Page 91 of Yours, Now and Always
My hand slides to her jaw, my other to her waist, and I pull her in. Her lips part against mine, soft and sure, and the second I taste her, restraint stops existing.
The room disappears. Our families, the candles, the air itself. None of it matters. It’s just her mouth, her breath, her fingers curling into my jacket where they belong.
I kiss her until the cheers blur into static, until she smiles against my mouth, until the world feels exactly as it should.
When I finally pull back, she’s breathless and shining. Her lipstick is definitely smudged again, and her eyes are still that dreamy, glassy bright, but she’s never looked more beautiful.
I take a second, memorizing how she looks in this moment.
Glowing and fucking radiant.
Kissed breathless.
Still a little stoned.
My wife.
CHAPTER 29
GAGE
Isurvived the ceremony without losing control.
I survived the photos without dragging my wife behind the nearest tree.
I even got through her laughing with our families while her thumb kept brushing over my ring, reminding me each damn time that the whole fucking world finally knows she’s mine.
But now we have ten minutes before we’re expected at the reception. Before the toasts and the dancing and all the shit that’s going to keep me from getting her alone forhours. And I’m not sure I’ll survive these ten minutes without breaking the last bit of restraint I’ve got left.
I follow Amelia into the tent I had set up for this moment. She stops inside and her breath catches in that soft little gasp I fucking live for.
Her high’s mostly worn off now, but the afterglow still clings to her edges. She’s flushed, soft in that way she gets when her walls are down. The fog in her eyes is clearing, but I can still see the last haze of it. She hasn’t fully reentered her body yet, still floating, just a little. And I don’t want to pull her out of that softness. I want to meet her there and give her a safe place to land when she finally does come all the way back down.
She glances around at the softly lit space before turning to me with wide eyes and a smile that ruins me all over again. “This is magic, Gage. Actual magic.”
Twinkle lights stretch across the ceiling, giving the kind of low light that makes everything feel closer. Quieter. There’s a velvet loveseat in the corner, with a soft throw draped across the back. A small table holds a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries and her favorite champagne, the bottle chilling in a metal bucket
The tent walls are lined with plush fabric in her favorite color. She calls itvintage mauve. I call itthe-shade-I-had-to-audition-against-nine-others-because-the-rest-looked-too-fucking-purple. It took three rounds of samples and an argument with Lucy, my assistant, to get it right. I’ve now burned the damn hex code into my memory like I would a classified security clearance.
There’s music playing quietly, something from the playlist she made for late nights in our library. It’s half classical, half witchy mood songs that have somehow rewired my brain to think of as foreplay.
I can’t take my eyes off her while she trails her fingers over the fabric and across the seat. While she breathes it all in.
I created this space because I wanted her to have somewhere private to catch her breath after the ceremony and photos. I don’t care if she wants to spend ten minutes in here or two hours. I just want her to feel every second of it in her bones.
This means it had to be perfect for her. Warm enough and stocked with everything she might want or not even realize she wanted until it was already in her hand.
There’s a bottle of still water because she always forgets to hydrate when she’s running on adrenaline.
A little pot of honey beside the champagne in case she wants to swirl some in. Something I’ve only seen her do once but know she loved.
The fancy salted caramel truffles she devours in the bath after long days.
Her favorite snacks in a basket, just in case she’s hungry.
I packed in every practical thing I could think of.
Deodorant. Breath mints. Bobby pins. Hair elastics. Makeup for touch-ups. Slippers. Socks. Eye drops. Hand cream.
