Page 41 of Dangerous Encore
"Itis."
The coordinator presses her headset to her ear. "We're coming." She motions to the stone steps that lead up to the ceremony location. "As soon as you'reready."
I nod and takeDad'sarm.
And I take thefirststep.
The music starts, the wedding march. I can hear itfromhere.
With each step up the stone staircase, my heart pounds a little faster. My breath gets a little moreshallow.
I get to thetopstep.
I walk the stone path and turn thecorner.
There's the ceremony site. The courtyard of this gorgeous grey stonecastle.
The decorations are simple. The deep purple walkway. Black ribbons and crimson roses on the chairs. And the black, wrought iron altar, covered in roses andtulle.
And there's Ethan, in his suit, his hair neat, his blue eyesbright.
He's smiling eartoear.
It's a goofysmile.
Athis is the best day of my lifekind ofsmile.
And I'm wearing the same one. I can feel it in the way he's looking at me. I can feel my cheeks atmyears.
I hold his gaze as I walk down the aisle. I don't see our friends. I don't see our family. I don't even see the castlearoundus.
I only seeEthan.
And all the joy inhiseyes.
And the joy in ourlives.
Everyone sits and the officiant starts speaking. He's doing our reading, the poem I picked out, but I can't hear anything over how hard my heart ispounding.
I can't feel anything but all that love welling up in mychest.
He finishes reading our story, a very abridged version of it, and he looks to Mal. He's standing behind Ethan. He's tall and he's broad and he's impossible to ignore, but I barelyseehim.
I can't pry my eyes away fromEthan's.
"May I have the rings?" Theofficiantasks.
Mal nods as he hands over the ring box. He's smiling that same widesmile.
The officiant hands my wedding ring to Ethan. He turns to me. "Violet Valentine, do you take this man to be your lawfully weddedhusband?"
I nod. "Ido."
He nods toEthan.
Ethan slides the ring onto my left ringfinger.
The officiant looks to Ethan. "Ethan Strong, do you take this woman to be your lawfullyweddedwife?"
