“You can turn around, Michael.”
My heart raced as Michael turned around to look at me. Everything seemed to slow down, and I saw so many emotions in his widening eyes. He attempted to suppress his grin behind a small smile, but it didn’t work. He took a deep breath, taking me in and shaking his head.
“God, Mia,” he whispered, stepping closer to me, one hand resting on my hip. “So much for spending twenty-four hours apart,” Michael murmured into my ear, his hands sliding around my waist. He pushed some hair behind my shoulder and gave me the same breathtaking smile he had when he found out I was pregnant. “You look amazing in this dress. Too bad I’m going to have to rip it off you later.”
I smiled and rested my hands on his chest, fingers toying with his bow tie to straighten it for our pictures. “Not this one. I have another one for the reception.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “Easier access.”
“Don’t tease me like that right before you walk down the aisle,” Michael said, making me feel all sorts of things. “You know that I’d take you right here, turn this into a boudoir shoot instead of wedding pictures.”
I playfully rolled my eyes and smacked him on the chest. “Not so loud,” I whispered.
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me even closer. “Louder?”
My cheeks flushed, and I grinned cheekily up at him. “No!”
After taking about fifty wedding pictures with our photographer, Hailey appeared at the base of the bridge with a huge smile on her face. “I have to steal Michael away from you,” she said to me. “It’s almost time!”
Michael pressed a kiss on my lips. “See you soon, Mrs. Bryne.”
I watched them walk away and toward our indoor ceremony. I ambled back to my entourage inside the building.
Serena squealed when she saw me, clapping her hands together. “Oh my God, I’m so excited!”
Hailey reappeared at the door. “Is everyone ready?” she asked, gaze landing on me. “Mia, how are you feeling?”
My stomach was in damn knots, but the good kind.
After giving me a curt nod, she ushered everyone to their spots, and the classic wedding music started. I clutched my flowers tightly and stepped forward, waiting for Hailey to push me out there to get married already.
White roses lined the aisle, orange flowers hung from the ceiling, and Michael stood at the altar. My heart pounded inside my chest, and I walked toward the crowd of people.
Holy shit, this is really happening. I am marrying Michael Bryne. I am having kids with Michael Bryne. I am finally making my life mine.
When I made it to the beginning of the aisle, I locked my focus on Michael and smiled widely. I didn’t particularly like all the attention from a bunch of people I barely knew. Hell, I didn’t like the attention at all … but when I saw him, everyone else seemed to disappear. It was cliché, but I had never felt anything like it.
I held my flowers tighter and walked down the aisle toward my future. After everything that had happened in the past year, I was truly happy that this was how my life had turned out.
Mom grasped James’s hand and grinned at me as Serena and Melissa watched from the altar. I approached Michael, my heart pounding in my chest, and stood directly in front of him, my eyes on nobody else and nothing other than his deep gray eyes, his slightly graying dark hair, those little lines on his face.
I didn’t care about what anyone else thought about us. I knew that we were meant to be. Maybe we’d had a rough start. But maybe sleeping with your best friend’s dad wasn’tallthat bad. It had its highs, and it had its lows. And so I made the commitment of my life and said those two little words that would change everything.
“I do.”
CHAPTER17
MIA
Two hours into the wedding reception, I had changed into my new dress, had my first dance with Michael, and eaten dinner with all my friends. We talked about the babies and the wedding, the honeymoon we were leaving for in two days.
Michael leaned toward me. “Meet me in the hallway,” he whispered. “Five minutes.”
After excusing himself from the table, he grabbed his drink and walked over to some of his friends from work, keeping his icy stare on me.
Five minutes … five minutes, and there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that he’d take me to the back room and fuck me senseless, like he’d promised.
“I so wish I got to go to Greece,” Melissa said, slumping back in her seat.
She tilted her head to the side, and I watched her gaze meet Victor’s, who stood across the room with Damien and a couple of Michael’s relatives.
