Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 141281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
My hands tremble as I reach up, covering my mouth, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.
“You, baby girl, are something rare. Something intense that only comes along once in a man’s life. And I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let it slip away, or just string it along, pretending I’m happy having you as my girlfriend when I want you as my wife.” His breath catches. He comes so close to breaking I’m flipping screaming inside. “We... we started out just having fun. Fucking around. I teased you like you were my bratty stepsister, and I loved you like one too. But you were always so much more than that from the second I laid eyes on you. And now that I’ve had a thousand glances, I love you to death. Literally. So, will you give me the whole package? Will you give me forever? No retreat, no going back, no regrets.”
He stands, shoving the warm ring against my palm, letting me feel it.
For a second, he holds it, this small circular thing so hot against my palm it’s almost magical, warm as a heated stone.
“Feel that? It’s the heat of our entire future. Everything I want to do to you tonight and every night we’ll share. This world’s a gloomy-ass place sometimes, but you, Delia...you’re my light. My sun and moon and stars and galaxy, my spotlight, my torch, my—fuck. You see that? You blind me till I can’t even talk,” he says with a chuckle. “Be my wife. Be the hottest, sweetest mom my kids could ever ask for—the one I never had. Be mine and let me be there for you. I swear, I’ll help you shine on forever.”
“Pretty big ask,” I say softly, barely able to speak through the giddy sugar rush in my head. “What if I say no? What if I want to take things a little slower, just to wear you down and take the edge off?”
He grins and laughs.
“Then I’ll break you first tonight. I’ll tie you up and you won’t get to come till you give me a yes.” That hot glint in his eye warns he might be serious. “I suggest you stop fucking around, woman. I know you want this as bad as I do. Plus, I made your old man like me—who else does that?”
I can’t help it anymore.
The way his palm keeps pressing into mine, moving the hot gold against our skin, like he’s opening a portal to the rest of our lives...
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes, Chris. I’m ready to be Mrs. Triton.”
There.
I said it.
And I’m suddenly wishing for a cool breeze to come blasting in from the ocean. Something to keep me from feeling like I’m about to melt through the Earth’s crust.
Chris goes predictably nuts.
He grabs me by the wrist, stretches my hand out, and pushes the ring on my finger.
It’s a miraculously good fit. The right fit.
How did he know?
I have about two seconds to admire the strange new wonder on my hand before he picks me up and flings me around, tossing me high in the air before he catches me against his chest.
I crash down in his arms with a kiss that has my whole soul.
His teeth sink into my bottom lip, hungrier than ever.
My hands dig at his shoulders, desperate to get naked, famished to feel the man who’ll spend the rest of his life devouring me.
It’s a long, chilly make-out session on the beach.
Probably the last time we’ll visit this place before the sun shines again, bright and warm and high overhead.
But with him, there’s always a new spark.
Always a fire.
And I’m not sad that I start crying when the realization hits me that we’ll get to enjoy this light and perfection for the rest of our lives.
* * *
Six Months Later
Our second trip to Las Vegas is a whirlwind.
This classy wedding came together slowly, a fusion of Dad’s wealth and Chris’ military stoicism that’s so fairy-tale it’s almost surreal.
No Elvis imposters here, but we’ll make do with the beautiful sun-soaked greenery and palm trees surrounding the sleek reception hall on Lake Las Vegas.
At the rehearsal, I meet everyone on his Enguard team, plus several other SEALs he goes back years with. He meets my extended family, including my ice-cold mother.
Honestly, she’s pretty easy after Hurricane Evie.
And even if she wasn’t, we’re not letting anything ruin today’s glory.
Mom also spends half the wedding glaring at my dad, quietly seething at how happy he looks with the lively new redhead on his arm.
Jenny couldn’t be more unlike Evie. She’s a bubbly anthropology professor with a good heart and a dash of her own awkwardness that compliments Dad’s adorably.
I smile every time I watch them, wondering if Chris and I will be just as cute someday when we’re old.
Eventually, though, the pleasantries end and the biggest moment of my life begins.