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I leap into the bathtub.
Water sprays up around us, flooding over the rim and deluging the floor. I land with my feet straddling her legs, then fall to my knees amid the swirling water.
And I smirk.
Emery grins. "Rory baby, you're in the tub with me."
"Twice you asked me, and twice I said no."
I wrap my hands around her calves, exerting just enough pressure to encourage her to bend her knees and draw them toward her chest. I settle onto my erse, knees bent in front of me, our toes touching. "I wanted to join you in the jacuzzi that morning in New Orleans. I wanted it badly. And when you asked me to join you in this tub, I wanted it even more."
"Why didn't you?"
"It felt too intimate." I balance my wrists on my knees as I force myself to gaze into her eyes without flinching or looking away. "Yesterday, when I saw you walking toward me in that dress… You were more beautiful than anything I'd ever seen, more beautiful than any masterpiece of Renaissance art. With the sun on you and your hair a glowing halo, you looked like an angel come down from heaven to bless this world with your incandescent beauty and life."
She struggles to sit up straighter, her eyes alight and her lips parted. "That was almost poetry. But I'm still confused about why you went all deer-in-the-headlights instead of telling me how beautiful I was."
"Are, Emery. You are beautiful, always, on the inside and the outside."
She says nothing for a moment, but her mouth falls open a wee bit further. "That's the best compliment ever."
I slide forward until my feet are wedged between her hips and the tub wall. "I should've told you yesterday. But the enormity of the day—you, the ceremony, the guests—it overwhelmed me. I overreacted, for reasons I don't fully understand."
"Graham showing up didn't help."
"Never mind Graham." I clasp her around the waist and lift her half out of the water, then set her down astride my lap. "Let's have fun in the tub."
She drapes her arms around my neck. "Yes, please, let's."
I bury my face against her neck, showering feather-light kisses on her skin. "The honeymoon is not off. Once we've had a bath and a breakfast, we will get in the car and drive."
Emery straps her arms tighter around me. "Remember when I said your sister worships you?"
"Mm."
"I was wrong." She tunnels her fingers through my hair and crushes her breasts to my chest. "Worshiping you is my job, exclusively."
"You've got it backwards. Your body is my temple, and I worship inside you."
"Prove it."
For once, I don't think about it. I show her.
