“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Sailor reminded me. “Really. Ask any Julia Roberts movie out there.”
“Cut it out,” Belle warned our redheaded friend. “We’re going to give the asshole the benefit of the doubt, at least for today.”
“You’re right.” Sailor rubbed at her nose. “Sorry, Pers.”
The event coordinator shoved her head past our open window.
“We’re all set. My God, you look like a movie star, Persephone. Hunter is waiting for you by the church’s doors. He is the person giving you away, correct?”
“Actually,” Belle piped, lacing her arm in mine, “we’re all going to give her away.”
“Reluctantly.” Sailor laughed.
And so I walked down the aisle with a herd of my friends and family, feeling loved, cherished, and protected.
Just not by the man I was marrying.
After weeks of not seeing him, his presence hit me like a wrecking ball.
Everything about Cillian standing in a full tux in front of a minister reminded me why I’d been pathetically obsessed with him before Paxton.
Why giving him up had been the hardest thing I had to do.
He was tall, dark, and commanding, dripping untamed power and magnetism money couldn’t buy. He stared directly at me as I walked down the aisle, clutching my bouquet in a death grip. A live band began playing “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” by Handel. The guests stood, whispering and murmuring. Aisling was right. There were hundreds of people in this place, and most of them, I didn’t know.
That was when it hit me.
Cillian didn’t ignore the wedding.
He simply ignored me.
He sent out invitations promoting the idea of him being a family man.
Bastard even chose a song for me to walk to the chapel.
In other words, he was involved in all the parts that mattered to him, and I wasn’t one of them.
My heart jackhammered, and my mouth dried around the rich tang of champagne.
My eyes flicked to his golden-specked ones. He looked calm, serene, utterly unaffected.
“Did he tell you he doesn’t have any feelings? He takes pride in that.”
Sailor’s voice drifted back into my memory.
He did. Multiple times.
Still, I wanted to whack him with my bouquet and yell at him to feel something while swearing his alliance to me.
I stopped in front of him, certain the imprint of my heart could be seen through my dress every time it slammed against my rib cage.
Minister Smith began the ceremony. My eyes dropped to Kill’s lips, which were pursed in mild displeasure.
Those lips were going to meet mine in a few moments for the first time.
A dream come true for eighteen-year-old Persy.
A travesty for twenty-six-year-old me.
Minister Smith finished his part, then paused, clearing his throat.
“Before we proceed, the groom has a few words he wants to say.”
He does?
Never had I wanted to throw up more than the moment Kill Fitzpatrick gazed down at me with an easy smile, producing a dove-white ribbon from his breast pocket.
“Love is a fickle emotion, Persephone my dear. Fortuitous, unreliable, and prone to changes. People fall in and out of love at the drop of a hat. They get divorced. They cheat. They get cheated on.”
My eyes bugged out of their sockets. Was my soon-to-be husband aware he was standing in a church? I half-expected him to burst into flames in front of my eyes, swirling into dark smoke, descending straight to hell where he belonged.
Kill began fastening the ribbon over both our right hands with confident expertise.
“The thing is, you can’t rely on love. Which is why I intend to offer you something far more consistent. Commitment, friendship, and loyalty. I promise to give you my protection, no matter the price.” He proceeded to tie our left hands together with the same ribbon, locking us to one another tightly. His words sounded genuine yet reticent. Dry, but somehow real. “I will never turn my back on us. We will fall in and out of love many times, but I promise to find my way back to you. To put us back together even when the temptation to break things off is too much. And when love feels far away…” He pressed his forehead to mine, his lips moving over mine. “I will bring it right back to our doorstep.”
Our hands were firmly tied together. We stared at each other.
Too close.
Too intimate.
Too exposed.
Our guests stared, wide-eyed, in shock and awe. My mouth hung open, a mixture of fascination, surprise, and most dangerous of all—sheer bliss swirled in my chest.
“This is…beautiful.” The reverend let out a breath. We said our vows. I didn’t puke, despite wanting to, bad. “I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride. God knows you want to.” He chuckled, making everyone in the church erupt in wild laugher.
Cillian tugged me using our bandaged hands, jerking me into his firm body. He dived down with eyes that turned from calm, rich gold to smoldering, molten lava. My breath caught in the back of my throat as he crushed his lips over mine with devastating warmth, bringing our hands to his chest and lacing our fingers together. His lips were possessive, demanding; his almost-familiar fragrance of dry cedar and shaved wood made my knees weak.