So why was she dying inside.
“Oww!” She flinched as the stylist yanked her hair for the fifth time. A manicurist pushed her cuticle back to what felt like her recently waxed eyebrows and her face itched from the coating of make-up. She flinched again as another section of hair was manhandled.
“Enough!” She pushed away the hairdresser, the make-up artist, and manicurist, and ran from her bedroom. Down the back staircase, she dodged the caterers and exited through the kitchen.
Focused straight ahead, Stella marched into the maze and didn’t stop until she reached the gazebo in the center. She flopped onto the bench and tipped her head back, into the speckled sunlight peeking through the vines. The quiet soothed her frazzled nerves and the building migraine.
“We don’t have to do this.”
She jerked out of her sun-induced daze. A few feet away, Roman leaned against a column. His eyes had darkened into a bottomless pool of pain, but his face remained neutral, giving away nothing.
Already dressed in a charcoal gray suit, fresh shave and hair trimmed, he was the most handsome thing she had ever seen and he loved her. Did she have enough time to get him out of that suit and take advantage of him?
“I can take you back to the city.” His voice held a grave note.
“W-w-what?” she stuttered blinking away the carnal thoughts lodged in her head.
He cleared his throat. “Come on. I’ll take you back to your apartment . . . or wherever you want to go.”
“I’m getting married in two hours. Why would I want to go to the city?” The confusion on his face made her smile.
“Uhmm, you ran out of the house—”
“I need some air or someone was gonna end up dead.” She laughed at his tilted head and raised eyebrow. She pointed to the rollers in her hair and her half-made face.
“This is so not me.” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
Roman stopped a foot away. “I agree. It’s not you. So why are you doing it?”
Because, she wanted to shout, instead she swallowed the lump in her throat and gathered her self-esteem. “I . . . I wanted to look pretty for you.”
He took her hands and drew her to her feet. His intense gaze made her fidget until he cupped her face and brought her as close as possible to him.
“Are you kidding? You’re the most beautiful thing on this earth. No one compares to you. No. One.” Gently, he pulled the rollers out of her hair then threaded his fingers through her tresses until they cascaded past her shoulders. Then he rubbed the makeup off her face with his handkerchief. “You’re perfect, you always were.”
Her heart swelled, nearly bursting with love for the one man in the world who loved her. “I love you so much.”
“And I’ve loved you for an eternity.”
He leaned in to kiss her, but a finger pressed to his lips halted his intention.
“Hold that kiss. I have a dress to put on. Meet you at the altar, husband.”
He gave her the most brilliant smile. “I’ll be there, wife.”
Her face ached from grinning, but never wavered as she said, “I do,” and hauled him in for their first sizzling kiss as husband and wife. Afterward, they danced the night away. Nothing could spoil this day, not a dismembered Daniel, lounging away in several containers in the basement and the unknown waiting for them all. Whatever decided to come their way, she, her husband and his brothers would face it . . . together.
Eternity Page 30