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“Couldn’t if I tried.”
The music drifts off and Gabe takes over.
“I dunno about you all, but this is one sexy as hell couple.” He cuffs me on the shoulder. “Pity they’re monogamous, am I right?”
He chuckles at his own joke, while Christian looks like he wants to die.
And it’s perfect.
Perfect the way he talks through the wedding stuff.
Perfect the way his friends heckle their way through the ceremony.
Perfect the way I can feel my parents’ disapproving glare.
And perfect when I catch a glimpse of Darcy and he throws me the thumbs-up, and I never thought I’d be happy to see him on my wedding day, but I am.
All except for one thing.
“I don’t want you to be a guarantee,” I tell Christian. The words are out before I can stop them, and Gabe stumbles in whatever he was saying. I turn to look at the most incredible man I’ve ever seen and find his forehead crumpled in confusion.
“What? You don’t want to do this?”
“I certainly, certainly do. But for the right reasons. I don’t want you to feel like you’re a guarantee or a contingency or a clause in a contract. Because you’ve become so much more than that to me. You’re the way you dance, and how you care, thoseaddictive collarbones, and that bloody heart you wear on your sleeve. You’re absolute word vomit at the worst possible times, and occasionally real vomit, and I love both of those versions equally. You’re so messy and real and sometimes broken, but always, always the very best version of yourself.”
Christian’s eyes have gone glassy. “Love?”
I swallow. Nod. “Yes. I’m afraid I’ve gone and gotten it all mixed up. I know we agreed to wait untilaftermarriage, but—”
Christian hauls me into a kiss. A sweet, consuming, mind-numbing kiss. “I love you too. And I don’t even feel bad about breaking the rules because you deserve it. And I’m gonna spend the rest of forever proving to you how much. Like, I think we both know I’m gonna fuck up now and then, but if you can promise to deal with me, I can promise to keep on trying.”
“And I won’t always have the answers, and I’ll laugh at the most inappropriate times, and sometimes I’ll be impossible to deal with, but if you can love me through that—”
“Always. I promise.”
He’s so close he’s all I can see and smell and feel. My awareness is narrowed down to his nose ring and his scruff and the hidden vulnerability that pinches the corners of his eyes.
“So …” Gabe says, breaking through the moment. “Y’all just went and did your own thing there. Lucky there’s no set script for this except two things. Christian, say I do.”
“I do,” he echoes.
“And Émile, you’re up.”
“I definitely do.”
“Close enough.” Gabe raises his voice. “Now, if there’s anyone who doesn’t want the sexiest couple alive to get married, time to speak up.”
“I bloody well object,” Dad shouts.
Gabe looks around, and for one absurd moment, my gut bottoms out.
“Anyone?” Gabe calls.
“Yes, IsaidI object to this ridiculous joke of a marriage.” Dad storms toward the stage, but Madden, Seven, Rush, and tiny Xander, jump off the stage and cut off his path. Elle, Aunt Agatha and Darcy all join them, forming a human wall between him and us.
Then Christian, my sweet, uncertain man turns and levels Dad with the most menacing look I’ve ever seen on his face. “Back down or I tell everyone here why this almost didn’t happen, and you’d want to hope there’s no one in the room with the reins to amedia conglomerate.”
Dad’s gaze immediately shoots to Darcy who grins at him, and … and … holy shit.
