Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 50828 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50828 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
We exchange vows, and I slide her diamond wedding band on her finger. No telling what will happen next, but if she’ll give me a little time and a little trust, I’ll do my best to make her happy. If she doesn’t…we’re in for a long death do us part.
Finally, the officiant prompts me to kiss the bride. I lift her veil. The silver paths of her tears are like a stab to my heart as I cup her face and thumb away her tears. “Kiss me, wife.”
Isabella blinks before her eyes slide shut obediently and she offers me her mouth. I’m not fooled. If we were alone, she’d probably tell me to go to hell. And I would deserve it. But she’s too polite or too embarrassed to make waves in public, so she sweetly complies, her lips clinging to mine as I claim her for the rest of our lives.
Then the officiant pronounces us mister and missus before we make our way down the aisle again, hand in trembling hand. Camera lights flash. Jen and Steve bring up the rear.
“You really do look beautiful,” I murmur.
My bride turns to me, tears still clinging to her lashes. “I don’t understand. Why?”
Why go to the trouble of marrying her? Of having a lavish wedding? “Because you’re mine. I’ll never let you go. And I want the world to know it.”
The next few minutes pass in a blur. Laurel and her kids meet us in the private reception room I booked at the top of the hotel. This whole shindig cost me an arm and a leg, especially on short notice so close to Christmas, but I want Isabella to look back on our wedding and be glad our ceremony was so real.
We’re seated at the wide, round table in the center of the cozy room. A centerpiece of fresh flowers frames a softly glowing lantern, accentuating the shades of silver and soft blue all around. The pianist begins serenading us. And I realize that, except for Jen, every person at this table is here for me.
My wife is basically alone, like she has been for most of her life.
“She’s overwhelmed,” Laurel whispers beside me.
“Yeah.” And that fucking hurts my heart.
“She misses her mom a lot.”
I can’t replace the woman, but I can be there for Isabella. “She looks beautiful. Your grandmother’s pearls were a nice touch.”
“She really wanted to wear her mother’s pendant. I think it’s one of the few things Isabella has left of the woman.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“She couldn’t get it back from her ex-boyfriend. He threatened to throw it in the trash.”
That fucking bastard. “I’ll handle it.”
Eric Meadows damn well better cough up that pendant if he wants to continue breathing.
Laurel smiles. “I don’t know what’s happening between you two, but she’s really sweet. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look at a woman the way you’re looking at her now.”
I whip my stare to my sister-in-law. Her knowing gaze makes me squirm. Shit, she can tell I have feelings for Isabella…just like she’s guessed I’m resisting.
Dinner is served, and my niece and three nephews keep Jen engaged for most of our small reception. Unless my wife wants to shout across the table, that leaves her with no one to talk to but me.
“Are you okay?” I ask her over Beef Wellington.
“Fine.”
I was married once. I know that “fine” means she absolutely isn’t. “Take my hand. Give me your mouth. Kiss me and smile.”
“For your family, so they believe this lie?”
“For us.” As my niece clinks her spoon against her glass, I paste on a happy expression, but I’m deadly serious. “Our forever starts today.”
Isabella
My stomach is in knots, and I can’t eat what I’m sure is an amazing dinner. But I can damn well drink the champagne. I need the liquid courage.
The minute Nathan and I are alone, I’m going to lay into him and demand answers. But his niece keeps clinking her spoon to her glass and demanding we kiss. Every time my husband—it feels crazy to call a man I barely know that—claims my lips, I feel a little weaker, a little more fluttery, a little more connected to him.
What is he doing to me? I should be furious he’s hijacked my life for his retribution. Instead, some stupid part of me only wants to curl up to him, lay my head on his wide chest, and beg him to make everything better.
I need to have my head examined, and I need to stop letting him manipulate my emotions.
Suddenly, Nathan seizes my mouth again, stealing inside in a kiss ripe with effervescence and hope, before he stands and sends me a glance that, if I didn’t know better, I would swear is full of devotion.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice to our wedding. Isabella and I appreciate every one of you dropping everything, especially this close to Christmas, to be with us on this momentous day. As many of you know, I’ve been skeptical about marriage these past few years, but my bride changed all that. The minute I laid eyes on her, I needed to make her mine. Thank God she agreed.”