Breath fills my lungs, but some sort of ecstasy fills my chest. “You’re here.”
I practically throw myself into his arms, crushing my lips to his, kissing him until I’m dizzy and I can no longer tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Because I’m not supposed to anymore. Because Knox is both. “You’re really here,” I whisper, lips still brushing over his, unable to stop touching him in every way possible.
I can feel his mouth stretch into a smirk against mine.
“Woman, I told you I was coming for you.” He pulls me to him tighter, kissing me softly. First on the lips. Then on the tip of my nose. Then my forehead. “I wasalwaysgonna come for you.”
EPILOGUE
“You want to tell me why you dragged me into your office two seconds after I walked in the door?” Arizona asks when I release her, having quite literally grabbed her and tugged her along the moment she arrived at my house.
“I did it,” I whisper, too excited to use my full voice, afraid I might scream if I do.
“You did what?”
I don’t answer. Just tip my head to the side, nodding at my computer and the open word document on the screen.
Her eyes light up with understanding. “Oh. I see.” She starts for the desk, then stops short. “May I?”
“Of course.” I bow out of the way, gesturing for her to go ahead.
She makes a whole scene of it. First, pulling out the chair in slow motion and having a seat. Then rubbing her palms together in anticipation, followed by a loud sigh before finally, settling in, eyes glued to the screen.
I watched through a blur of my own tears as Chris slid a wedding band onto my finger, leaving it flush against the one containing a small solitary diamond he’d given me two years earlier. Then, he reached up and used his thumb to gently dry my eyes. He was smiling at me with tears of his own threatening to break free, and for a long and utterly perfect moment, there was only us.
Completely unaware of our guests, and even the minister standing right in front of us, I held his beautifully handsome face in my hands and whispered, “I love you, Christian Michael Kadera. Loving you comes as naturally to me as breathing does to others, and for as long as I live, I’ll never be able to do one without feeling the other. You’ve had my heart from the start,so today, three years later, I have little else to offer you in comparison. Except this.
“For each day that we share, I give you my hands. To hold you, touch you and to build with you a world of our own making.
I give you my mouth. To kiss you. To speak to you words of love, support, and honesty always.
I give you my eyes. To see you. The real you. All of you. And to share with you what I see in moments when you can’t see for yourself.
But even when this body turns to dust and my heart beats no more, my hands can feel no touch, my mouth takes no breath and my eyes are forever closed, you will still have my word. I am yours, Chris. With every beat pulsating through my body, the intensity of this truth only grows stronger. I belong to you. Today. Tomorrow. The rest of this life and every lifetime that follows. This soul is bound to yours.”
With shaky fingers, I took Chris’s ring from his nephew, the sweetest of ring bearers.
Then, the instant my hand touched Chris’s, a steady calm set in. He was my anchor.
The unruly ocean of my emotions could spin itself into a spiraling whirlpool, and I would still be safe with him.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard the minister declare us husband and wife, and I vaguely remembered he was meant to follow the statement with a permission for us to kiss. However, Chris hadn’t waited for such permissions.
His lips had found mine just as I’d slid the wedding band down onto his finger.
It was all the confirmation either of us had needed.
We were married.
It was done.
And I was happier than I’d ever been in my entire life. I was officially the rock star’s wife.
The End.
“What do you think?” I ask, impatiently hovering over Arizona’s shoulder while she finishes reading the very first ending I’ve ever been able to write.
“I think it sounds like you wrote your own story.” She looks up at me, grinning. “Damn good thing it’s such a fabulous one.”
