My heart does a delicious flip. “You say sweet things.”
“I can say even sweeter things…if you’ll let me in that car with you.”
I laugh and point a stern finger toward Jake’s front door. “No, now go. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
He winks. “I’ll be counting down the minutes, hot stuff. See you soon.”
I stand on the sidewalk, shaking my head as I watch him go, letting my eyes do their own sweep up and down. Jamison is undeniably gorgeous, with a body men envy and women drool over, but what makes him truly extraordinary isn’t anything that can be seen from the outside.
It’s his fierce, sweet, loyal heart that makes him shine.
And it’s mine, all mine.
With a grateful sigh, I slide into my car and head to Mom and Dad’s to pick up Naomi, feeling like the richest woman in the world.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jamison
By the time I slip back into Jake’s house a little before eleven a.m., I’m already having the best day of my entire life.
Maddie is going to be my wife.
As far as I’m concerned, things can’t get any better.
But turns out I’m wrong.
A little after four o’clock, I get to stand beside my brother and watch the woman I love walk down the aisle in a red chiffon dress, with her dark curls piled on top of her head and her eyes shining with happiness.
She’s so fucking beautiful it stops my heart, only to jump start it again a moment later when she looks across the church with a smile meant just for me.
Our eyes meet and hold and something passes between us, something special that fills me with so much raw emotion it’s like my soul is overflowing my skin and bones. It’s a strange feeling, but so perfect and intense and right I don’t want it to end.
I want to stand here at the front of the church for hours, sneaking glances at Maddie as Father Seamus speaks, feeling a fresh rush every time our gazes connect, and I realize that beautiful woman looking back at me is mine for keeps.
But soon, the ceremony ends, Jake and Naomi start back down the aisle, and I realize there’s something even better than staring at Maddie across the altar. There’s racing with her to my car, stealing kisses in the church parking lot, and feeling her fingers tease through my hair as we drive out into the country to a house that looks like a French castle, surrounded by rolling hills covered in peaceful green woods.
There’s walking into the reception with my girl on my arm and seeing the surprise on our families’ and friends’ faces turn to shared excitement when they realize another wedding is on the horizon. There’s sneaking feels of Maddie’s fine ass as I tail her through the appetizer buffet and laughing when she pretends to be scandalized.
There’s resting my hand on her thigh beneath the table during dinner, listening to her sweet voice as she toasts her sister and new brother-in-law, and meeting her eyes over the rim of our champagne glasses, knowing it won’t be long now. There’s the first dance and the second dance and then her hand in mine as we creep down the stairs and out the back door, hurrying across the lawn to a gazebo where the caterers have set out a dessert spread and a bucket of chilled champagne on a table for two.
And there’s deciding dessert can wait and heading up a trail into the darkening woods, following it to a clearing where I spread my tuxedo jacket on the ground for Maddie and show her how much I’ve missed her.
I push inside her, groaning at the bliss of having her tight and hot around me and her arms holding me close and her breath warm against my lips as she whispers my name.
“You feel so good,” I murmur, pulling back to the end of her, only to glide back in with a shudder of pleasure. “I love you. So much.”
“So much,” she agrees, her breath coming faster. “I’m so glad I let myself get tangled in your smolder web.”
“It was your smolder web.” I cup her thigh in my hand, guiding her leg around my hips so I can sink even deeper into paradise. “You’re the one who wanted to go skinny dipping.”
“Thank God for whiskey,” she says, her laugh becoming a moan as I reach down to circle her clit with my thumb.
“Thank God for you,” I say, kissing her deep and sweet.
Not long after, we reach the spinning out place together. She cries my name, coming on my cock while the world blurs and my ears ring and my heart tumbles out of my chest and into her hands.
Where it’s going to stay.
Until death do us part.
Epilogue
Two months later…
Maddie
It’s raining cats and dogs, but nothing can dampen my excitement.