“Worth it to see you squirm all night,” she smirked.
I pulled her closer, one hand squeezing on her waist, the other beneath her hair so I could discreetly grasp her throat. She gasped softly, a quiet moan sounding from her, and I felt goosebumps rise on her skin.
“Minx.”
My palms itched to touch her during the ceremony and cocktail hour. I wanted to appreciate how beautiful the day was, but it took everything in me not to stare at her.
And she fucking knew it.
Her hand had sat too high on the inside of my thigh through the ceremony. Her cheeks had pulled a little too taut around the straw in her drink during cocktail hour, and she’d taken too long to suck the olives off a toothpick when we snacked at the pickle bar.
However, she didn’t let it distract her from having fun with her friends. I was a sidebar to her fun time, and I didn’t care. I loved that she was completely herself and hadn’t felt any need to hide. She was wholly Chloe, and I had never loved her more.
By the time the dinner had been served, the brides had been announced, the speeches had been given, and my face hurt from smiling and laughing. Chloe and I had already danced a couple of times to the band’s music, spinning her in circles as she laughed and smiled.
I hadn’t been to such a joyous wedding in decades. But Ezzie, Raegan, and their extravagant families were the epitome of happiness and union.
The band was taking down their set when the dance floor officially opened to the DJ playing nineties and early 2000s hip-hop and pop music, making many guests rush to the floor, where Chloe and Lana became the center. They knew every lyric as though they had rehearsed them several times.
During one of the group line dance songs, Chloe took my hand and dragged me down the hall to a random storage closet.
It took me less than a minute to press her against the shelves, haul her dress up, and sink inside of her. I held my hand over her mouth, moving in and out of her rapidly and drawing out every bit of desire that had ramped up between us all night. Fuck, she was soaking, so fucking tight and ready, as if she’d been thinking about this moment for as long as I had.
I moved my hand from her mouth and wrapped it around her throat, making her whimper, her lip flinching like she wanted to smile. Only my mouth caught hers, and I kissed her breathlessly. She grabbed the shelf edges, her end nearing, and I repeatedly slammed inside her.
When she came, she came with a squeal that I was sure people heard on the dance floor. I didn’t care. The look on her face was enough to make me forget about all of them. She was irresistible, the only thing I had needed in my life since the moment we’d met.
There was one more thing I had to do to secure it.
“Marry me,” I managed as we stilled, my cock still buried inside her.
Chloe’s eyes narrowed, and I saw her breath hitch, jaw clenching with her swallow. “Are you serious?” she asked. She slipped off me, her feet hitting the floor, but she hadn't looked away from my eyes. “Are you sure it isn’t just the joy of the wedding we're at getting to your head?”
“I was serious weeks ago,” I managed. “I love you, and I don’t want to wander around for years in some teetering relationship stage when I already know I want to spend my life with you—when, I think, you want to spend yours with me, too. Because ‘girlfriend’ is too weak of a word for what I feel for you, and fiancé is an in-between that we’re well past. But wife… Wife might come close. Wife. Soulmate. Eternal partner. I just want you forever.”
She stared at me, and I waited for the rejection. I waited for her to tell me I was crazy, that I was rushing things, and that she’d barely left her last relationship.
Except tears glistened in her eyes, and she took my face in her hands.
“Yes,” she breathed.
My heart dropped. I finally exhaled, my lips meeting hers. “Yes?” I asked, needing to hear her say it again.
“Yes.”
We didn’t come out of that closet and announce the news to the world. We held it close, knowing the rest of the night that we were something more than what the rest of the room thought us to be. I would have ran to the officiant right then and had her marry us if that was what Chloe wanted. However, I knew where she wanted to go, and maybe after the retreat, I would take her. I would give her exactly what she wanted.
So, for the remainder of the evening, we danced.
She stayed on the floor even when I left her, dancing with her friends to a slew of songs that I couldn’t help but laugh at. Every time a slow song came on, or she took a moment to have a drink, her smile seemed a little brighter, her eyes a little softer.
And I fucking prayed I could hang onto that when I told her the truth.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX - CHLOE
IT WAS THE first of October when Gavin took me to the opening day of the local autumn fair. And while it might not have been the crisp autumn day we were hoping for, it was still that perfect date that he’d promised me—including the thorough fucking between the trailers and the cotton candy he ate off of me when we got home.
Home.
