Chapter Eight
Three months later…
Elliot looked at herself in the mirror. She was dressed in a white lace wedding gown, a high collar and long veil not entirely hiding the gold band of the collar she had barely ever taken off since Mason slid it around her neck and told her that she was to be his forever.
“You look so pretty, Ellie,” her best friend Miranda cooed, working to twist a few last blonde curls into perfect place. “He’s going to just die when he sees you.”
It was the happiest day of her life, but there were a few dark clouds on the horizon. She had imagined this day as being surrounded by family, but she was the only representative of the Taylor-Chapmans present. Thankfully her girlfriends had rallied and come out from the city in a small mass to primp and pamper her, readying absolutely everything. She had not been alone through the process, but there was still a hole where…
“May I see the bride?” A familiar masculine voice intruded on the feminine proceedings. A voice she had not heard in a long time, but one she had missed terribly.
Elliot let out a little scream of surprise and turned around so quickly Miranda nearly spilled her champagne. Ellie couldn’t believe it. Standing in the door way was Aiden. Aiden as she remembered him. Clean. Well dressed. Clear-eyed, strong, and healthy.
“Hey, little sister,” Aiden smiled, hugging her. “You look beautiful.”
“You’re really here?” She hugged him again, nice and tight just to make sure. “You’re not in trouble anymore?”
“Not with anyone besides those two,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the two burly men who she recognized as Steven and Robert, his bodyguards.
“Hello, ma’am,” they said in a rough masculine chorus. Like Aiden, they were dressed in pale gray suits. They made for a very handsome trio.
“Hello,” she said, a small blush rising to her cheeks. She hadn’t been at her best last time she’d seen them, and the aftermath… she could feel echoes of it, physical memory making her bottom tingle beneath the silk of her wedding dress. “Thank you for coming, and for bringing Aiden.”
“Hey, I said they had to bring me, or I’d swim across the Pacific,” Aiden smiled. She felt her heart leap at seeing that smile again. It had been so long since she had seen her brother anything other than utterly miserable.
“I think it’s the Atlantic between…”
“It doesn’t matter,” Aiden said, waving her correction away. “I’d have swum across the Antarctic if it meant being here for you.” His blue eyes became serious as he looked at her with something she hadn’t seen in his expression before: remorse. “I’ve never been able to thank you for what you did for me, Ellie. Running to Mav, it saved me. I’ll never be able to make it up to you, what I put you through…”
“Maybe, but I know how you can start,” she smiled, picking up her bouquet. “Walk me down the aisle, Aiden.”
“Father’s not here?” He didn’t seem surprised, sadly.
“Neither of them are. They don’t approve,” she said. “Mason’s money isn’t made the right way, or something like that. Personally, I think they just don’t want to cut their cruise short.”
“Sounds about right,” Aiden snorted, offering her his arm. “Of course I’ll walk you down the aisle. You ready?”
“Ready,” she smiled.
She walked on Aiden’s arm toward the little country chapel where she and Mason were to tie the knot. It was a small, simple wedding, but nature had put on an incredible display of sun and flowers blooming down the path to the church door.
Miranda went first, triggering the wedding march, and as the strains of the familiar tune played for Elliot for the very first—and very last—time, Aiden’s bodyguards followed them, taking up the rear with stolid protective respectful silence as she stepped over the threshold of the chapel, supported by the brother she had given almost everything to save.
When she saw Mason, she felt her knees weaken. He was more than handsome. He was perfect, his impeccable tall frame dressed in a dark suit. He could have been wearing a sack for all she cared. The beauty of the chapel was nothing to her; the onlookers, the flowers, the stained glass windows shedding colored light across their guests, all faded as she locked on Mason. Her eyes were drawn to him instantly, and his to hers. They stared at one another with smiling gazes tempered with the tears of joy welling in both their gazes. She loved him so much, so very deeply it felt as though another part of her was standing at the altar.
She had a sudden urge to throw propriety to the wind and run to him, but she kept her pace steady, knowing that they had time. With every step she took toward him, she was a fraction closer to the happily ever after she’d started to believe she’d never have. She’d found forever with the last man she ever thought she’d like, let alone love and she’d found it in his collar, under his cane, and in his cage.
The End