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Her brow furrowed. Her chin quivered. “No?”
He pulled his hand free. “This isn’t right.”
The guys weren’t laughing anymore.
Tracy blinked rapidly. Swallowed hard.
Her dad looked ready to rip Franz’s balls out.
He didn’t care. This had to be right.
With his hands bracing both sides of her waist, he reversed their positions with one commanding sweep. Though taking a knee before her was easy, gazing up into her face simply wasn’t.
“Damn.” He was unable to summon any other word for a long moment. Finally, after getting air back in, he rasped, “Will it ever be possible to look at you and not consider myself the luckiest man on the planet?”
Tracy took her own turn to go motionless. She stole his breath with the stillness as much as she did in tigress or kitten mode. “Wh-what?” she stammered at last.
John slid his hands around hers—without wavering his gaze from her incredible face. “I’m saying that whatever I did to deserve you, whether it was another life or some shift of karma in this one, I’m ordering the universe to pay the hell up, here and now.” He lifted her fingers, crushing their curled knuckles against his fervent lips. “I’m saying that I love you too, Tracy Livia Rhodes. Desperately. Illogically. Completely.”
Tears continued out of her eyes—accompanied by a much different glow from their quicksilver depths. “John. John.”
Her sweet whisper crushed his chest—in all the best ways. He still squared his shoulders, and maintained his grip on her. “If you really want to give this shit a go with a guy who knows a bit about service, a lot about honor, and craves to learn every incredible detail about you, then I’m the guy dropping to my knees for the chance.” He hauled in a huge breath, fighting the heat in his head, and losing miserably. “I’ll drop to my knees every damn day for it,” he uttered between his own tears—though crazily, they didn’t rob him of any control. They gave it back to him. In Franzen’s surrender to love, he finally found the dominion he’d been seeking over his life. A new purpose, a new meaning, under new rules—
For which he was ready.
“I promise, I promise, that if you’ll love this dragon with the one eye, the snarly temper, and the dumb jokes, he’ll spread his wings every day to keep your body pleased, your heart happy…and your soul completely filled.”
Tracy jerked their joined hands up to her lips. Drenched his fingers in the salt of her tears and the passion of her kisses. “The tigress says yes to the dragon.”
“Then I guess we’d better make this thing official.” The declaration was made by yet another new arrival to the throng: the only one in their group besides him who hadn’t gotten the memo about the white wedding motif. Or maybe Max had gotten it, and just decided he liked his powder blue cutaway tux better.
Right now, the guy could’ve been in a gorilla suit for all Franz cared. His skin felt three sizes too small as quick introductions were made, Mom and Pop quickly making plans to show Tracy’s dad around the island tomorrow, and everyone moved into place. The sole break he got from the nervousness came courtesy of Luke, who pulled him into a fierce, wordless bearhug—
Before Max dove right in.
“Dearly beloved…we are gathered here today…”
Simple rote phrases—that were somehow, stunningly, perfect.
“To have and to hold, from this day forward…
Forward.The word he never thought he’d say with joy again.
“To love and to cherish…”
Cherish.The commitment he never thought he’d know with such completion.
“As long as we both shall live…”
Living.
The concept he never thought he could fully embrace.
The happiness this woman had given him with her insights, her honesty, her fire, her passion, her submission…
Her love.
Even after seeing all the darkness and wildness in him…
