Really and truly fucking happy.
Wonders never cease.
Back at the clubhouse, the mood was lighter than it had been in weeks. Music played, beer and whiskey flowed and laughter rang out all around us, bringing the place back to life. Someone shouted, “to the bride!” and Eliana immediately looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Still, she lifted her glass with a wide smile that was only slightly brittle around the edges.
I slid up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her tight to my chest. “Regrets already?” I held my breath, expecting her to voice her regrets.
She gave me some of her weight and let out a small sigh before shaking her head. “No, not at all. It’s just kind of weird to celebrate something that isn’t real.”
That hit me wrong, goddammit, and I frowned. “It is real,” I growled.
Her body froze against mine.
I forced myself to remain calm because I didn’t want to scare her. “The license is real. The marriage is real. It’sreal.” I spun her around in my arms, forcing her to look at me. “Everything that matters about this is real, Eliana.”
Her throat bobbed but she nodded. “Yeah, I get that. But you don’t love me.”
The words were soft, but they sucker-punched the breath out of me. “Maybe not yet,” I said honestly. “But I do care about you. And now you’re mine to keep safe. And I take that shit very seriously, Eli.” She didn’t know it yet, but she would learn soon enough.
Her eyes widened a little, like she heard something under the words I wasn’t ready to name yet. Hell, I didn’t even understand it all myself. I just knew one thing. There was no universe where I was letting her go.
Not now.
Not ever.
A smile tugged at her full lips, teasing but hopeful. “So you’re saying we should celebrate like it’s real?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, sweeping my thumb across her jaw and then under her plump bottom lip. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” My heart pounded the way it did before I went into war, before I stepped into a room to extract information necessary for my MC to thrive.
Eliana melted against me before letting her arms slip around my shoulders, pushing her body flush to mine. “Well,” she whispered a second before her lips pressed to mine, chaste at first but a second later she moaned and slid her tongue along the seam of my lips, so fucking intoxicating I no longer needed thewhiskey in my hand. The kiss was slow and lingering, so deep I wasn’t sure I’d surface the same and I didn’t even want to.
Heat slid down my spine when her fingers curled in my hair and a low moan escaped. She fit perfectly against me and that, more than anything, solidified everything I knew and everything I was feeling about her. About us.
Mine.
“How’s that for celebrating?” Her smile grew and she was even more beautiful.
“It’s a good start,” I growled, sliding one hand down to squeeze her ass.
She nipped at my lower lip and laughed before pulling back with dark, heavy-lidded eyes that said she wanted me too. Her smile shifted into a serious expression and her hands went to my face, staring deep into my eyes as if she could see all of my thoughts. “We should probably tell Zoya about this. I don’t want her to feel blindsided.”
There went another pinch in my chest, and those feelings were getting harder to ignore. She always put Zoya first, more than her own damn mother ever had. Initially we planned on just getting married on paper. Carrying on as normal but having something we could show the courts. But given how my club brothers were celebrating us, my little girl would no doubt be hearing about it. “Yeah,” I eventually agreed. “Let me talk to her first.”
She didn’t argue or question my judgment, she just nodded. Trusted me.
That trust pushed the strange feelings I’d been having closer to the surface, making it harder to leave unnamed. “Butfirst,” I whispered softly in her ear, loving the way she shivered against me. “I think we should go somewhere and celebrate being man and wife.”
Her fingers tightened on my waistband, a breathless gasp escaped her lush mouth. “Yeah, I think I’d like that a lot.”
Before anyone could distract us or before she could change her mind, I took her hand in mine and dragged her through the party, accepting congratulations without stopping. The loud music turned into a muffled beat once we were deep inside the clubhouse. “Come on.” I slipped through the door that would take us to the roof before stopping and tossing her over my shoulder.
“Put me down!” she squealed, pinching my ass.
“No can do, babe.” One hand slid up and down her thighs and I let my thumb brush the damp patch on her panties. “Consider this me carrying you over the threshold, at least until we’re back at home.”
She said nothing and I didn’t expect her to, but when she pinched my ass again, I smiled. When I set her on her feet, she looked around and sighed. “This is gorgeous. You can see all the way to Vegas up here.”
I nodded, curling my body around hers, and inhaling her sweet scent. “Yeah, but it ain’t shit compared to my view.”
