Yes, the contract had ended, but they’d remained married. They loved each other and it was the logical course both agreed upon.
Valentina agreed with a hum.
They were right. There was no need to worry about Nicolas getting cold feet, or about anyone’s objections standing in their way, they already belonged to each other.
Mine,a part of her purred satisfactorily.
She was seeing the perks in skipping the order of things.
“Let’s go.”
James Pinault gently looped one of his arms through his daughter’s. All she could give him in return was a nerve-racking smile.
“Just follow my lead,” he said softly.
To the slow tempo of the march, they both emerged from the open doors. Emily’s heart didn’t get lodged in her throat because of the attention or the twenty guests present.
It was because ofhim.
Beyond the grandeur of the floral decor and blinding sunlight, her eyes found the man whom she’d been looking forward to seeing all day. Her face blushed a deeper shade of red as his searing eyes focused on her. And only her.
Nicolas’s eyes swept over her slowly, lingering as if weighing every detail, the kind of look that stripped her bare. Heat coiled in her chest and she was seconds away from melting into a puddle.
After what felt like an eternity, Emily found herself standing next to him as he took her hand gently away from her father’s.
She had many things she wanted to say, but her heart overflowed and didn’t allow her mouth to work.
“You look exceptional today, Em,” he praised, taking advantage of her loss for words. His fingers came up and brushed against her burning cheeks.
He noticed the color of them and smiled.
The priest cleared his throat, interrupting their little moment.
They both looked at him, flushed.
“Sorry.”
He nodded before focusing on the task at hand. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”
Emily didn’t hear anything else, only focusing on the curve of Nicolas’s plump lips, the beauty mark below them, and how delectable he looked in his tuxedo.
Her name from the priest had her head snapping toward him. “What?”
“It’s time for the bride and groom to say their wedding vows,” he repeated, making Nicolas smirk.
“O-oh, um…okay.”
Nicolas was now full-on grinning.
Emily’s hands reached out to take his own once moreand they fit so right she started choking up before a word came out.
Getting a hold of herself, her speech came. “Nicolas, I met you during a hard time of my life. I approached you out of selfish motives, and what I asked of you was possibly the most impulsive thing that I’ve ever done.”
He watched her with lowered eyelids and a soft smile.
“As you may already know, falling in love with you wasn’t terrifying even after how I’d been burned by the flames of it. You made it so easy. I’d walked into a house with you and never realized that you’d become my new home.”
The crowd murmured in appreciation.
