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“You look lovely.”
Josephine smiled at me as I smoothed down the skirt of my dress. I had decided on an ivory gown with a full skirt and a sweetheart neckline, nothing nearly as elaborate or expensive as the dress I was sure Mom would’ve picked out for me for my wedding with Barrett.
But this was more beautiful than anything she could’ve chosen.
Because it was me.
And it was the dress I would marry Misael Alviar in.
And that made it fucking perfect.
“Thanks, Jo.” I grinned at her.
The first time I’d called her that, it’d been totally by accident, and I’d seen her head jerk back slightly in surprise. Then she had smiled, a look that was almost motherly passing over her face. I had already been close with her, but spending a week living in her house, working closely with her on wedding arrangements, had solidified the bond between us.
“Your men won’t be able to take their eyes off you,” she added, reaching out to tuck a trailing curl of blonde hair behind my ear. Then she pursed her lips, studying me. “Are you happy, Cora?”
“Yes.” My lips were stretching wide even before I spoke, and I couldn’t tamp down the rush of butterflies that filled my stomach as I thought about what today would bring. “I’m so happy. This is—it’s right, Jo. I just know it is.”
She nodded. “I know that feeling. I’m glad. Because it won’t always be easy. I’m sure you already know that, with everything you’ve been through. There will be difficult times, and I’d be lying if I told you this life and this world aren’t cruel and unforgiving sometimes. But the rightness? The love? That will get you through all of those times.”
I bit my lip, tears burning the backs of my eyes. I did know that already, understood it on a visceral level. I wasn’t expecting the world to turn into sunshine and roses just because I’d said my wedding vows.
But I didn’t care.
I’d have my men with me, and together, we could face anything.
I had stopped going to classes at Highland Park the day after prom, and had been studying for the GED instead. A diploma from an elite high school wouldn’t mean much in the life I was entering into, and although I definitely still planned to continue my schooling, I would be doing it for me, not to fit some mold my parents had built for me the day I was born. The one they had spent my entire life trying to force me to fit into.
“I really love them,” I whispered. “All of them. I can’t wait to do this.”
She pulled me into a tight hug, then drew back to look me in the eyes. “They’re lucky to have you, Cora. We all are.”
I blinked rapidly a few times, determined not to cry until the actual ceremony, when I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold myself back. I was so overwhelmed with feelings that it wouldn’t take much to open the floodgates.
But her words touched me deeply. They were a reminder that although this marriage was about alliances and power in some ways, it was about so much more than that in all the ways that mattered.
It was about love.
About family.
“I’m lucky to have you too, Jo,” I murmured.
She smiled and kissed me on the cheek, then turned and slipped out the door, leaving me alone in the small room at the back of the church. It was set up as a suite where the bride could prepare and get dressed, with an ornate vanity along one wall, a full-length mirror in the corner, and a couch and several chairs in the middle of the room.
The guests would be arriving in about an hour, but I’d come early to get ready. It hadn’t taken as long as I’d expected, so now I was dressed and made up, with my hair all done, and I still had time to kill.
I was about to head back toward the mirror in the corner for one more look when the door opened behind me.
Misael’s dark mop of hair appeared a second later as he poked his head inside.
Maybe the prim and proper thing to do would’ve been to yelp and shoo him out, insisting he wasn’t supposed to see me in my dress before the wedding. But I had seen far too little of my men this week with everything that had been going on. We’d be moving into our new house soon, and I couldn’t wait to settle into a life with them. To wake up beside them every day, to fall asleep in their arms every night. To share meals together, to do fucking laundry together. To have our lives intertwined with each other’s, all four of us in an unbreakable bond.
So instead of telling Misael to go, I made a beeline for him, striding quickly to the door and hauling him inside before attacking him with ravenous lips. He responded instantly, his arms coming around my waist as he delved his tongue into my mouth as if he’d been starving for me.
A chuckle from behind him made me pull away, and when I looked up, I saw Bishop and Kace standing there. Kace closed the door behind them as Bish crossed his arms over his chest, looking good enough to fucking eat in his charcoal gray suit.
I pulled away from Misael, stepping back to admire the sight of all three of them. They were each dressed in well-tailored suits, and it was the most dressed up I had ever seen them. I liked their usual look, which was casual and rough around the edges just like they were.
