by Maree Green
I felt myself pale at his words, sucking in a sharp breath as the pain twisted my gut.
“Fuck,” Seth muttered. “I’m sorry, Aims. I didn’t mean it like that.”
I shook my head, trying to convey to him I was okay.
“I just think you’re rushing things for the wrong reasons. Why not wait until he gets back?”
I gazed at him, trying to form the words that would explain what I was feeling. I needed him to understand. “Seth . . . I don’t need another father. I already have one, who would probably tell me the same thing and then some.” I swallowed down the rising emotion. “This is the first big decision I’ve made for myself. Please . . . ” I whispered. “I need you to trust me. I need you to believe in me—believe that I know what’s best for my own life. Please.”
Seth blinked at me, his own eyes growing a little shiny. Reaching out, he covered my hand with his, his gaze falling to the gesture as he swallowed.
His gaze was filled with sorrow when he finally looked up at me. “I’m sorry, Aims. I’m so sorry . . . ”
My throat was too thick to say anything, but I smiled to let him know he was forgiven.
“If you really do love Daniel that much, then I trust you. I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”
I smiled through watery eyes. “Will you give me away?”
His eyes widened a bit, like it was something he’d never thought about before, and to be honest, he probably never had. Why should he have? It wasn’t like our parents were dead.
A smirk broke through his surprise, and he laughed a little. “I’m starting to think no one actually owns you to give you away in the first place, Shorty, but I’d be honored in any case.”
Finally, my body relaxed, and I let out a relieved laugh. “You better damn well believe it.”
Seth shook his head, still laughing. “Does that man of yours have any idea what he’s getting himself into?”
At the mention of Daniel, my gut twisted with panic. The smile left my face, and my gaze begged Seth for help. “I’m so scared, Seth,” I whispered. “I’ve never felt so scared in my life. It’s like something’s taken a grip on my insides and is squeezing the life out of me. It hurts so much I can’t breathe . . . ”
His face fell at my distress. “Aw, Aims . . . ” he said, pushing up out of his chair and coming around to pull me into his arms. “Don’t look at me like that. It makes me feel so fucking helpless.” I sucked in a shaky breath against his chest. “Shit,” he muttered, squeezing me harder. “It’ll all work out. You asked me to trust you, now you have to trust that what you and Daniel have is big enough to beat all the odds.”
He pulled back, his hands gripping my upper arms as he demanded my attention.
“It’s the only way you’re going to be able to get through it, Aims. You have to believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that what you and Daniel have will beat everything.”
I nodded through my tears, laughter bubbling out despite everything. “A love that conquers all . . . ”
He rolled his eyes with a grin before pulling me back into his arms. “You’re such a romantic.”
Closing my eyes, I exhaled on a sigh. “Thanks, Seth. I don’t know how I’d get through this without you.”
I felt him kiss the top of my head. “I love you, Shorty.”
“Love you too.”
The beeper Seth had resting on the table started screaming out a terrifying sequence of high-pitched sounds, bringing me quickly back to the rest of reality going on around me.
Wincing apologetically, Seth silenced the beast and shoved the offending device in his pocket. “I’m sorry. It’s a bat shit crazy day today. Can you message me with everything I need to know?”
Reaching forward, I squeezed his hand and nodded. “Thank you, Seth. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“I’ll always be here for you, Aims. You know that.” Leaning forward, he gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. “I better run. Talk soon, okay?”
Giving him one last smile, I watched him walk away before heading to the parking lot to drive back to Daniel’s.
Chapter 28
Daniel
Two days.
Forty-eight hours.
That’s all the time I had to wait until Amy was going to be officially mine. And I was strangely very eager for it to happen. Staring across at her worried frown, I squeezed her hand.
“Do you think it’s an omen?” she whispered, a slight look of panic in the depths of her eyes.
I glanced over to the other side of the room, where Amber sat huddled under a blanket on the sofa.
Over the course of the last five days, six out of the fourteen people we’d invited to our wedding had come down with some kind of stomach bug. It hadn’t been pretty.
“Of course not. You and I are meant to be, baby. Stomach bugs don’t have a say.”
A slight smile appeared on her lips before it disappeared again, leaving her face paler than normal.
I frowned. “Are you okay?”
She swallowed before slowly shaking her head. “I feel sick . . . ”
Yeah, she fucking looked it. Quickly standing, I swept her up into my arms and strode for the stairs.
“Daniel . . . ”
I didn’t listen to the panic in her voice. I knew she was worried she was going to vomit all over me, but like I gave a shit about that.
Taking her into the bathroom, I closed the door and placed her on her feet in front of the vanity. As she leaned forward and retched, I emptied the large bowl filled with brightly colored deco-balls and held it in front of her.
The timing was perfect, really. A second later, I would’ve had some cleaning to do.
She groaned between bouts of emptying the contents of her stomach, while I did my best to keep her hair out of the way and offer her sips of water.
When she looked like she was finally done, I added some toothpaste to her brush and passed it to her, making sure I kept my hand on her lower back, slowly rubbing soothing circles to let her know I was going to look after her.
Guiding her to her room, I pulled back the sheets and let her slip into bed before following her in and pulling her against me.
“Daniel . . . ” she said, weakly pushing against my chest. “You should go. I don’t want you to get sick too. ”
Even though she couldn’t really see me, I gave her a deadpan look. “If you think I’d leave you here alone just to save myself, I’m thinking you don’t quite understand the depth of my feelings for you.”
She made some little noise that sounded like it could be happiness. “I’d hate for you to be sick on Sunday, though.”
Stroking her hair, I kissed her forehead. “Baby, I don’t often get sick. I’ve been around Mom and Ryan all week while they’ve been competing for the most vomit produced in the shortest amount of time, and I’m fine.”
Sighing, she snuggled further into my chest. “Thank you. I love you so much. I just want our day to be—”
I frowned at the abrupt end to her sentence, trying to gauge if she was going to be sick again. “To be what?”
Pulling away a little, she gazed up at me. “I was going to say perfect, but I don’t mean it in that way—you know, like Mom and Dad expect, with everyone looking the part and acting like they never do anything wrong—I want it to be perfect for us. A little disorganized . . . A bit funny . . . And a lot of crazy love”
Giving her a soft smile, I pulled her closer. “Crazy sounds pretty perfect to me . . . ” Kissing the top of her head, I breathed her in. I knew without a doubt I was going to miss her scent when I was gone. I’d pretty much already decided I was going to take something of hers with me when I left.
The sound of her cell softly pinging from the nightstand saved me from taking those thoughts any farther than they needed to go. Reaching behind her, I scooped it up and pressed it into her hand.
I watched her face as her gaze moved over the screen, the slight frown that was etched between her
brows smoothing out as a smile began to touch her lips. When her gaze found mine, it was sparkling with happiness.
“It’s Mia,” she said. “They’re coming.”
I was still to meet her friends in the band. After their tour with The Dark Hybrid had ended, they were scheduled to start their own tour, playing smaller venues throughout the country. They’d been home a few times over the last six months, but each time they had, I was in training.
Pure happiness swelled inside me, and I knew it had everything to do with how incredibly excited she looked in that moment.
She shook her head as her mouth opened, failing to find words in the moment. “All of them, Daniel. They’re all coming. I . . . I can’t believe it.”
Now that did surprise me. “Even the band?”
She blinked. “Yes. All of them.”
Even though I kind of already knew I would like them, there was now absolutely no doubt in my mind. If they were willing to fly all the way home between shows, just to be here for Amy, then as far as I was concerned, they were the best kind of people there were.
“That’s pretty damned awesome, baby.”
She shook her head again. “I honestly can’t believe they’re coming. I’m so excited.”
“See?” I said, chuckling at how cute she looked just then. “No bad omens. Just amazingly good friends.”
“Yeah . . . ” Closing her eyes, she sighed and snuggled into my chest.
As I held her to me, I tried to think only of that moment in two days’ time when she would become mine. But try as I might, I couldn’t keep away the sadness at knowing that five days after that, I would be leaving her.
Chapter 29
Amy
Glancing around at the only people in the world who mattered to me, I sat at what I guessed was equivalent to our rehearsal dinner. There was Seth, of course, Amber and her parents, Jess, Kaeli, and Noah down one side of the large rectangular set up, Daniel’s mom, Ryan, Josh, Corey, and Cain down the other side, and at the opposite end to where Daniel and I sat, there was an add-on table with Mia, Jace, Aiden, Matt, and Dean, who surprised me yet again by arriving early and in time for our pre-wedding dinner.
Happiness bubbled inside me. Knowing these people supported me in what Daniel and I were about to do left me speechless. To know they trusted me to make the right decision about my own life brought tears to my eyes.
I had prepared for at least a little backlash, but after the initial shock of our announcement, there had been only positivity. I really couldn’t have asked for better friends.
Amber stood and cleared her throat dramatically. “All right. Important speech about to commence, people.”
Chuckles sounded down the table.
Silence fell, and Amber turned to gaze at me. “Amy and I have known each other a long time. We first met when we were five, when I demanded she follow me during a game of Follow the Leader, but it wasn’t until I told her I hated her shoes and she looked from the offending things then back to me, and said she agreed, that I decided we should be friends.”
Everyone around the table laughed. I’d heard Amber tell that story before, and she swore it was true, but I couldn’t remember it happening at all. Maybe I’d blocked it out.
Amber waited for the laughter to quieten before continuing. “She was always such a quiet and polite little thing, and I made it my mission early on to knock that right out of her. I succeeded on many occasions, but to my disgust, she always reverted back to that shy, sweet little thing. It was enough to make me want to stick my fingers down my throat, really.”
Daniel chuckled and squeezed my thigh.
“I considered ditching her when her politeness became too much, but one day, I got into trouble for creating a highly unappreciated mural on the bathroom door, and while I was standing there, ready to take my punishment like the tough girl I was, my girl stepped in and used her amazing superpower of polite persuasion to make it all go away, so then I decided she was useful and kept her around.”
I shook my head at her, but I was laughing so hard I was almost crying.
Amber smiled at me, her expression slowly sobering as I watched.
“There were some tough times growing up—so many times when I just wanted to kidnap her and hide her away from it all—but she always seemed to amaze me and crawl out the other side. That’s the thing with Amy. She may be shy and quiet, but you should never confuse that with weakness, because my girl is as strong as they come.”
Real tears of unstable emotions pooled, blurring my vision. Soft murmurs of ‘Hear hear’ followed her words around the table.
Taking my hand in hers, Amber squeezed hard. “I have never been more proud of you than I have been these past few months. At the risk of sounding sappy, it’s been like watching a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. Even though you’ve always been beautiful, to see the self-belief take root and grow in you has been the most awe-inspiring thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
With tears spilling over, I stood and pulled her into my arms. I’d always known she was the best friend anyone could ask for, but she still managed to get to me time and time again.
“Daniel,” she said, directing her attention to him with her arm still clutching me to her side, “you are Amy’s cocoon. Without you, I’m not sure she could’ve gotten to where she is right now. Actually, scrap that. She so would’ve. But you’ve been like a microwave to life’s oven. You sped up the process. And you might’ve added a few things she wouldn’t have gotten from the oven—like love and happiness—so I guess I was right first time around.” She shrugged and gave me a pleased smile. “I should never doubt myself, really, should I?”
Giggling, I pulled her in for another hug before we both returned to our seats. Daniel immediately kissed me and wiped the few tears gently from my cheeks.
After that, Daniel’s mom said a few words, and then Seth. He kept it short and simple, but it was still enough to make me cry again. When we’d all eaten and his mom left, Daniel and I sat down with all my friends so Daniel could get to know them better.
As I sat there on Daniel’s lap, with his arms wrapped around me, watching him laugh and joke with the guys like he was always supposed to be there, I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I was home.
Chapter 30
Daniel
The sun was just peeking through the gap in the curtains when Amy started stirring. I concentrated on remaining still, hoping she’d go back to sleep. It was too early for her to be awake. We had a long day ahead of us.
Wriggling her gorgeous body closer, she pressed her chest into my side and sighed. I smiled at her relaxed look of contentment.
I honestly didn’t think I’d get to have her with me for the night, considering it was the night before the wedding. I wasn’t sure how much tradition she’d want to follow.
Amber and Mom tried to get us to follow the rules, but Amy had been adamant. She had argued that she would only get a decent night’s sleep if she was with me, but when that didn’t seem to work, she gave it to them straight. We already had such little time before I was deployed, and she didn’t want to waste a minute of that time apart.
I did the smart thing and stayed quiet. Even though I very much wanted Amy with me every second of every day until the day I had to leave, I wanted her to be happy and to feel right about how we did things. I wanted her to have whatever she wanted, even if that meant following tradition and us not seeing each other the morning of our wedding.
As her body moved against mine again, I was once again very happy with her decision.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
I gazed down at her peaceful face. Her eyes were still closed, so I was sure she was still mostly asleep. My heart swelled knowing she was thinking about me even in her dreams.
Not able to stop myself, I slowly ran my hand over her naked back. She moaned, and my dick instantly went hard.
Arching her back, she slid one of her legs across mine, pressing her pubic bone in
to my hip. I groaned. I couldn’t help it. It felt too fucking good.
Amy sighed again, this time sliding her hand across my abs, too close to where my needy cock was straining for her touch.
My breath became deeper, arousal quickly taking over. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was aware I should probably stop. This was the morning of our wedding. Surely she wouldn’t want to start the morning with me burying myself inside her. I groaned again, my dick thinking that would be the perfect way to start the day.