Page 11 of Yours, Now and Always
My eyes water.
My body arches.
Because this isn’t a man seducing me. This is a man claiming me forever with the vows he didn’t say in front of others but kept just for me.
His hands find my waist, and then he lowers his mouth again, to the soft slope of my stomach.
“I promise to never ask you to shrink. Not even for me.”
And I know it deep in my soul, that’s the one that breaks me, because I believe him.
Tears slide down my cheeks as he presses a kiss to my hipbone.
“I promise to love you like it’s a privilege. Not a possession.”
My hands fist in the sheets. My entire soul is trying to hold still.
He moves further down my body and slowly slides my panties down. And when he looks up at me from between my thighs, not to take, not to demand,but to worship?
I’m his.
I’m ruined.
I’m forever.
Then his mouth lowers to the inside of my thigh, and just before his lips touch me, he whispers, “I promise I won’t let silence steal what I should have said.”
He settles between my legs and his mouth finally finds the place he’s been aching for, and it’s not just heat written across his face.
It’s home.
It’s love.
It’sforever.
His lips start out gentle, but not for long. Soon, he’sconsumed. With making a goddamn mess of me. With dragging every sound out of me that he owns.
And when his eyes flick to mine and he growls, “Wife,” that’s when I know my husband is done with adoring me softly.
Now he’s going to lose his fucking mind.
Because now—now—I’m his wife.
CHAPTER 4
AMELIA
Inever imagined I would marry Gage in my own home and consummate our marriage in my own bed. And certainly not in a bedroom that looks like someone lost a fight with the closet, a laundry basket, and time itself.
There’s a dirty sweater flung across my dresser.
A bra hanging over the armchair.
One of Sarah’s glitter sneakers randomly chilling on the floor.
And books. Everywhere. Stacked in piles of “these next” and “really not sure about these ones.”
We didn’t clean up before the ceremony. We didn’t put shoes on my feet. We didn’t do anything but breathe, burn, and say yes.
