The pleasure builds gradually, warm and inevitable. When she comes again, it’s quiet and intense, her body tightening around me, breath catching on my name, eyes locked on mine as the waves take her.
I follow moments later, burying deep, groaning softly against her neck as I spill inside her. The release is long and perfect, every pulse drawn out by the way she holds me.
We stay joined, trading lazy kisses, hands stroking skin we’ve memorized but now feel like we’re discovering for the first time.
Eventually, I roll us to our sides, still inside her, arms wrapped tight. The ring catches the faint moonlight coming through the curtains.
“Small wedding?” she murmurs against my chest.
“Just us and the boys,” I answer. “Somewhere quiet.”
“Beach?”
“Anywhere you want.”
EPILOGUE
AURELIA
Three Months Later
Nadia’s adjustingmy veil for the third time when Finn bursts into the room with his bow tie already crooked and his shirt half-untucked. “Mam, Liam says I have to walk slowly but I want to run down the aisle because it’s more exciting!”
“You’re walking slow,” I tell him, trying not to laugh at the indignation on his face. “This is a wedding, not a race.”
“But it’s boring to walk slowly.”
“It’s dignified,” Nadia corrects, abandoning my veil to fix his bow tie. “You’re representing your family today, which means you walk with purpose and grace.”
“What’s grace?”
“Not running,” Liam says from the doorway, his own outfit perfectly arranged because of course it is. He crosses the room and looks up at me with serious green eyes. “You look pretty, Mam.”
My throat tightens. “Thank you, baby.”
“Are you nervous?”
“A little.”
“Don’t be. Da’s been ready for this since forever. He told me yesterday he’s been waiting his whole life to marry you.”
Cassian said that to our five-year-old son, and now I’m trying not to cry and ruin the makeup Nadia spent an hour perfecting.
“Come on, boys,” Nadia says, herding them toward the door. “Let’s give your mam a few minutes to herself before we start.”
They leave reluctantly, Finn still arguing about walking speed while Liam patiently explains why running would ruin the ceremony. The door closes and I’m alone with my reflection and three months’ worth of wedding preparations that somehow led to this moment.
Julian and Nadia took over most of the planning because I was still recovering and honestly had no idea how to organize a wedding that was both a personal celebration and a political statement. They handled everything—the venue, the flowers, the guest list that includes representatives from every major family in the city.
The Vance and Rourke families are uniting officially after decades of cold standoffs and territorial tensions, and everyone wants to witness it. Wants to see proof that alliances can shift and old enemies can become family when the right circumstances align.
But underneath all the politics and symbolism, this is just me marrying the man I love. The father of my children. The person who fought through a warehouse full of armed men to rescueme and then systematically eliminated everyone who threatened our family.
A knock on the door pulls me from my thoughts.
“Come in.”
Julian enters, looking uncomfortable in his formal suit but trying to hide it. He stops when he sees me, and his expression softens into something almost tender. “You look beautiful,” he says. “Mom would have loved to see this.”
