“We’ll get through it.”
He reached out and hit the stop button on the elevator. “I need to tell you something first.”
Cornering me against the wall, his intense gaze held me to the spot. “You’re everything to me. When I heard that Dmitri had taken you…” He gritted his teeth.
I pressed my palms to his chest. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” Shaking his head, he continued, “You’re my queen. I should have protected you. Without you, all this is nothing. Before you came back, I was just going through the motions. I was the boss, but in my mind, I was still the foot soldier who was only playing at being in charge.”
“But you’ve been so strong.”
“I’ve been strong because of you. When you walked back into my life—” He smirked. “Strutted, I suppose is the right word for your sassy little walk.”
I smiled and rubbed my nose against his.
“When you came back, I realized that what I’d built didn’t mean shit if I didn’t have you to share it with. Instead of playing at being boss, I became the boss. I stopped worrying about whether I was good enough, strong enough, because you believed in me.”
“I always have. From the day I first saw you.” I stroked his cheek. Nate was my touchstone, the one person in my life I would always depend on, because he always came through for me. Maybe that was the foundation of my love for him, but I’d built so much more on top of it.
“I’m going to work every day to earn that faith.”
I ran my fingers behind his ears and into his hair. “Every night, too, I hope.”
“Fuck, I love you.” He grabbed my ass and yanked me to him, his kiss rough and perfect. I lost myself in him—the messy, scarred, perfect man whose love I cherished above all else.
Epilogue
Nate
Was I standing in the right place? I felt like it was the right place, but Sabrina’s mother was giving me a sort of confused stare from the front pew, Colum sitting at her side.
“Con.” I stage-whispered to my best man.
“What?” He wore sunglasses, and he should have looked like a total douche in them, but instead he was cool as shit.
“Am I standing in the wrong spot or something? Nikita is giving me the eye.” I turned to glance at him.
Con’s lips twisted into a smirk. “Where you’re standing is fine, but you’ve got lipstick smeared all over your chin.”
“Oh, shit.” I reached up and rubbed my chin and my lips.
“You’re not supposed to fuck the bride before the wedding. Bad luck or some shit,” Con intoned as the priest gave me a hard glare.
“No, I’m not supposed to see the wedding dress. That’s the bad luck. I didn’t. She was naked.”
Peter leaned forward to peer past Con. “You fucked her in the church?”
I finished wiping my face clean. “God didn’t mind. It was like he was getting some free Skinemax all up in his house.”
The priest’s face went from displeased to full-on constipated.
Charlie shushed us, her delicate features highlighted by white hydrangeas in her hair.
Con lowered his sunglasses and took her in from head to toe. “I’ll deal with you after the ceremony.”
Charlie, color rising in her cheeks to match the pink of her dress, said quietly, “You’ll have to catch me first.”
Con laughed low in his throat. “Consider it done.”
David shifted his large frame, his tux probably straining to stay together at the seams. “It’s ten minutes past time. What the hell are we waiting—”
The organist began to play, and the full-to-the-brim cathedral quieted. The stained-glass windows filtered the morning sun, and the hand-painted ceilings soared away from the rising congregation.
I watched as the vestibule doors opened, and then everything stopped. My ears rang, as if I were shell-shocked, as Sabrina—her dress some sort of lacey affair with long sleeves and a low neckline—practically floated down the aisle. Even through the veil, her face lit up as she saw me, each of her measured steps sending my heart into a faster gallop.
She was more beautiful than I could have even imagined, and it was hard to believe that she’d come here to marry me. For once, words failed me—even the profane ones—and all I could do was stand and watch my destiny approach.
I took her hand as she walked up the steps, and we stood face to face as the priest began speaking about the qualities of true love. His words fell on deaf ears. I already knew what true love was. She stood right in front of me, hope in her eyes and faith in me in her heart.
“What is taking so long?” I lay on the bed, my cock at full staff as I stared at the bathroom door.
As soon as the ceremony was over, I’d grabbed Sabrina, had our first dance at the reception hall, then whisked her away to our penthouse suite for the first night of our honeymoon. She’d been in the bathroom for at least ten minutes, and I was on the verge of crushing the door when it finally opened.