“Then let’s never wake up.” Merrick pulls me next to him. I haven’t been out of his sight since the day at the diner and I wonder how he’s ever going to go back to work and leave me.
He’s talked about hiring me a bodyguard, but with the way he and his friends and family have rallied around me, I don’t think that’s going to be necessary.
I reach up and put my hand on his hard jaw, the enormous ruby and diamond ring making my fingers look more doll-like than ever before. The sun is casting a pink and orange glow on the clouds as we walk back into the gazebo.
I think back just a few hours ago, Summer and Genevieve stood by me, each holding onto a pink leash so Rosy and Eleanor could be my maids-of-honor as well. Merrick went back to the fair the day after everything happened along with five other deputies and plucked Genevieve out of the mess.
He offered her a place to stay, a new life, and although she was conflicted, she came with us and her life is evolving as well. She’s staying at the house and will watch the dogs while we’re on our honeymoon.
“I just wanted to see you in here one more time. I’d marry you a million times if I could. Today was the happiest day of my life. You’re mine in every way, Kezia, little one.” He kisses my forehead and even that simple gesture sends a shiver over my skin and a pulse into my girl parts.
“I love you a million, trillion, bazillion times.” I look up at him, my hair blowing in my face as my bare feet peek out from under the ruffled hem of my wedding dress.
“You are my everything.” Merrick licks his lips and his eyes have that far off look they get sometimes.
“What is it? Are you happy or…”
“The happiest I’ve ever been. I just…” He pauses, looking up at the twinkling lights in the structure. “How this all happened, you, me, us, your life…no one could have written that.”
“Like I said, it feels like a dream.” I smile, the flash of everything that’s happened winding through me. “I mean, finding you was one thing, but finding my birth mother? A twin sister? What are the odds?”
“Like you said, a million, trillion, bazillion to one.”
I’d always known I was born in Roscommon County. I was told my mother was single, underage, and had given me away, but any other details were always vague.
It was more than a shock to process that I’d found my birth mother and my Daddy all at the same time and in the same place.
Margaret is still processing as well. She’d grieved for nineteen years because the doctor and nurse told her I had died shortly after delivery. She had no power, she begged to see me, but they refused.
I was sold.
I shiver, then Merrick wraps his hands around my waist and pulls me against him and I feel safe again. I feel the hard length of his nearly-constant erection pressing into my hip.
Resting my head on his chest, I listen to his slow, even heartbeat. I have a husband, a man I’m still getting to know in so many ways, but one I feel like I’ve known forever.
I have a mother, a sister and a family. A real family. And I’ve been more loved in the short time since I went to get that coffee with Merrick than I have in my entire life.
“Are you ready to start our life, Mrs. Merrick Webster? The limo is waiting to take us to the airport.”
Merrick has a two-week honeymoon planed for us on a private island, just off the coast of Belize, somewhere I’ve always dreamt of going.
“Yes, but I want to do something first.”
“What’s that, baby? Anything, I’ll give you whatever your sweet baby heart desires.”
I reach down between us, wrap my fingers around his cock and squeeze, giving him a coy look, biting into my bottom lip as he smiles, brushing my hair behind my ear.
“What do you say, little one?”
My heart patters in my chest. “Please, Daddy…” The desire I feel for him snakes inside of me. Coiling and slithering like a predator until it’s centered down deep inside me, ready to strike.
I’ve learned I have my own power, especially when it comes to teasing and making him salivate for me. I’ve still come into my own under his love and wisdom, understanding I have a voice and knowing he will always be there to hear it.
“Good girl. Now, come with me, I have a surprise for you in the back of the limo.”
We walk down the steps of the gazebo, toward the stretch black Lincoln that waits on the street in front of the restaurant, where we just celebrated with half the town.