Текст книги "Infatuation"

Автор книги: River Savage

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Текущая страница: 20 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

Nipple clamps.

“Are you going to use them on me?” He reaches in and pulls out what looks like a long metal chain with a clamp on either end.

“Yes,” is all he says, before throwing the empty box to the side and coming back to hover over me.

“Been dreaming about using these on you since the first time I had you.” He dips his head low, and pulls my nipple between his teeth for a few seconds before letting it go.

“Holy shit.” I breathe through the light sting. “Is it gonna hurt?” I watch him trail the cool metal over my breasts and around my nipple.

“No, darlin’. It’s gonna feel good. Everything I do to you is gonna feel good.” He clicks his tongue against his teeth as he reaches for my nipple. Squeezing it tightly between his thumb and finger, he uses his free hand to press one of the clamps open then places it over my erect nipple. The smooth metal tingles to begin with as he releases the clamp, letting it squeeze down slowly before slightly tightening it with a small screw on the side.

I draw in a sharp breath through my teeth, the sting unlike anything I’ve ever felt before pushes me out of my comfort zone.

“How’s it feel?” he asks, pulling back to have a better look.

“It stings.” I start to pant, not sure if I’m in pain or highly turned on, and have no idea what I’m talking about.

“Good.” He moves over to my other nipple. Repeating the same actions, he squeezes my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, before slowly and gently releasing the clasp onto my swollen nipple. He fiddles with the tightening screw before resting back.

“Fucking hell, darlin’.” His finger circles my left nipple, trailing it over the clamp, down the metal chain over to my right nipple. “It’s even better in real life.” He leans down and flicks his tongue over my nipple.

His cock grows harder against my stomach, but I can’t give it too much thought. I’m lost in a haze. He repeats the same action back over to my left nipple.

When he’s happy with his work, he slides down my body, trailing soft, wet kisses on my skin. His beard scratches along my stomach, as every inch of me comes alive. Every touch and each breath brings me to the crest of something bigger.

“Spread wider for me, darlin’,” he orders. When he settles his body between my legs, his warm breath dances over my skin. Doing as I’m told, I part my legs, exposing myself to him.

A hiss passes his lips as his eyes settle on my exposed pussy.

“I want you to come on my face. Been thinking about it every day for the last month,” he tells me before running his nose between my legs, breathing me in.

“Oh, God, Beau.” My hips leave the bed as I squirm against him, seeking more friction.

“Ass to the bed or I will tie your feet.” He looks up, his eyes glass over with a new level of power and I drop my ass fast. “Good girl.” He takes his gaze back to my pussy before ever so lightly flicking his tongue over my clit. It’s like it almost didn’t happen.

“More,” I whimper. Forcing my ass to stay on the bed, I pull against my restraints instead.

I’m like a starved woman, just needing to be touched.

“Patience, Mackenzie.” He grins back up at me, and I have to curb my desire to kick him.

“Beau.” I can barely recognize my own voice. My plea sounds pained.

“Trust me, darlin’. This is going to be worth every agonizing second.” He dips his face back between my legs and blows a warm breath over everything except my clit.

Fucker.

I’m so wound up, I don’t know if I can keep it up.

“Please, Beau.” I’m at his mercy and the longer he keeps playing with me, the more my mind starts to daze.

“What do you need, darlin’?” His fingers wrap around my ankle, before slowly sliding up my leg.

“Yes, more. I need more.” His hand rises over my knee, up the inside of my thigh, before slightly grazing my bare lips.

“Ughhh.” I release a pissed-off groan when he doesn’t apply any pressure. His soft chuckle tells me this isn’t going to end any time soon.

“The more you fight this, the more I’m gonna hold this off.” I still my body, and try to clear my mind.

Okay, I can do this. Relax.

I let a slow and deliberate breath out, forcing my body to focus on what he’s doing and not what I need. Every delicate stroke, every almost brush, it’s like every spot he’s not touching is more alive than where he is.

“That’s it, darlin’, let me play you like you were made to be played.” He presses his lips on the inside of my thigh, and carefully guides himself up. His beard draws out the anticipation. Where his lips or tongue don’t touch, the rough hair scrapes, bringing a whole new level of sensation.

“Mmmm.” Pleasure pulls a low moan past my lips as heat blankets me in a heavenly fog. He’s barely touching me, yet I’m certain any minute now, I’m about to come.

“You’re fucking beautiful, Kenz. Lying there tied to my bed. Nipples pulled tight with these clamps.” His fingers slide up over my stomach in a slow leisurely pace and lightly tug on the cord

“Ahhh!” The sharp sting lights a new fire in me, burning a path straight to my clit.

“Relax into it, darlin’.” He tugs a second time, igniting the path over again.

“Please. Oh, God, please.” I arch as he pulls, relaxing when he releases.

“Again.” He pulls one last time just as his finger enters me. I’m sure I come out of my skin as his finger hooks and finds my favorite spot.

“Yes!” My breath catches as his mouth lowers over my needy clit. Stars burst in front of my eyes. Every nerve ending comes to life in a dance of seduction, passion and need before I’m pushed over the edge of reason.

Wave after wave of ecstasy cascades over me.

“Eyes.” Beau’s demand pulling me out of my trance. Before I can look down my body, the swell hits and my orgasm surges through me.

His tongue laps it up, every drip that spills from me. His eyes find mine as his fingers tug on the chain for a fourth time and before I know what’s happening, I’m coming again.

“Oh, my god, Beau.” My head falls back, the pleasure too intense to hold my head up and watch. Beau’s moans of approval are enough to tell me I gave him what he wanted. What he’d been searching for.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing it.” Beau’s voice has me lifting my neck back up to watch him climb up over my body.

I don’t have anything left in me to reply so I just watch as he slaps his cock on my clit a couple of times. The cool metal of his cock rings, reminding me just how much I’ve missed them. How much I’ve missed him.

“You doing okay, darlin’?” My eyes flick up to his just as he lines himself at my entrance. I’m doing more than okay. I’m floating, dancing on air.

“Yeah.” I spread myself wider to let him in.

At my answer, he pushes himself all the way in, burying himself balls deep, before sliding out and repeating his actions.

His piercing, his balls, his body, skin to skin, all connects me to him as he strokes himself into me.

It’s too much.

It’s perfect.

I’m unraveling.

“Kenz.” His breath quickens as he rocks inside of me. My wrists start to burn with the friction of the tight rope rubbing against me. “Tell me you love me.” He thrusts deeper.

“I love you,” I answer, thrusting my own hips up to meet him.

“Again.” He reaches down and pulls at the chain. Fire spreads through me.

“Oh, God, it’s too much.”

“No it’s not,” is all he says, before pulling out again. It’s all it takes before I’m seized by a rush of sensations so intense, I scream out.

“Beau!” My body tenses for a brief second before I’m coming apart in a convulsive release. Wave after wave of pain mixed with pleasure rips through me.

“Look at me.” I hear Beau’s voice over the roar of my orgasm and my eyes fly open.

He drives in harder, faster, matching the range of emotions tearing through me.

“Fuck, I missed this.” He pumps once, twice, then a third time before an uninhibited cry of satisfaction rips from his throat and he releases. Our eyes stay locked as we both ride out our pleasure, neither one of us lost to ourselves. Our ragged gasps become out of sync when Beau’s strokes slow and come to a stop.

“Jesus Christ.” He pants, dropping his body to mine.

“Ahh!” I suck in a startled breath when he lands on the nipple clamps. “Clamps,” is all I say before his fingers are pressing down and slowly releasing my nipples from their pleasurable torture.

“How do you feel?” He presses a gentle kiss over the red swollen flesh.

“I don’t know.” My words become caught in my throat as he moves on to the other nipple, showing it the same attention and ending with a soft kiss.

“You are amazing.” He pulls back slightly, letting his still hard cock fall from me. I can barely talk. My body is spent, my mind lost to itself.

I force my eyes to stay open as he reaches over me and releases my right hand from its restraints.

“Next time, I might just let you sleep in these.” He takes my wrist and soothes the burn with soft kisses.

“Oh, God, no.” I shake my head.

“Yes, darlin’.” He moves on to my other wrists, releasing it from the rope then bringing it up to his mouth and soothing the burn.

“I wouldn’t be able to touch you,” I mumble, my eyes becoming too heavy to fight the pull.

“But I’ll be able to touch you,” he whispers, rolling me to my side and coming in behind me. “Whenever I want.” He wraps his arms around me and mumbles more positives of having me tied to his bed, but I stop hearing them. I’ve given up the fight against sleep. Before I know it, I’ve succumbed to my first ever peaceful after-sex slumber.

Limbs heavy, mind relaxed, I fall deeper into blissful darkness knowing we will never come back from what just happened.

I don’t want to.

It is etched into my mind and will be the moment we draw all comparisons from. We will revisit it, try to replicate it, but nothing will ever compare.

Because it is the first time I gave myself entirely to Beau.

He owns me, and for the first time in my life, I realize I don’t want to be owned by anyone other than him ever again.

Thirty-Two

Beau

I wake the following morning to an empty bed, the lingering smell of coffee, and visions of having my woman tied naked to my bed.

“Fuck me.” I sigh into my pillow, not ready to let the image go. I didn’t think Mackenzie and I would ever get to that point, but now I know what she’s capable of, I can’t wait to play some more.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Mackenzie’s cursing floats down the hall, bringing me out of my daydream and back to the moment.

Giving up the comfort of my bed, I pull on some pants, tie up my hair, and make my way down the hall and into the kitchen.

“Morning, beautiful.” I step into the kitchen and watch her head whip around.

“W-what are you doing up? Go back to bed. I was making you breakfast in bed.” She starts to panic. Turning back to the stove, she bumps the pan, almost spilling a mess everywhere. Her hair sits up on her head in a messy bun. She’s wearing one of my club tees and she’s barefoot in my kitchen trying to make me breakfast when we both know the woman is shit at breakfast.

Jesus, I need to marry her as soon as fucking possible.

“You okay, darlin’?” I keep my distance, watching her become flustered.

“NO! You’re making me nervous. Go away.”

A deep laugh rumbles from my belly and she turns her head back my way and narrows her eyes.

“I told you, breakfast is my gig, darlin’.” I shrug, not at all bothered if she’s pissed. We’ve been over this so many times. The woman just can’t do eggs. It’s that simple.

“Yeah, well, maybe I want it to be my gig.” She huffs, trying to fix up something that resembles an omelet. A bad omelet.

“Not gonna happen.” I step all the way into the room and move to her.

“No, you stay right there, mister. I’m doing this.” She points back to me but I don’t listen. “Please, Beau,” she begs when I step in behind her and press my front to her back.

“You really want the breakfast gig?” I lean and whisper into her ear. I don’t know why it’s such a big deal for her.

“You know I do. Why else do I set my phone alarm to try to beat you?” She whips her head around and I raise my brow at her confession. “I normally snooze it, but still.” I spin her the rest of the way around so she’s facing me.

“Fine, you can do breakfast.” Her face transforms into something else when her smile of victory takes over. “When you marry me.” Her eyes fly up at my stipulation. Shock, and confusion flicking over her face.

“Beau.” My name falls from her lips in a mixture of not understanding and frustration. “Quit messing.” She tries to pull out of my grasp, but I place my hands on either side of her face and hold her in my space.

“I’m only going to ask you one more time, darlin’. You think I was fucking around last week. I wasn’t. No one will work harder to make you happier than me. Let me be your family. Marry me.” I don’t even have a fucking ring, but I don’t care. I need to do this now. I’m not waiting.

Her eyes squeeze shut, forcing the tears down her face.

“This here, right now. This is all you’re going to get, because I’m not waiting another second, Kenzie. Let me give you everything you want. Everything you deserve.” I hold her gaze and watch a flurry of emotions take over. Hope, love, wanting, even need. Each one flashing so fast I nearly miss it, but they’re there.

“Mackenzie, say yes,” I whisper her name in a plea.

“Yes, Beau, I will marry you.”

“Yes?” I repeat, just to be sure.

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” She shakes her head, tears rolling down my hands. Not knowing what else to do, I crash my mouth to hers, needing more than anything a deeper connection to her. She opens instantly. Her tongue finds mine with the same need. Keeping the kiss going, I release her face, bend at the knees and pick her up. She wraps her legs around my waist as I lean forward and turn the stove off, and then stumble my way back to bed.

“Breakfast,” Kenzie mumbles against my lips, but I ignore it. Breakfast is the last thing on my mind. I need to be with her. Inside of her.

I take us back to bed and gently lower her down.

“Shirt off,” I tell her, while dropping my pants then working on her panties. She helps me along, lifting her ass so I can pull them easily down. When we’re both naked, I climb over her and maneuver myself on top of her.

“I love you, darlin’.”

“I love you, more.” She threads her fingers through my hair and yanks out my hair tie.

“Not possible.” I shake my head, releasing my hair.

“How about I show you.” She manages to roll me to my back then straddles me. Her bare pussy rests against my stomach, and her arousal seeps against my skin.

“You gonna ride me, baby?” I slide my hands up the outside of her thighs and over her waist.

“Yeah,” She lifts herself up, grabs my hard cock, then slides herself down my cock, taking me whole.

We hiss in pleasure at the same time as she rolls her hips to adjust to me.

“You have until the first orgasm. Then I’m taking control,” I tell her as she builds her movements.

“Second,” she argues, pinching her nipples while picking up her pace.

Fucking little tease.

“Fine, but then I’m bringing the rope out.” Her walls clench in response to my plan.

“Deal,” she agrees in a weak cry as she rides out her first orgasm over my cock. Willing my balls to hold it together, I fold my arms behind my head and lie back to enjoy the show.

This woman, this incredible, sexy, funny, and strong woman is mine.

Forever.

I don’t know what to do with that knowledge.

Forever seems like a long time, but looking up at her now, wild, free, riding my cock, I know forever isn’t going to be long enough.

Nothing we have would ever be enough.

But I will take whatever we have, because anything less will hurt more. And we both have too much hurt already in our pasts.

From now on, it will only be goodness. It is a vow I know I will keep, because I won’t accept anything else, not when it comes her.

Not ever.

“I don’t think we should tell them,” Kenzie tells me when we pull up outside the hospital later that afternoon. After I let her ride me to her second orgasm, I took over. Giving her one more before I had her hands tied behind her back and fucked her from behind.

“Not yet anyway,” she adds before I can respond.

“Whatever you want, darlin’.” I kick the stand down and wait for her to climb off my bike before following her.

“You’re not angry, are you? That I want to hide it from everyone?” Her hands bunch up at the bottom of her shirt and I know she’s probably been worrying about this on the whole ride over.

“Do you want to hide it because of Brooks and Kelly, or because you’re having second thoughts?”

“Because of Brooks and Kelly. I’m not second-guessing my choices, Beau. I just don’t want to upset anyone. Not when everything is still so unknown.”

“Then I’m not angry. It’s why I love you.” I pull her body to mine and kiss her. Maybe it’s selfish I asked her to marry me when Brooks is dealing with his shit. When her friend, Heidi, is still missing. When we have so much shit to deal with at the shelter. But I don’t care. Because in a normal day, I wouldn’t factor how me asking Mackenzie to be my wife would affect anyone else’s life but ours. I’m not about to start now. Especially not when I’ve worked so hard making sure Kenzie doesn’t either.

“It will just be until things settle down.” She pulls back, still worrying about it.

“Darlin’, I’m not angry. But fair warning, when my ring goes on your finger it’s not coming off.”

“Noted.” She reaches up and kisses me again. This time skimming her tongue along my lips.

Yeah, I fucking need a ring today. No fucking way I am keeping this shit locked up.

“Where the fuck you been?” Nix’s question interrupts our kiss, bringing us back to the hospital parking lot.

“We had shit to deal with for the opening at Missy’s.” I look down at Kenzie and give her a wink. He doesn’t need to know we were off the grid because I needed to fuck my new fiancée.

“Kelly’s awake.”

I look up just as Mackenzie’s body recoils at the news. “Oh my God.”

I reach around Mackenzie, not trusting her to keep standing. “Good news, darlin’,” I remind her as she breaks down into sobs.

“Yeah, it’s great.” We both look up at Nix’s tone, and notice he doesn’t share the same excitement.

“What’s wrong?” Mackenzie beats me to it.

“She doesn’t know who she is.” He rubs his forehead.

“What? What do you mean?” I hold Kenz tighter, not sure this is the news we were hoping for.

“I don’t know. That’s all Brooks could tell us before he went back. He hasn’t come back out. They’re running some tests.”

“Oh my God, Beau.” Kenzie twists to look up at me.

“Don’t think about it like that, darlin’. This is good news. For all we know, it’s temporary.”

“But what if she doesn’t remember? What if she never remembers?” Her mind moves straight to the worst possible outcome.

“What if she didn’t wake up, Kenz? You can’t keep on this track. She woke up. It’s a start and you have to believe it’s gonna be okay.” I take either side of her face in my hands. “She’s gonna remember, darlin’. And if she doesn’t, then we’ll find a way to remind her.” A tear falls down her cheek, but I don’t take this one away. She needs to feel this if she is going to believe it.

It might not have been the news we hoped for, but we’re closer to having our family back, and we have to hold on to what we are given.

Because what is the alternative?

Epilogue Mackenzie

Four months later

“This can’t be happening now.” I look up at my reflection and try to talk myself down. “This is what you wanted,” I remind myself, watching the damn wrinkle crease between my brows. “If you don’t relax, your makeup is going to be messed up.” I nod, feeling myself calm a little. I don’t want to have to ask Holly to fix up my face or my hair. Not when she just spent two hours making me perfect. “You can totally do this. No, you have to do this.” I level my stare at myself just as another wave of nausea has my head in the sink. I pray I don’t bring up my lunch.

“Shit, I can’t do this.”

“Are you okay in there?” A knock at the door pulls me out of my trance and back to the room.

“Err yeah, just give me a second,” I call back, before taking some deep breaths then placing the pregnancy test in my bag so no one finds it.

“You still need to put your dress on, Kenz. Hurry up,” Kadence shouts through the door, rushing me along. Not wanting to run any later, I shake the nervousness off and force myself out of my panic.

“Sorry. I’m here.” I open the bathroom door and step out into the room in front of my friends.

“Come on, everyone’s ready.” Kadence stands from the bed first and rushes toward me.

“I know. I know, I’m coming.” I drop my bag on the bed then let her help me out of my silk dressing gown so I can step into a strapless, fit and flare ivory dress with a sweetheart neckline.

I didn’t want anything too fancy, but with friends like Kadence, Holly and Bell, I knew the dress shopping would turn into a huge deal.

“Oh my, Mackenzie, it’s so beautiful,” Bell whispers from the bed as I hold the front of my dress up, allowing Kadence to carefully zip me.

“Thanks.” I smile, watching all the girls come to stand around me. The last four months they have really gone above and beyond. With still no news on where Heidi is, they have shown me all the support I could ever imagine helping to organize my wedding.

“I wish Kelly and Heidi were here.” I blink a couple of times, fighting the tears.

“I know with everything in my being both of them would want to be here.” Bell reaches for my hand and offers me a light squeeze.

“Now, no more tears today. We have buttons to deal with.” Kadence drops to her knees and starts fastening each one of the thirty buttons.

It’s the best and the worst part about the dress.

“Thanks.” I sigh, my anxiety coming back full force as she fiddles more with it.

“Are you okay? You seem tense.” Holly gazes at me through the makeup mirror as she touches up her lipstick.

“Yeah,” I lie, trying to keep my breathing under control. I’m not okay, but I can’t tell them. Not now.

“How much time do we have?” I ask, starting to second-guess my choice on this dress. The buttons are amazing, but a pain in my ass.

“Okay. Done.” Kadence steps back and allows me to take a closer look in the floor-length mirror.

“Wow.” I look at myself, my hand instantly touching my stomach.

I’m going to be a mom.

Beau’s going to be a dad.

I don’t even see myself as a bride on my wedding day, making sure everything is perfect. All my eyes see is my hand on my stomach holding in the biggest secret.

“Beau is going to freak.” Bell pulls me out of my head and I turn to look back up at her.

Would he? I know she’s not talking about the news, rather how I look, but all I can focus on is the life growing inside of me.

“Mackenzie?” I look up at Kadence’s voice as the music starts to play, signaling the beginning of the ceremony.

“Oh my, God, girls.” I inhale deeply, only to stop when a sharp pain halts me, radiating through my chest.

“What’s wrong?” Kadence steps forward, offering me her arm.

“I can’t breathe.” My heart beats fast and my hands start to sweat.

“You can, just slow your breathing down.” She tries to calm me by holding me, but it doesn’t help. I’m too worked up. Holly steps forward, followed by Bell, but each one of their panicked faces only pushes me into anxiety.

“No, I can’t. It hurts, something’s wrong.” I inhale again, only to be restricted by the same sharp pain. “I can’t do this.” I step out of Kadence’s embrace and pace. “What am I doing here, guys?” I know I’m overthinking it, but I can’t help it. Everything that’s happened over the last four months has happened so fast.

Between Kelly coming out of her coma, Missy’s place taking off and needing so much of our attention, Beau asking me to marry him and now this– everything feels rushed.

“I can’t. Oh, God, I can’t.” I sit on the floor, my legs becoming too unsteady to stand. “I can’t breathe. I literally cannot breathe.” The sharp pain in my chest grows as I struggle with short pants. “It hurts.”

I briefly hear Kadence talking to someone before tunnel vision kicks in and I’m spiraling out of control.

Is this too soon? What if we aren’t ready? Question after question spins me further out of control. I can hear Kadence and Bell’s voice try to pull me back, but I can’t latch on to them. I’m too focused on what’s happening inside of me.

“Mackenzie.” The deep timbre of Beau’s voice breaks through my panic and a quick sharp burst of air accompanies it. “Come back to me, darlin’.” He enters my headspace and slowly starts to coax me back. “Slow your breathing and come back to me, now.” I’m moved from the floor and pulled into the warmth of his lap.

Not understanding what’s happening, I focus on his smooth comforting voice and follow his orders.

“That’s it, darlin’, nice slow breaths.” I do as I’m told, drawing strength and comfort from him. After a few more silent minutes, I’m finally able to open my eyes.

“Beau?” I look up, the room coming back to me.

“Welcome back.” He pushes some curls from my face and leans forward to gently kiss me.

“I’m so sorry.” I close my eyes, realizing I just totally freaked and caused him to come running back here.

“Talk to me. What happened?” I look up briefly, noticing we’re alone.

“Where are the girls?”

“I kicked them out.” He lifts his shoulder in a shrug, and for the first time since he’s come in, I notice his outfit.

“You look handsome.” I run my eyes over him. He’s wearing his leather Rebels cut over a clean white dress shirt that pulls tight over his arms, and black pants.

When we started planning our wedding, Beau only had two requests. First was he would not wear a tux and second, he wanted to be married at the clubhouse. It didn’t bother me either way where we got married, but I was a little disappointed I wasn’t going to see him in a suit. Now I’ve seen his alternative, I’m not so torn up.

“Glad you approve.” He grins his sexy grin as I look back up at him. His hair is pulled back in one of his messy buns, which makes his beard look longer, and my knees weak. “I’m trying not to look at you, darlin’, but from what I can see, you’re taking my breath away.” I smile at his ability to always say the right thing. We both know I’m a hot mess right now. I mean, he just pulled me up from the floor of my old room in the clubhouse.

“Seriously, did I just ruin our wedding?” I dab under my eyes with the pad of my finger.

“I don’t know why you would say that? I think it’s normal for the groom to come back and talk the bride down from having a panic attack.”

“Don’t joke right now.” I shift a little in his lap, my dress less restricting now I’m not in the middle of a full-blown freak out.

“What happened?” His voice lowers with his question and I know we’re being serious now.

“I just panicked. I don’t know.” He rests his forehead to mine and lets me try to gather my thoughts.

“You wanna get out of here?”

“What? No!” I pull back, almost shocked he even suggested leaving. Not only do we have forty people waiting outside for us to be married, I want this.

“Then talk to me. What’s happening?”

“I’m pregnant.” I blurt the news out without even thinking about the consequences. His body tenses underneath mine while he processes my words.

“Darlin’.” His hands come up and cup my face. “Are you fucking with me?” I shake my head. “You have my baby inside of you?”

I nod.

“I just found out. Like ten minutes ago. I took a test.”

“This why you panicked?”

I nod again.

“This is what you want, right? Why you stopped taking the pill?”

“It is, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon.” I only stopped taking the pill last month, thinking we would have some time to enjoy married life before I would be peeing on sticks.

“You having second thoughts?” His brows dip low as he tries to figure me out. It’s not like we haven’t discussed it. As soon as he put his ring on my finger, he’s talked about starting a family. I just wasn’t expecting to find out right here, on my wedding day.

“No. Never. I want this so much. I just think with everything happening I’m a little overwhelmed. You know?”

“I know, darlin’. Things have been hectic, but that’s all gonna change. Life is settling down now. Missy’s place has found its pace, and you have my baby inside of you.” He pulls me tighter against his chest, and wraps his arms around me in a tight embrace. “I’ve got ya, darlin’, whenever you need me. Even minutes before you’re meant to be marrying me.” He chuckles when I groan. I’m never going to live this down. I just know it.

“I love you, Beau.”

“And I love you, darlin’.” He holds me for a little while before pulling back, “So, you still wanna marry me?” The corner of his mouth rises, waiting for my reply, and I smile back at his playfulness.

“Yeah.” I nod, letting him kiss me briefly.

“Come on. I’ll walk you down the aisle.” He stands, taking me with him.

“You can’t do that.” I wasn’t planning on having anyone walk me down, but now he’s offered, the thought actually sounds appealing.

“I can do what I want. My wedding.” He moves to the door, opens it, and almost has to catch Holly and Kadence as they fall forward.

“Sorry.” They fight to hold their laughter in as they look from me to Beau. Bell hangs back, holding her own laugher.

“We’re ready. We’re walking down together, so go take a seat,” Beau tells them, unimpressed they were eavesdropping, but he doesn’t call them out.

“Does she need to be fixed up?” Holly peaks past Beau for a better look. “Yeah, she needs me.” She pushes past him and comes to me.

“Rule one, no crying before the ceremony.” She shakes her head and sets about making me pretty again. It only takes a few minutes, before I’m back to being presentable. Holly and Kadence leave, but not before Beau warns them to keep their mouths shut about anything they heard. They both act like they have no clue what he’s talking about. That is until they both give up their act and embrace us with congratulations and hugs.

Something tells me our news will be public before the night ends.

“You ready?” Beau asks when we’re left alone.

“Never been more ready.” I take his hand, letting him guide me out of the room, down the hall, and through the empty clubhouse. The soft hum of Hunter’s guitar grows louder as we exit the clubhouse and walk toward one of the large marquees Beau rented. It’s just gone dusk, and the fairy lights hanging from the marquee glow against the warm sky, setting the mood,