on the right road. ”
Despite the strength of her words, her voice was weak. Tyler knew she had to be fatigued in every limb. She was trembling as much from pain and exhaustion as from the late afternoon breeze coming in against her wet body and hair. His Ice Queen who always felt the cold. “Brendan’s dragging his ass with those towels. ”
“No, he’s not. ” She nodded. Holding on to her waist to keep her comfortably astride him, he turned to look toward the bench at the edge of the garden. There was a pile of terrycloth. “See? He even brought me one of your robes. He and Sarah both knew I’d want nothing clothing me but something of yours. ” The simple assertion gripped his heart. “He came back a few moments ago,” she continued. “He left them there to respect your privacy. ”
Tyler grimaced and she smiled. It entranced him, because for the first time since he’d known her, it came easily. It was not a broad grin but a serene curving of her lips, as if she’d given herself permission to use the gesture when she liked and was testing it out.
“I’m sure he’s run off to tell everyone he knows that Master Tyler cried in the arms of a woman,” she teased gently.
“Damn. I hate to have to hide another body on this property. I just buried the last person who aggravated me past endurance. ”
She tightened her hand in his hair, tugged. Catching her forearms, his smile became something else. “Marry me, angel. That’s all I’ll ever need. Your promise in front of God and everyone to be mine forever. ”
“And if I’m a terrible wife?”
“I won’t complain a bit. After all, I did beg for the privilege. ” She swept her lashes down, casting a glance at him from beneath them in a way that made him want to fuck her all over again, this time with passion and laughter in the mix.
“You know a Mistress can’t resist a man who begs. ”
Chapter Twenty
“In sickness and in health…”
Marguerite wondered if brides and grooms ever listened to their ceremony while it was happening. That magical moment of joining when the words held so much power.
A power to last a lifetime, if the heart was open to claim their truth forever.
She understood now why knights did an overnight vigil on a stone chapel floor before taking an oath of fealty. She had, in a way. She’d sat in the little chapel on Tyler’s property through the long hours of the night before their wedding, thinking over what those words meant, realizing how holy and sacred they were. Tyler had kept watch with her. He rarely let her out of his sight and she accepted that. In the quiet way she walked in his soul and he walked in hers now, knowing one another without words, she had understood that he had needed the time. After the honeymoon she would firmly insist on going back to work, but she’d given him the month before their wedding. They’d both needed it.
“Honor and obey…” She met his gaze as she said the words they’d specifically instructed left in the vows. Watched Tyler’s eyes turn to burnished gold at the complex meaning of the phrase between them.
“Honor and cherish…” His voice was strong and tender both. Strong enough to be heard by all, tender for what could not help but be in his voice when he looked at her, bringing Chloe to sniffles just behind her. And he would cherish her. He already did.
She felt it like a photo she’d once seen in a magazine of an Afghan hound, abandoned and left in a shed for forty days without food, the only water coming in from rain through a leaky roof. The dull coat, protruding bone, the nearly fatal dehydration, had shown a body close to death. But the eyes had lived. Tyler had told her that was what had frightened him so badly, to see that light almost gone from her eyes, rousing his fury and love to screaming pitch. Now she was feeling like that dog, the picture taken six months later. The shadows of fear and the nightmares were part of her forever, but she chose to brave standing out in the light of his love and dared them to follow, for he would protect her from all the fears that mattered.
Love nourished her, not just returning her to health but bringing her to a place she’d never been before. It shone in her eyes for everyone to see. She’d asked Chloe and Gen to serve as her maids of honor. Komal and Mr. Reynolds sat in the first row where her parents would have been. She’d wanted to honor the spirits of her parents, who they had been to her before tragedy had destroyed their family.
David would have walked her down the aisle, so bestowing that honor had been easy.
When she’d stepped out the back door of the Gulf house with Chloe and Gen, Brendan had waited for her.
Resplendent in black tie, his dark hair a silken fall to his shoulders, he had a sprig of lavender carefully pinned in his lapel that picked up the beautiful color of Gen’s and Chloe’s elegant sheath dresses.
He put his hand over his heart. “Ladies, I’m overwhelmed. ”
“I was about to say the same,” Chloe responded, eyes merry. “Marguerite can walk herself down the lawn in that dress. It’s my knees that are weak. ”
“Ignore her,” Gen informed Brendan. “We all do. ”
He smiled, but turned his eyes to Marguerite, covered all of her, and apparently heedless of what her two friends would think, he went to one knee, bowed his head.
She cupped his jaw and he turned his head, kissed her hand, placed his over it so he held on to it when he rose, stepping close enough so they would not hear how he chose to address her. “You honor me, Mistress. ”
“It’s my pleasure,” she replied softly, squeezing his hand. He gave her another lingering look then stepped back, withdrew an envelope from his jacket, offered it to her. “Tyler asked if you would read this before you came down to him. ” He moved away, taking a step toward Chloe and Gen to give her privacy as she opened it. Marguerite noted that he put a hand beneath Chloe’s elbow, proving he’d noticed as she had that Chloe was trying to shift all her weight onto one foot to relieve the ache in the still healing leg. She’d refused to use crutches or even the cane she’d brought and Gen had done a credible job of covering the lingering remnants of the bruises on her face. Tyler had paid for the cosmetic surgery that gave her back her two front teeth when insurance wouldn’t and Chloe had regaled him with several renditions of the popular Christmas carol in joyous gratitude. Smiling a little, Marguerite opened the folded letter.
