Page 78 of Fragile Twisted Vows

It’s all too late and too much to bear now, his love. I’m ruined and I don’t know if I will ever return to normal again.

We head out of the guest suite and to the rehearsal room, where Damien, Bruno and the rest of his men wait for us. It’s awkward, this whole arrangement, but I plaster on the greatest fake smile that I can. One that my father taught me.

Damien sees right through it.

We go through our vows together and I try not to cry when I listen to his. It feels…earnest. Real. The honesty in his voice shows through and all I want is to crawl in his arms, which I almost do when he leans forward to kiss me. I almost break right then and there in front of everyone watching me. Watching us. Waiting for us.

He stares into my eyes as he grabs my hands, his thumb rubbing over the ring on my finger.

“You don’t have to kiss me now,” I whisper, but he shakes his head at me,

“I want to. I’m going to. Every day that you’ll let me,” he says, and shivers run down my spine.

God, I miss him. And I hate him, I crave him and I hate it.

I want to hate him.

He presses his lips to mine and breathes me in for a moment before I silently open my mouth and offer him inside, dying to taste him after weeks of denial.

Just one taste. One more.

He kisses the breath from me, steals every bit of air and rational thought and drinks it down like the vampire he is. And god help me, I let him.

I let him eat at my mouth in front of everyone, and I melt against him when he does. I let time and space evaporate because this is the first time I’ve felt good in weeks. This is the first time I’ve felt normal. Here, with him. Touching him, kissing him, becoming one with him even in this small, miniscule way.

He pulls away slowly, peppering my cheeks with gentle, feather-like kisses.

I want to cry from the tenderness of it all.

“My fate is in your hands now,” he says against my lips before he pulls away completely and looks into my eyes. “It is you that owns me,” he declares, and I want to ask him to explain to clarify, but my world explodes right then.

Or rather, the doors to the chapel do.

Everything happens too slowly at first?—

the gunfire.

The screams from Jenni and the event planner.

The shatter of glass exploding across the room.

Damien shoves me to the ground and stands in front of me, hands in the air.

I look up just in time to see it?—

a single bullet tearing through the hand I was just holding.

Blood splatters across my face.

I freeze.

I want to reach for him—to touch him, to make sure he’s still breathing?—

but I can’t move.

Because there’s a life inside me now.

A baby.

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