He nods solemnly. The rings emerge from his tuxedo pocket, gleaming in his open palm. Our simple gold bands. Not the custom-designed platinum rings we originally selected for this day. These. The ones I carried to Key Largo, and that we slid onto each other's fingers while our informal, heartfelt promises carried out over the water.
I take Avery's left hand, lift it gently. The ring slides into place, and this time I feel the weight of it differently, not the private promise of Key Largo, but the public declaration of what she means to me. My past, my today, my future. It all belongs to her.
The minister guides us through the rest of the words.
I smile as I hold my bride's teary gaze. "With this ring, I thee wed."
Avery's fingers are steady and warm as she guides the other gold band onto my finger next. "With this ring, I thee wed."
The officiant's voice swells with the final declaration. "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife." A pause. A smile. "Dominic, you may kiss your bride."
He's barely got the words out before I'm already in motion. My hands frame her face, my thumbs stroking her cheekbones as I tilt her mouth up to mine.
Her lips part for me, soft and warm and yielding, and I take. The taste of her floods my senses, familiar and staggering at once.Mine.Her fingers fist the lapels of my jacket, pulling me closer. A sound escapes her throat, quiet enough that only I canhear, and it takes every ounce of discipline I possess not to haul her against me and make this kiss indecent.
I pull back before I scandalize both of us and the church full of onlookers. My breath has gone ragged as I rest my forehead against hers.
"Forever, angel," I murmur against her lips. "You and me."
"You and me." Her voice trembles with joy. "Always."
Applause erupts through the sanctuary—thunderous, joyful, crashing over us in waves. We turn to face them, her hand clasped in mine, and I let myself feel it. The triumph. The completion. The reality of this moment I've been chasing since I first saw her.
Life can be dark and ugly and painful. But it can also be soft and beautiful and full of grace. Like the woman standing next to me.My wife.
I've never believed in fairy tales. At least, not the kind that end happily for someone like me. But I believe in her. I believe in us.
For the first time in my life, I believe in forever.
I can believe in happily ever after too.
I see it every time I look in Avery's eyes.
EPILOGUE
AVERY
Two weeks later .. .
I would've thought after half a month of waking up like this, in bed in the main cabin of theElysiumwith Nick, that I'd be getting used to it. Yet every morning still feels like a dream.
The air is warm, the Mediterranean sun filtering soft through the portholes, and Nick's mouth is between my thighs like he has nowhere else in the world to be. Which he doesn't. Neither of us do. That's the best part of our honeymoon, and my husband has taken the concept to heart with his usual intensity.
His tongue traces a slow path that makes my hips lift off the sheets, and I hear myself moan, a sound I stopped trying to stifle somewhere around the third day. His hands grip my thighs, holding me open, holding me steady, and when I thread my fingers through his hair, I feel his low voice vibrate against my most sensitive skin.
"I could eat you all day." The deep rumble of his words ignites every nerve ending in my body. "You taste so sweet. So fucking good."
I gasp as he torments me even further with his tongue. "You really have no lack of stamina, do you?"
Grinning like the devil himself, he lifts his head just enough to meet my eyes. "Not when you're making those sexy little sounds for me."
The sight of him there—dark hair mussed, jaw shadowed, blue eyes radiating want—sends a fresh surge of arousal streaming through my body. With his mouth on my clit, he slides his finger into me, hitting the spot he knows will undo me every time. I moan, writhing against his face.
"Oh, God… Nick."
The pleasure builds, cresting higher each time his fingers find the rhythm that unravels me. Another finger joins the other, thrusting inside where I'm slick and aching, and I arch into the sensation with a cry I couldn't contain if I tried. TheElysiumrocks gently beneath us, and there's something almost dreamlike about it. The warmth, the light… and Nick between my thighs as though my pleasure is his only priority.
When the orgasm breaks over me it's more than I can contain. His name spilling from my lips in the scream he knew I wouldn't be able to hold back. He works me through it, gentling as the aftershocks move through me, leaving me shaking.
