Page 24 of Forbidden Earl

Her lips tingled like she wanted to ask for a kiss, but she ignored the sensation and patted his arm. “Blackwell has been your good friend for years now.” She remembered how the two of them were friends in college. Her heart stammered a little as she realized she was no longer just watching Remy from the sideline. As they passed another mirror, he stopped.

She checked her strapless dress with a quick glance to make sure it was all in the right place as Remy picked up a rose boutonnière that he attached to his lapel. “I have to give a speech.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Cassidy said. “Though I have to say for one of the most eligible dukes in all of Avce, his small, intimate wedding in the chapel is a surprise.”

Remy turned toward her. “He never wanted to be the Duke of Oakley. Unlike me, his father was around and handled life for him until recently.”

Part of her heart still squeezed and felt sad for Remy like she had as a girl knowing that he never had his parents. She fixed his tie that was a little crooked. “I’m sure you miss them.”

He shrugged and offered his arm again. “I don’t remember them. I have an ideal of what a family looks like but Grannie has always been enough of a parent for me.”

He walked toward the front door, but she stalled. “I don’t remember a school function without Gigi showing up to support you, even when you tried to be in Tinkana, your rock band.”

A huge grin grew on his face. “You remember that? We were ten when I went through that phase.”

She remembered almost everything about Remy. She’d always noticed whatever he did and it had hurt her when he’d played his silly pranks. She lowered her head, refusing to dwell on that, and pointed in the other direction. “Well, I promised to go see Gigi before we go.”

“I’m coming with you.” He placed his hand on her lower back as they went to Gigi’s room.

The moment he opened the door, Gigi put her book down and smiled at them. “Cassidy Bright, you look beautiful. I love this dress and that you’ve cut your hair. You’re breathtaking, young lady.”

She was almost thirty. Remy would be thirty in a few weeks, which was why they were marrying so fast. But for now she twirled around and showed how the dress flared a little in the back which gave her more legroom, in case she wanted to dance. “My mother helped me find the dress.”

Remy’s gaze was on her legs when she stopped spinning.

Her face felt hot as she wondered what he thought.

He didn’t comment but instead turned to his grandmother. “We have to go, Grannie.”

They all exchanged kisses and Gigi said, “Love you both. Have fun.”

Then he escorted her out and they walked back to the large foyer when he stopped and stared at the stairs going up to their bedrooms. “Wait. I forgot something.”

He then rushed up the stairs, two steps at a time. She noticed through the side windows at the front entrance that Fari had brought out Remy’s red Ferrari for them rather than the black.

Remy raced down the stairs, holding the bannister, but stopped his fast pace when he practically braked in front of her. Her eyebrows shot up as she asked, “What did you forget?”

“This.” He pulled a necklace out of his pocket.

The diamond glistened in the light of the chandelier and she see that the gem was first rate. She shook her head. “I can’t wear that.”

“For me.” He walked around her and clasped it on her neck. “Besides, it becomes yours tomorrow. I don’t have many things that were my mother’s. Grannie grabbed me in my crib and ran to her car that night the communists came and killed my parents.”

They both knew the story. Her grandmother, who was with Gigi visiting, called her parents who immediately gathered her and left—Chelsea hadn’t been born yet. The soldiers found his parents outside the estate and shot them while Gigi ran for Remy, grabbing him and joining her parents on the tarmac of a mutual friend who fueled his own jet to escape and gave them all a ride out of the war-torn country. She fingered the diamond with sadness. “And my grandma. Your Grannie was always like my own.”

Remy placed both his hands on her shoulders. “She packed so little, but she grabbed my mother’s diamonds as well as the bank accounts. I’d like for you to wear this and tomorrow wear my mother’s full diamond tiara and necklace. It’s been in the family for generations.”

Only Gigi would think straight when soldiers were running up the stairs to kill her. Cassidy wasn’t sure what she’d do if she lived through any of that, but she adjusted the diamond and let it go. “Thank you. I’ll keep this safe for you.”

“For us.” He winked, like Gigi often did. “Now you look like the Countess of Sky.”

She joked as they went to his car, “Glad I pulled it off.”

He opened her car door for her and then drove them to a two-thousand-year-old church that had been built, according to lore, where Mary had appeared to the Roman ancestors of the royal family and made it snow in the spot she’d wanted her church. Some said Avce remained blessed to this day because of the actions of their ancestors.

Unlike the royal wedding, the Duke of Oakley’s chapel was filled with maybe thirty people.

As they walked into the foyer, together, she tugged on Remy’s arm. “Tonight, if there is dancing at this reception, I’d like for you… to dance with me.”

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