Page 55 of Midnight Danger

The chapel was tiny and would only hold about twenty people, which was as well, considering there were few people here to witness our vows. Only the people closest to us were present.

Xavier’s blue eyes never left me, as if his will alone kept my feet moving down the aisle. He was dressed in a black suit with a crisp white shirt and a dark tartan tie. I didn’t know when Megan’s hand left mine and Xavier had taken it instead. His gaze bored into mine, steadying my emotions.

I blinked when I felt all eyes on me and turned to look at the minister. “This is the part you speak,” he whispered.

Xavier smirked, because he knew I was helpless when he stared at me like that. The words flowed from me, and I pursed my lips at the obey part. Xavier’s eyebrow quirked up when he heard the minister include ‘obey’ in his vows. I might have been a little naughty while fiddling with the plans for today. If we were to become man and wife, it would be as equals.

His grin when he repeated his vows said he didn’t care what I’d put in there, he would have agreed to it without hesitation.

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife,” the minister concluded. “You may kiss the bride.”

His fingers grasped my chin to tilt my head back. Butterflies invaded my stomach, behaving like this was the first time I’d ever been kissed. His lips found mine and spoke a solemn vow that no words could ever say. They promised so much more than love, honour, and obedience. They swore an oath of owning me until the day we parted this world and then he’d claim me on the other side again. His mouth devoured me in a desperate need that told the world he now owned me and me him.

The team of discreet photographers had followed us everywhere the whole day except into the vestry where we signed the marriage certificate. Xavier had two drawn up. One in my birth name, and one in the name I’d been given the day my parents died. None of us knew if it had been done legally, but tears trailed down my face when I saw the name I was born with on the certificate. He promised that he’d tie me to him every way he could find, and this was yet another ribbon that bound me to him.

The look in Xavier’s eyes as he watched me signing my name beside his made my panties feel too tight. Molten desire ignited through my veins, drawing me to him with a magnetism that I couldn’t resist. I dragged him down by the tie until our lips met.

“Love you,” I muttered against his lips.

“Love you, too, baby,” Xavier whispered.

His hand found my stomach as if to include Bubble into our day.

Hugs and camera flashes erupted when we walked out as man and wife. From the moment he discovered I was pregnant, Xavier was determined this day would happen, and his persistent smile said more than any words could.

Back in the house, I popped up to the bedroom to take a moment to myself. I blamed my turbulent emotions on hormones, but in my bag, I always kept a photograph of my family from so long ago. It sounded strange, but I wanted Mum to see me in my dress just once, even if it was through her eyes in a photograph.

Xavier found me sitting in the window seat staring over the garden with sightless eyes, the photograph in my hand. “I was wondering where you escaped to.”

I held my hand out to him. “Just needed a moment to take a breath.”

He tugged me up to pull me against him. “You look stunning.”

“You chose the dress,” I teased him.

His lips twitched and eyes burned with an intensity that could set my soul on fire. “It would look better pooled around your feet on the floor.”

My hand fluttered to my throat in mock outrage. “I’m a respectable married woman.”

“Married, yes, but hopefully never respectably.” His hands skimmed down my back to cup my ass.

“With you as my husband, I doubt I’ll ever achieve that.”

His smirk made my tummy flip.

Xavier’s gaze bored into me, and he walked me backward one step at a time until he pinned me against the wall. His hands grasped my hips while his body became a wall of flesh imprisoning me.

“I’ll always love and protect you,” he said, and those words meant more than the vows said in the church, written by someone long ago.

“And I’ll always love and shelter you.” We were two lost souls who’d found each other in the storm of life.

His hand cupped my cheek and lifted my head. My eyes closed before his lips found mine because there were moments in this life that could only be fully experienced in the dark when all other stimuli were removed. I could live and die in his kiss, his lips and tongue creating an intricate dance with mine. My hands gripped his waist to anchor myself before I fell off this side of the world.

Xavier had given me more than love; he’d shown me how to hope again.

It was only when I saw my real name beside his that I felt the impact of living a lie for so long. For years, I’d pretended to be someone I wasn’t, hiding the woman my parents wanted me to be. She existed again in Xavier’s arms.

His love empowered me to be the woman I’d been born—Cassandra Jenkins.

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