But Ididlet her sleep in. And it’s an important day that I want to start the right way.
Gently, I lay her onto her back. Her blissful smile makes me want bad, and her body, spread out like a feast, is all the more inviting. I kiss her ankle, and she doesn’t budge.
But her lips twitch.
On a hunch, I kiss her inner calf.
Another twitch.
As I smooth my hand up her inner thigh, her smile grows. “You brat!”
She giggles and peeps down at me. “Thought I could get you to do all the work, and I’d just lay here and… let you.”
I laugh and dive face first onto her pussy. Her gasps are a beautiful thing. Between licks, I’m sure to tell her, “If you ever want me to do all the work, all you have to do is ask.”
“Aiden, would you?—”
I hook her legs over my shoulders and devour every inch of her. She’s so wet that I might drown, and I don’t fucking care. If I die, I die.
But she digs her fingers into my hair to steal my attention. I give her clit one last hard suck, before I meet her gaze. “Baby, I need you!”
Those magic words. I launch up the bed, sliding into her when we align. I shove my arms beneath her to hold her close to me, and in this moment, only she exists.
Six years ago, I never thought we’d be back here. I thought it was a one-time thing that only felt like destiny. I have never been so happy to be wrong.
Her body pulses against me in waves as she comes, and I slow to a stop, kissing her lips, her cheeks, the tip of her nose. Anywhere on that perfect face until she regains her breath. Her giggles set me alight. “What are you doing?”
“Whatever I want.” I pull out and return her to her side, once again spooning her. “Any objections?”
“No, but you haven’t?—”
I pull her hip back and ease in once more. Her body goes tight, then relaxes against me. Until she rolls herself to take me in—then, she’s tense again. Can’t let that stand. “I thought you wanted me to do all the work.”
“You feel too good. I can’t hold still.”
A rough laugh tumbles out of me. “Let me do the work, Harper.”
She sighs. “I’ll try.”
Using her hip as a handle, I bring her to me as I thrust forward. Her breaths grow ragged, like my own. She pulsesagainst me again, and I know from experience, she’s fighting the urge to meet my strokes.
She’s being so good. She deserves a treat.
So, I reach around her hip and play with her clit as I thrust, using my forearm to maneuver her hip at the same time. Her body squeezes on me, making my balls ache even more. The foul language that pours out of her pouty lips could make a sailor blush, and then, she comes again, tossing her head back. I barely dodge out of the way in time, and then, I’m coming, too.
We lie there, locked together, panting, for some time. But she breaks the silence with, “I love you.”
And somehow, that hardens me right back up again. “I love you, too.” I kiss her shoulder, and the bell rings for Round Two.
After Round Two and a long, hot shower, we take to separate rooms to dress. I hear cursing under her breath when I pass her door. Must be hell to get a wedding dress on. She didn’t even let me help her pick it out, swearing it was bad luck.
The cabin looks different now, transformed without losing what made it special in the first place. String lights are draped along the porch railing and woven through the nearby trees, still unlit. Wildflowers—simple, colorful, slightly unruly—fill glass jars and line the makeshift aisle leading down toward the lake. Nothing is overly polished. Nothing feels staged. It’s intimate and exactly right.
Only the people who matter are here.
About thirty of them, scattered between the main cabin and the smaller guesthouse. They stayed the night in nearby cabins, so we’d all be here together for today without the stress of making a long drive into the country.
I spot familiar faces through the windows as I pull on my dark suit—firehouse crew members trying very hard not to look out of place, friends who’ve known Harper and me through ourworst moments, family who never stopped believing we’d find our way back to each other.
