“There’s that suspicious mind of yours at work again. Just close your eyes, Elena.”
“But—”
Roarke’s hand comes around me and covers my eyes. “She’s always suspicious, this one,” he says from behind me, and I hear my sister’s laugh followed by the sound of her opening the door. “Now, baby, are you ready?”
Ready?
For what?
“What the heck is going on?”
Roarke’s hand falls from my face, and I blink my eyes to adjust to the light as I try to take in everything at once. The flowers, the decorations, the waitstaff, and…family. Everyone’s staring at us, holding wine glasses and smiling like we’re the guests of honor or something.
“Surprise,” Sofia giggles as she reaches out to take the baby from my husband’s arms and reaches for the older one’s hand, who gladly goes to his aunt. She takes our kids and walks in to join her husband and their kids.
“What is this?” I ask, confused yet by what’s happening.
“Happy fifth anniversary, baby,” Roarke rasps hotly into my ear, his arms circling my waist. “Your sister thought it would be a fantastic idea to throw a surprise party for you—us.”
I turn to look at him, confused. “But our wedding anniversary isn’t for a few months yet.” Unless…my eyes widen with surprise when I realize that he’s talking about our rushed courthouse wedding. We have always celebrated the one that happened months later. His mother did love me as Roarke promised she would. But she absolutely refused to believe that her oldest son was married at some courthouse by a bored clerk, so she planned a huge wedding where all the families were invited.
My parents-in-law, Patrick and Moira, were the opposite of my parents. They were warm and loving, and Moira was the mother I had always wanted. A fiery little mama bear with green eyes and red hair that seemed to terrify all her boys in the household into submission but went all mother hen when someone needed her.
Suddenly, I was wedding dress shopping with mother hen one second, and the next, my brother-in-law Matteo was walking me down the aisle and into the arms of the love of my life.
Five years later, and I couldn’t have wanted a better life or family for myself. Couldn’t have found one.
The night after our courthouse wedding had me convinced tension would erupt between Matteo Rossi and Alexei Balshovand that somehow, Roarke would be at the center of it all, but the opposite happened.
After arriving home from his honeymoon, Roarke and Matteo talked things through before leaving to deal with my father. Matteo didn’t kill him, as a favor to Sofia, but he came close.
And everything was perfect.
Roarke quit working as a bodyguard to focus on the business and consulting side of their firm. I finished my PhD without having to worry about being married off to a homicidal maniac, became a professor of art history at Columbia University, and then had my babies.
And it was all thanks to that day five years ago. In that courtroom, with my bodyguard, his siblings, and the bored clerk.
“Come on now, it’s time to party!”
I find myself pulled into the ballroom, a wine glass in my hand, with family circling me, each talking over the other, but I can’t help the grin. The kids are ferried off to another room as the adults drink and dance. Finally, I’m in my husband’s arms, spinning on the dance floor. Then, another hand grabs me, and I turn to see Sofia’s grinning face.
“Feel familiar?” she asks as we dance in circles.
“Your surprise wedding on the island,” I say with a laugh. “You seemed so in love with Matteo, and I asked you if you were happy.”
“Now, it’s my turn to ask the same thing.”
I turn around and seek Roarke’s face in the crowd, unsurprised to find him watching me. He hasn’t been my bodyguard in a long time, but he’s never taken his eyes off me from the second he met me. Even back on the island, as my sisterand I danced, his eyes were on me, as they are now. As they always have been.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,” I say, looking at my sister again. “I don’t think I could be happier, Sofia.”
“Well then, I’ll take that as a challenge,” she laughs, reaching into the pocket of her dress and taking out a card and waving it in front of my eyes. “I bet you could be happier.”
“What is that?” I ask even as it clicks. I recognize the keycard as the access card for the security gate of Matteo’s private airstrip outside the city.
“How do you feel about a second honeymoon for you and your bodyguard?” she giggles, a mischievous glint flashing into her eyes. “The boys will stay with us, and you two can fly to the island, swim naked, and enjoy your anniversary as you bake in the sun. But don’t worry, I packed you some sunscreen.”
I’m floored, touched by my sister’s effort as I wrap my arms around her shoulders. “Thank you,” I mumble into her shoulder.
