He drew Sophie close, her face in his hands, and kissed her mouth. Her lips were warm and pliant, salty with her tears.
“I think you’re supposed to wait until the end to do that,” she whispered, laughing shakily. As if Lucien was ever going to follow the rules.
The celebrant held his palm out, and Lucien took Sophie’s ring between his fingers with the reverence it deserved. And then he looked up at Sophie with all of the devotion she deserved, too.
“Sophie,” he said, and wiped the tears from her cheek with his fingertips. “There isn’t a single part of my life that isn’t a hundred times better for having you in it.” He wanted to remember the look on her face forever. “You’re the girl who kisses envelopes before you mail them,” he said. “The girl who still surprises me every single day. The world’s a better place through your eyes than mine.” He stroked the back of his fingers along her jawline.
“Before you, I thought I was a lone wolf. I was wrong. I need my pack. You. Tilly.” He laid his hand on her stomach. “This baby. All the important lessons in life I’ve learned have been from you. You’ve shown me that love doesn’t have to break people.”
Reaching for her left hand, he stroked his thumb over the place her ring would fit.
“I promise to love you forever, Sophie, and to honour every perfect inch of your body with my own. Often. Daily. Sometimes twice a day,” he added. Behind them, Kara and Dylan’s soft laughter carried on the breeze.
“I promise I’ll never leave you, or screw anyone else, or break your heart.” He slid the ring onto her wedding finger and knew he’d never seen anything as profoundly perfect in his life. Sophie gasped softly, tears on her cheeks all over again.
“I look at you today, barefoot and beautiful, growing our baby inside you, and I wonder how the hell I got this lucky.” He moved her in close, sliding his arm around her waist and lifting her hand to his mouth. He placed his lips over her wedding ring and set the seal.
“You’re my fucking hero, Sophie Knight.”
They danced as the sun set over this most blissful of days.
Encircled in Lucien’s arms, Sophie laid her head on his shoulder and let her gaze slide slowly over the scene as he stroked her back. Tilly, crashed out on a cream, calico-covered lounger that had appeared out of nowhere just when it was needed.
Kara and Dylan, their arms wrapped around each other. Sophie could see Dylan’s face as he rested his chin on top of Kara’s head, and his expression told her all she needed to know about the depth of his feelings for the woman in his arms.
She breathed in a deep, happy sigh and closed her eyes, wondering if she'd ever experience such a perfect moment again.
Lucien Knight.
Her love, her hero, and finally, her husband.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Kara and Dylan made their way home in the Mustang a couple of hours later. He slung his arm around her waist, her sandals hanging from his fingers as they walked slowly along the beach towards the Love Tug, close enough to the water’s edge for the sea to wash over Kara’s bare feet.
"That was, hands down, the best wedding I've ever been to," she said, winding both of her arms around Dylan's midriff. It had been the most impossibly romantic of days, and she was ready now to tell the man at her side that she loved him.
He kissed the top of her head. "Starry-eyed fool."
Kara wriggled her toes in the shallow water. "I used to be." She stilled, smooched him a little. Warm mouths, soft sighs. "Still starry-eyed. But not a fool anymore," she said. "I picked you."
Dylan's conviction to tell her the truth dissolved in her kiss. He let himself roll the dice one last time. It had been the best of days. Let tonight be the best of nights, and come morning he’d tell Kara everything.
They were good plans. Great, even. Brave courses set for the best of reasons. But what neither of them had factored in was the vulnerability of their plans to outside interference. As they strolled up the beach, both spotted the lone figure ahead at the same moment.
For Kara, there was no moment of instant horror and panic, but for Dylan there most definitely was as the man drew himself up to standing as they approached the pathway.
Dylan’s fingers bit suddenly into Kara’s waist, her first warning that something was amiss.
“About time too,” the man said, a triumphant grin on his face as his sly gaze moved between Kara and Dylan.
“What the fuck…?” Dylan ground out. Kara felt her world tip a little at his expression, at the rage in his voice.
“I told you never to come back here,” Dylan said, his voice low and full of menace as he stepped protectively in front of Kara.
“Extenuating circumstances, bro.” Justin shrugged his shoulders with the look of a man who knows he’s holding an ace.
Fear spiked through Dylan’s heart as he remembered turning off his phone earlier that day. Had Justin been trying to reach him? Had something happened to their mother?
Kara stood stock still, her mind reeling. Bro? This was Justin? This was Dylan’s surviving brother? There was little to link them, aside from their familiar accents and maybe their eyes. She made up her mind within seconds that Justin was a man with none of his brother’s virtues.
She placed her hand on Dylan’s arm as he moved threateningly towards the other man.
“Dylan…” she murmured, and Justin looked her straight in the eyes and laughed.
“Dylan?” He rolled his eyes. “Fuck, man!”
Dylan had his brother by the scruff of the neck within a second and had him pinned against the rocks.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” he growled. “Not like this.”
Kara’s world tilted even more queasily to the side. There was something very, very wrong. Dylan drew his fist back, but it stilled in mid air as Justin inclined his head towards someone new approaching the tense gathering. Kara swung around too, and they all watched as a woman headed towards them, stumbling awkwardly as she dragged a pushchair through the deep sand. Tall and skinny, her dark hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, her cotton dress was rumpled, and the tight, resentful look on her face spelled even more trouble.
“So you finally decided to show up,” she drawled, her eyes on Dylan as she came close to them.
Kara wrapped her arms around her midriff, an instinctively protective stance. She couldn’t speak. The look on Dylan’s face had again taken her breath. Whoever this woman was, she was no stranger to him.