When my eyes finally crawl up to meet his, he lets out a slow, steady breath. His jaw tightens, nose flares, and he shakes his head once, twice, before he tears his eyes away from me and bows his head down.
He pinches the bridge of his nose, one shake of his shoulders telling me he was moved to tears before he finds the strength to stand tall again.
And those warm brown eyes glistening in the sun, those slender wet streaks staining his cheeks, those lips rolling together as he tries to fight back his emotion — they’re what undo me.
My own eyes water, and a single tear slips free before I can even think to stop it.
I don’t make it all the way to him before he’s meeting me halfway, pulling me into him for a soul-shattering, life-altering, you’re mine forever kiss.
His lips are warm and commanding, his hands wrapping around the beaded bodice of my dress, and he still shakes with emotion as he holds me tighter and tighter.
When we finally pull away, our foreheads pressed together, I chuckle. “I think you were supposed to wait until the end to do that.”
“I couldn’t.”
I smile, pulling back to look him in the eyes, and he shakes his head, his gaze one of absolute reverence.
“You are a masterpiece,” he whispers.
My eyes gloss again, and I press up on my toes to kiss him again before Riel clears her throat and ushers us the rest of the way down the make-shift aisle.
The sea breeze is cool and lovely, the sun still warm on our skins as it slowly makes its descent over the island. Brandon holds my hands in his, our tear-filled eyes flicking back and forth between each other’s as Riel’s officiant reads the sweet but short ceremony we selected. He has us laughing and smiling all the way up until he says it’s time for us to exchange our personal vows.
The entire time, all I can focus on is where Brandon’s thumb smooths the top of my knuckles, a sensual promise of what’s to come after the vows.
“Brandon Church,” I say first, and his dazzling smile makes me smile, too. “I wish I could say I’ve known since the moment I met you that you’d be my husband one day, but the truth is, I was doing everything I could back then not to think of you as anything other than my boss.”
That earns me a chuckle from Riel and the officiant, both.
“But I knew… something. From the moment you stepped into the elevator, from the first time our eyes met and I heard your voice, a part of my heart that had been dormant all my life came alive. I stirred beneath your gaze, and though I tried to deny it, tried to fight it, I think I knew even then that there was no way I’d be able to stay away from you.”
“That makes two of us,” Brandon chimes in.
I chuckle. “I don’t think either of us can deny our chemistry, but it’s our love that makes me happiest. I know at the end of the day, no matter what we go through — you have my back, and I have yours. There’s no better feeling than that.” I squeeze his hand. “There was a time when I didn’t know if I’d walk life alone or with someone by my side, a time when I wondered if life was worth living at all. But then I found you. And you saved me.”
“We saved each other,” he amends.
I smile, nodding with tears glossing my eyes once more. “I love you. And I am yours, for today, tomorrow, and evermore.”
Riel sniffs and wipes a tear from the corner of her eye before it can fall. I offer her a soft smile before Brandon clears his throat, pulling my attention back to him.
“Contrary to the many public events in which I have delivered speeches deserving of a standing ovation, I have to admit… I failed every time I tried to write down in words what you mean to me, Ashlei Daniels.”
My heart throbs in my throat, and I swallow it down as my eyes blur.
“I never knew what it was to be truly hungry until I laid eyes on you and knew I couldn’t have you. That desire, that wanting is something I will never forget. But as you said before, what started as something so carnal swiftly turned into something I couldn’t place, couldn’t name, because I’d never experienced it before in my life.” He takes a breath. “Love. Love so pure and powerful and sweeping that I had no choice but to get caught up in the wave of it.”
I bit my bottom lip.
“You are, without a doubt, the strongest, smartest, most incredible woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You own every room you walk into. You command the attention of every man, woman, and child. You, my sweet wife—”