The bag Becca had packed held the most beautiful wedding gown I’d ever seen. Floor length white silk that flowed like a waterfall from under the lace bodice. A circlet of tiny strung pearls held it in place at my throat. Kaine slid the zipper up my back, letting his fingers trail my bare skin.

“Perfect,” he said under his breath. “So smooth… so perfect…”

“But I’m not, you know,” I said, turning to look up at him. “I have a scar now too…”

He took me in his arms, warming me with his body and his love. I’d never felt so protected… so safe. It was what I’d always wanted, always needed. The thing I yearned for most, the day I went to La Laisse. And the last thing I’d ever expected to find there. Life has a funny way of coming full circle, I thought. And it’s never, ever what you expect.

I’d sold myself to the highest bidder in a world class brothel. Yet here I was, a virgin bride in a white wedding dress, loved completely… by a man who’d sworn he could never love…

“Your scar is perfect,” he said into my ear. “Just like the rest of you.” He leaned back to look at me.

“I love you, Grace… all of you.” He struggled for a moment, finding the words. “You gave me what I never hoped to find in my life. Not just love… but trust. And acceptance. I knew the day you kissed the scars on my back.” He stopped and I saw his eyes were moist. “You have no idea how much you mean to me… but I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you.”

He carried me over the threshold, just like in the movies. I held my hand out, admiring the gold ring he’d put on my finger. He wore its larger twin. The rings were handmade, shaped and hammered so that they were irregular and unique. But they were smooth and shiny on the inside, next to the skin. Perfect circles.

The house was quiet and bright. Clear, white light flooded through the windows as he carried me up the stairs. My heart was racing his. I could feel it pounding through my gown.

Kaine had thought of everything. The wedding had been in the hospital chapel, and it had been simple and perfectly lovely. Mrs. S had been there. Sage and Becca too. The only person missing had been Mom, but Kaine promised me she’d be free soon. There was more than enough evidence already and every day the police had been putting the final pieces together.

Kaine put me gently on my feet and ran his hands down my body, softly… tenderly. I was trembling, not from fear, but with pure, hot need. He knew, and pulled the zipper of my dress down, pushing it off my shoulders so it fell in a puddle at our feet. Becca had provided lacey white underthings for me along with the gown, but I’d left them in the bag she’d brought. I’d been naked underneath the white silk all along. It was worth the look on Kaine’s face now.

“Christ, sweetheart,” his voice broke as he ravaged my body with his eyes. “I wanted to go slow with you, baby. But you’re making this very hard…”

I unbuttoned his shirt and my hands moved downward. His cock was huge and rock hard. I unzipped him and took him in my hands. He was heavy and hot… I needed him so much… it was almost painful.

‘I want you, Kaine,” I panted. “And we have a whole lifetime ahead of us for slow.” I stroked him and he throbbed, his hips jerking. “Just take me. No more waiting… Please… just take me.”

He stripped in seconds and pulled me roughly against him. I ran my hands up his back, feeling the patterns in the skin. This was the first time he’d been completely naked with me and the feeling was almost more than I could bear. He was hot and rough, smooth and silky. Perfect opposites… perfect complements.

His cock was trapped between the heat of our bodies, pushing into my belly. “Fuck, sweetheart… It’s been so long and I want you so much… I want this to be good for you… I don’t want to hurt you…” He took my face, holding me, watching me, his eyes begging me to unleash him.

I gripped his hips, pulling him with me onto the bed. He was huge and heavy on top of me. I spread wide open, wrapping my legs around him high up on his back. His cock was hot against me and he thrust himself against my swollen lips and clit. I was wet and ready.

“You won’t hurt me,” I panted. “This is my choice, Kaine… I need this. I love you…” I rocked my hips against him in proof. “I’m yours…”

He kissed me, plundering my mouth… trailing down to suck my nipple into his mouth. I arched, gasping for breath as his fingers found my wet core. He pushed inside easily. I was so slippery, so open. He slipped two fingers inside, then three. “You’re so beautiful, Grace. So wet… so tight… so…”

He eased downwards, blazing a path between my breasts and down my belly with his mouth. He found my clit with his tongue and the smolder inside me burst into flame. I caught his hair in my fingers, holding him to me, unable to breathe.

He was merciless, using his mouth and his fingers together. I arched up, grasping his back and shoulders. I wanted him even closer… I needed even more… I could feel the climax so close, but promising only to build more desperate need in me, than any kind of release. If I was going to come, it had to happen with his cock buried to the hilt. I needed to feel it happen with him…

My hands sought him out as he worked me. He shifted and slipped his body beneath my legs so that his already slick cock was in reach. I took him in my hand, pumping him as he licked my clit. I was so close… he worked me right to the edge and I felt myself flood his fingers in proof.

Right before I plummeted over the edge, he took his mouth away and I knew then that he wanted the same thing I did. For us to come together. After all this time, it was everything we both needed, but the one thing we hadn’t yet shared…

The one moment that would finally bring us together… full circle.

He worked his way back up me, kissing and kneading as he went. He took me in his arms, easing his cock between my open thighs. Not entering me, but rocking his length against me, kissing me… exploring my lips with his.

“I want you to know how much I love you, Grace,” he said, against my ear. “That I’ll love you my whole life…” He drew back, gazing down at me with warm grey eyes, filled with love and tenderness. “There won’t ever be a moment, for the rest of our lives, that I won’t be here. Right here… for you. To love you, to protect you. To keep you safe and warm.” He kissed me all the way to my soul. “To give you all the things you’ve already given to me…,” he whispered.

I reached around him, stroking the texture of his skin and pulling his body deep inside mine. He filled me slowly, totally, the sensation almost more than I could comprehend. But I needed him. All of him. Not just his body. Not just the present, or our future together. I wanted his past too. And all the scars he carried. Ones I could see and touch, along with all those buried deeper inside. Under the skin. He was mine and I was his. And that was all that mattered.

He moved slowly inside me, thrusting with long, gentle strokes, kissing me… caressing me… building my pleasure along with his. We’d waited so long, but still he was in no rush. He controlled his desire long enough to bring me to heights of pleasure that I’d never dreamed existed, letting me discover the rhythm and pulse of our joining. And at the one perfect moment where complete abandon swept into pure ecstasy, he lost himself in me, too. And we were one body, one soul. One perfect whole.

In the long, blissful days and nights to come, he would take me with hot, desperate fierceness. Again and again I would lose myself in the power of his need and mine, holding onto him as he filled me, giving me climax after climax until we both fell into exhausted sleep wrapped in each other’s arms. We would spend ourselves in the pleasure of each other, only to discover that the more we shared, the more we wanted. It was an energy that built upon itself, becoming stronger and more powerful, just as the bond between us did the same.

But that first night, our wedding night, that one single climax had shaken us both to the core. We held onto each other, loving each other, touching and learning about each other. He explored every tender inch of me, and I did the same with him. That night was all about new beginnings, new firsts together. You could say we saved each other that night. That the darkness of our pasts had finally been lifted.

What I know for sure is that what we created together lasted long after our bodies were spent… and we laid content at last in each other’s arms. Kaine held my hand in his, taking the tips of my fingers into his mouth, tasting them one at a time.

“I never knew,” I said softly, stroking the hair back from his eyes. “I never knew it was like this…”

“It never has been like this, my love.” He pulled me close, curling his body protectively around mine. “It never could have been… Not until now,” he sighed.

“Never… never…”

“Until you.”