“You already are,” I whispered, unable to tear my gaze away from his.
Before I could get the next words out, Cyrus’s mouth was on mine and he was showing me just how much he loved me. He kissed me with unbridled passion until my lips were swollen and my chest was rising and falling in pants against his.
When he finally lifted his lips from mine, he kissed my jawline, my cheeks, my eyelids, and the tip of my nose. His hands ran along my sides and one settled on the nape of my neck as he moved his mouth back to mine.
There was so much passion in what he was doing, but he was also so tender that it made my heart clench and soar as if it was trying to reach him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and showed him as much devotion as he was showing me.
“Make love to me, Cy,” I whispered against his ear when he bowed his head to press lavish kisses to the column of my throat.
“Yes, please.” He groaned against my skin as if leaving it was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. Then he picked me up with one arm under my knees and the other supporting my back.
“You know this is a bridal carry, right?” I teased breathlessly, my eyes on his and the smile on my lips soft.
“Yep, and one day, we’re going to be doing this with you wearing a white dress. In the meantime, we’ll call it practice.”
I giggled, but my heart was racing at his words. More than anything else he’d said, the fact that he’d just alluded to us getting married at some point in the future proved to me that he was in this with me for real and for the long haul.
It was exactly what I needed to hear before I handed over the last piece of my heart to him. It wasn’t about having a wedding or even needing him to commit to marrying me. It was because it meant that he’d really thought this through, and he still wanted me in his life in the future.
When he set me down in front of his bed, he took his time unzipping my dress, removing my underwear with excruciating slowness and the softest of brushes of his fingers against my heated skin. I returned the favor, starting with the formal black tie around his neck and never breaking eye contact with him until we were both naked.
He looked at me with such reverence that it brought tears to my eyes and then laid me down before following me onto the bed. There were no more words between us as our bodies connected, confirming all the things we’d said to each other and sealing all the promises we’d made with long, slow kisses.
When my orgasm finally washed over me, Cyrus swallowed my moans and followed me over the edge without ever lifting his mouth away from mine. It was like we’d been fused together, and I never wanted it to be any different.
It took a long time before we stopped kissing and our breathing returned to normal. His eyes were on mine, and he didn’t seem to be ready to move yet, which was good because I wasn’t ready for him to do it either.
“You know, you still haven’t told me if you love me too,” he said, his big body covering mine as he kept himself propped up on his elbows.
The longer hair on the top of his head fell across his forehead in that way I loved, and the planes of his face relaxed. I smiled up at him and batted my eyelashes innocently. “Oh, I haven’t? Well, darn. Look at the time. I should go.”
He used his hips to keep me pressed to the mattress, lowering just a little bit more of his weight onto me. I didn’t complain, though, because I loved the feeling.
“You should go, huh?” His eyes darted from one of mine to the other, a playful smile appearing on his swollen lips. “Are you sure about that? Because I happen to know what your plans were for tonight and we’ve officially changed them.”
“Have we?” I frowned, pretending to be confused. “I don’t know about that. I—”
Moving faster than he should have been able to, Cyrus rolled to my side and his hands found my bare stomach. His fingers started moving, and before I even realized what he was doing, I was laughing so hard my cheeks hurt.
Cyrus Coning is tickling me. How crazy is that?
Swatting at his hands while I tried to get away from him, I let him pull me closer to his body when he wrapped his arms around me anyway. Landing with my palms on his chest, one of them right over his heart, my laughter subsided when I saw there was genuine uncertainty lurking in his gorgeous green depths.
I planted kisses on both corners of his mouth and kept the tips of our noses touching as I told him the last words I ever thought he’d want to hear from me. “I love you too, Cyrus. You’re everything to me. I don’t know when it happened, but you’ve become my heart and my soul, and I never want to be without you again.”
“Then you don’t have to be,” he assured me right before wrapping me up in his arms and kissing me until I truly believed we would never be apart again.
Epilogue
Luna
“I can’t believe we’re really here,” April said, her eyes on mine in the reflection of the full-length mirror. She stood behind me, her hands on my hips as she blinked back tears. “You look beautiful, babe. The most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.”
Bride. Eeeep! But yes, that’s me. The bride, and I had the most beautiful form-fitting, mermaid-style, sweetheart-neckline dress on to prove it. It was an ivory color instead of snow white and was covered in the most delicate lace I had ever seen.
The funniest part of all? I really didn’t care. Sure, I loved the dress. It was gorgeous and perfect and comfortable, but I’d have married Cyrus at City Hall wearing a burlap sack, and I still wouldn’t have cared.
Because as much as the perfect wedding used to be a dream of mine, it wasn’t anything compared to the excitement I felt about my impending marriage. In fact, I’d gone so far as to suggest that we didn’t even need to have a wedding.
The day after he proposed, Cyrus had said that the only thing he wasn’t looking forward to was the wait between that day and the day I became his wife. I made a proposal of my own then, but he hadn’t gone for it.
“Let’s go down to City Hall when we get back. That way, we wouldn’t have to wait,” I’d said as I stared into his forest green eyes, his light brown hair glowing almost gold under the bright Italian sun.
Cyrus had chuckled, kissed me silly, and then shook his head. “I waited for our first anniversary and brought you all the way back to Venice to pop the question. I can wait a little longer. I would wait forever if it meant giving you exactly what you’ve always dreamed of.”
“You’re everything I’ve always dreamed of, Cy,” I’d said, cupping the strong line of his jaw. The most gorgeous ring I’d ever seen winked at me as it caught the sunlight in this new position, and a happy sigh escaped. “I don’t need some fairy-tale wedding when it’s you I get to marry. You, us, our lives together. That’s what’s important.”
Lifting his big hand to rest it over mine, he’d brought my palm to his lips and placed a soft kiss in the center. “That’s too bad, princess, because a fairy-tale wedding is exactly what you’re going to get. You deserve everything, and this, at least, is something I can give you.”
I’d tried to change his mind, but he wouldn’t budge. “Spring in New York City is what you’ve always wanted, and that’s what you’re getting.”
So we’d waited another whole year for this day. It was our second anniversary and the day I’d finally, finally get to marry my best friend. Well, best friend of the male persuasion anyway.
April, as the best friend of the female kind, was wearing a soft lilac dress, and surprisingly, her massive smile hadn’t dropped once since it had appeared when I’d told her the news. She looked gorgeous, and since it seemed like she’d started to come around to the whole idea of everlasting love recently after all, I was hoping she might find it today in one of Cyrus’s business-associates-turned-friends.
Because as it turned out, Cyrus could actually be a pretty freaking nice guy when he wasn’t being a dick twenty-four seven. I’d already known it, but as it had become known to others, he’d actually managed to acquire a handful of true friends i
n the years we’d been together.
A few of them were pretty hot. Not Cyrus hot, but then again, there was no one else like him, if you asked me. I was hopeful that one of them would catch April’s eye.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice soft as I met her eyes. “This all still feels like a dream in a way.”
April smiled as she gave me a squeeze. “That’s because that damn man of yours has made all of your dreams come true. I mean, talk about swoon-worthy.”
“He really has,” I agreed. “He’s spoiled me, but I guess I can’t complain about it.”
Adi, who had recently turned nine, sighed as she collapsed into one of the armchairs in the bridal dressing room, her own lilac dress billowing out to the sides. “Do you think I’ll ever find love, Luna?”
“I’m sure you will, angel face. Just not too soon.” Alas, Todd hadn’t turned out to be the love of her life. He was more like her bestie now, and as far as I knew, she hadn’t had another crush since. Which was good. She was only nine, for crying out loud.
I dragged in a deep breath before I spun on the round pedestal the venue had placed in front of the gilded mirror in the dressing room and stepped down. “You’ll remember to check in on the shop every so often while we’re gone, right?”
April nodded. “I’ll make random spot checks on Cyrus’s hired hand. Don’t you worry. Do you know where he’s taking you yet?”
“No, but apparently, he’s already bought my guidebooks, plural, and will give them to me once we’re on the plane.” A shiver of excitement ran through me. “But honestly, I don’t care where that plane ends up carrying us to. As long as it’s with him.”
April fanned her face. “Jeez, woman. You’ve really got it bad. You reek of corny clichés right now.”
I swatted her shoulder and laughed. “Whatever. You know you’re just jealous.”
“As if.” She rolled her eyes, but then they went wide when there was a knock at our door. “Oh my God. It’s time. Adi, baby, it’s time. Come on. Come on.”
They rushed through the penthouse suite of the hotel that had acted as the bridal suite for the day and flung the door open. Peter stood outside, looking dapper in a light gray suit as he held his arm out for me to take.
“You ready to do this, sis?”
“You know you can’t technically call me that for at least another forty minutes, right?” I hid my smile behind the curtain of my loosely curled hair and heard him chuckling.
“That’s just a technicality. It became true the minute you two saw each other at my wedding and decided to skip out together.”
“You said we should go,” I protested as I linked my arm with his.
He smirked. “Exactly, and from then on, you officially became my sister because there was no fucking way he was ever letting you go again.”
Heat burned behind my eyes, but I refused to cry. If I started now, I was going to blubber my way all through the ceremony, and after all the effort Cyrus had gone through to make this day perfect, I absolutely refused to ruin it.
“I still can’t believe he got a venue in the Flower District,” April said over her shoulder. She and Adi were a few paces ahead of us, walking down the carpeted hallway.
Stained-glass windows offered views of the flower-drenched sidewalks below and my knees felt as weak at the sight of it as they had when he’d first brought me here. Contrary to what I might have believed when we’d gotten engaged that day on the bridge in Venice, Cyrus had taken it upon himself to organize this wedding.
Since he’d been helping me with the business end of the shop pretty much from the day after we’d gotten together officially, he’d actually become rather adept at all things wedding. He also visited the Flower District with me often and had forged some pretty decent bonds with our preferred vendors.
The shop was doing better than ever with both of us involved, and as we were pretty decent customers, he’d apparently gotten plenty of help with our wedding from the men and women who dominated the street below.
Their first order of business had been securing this hotel as our venue. I stepped out into the small garden where the ceremony was being held. The sweet, floral scent from all over that met my nostrils made me feel so much that my eyes welled up again.
A string quartet spotted Adi and April as they rounded the corner and started their song, both of them walking slowly down the petal-dotted aisle. Peter smiled at me as he watched them go. “Let me be the first to welcome you to our family, sis.”
He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my temple. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“I’ve been ready for a year,” I said as I tightened my grip on his arm. “Let’s do it.”
April and Adi’s song morphed into the wedding march, and the next thing I knew, Cyrus came into view and everything else faded. I had eyes only for him and I nearly broke into a sprint to get to him faster.
It was only Peter’s steady presence at my side that made me keep my composure. Cyrus was also wearing a light gray suit with a white button down but no tie. He hadn’t styled his hair too much and that favorite lock of mine was hanging just so over his forehead.
Just like me, he couldn’t seem to be able to look anywhere else than right into my eyes. His eyes were filled with so much love that my first tear for the day finally escaped because I never thought I’d be lucky enough to be looked at like that. But especially not by him.
Peter kissed my cheek when we reached the front, squeezed my hand when he removed it from his arm, and placed it in his brother’s. Cyrus wasted no time in pulling me to his side and folding his arm around my back as we faced the officiant.
“My god, Luna. You’re breathtaking. Fucking beautiful, my love. But I hope you haven’t grown too attached to that dress because I’m ripping it off the first chance I get.”
The officiant’s eyes widened and he cleared his throat, though I wasn’t sure if it was because he felt scandalized or whether it was just his way of getting people’s attention.
After welcoming our family and friends, he looked at Cyrus. “Our couple has decided to write their own vows and I believe you’re up first.”
Cyrus nodded and turned to face me. He didn’t pull out a sheet of paper to read from. He just looked right into my eyes and, without any further ado, jumped right in.
“When I met you, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to love, but that was only because I hadn’t yet met the one person who made me want to. The one person who had been made for me.”
There was an “aww” from our small gathering of family and friends, but I was hardly aware of it. All I could focus on was Cyrus.
“From the very first day you walked into my life, you threw it upside down and challenged everything I thought I believed in. More than that, you made me want to believe that I was wrong, even if I never would have admitted it.”
Scattered chuckles made him crack a grin and take a pause to wait for them to die down. “You made me want to do better, Luna, to be better, and in doing so, you made me better. A better businessman, a better brother, a better man.”
He smiled. “You showed me it was okay not to be a dick to everyone all the time, taught me to expect the unexpected, and that there is happiness to be found all around us if we only stop to look for it. You show me the beauty in the world and force me to slow down and notice it. It’s an incredible thing to see the world through your eyes, baby, and I’ll never be able to tell you how grateful I am that you let me.”
His throat moved as he swallowed, his voice growing tighter. “Most of all, you made me fall so fucking hard for you and I’ve never been as happy as I have been since. Thank you for being you and for letting me be me with you.”
He paused to take a breath and held my hands tighter, his eyes never leaving mine even as they teared up.
“So here goes nothing, I guess. The vows. I promise to make your tea just the way you like it every morning and solemnly swear to stop shopping at Bachelors-are-us. I promise to prin
t every photograph of us you like and to put them all up on our walls.”
A heavily pregnant Jenny jumped up and began cheering. Cyrus rolled his eyes at her, but he couldn’t hide his grin. “I thought Jenny would be happy I decided to include that one.”
His gaze came back to mine. “I promise not to be a Grinch whenever the romantic in you comes out to play, and I promise to keep trying to make your dreams come true each and every single day. The thing is, baby, you’ve already made all of mine come true just by being who and how you are. Every morning that I get to wake up next to you, every day and night that I get to spend by your side, it’s more than I ever could have dreamed of having. So if I’m being honest, you’ve more than made my dreams come true. You’ve exceeded dreams I didn’t even know I could be dreaming.”
Tears were pouring down my cheeks by now, but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t going to let go of Cyrus’s hands for anything in the world. Even if I did end up having panda eyes in most of the photos of our ceremony.
“I don’t quite know how I’m supposed to follow that,” I said, my voice shaky when the officiant motioned to me. “But I’m going to try.”
I took in several deep gulps of air and allowed my focus to narrow completely on Cyrus. “You are the most incredible man I’ve ever met. You forget to give yourself credit sometimes, love. All of those things I do for you, you do for me too.
“From the very first time I met you, you have been my champion, my protector, my partner in chaos and crazy. You have opened up my eyes and showed me that it is possible to protect without patronizing or being condescending to someone and that it’s okay to let myself be protected in that way.”
I had to stop to breathe for a second. “You let me be vulnerable with you so we can be strong together. You are and always have been my safe haven and my shoulder to cry on, but you are also my happy place.”
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