20
Victoria
I never thought seeing Brady again would confuse me so much. I never cared about him more than right then, and here he comes with a bunch of beautiful roses to soften the blow. I never wanted to see him again, but now that he was standing in my living room, I understood why I fell for him in the first place. I didn’t know if I could stay mad at hm.
He took another deep breath and blew it out. His shoulders stiffened. “Okay. Here’s the deal. Do you remember that time we snuck out to the garden at the rehearsal dinner?”
“Of course, I do, Brady,” I told him. “Do you think I’ve forgotten any of our time together? You know you were the most important person in the world to me. That’s what makes you turning away from me so cruel.”
He closed his eyes and held up his hand. “Just listen to me for a minute, okay? Charlie saw us in the garden. He saw us through the window.”
My eyes flew open. “He what?”
Brady nodded. “You went inside first. When I came through the door, he ambushed me. He told me to stay away from you. He said I wasn’t his friend anymore, and he said if I ever came near you again, he would call the police.”
“He didn’t.”
“Now do you see why I couldn’t talk to you at the wedding? I had to wait until he left with Mandy. I wanted him to cool down before I talked to him about it again. Then I tried to find you and explain, but you were too mad. I never wanted to hurt you. I swear it killed me to do it, but I had to keep away from you.”
I shook my head. “This is impossible.”
He rushed forward. He grabbed my hand. “I never stopped loving you, Victoria. I never wanted anything but to be with you, but I couldn’t blow the lid off Charlie’s wedding.”
He stuck his hand in his pocket for the tenth time, and this time, he pulled out a grey velvet box. He pried open the lid and held it out to me. “I picked this out after we came back from Vegas. I wanted to give it to you at the rehearsal, but I never got a chance before Charlie threatened me. I only regret I didn’t show you this a long time ago. Now I’ve blown my chance with you forever, and that’s just something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life. I just want you to have this. I’ll leave you alone now. I just want you to keep this. Even if you never wear it or even look at it, just keep it. I don’t want anybody else to have this. It’s yours.”
I stared down at the shining stone in the box. He didn’t buy this. He didn’t spend the money on this heavenly diamond thinking about me. That was impossible. I couldn’t believe it.
He didn’t leave, though. He didn’t move or let go of my hand. I blinked. Everything in the world disappeared but that ring. He didn’t show up on my doorstep with that ring and a bunch of roses. He couldn’t. That made no sense. I couldn’t hold that side by side with the hateful names I called him over the last two weeks.
He watched me for a moment. I didn’t see his face. I didn’t see anything but that ring before my eyes blurred with tears.
All at once, he dropped to his knee. He crushed my hand between his two palms. “Marry me, Victoria. I don’t want to live without you and the baby. We were made for each other. It’s just a bunch of stupid misunderstandings keeping us apart. I can’t be happy without you, and unless I’m wrong, you can’t be happy without me, either. This baby needs us, and it needs us together. Come on. What do you say? Will you marry me?”
My eyes drifted to his face. This wasn’t happening. All these weeks of heartbreak, all these missed chances and near misses—it couldn’t end like this. I craved this moment so long, but I never dared dream it could actually happen.
He tugged me forward. He kissed my knuckles and pressed my hand to his heart. His voice cracked. “Please, Vic. Please marry me. You’re the only woman in the world for me. I wanted to ask you so many times. I’m an ass for waiting so long. Marry me, Vic. No one else in the world should wear this ring.”
I couldn’t see through my tears. His head prismed into a thousand pieces, and I couldn’t keep my lips still. He fumbled the ring out of the box and slipped it on my finger. I saw him and the ring in my mind’s eye, but I couldn’t speak above a whisper before I burst into tears. “Yes! Yes!”
He struggled to his feet, and his mouth attacked me in smoldering passion. Salty tears dampened his face, and neither of us could get our lips to function the way they should. Before I knew what was happening, he scooped me off the floor.
Already that ring worked its magic in my hand. I was married. I was his wife. We were together, and we were having a baby. The next thing I knew, he carried me to my room and laid me on the bed. He curled around me, and all the pain and despair of the last two weeks vanished out of my life.
He started laughing. The longer he laughed, the louder he laughed until I couldn’t contain it. I had to laugh, too, from sheer happiness. Everything made sense. This whole crazy situation only made sense when we were together—together at last!
We laughed until we both cried. Then Brady wiped the smirk off his face. “Listen to me. Tomorrow morning, we’ll wake up bright and early. We’ll go visit your parents and explain the whole thing. Once they understand, we’ll get in touch with Charlie. Once he finds out we’re getting married, it will be okay. Okay?”
I couldn’t stop smiling at him. I had to surround his precious face with both hands. “Okay. Sounds good.”
He descended on my mouth to kiss me, and all my buried desire for him flared to life. I never had to hide from it again. I could let it go. I could feel the overwhelming love welling out of me to encompass him. I could surrender to the future.
Starting right now, we would never be apart. We would love each other, and everyone would know we had a right to want each other, to touch each other and crave each other and come home together.
His tongue lapped at my lips, and the delicious wetness sizzled through my flesh to draw him into myself. Our skins touched in cosmic unity. Our clothes disappeared, and his rock-solid body covered me and protected me from everything else.
I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him between my thighs. My passion turned to ecstatic love. I couldn’t tell the difference between my body wanting him and my heart yearning for him.
He broke away from my mouth to prop his muscled arms on either side of my head. His chiseled frame rippled all the way down to the triangle of sinew where his hips bumped mine.
His movements carried him down to kiss me before he rose on his broad shoulders to hover over me. His eyes enthralled me beyond belief. I could stare into those eyes for the rest of my life and never stop loving him.
His cock touched me deep inside. He touched me all the way to my heart, so my love overpowered me. It shone out of my eyes to meet his gaze high above my face.
I cradled his face in my hands. He swayed back and forth with his stroking rhythm. “Victoria?”
“Yes, darling.”
“I love you. I love you more than anything.”
I kissed him hard on the lips. I kissed him all over. “I love you, too. Oh, how I love you!”