Chapter Thirteen
Antonio
Audiv gaped at him, as though she couldn’t believe what he was saying. A nervous smile tugged on his lips as he slid off the couch and bent on one knee, gazing up at her as he took her hand in his. He hadn’t been expecting to do this today. When he had proposed to his ex-wife, he had been full of nerves and doubts. Somehow, there was none of that with Audiv.
“I thought I had lost my only chance for real love,” he told her, the words flowing easily. “I thought I had given it up for no good reason. But this last year, even with not knowing who I was or what being a dragon meant for me… I have gotten to know you. And these last couple of months, with how closely we’ve been working together? I’ve realized something. I haven’t lost my chance for love at all. I love you, Audiv. And it might seem really fast, but I’ve never been more certain of anything as I am about these feelings.”
Audiv pressed a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were wide, the sparkling depths full of shock, and he thought there might be excitement in there as well.
“I know it’s sudden, that we haven’t talked about getting married.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Audiv interrupted.
He cocked a brow at her.
“Well, maybe we haven’t talked about it talked about it, but we have sort of joked around about it.”
She wiped her hands on her jeans, chewing on her lip at the same time as her eyes grew brighter. Were those tears? Antonio watched nervously for a moment, hoping that those were good tears and not bad tears. He took a deep breath and continued.
“We may have joked about it, but this is still pretty out of the blue,” he said slowly. “I wasn’t expecting to propose to you right now. But I realized that if the worst should happen as this continues, I don’t want to have regrets. You might not believe in God, but I am certain that He brought the two of us together.”
“I can appreciate that,” Audiv whispered. A laugh bubbled up her throat and Antonio felt himself relaxing at the sound. The tears were starting to spill down her cheeks now and she turned her face slightly away, as though embarrassed by them.
“I love you,” Antonio finished. What else was there to say? “Audiv, I love you.”
She sniffed and rubbed at her tears. “I love you, too.” His heart warmed at the words. A grin spread over his face as he held in a whoop of joy. She peeked through her fingers at him and let out a laugh. “I don’t know what to think about all this other stuff you’re saying, though. Marry me, God brought us together,” she mimicked his deep voice and sniffed again. “You sound very convincing when you say it. But as you said, it’s very sudden…”
Antonio nodded. His heart beat shallowly in his chest as he waited for her to work through her thoughts. It was sudden; something that had just been sprung on her. He was still trying to wrap his mind around his own words and actions. They had felt so right, though… so true. He loved her, more than he thought was possible.
There was no reason for them not to marry.
“Damn you.” She smacked his shoulder lightly as she laughed again. “I’m not supposed to be tongue-tied and not knowing what to think. I’m the kind of girl who always knows what’s what and doesn’t get into these sorts of situations. What sort of dragon-borne witchcraft have you cast upon my frail human mind?”
Antonio burst into laughter at that. “You? Frail? I’ve met mules who are more wishy-washy.”
Audiv giggled, but it faded away quick enough. “Are you just asking because of this mission you’re going on?”
“No. That’s why I’m asking now but it’s not why I’m asking.” Antonio moved back to sitting on the couch beside her and brought one of her hands to his lips. “I’m asking because I love you, Audiv, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you as my wife.”
She didn’t respond to that, except to throw her arms around his neck. He welcomed her kiss, instantly teasing her mouth open so he could taste the sweetness of her. Audiv pressed her forehead against his and let out another laugh.
“Marry me,” he whispered.
“Yes.” She kissed him again and again, breathing out yeses whenever their lips parted. “Yes, I’ll marry you. When?”
Antonio pulled himself from her, so there was enough space between them that they could think. As they stared into each other’s eyes, though, he only had one thought come to his mind. There was no point in waiting, no point in drawing this out. Sure, his family might be upset at him bringing home a woman they had never met and introducing her as his wife, but once they got to know her, there would be no problem.
“My family is going to be shocked,” Audiv laughed, apparently having the same thoughts. “Eloping was never in my plan.”
“So, who do we go to?” They both stood, holding each other’s hands. “Are there rules and regulations that we have to go through first? A license or anything?”
Audiv shook her head. “We just need to have someone with the authority, and three witnesses that will talk to us privately to ensure this is something we’re both willing and wanting. Ummmm…” She threw her hands into the air and laughed again. “Why not Indulf? This is sudden and I’m sure he’s going to be shocked, but if anybody has the authority for a shotgun wedding, it’s him.”
“Right. Let’s just go ask the king to marry us.”
That seemed like the most insane part of any of it, but Antonio didn’t care. Not when this felt so right. In some ways, it felt like they had already taken too much time to get to this point, like they ought to have married from the moment they met. It didn’t matter that it had only been a few weeks or months that they’d been starting to pursue a romantic relationship with each other, this was the right thing to do. He knew that with every fiber of his body, and he wasn’t about to change his mind.
“Let’s go find him, then,” Audiv said.
Together, they raced from her apartment. Antonio clung to Audiv’s hand. Briefly, the thought came to his mind that with their plan the way it was, there was a high possibility that they might not come back… he pushed that away. He would make sure Audiv returned. There was no question about that. They might have their plan, but he wasn’t going to let her get put in danger over it.
Unsurprisingly, they found him in his office. Audiv strode in, giggling once more, and Indulf looked up between the two of them with an arched brow. There was a hint of annoyance in his expression, and Antonio couldn’t blame him for it. After all, they came in here acting like a couple of loons, only a few hours after he’d given them a very dangerous assignment.
If the situation was flipped, Antonio knew how he would be reacting.
“I assume there is a good reason for this?” Indulf asked, arching a brow.
Audiv and Antonio glanced at each other. Their eyes danced, and both of them nodded, turning back to the king. Audiv was the one to blurt it out. “Marry us.”
Indulf stared with a blank expression for a minute. “I’m already married and I’m not into polygamy.”
“No, not like that.” Antonio shook his head. “We meant we want you to perform our marriage. We’re getting married. And we’d like it to be right away. So that we can leave on our honeymoon right away,” Antonio tacked on when Indulf’s eyes became even wider.
The king stared at them for a good minute before he blinked and cleared his throat. “That’s rather… sudden.”
“Not really,” Audiv said. “Not if you don’t think about it, at least. We want to get married. You have the authority to marry us. Please, we don’t want to wait any longer.”
“…Alright.” Indulf’s brow furrowed, like he wasn’t quite sure what to think about all of this, but he shook his head, mumbled something under his breath and stood. “Do you have a specific location in mind? What witnesses you want to be there?”
They glanced at one another and shook their heads. Indulf sighed and pressed a button on his intercom. Within a few minutes, Anna, Warmund and Katrina had gathered to serve as witnesses, and they returned to Audiv’s apartment, where Antonio and Audiv stood facing each other, hands clasped tightly together as Indulf performed the ceremony.
They signed the necessary papers, and Indulf stepped back to be with his wife, son, and daughter. “And now you are legally married in the eyes of Byrelmore. I hope you two know what you’re doing.”
Antonio grinned into Audiv’s eyes. He didn’t care if there were witnesses, he couldn’t hold himself back from kissing her deeply. Audiv moaned as she wrapped her arms around his neck. There were a few surprised coughs from their audience, and then Katrina ushered the rest of them out, assuring them that Audiv didn’t do anything she wasn’t more than a hundred percent sure of.
“We’ll get rings once we’re in DC,” he said.
“Yeah. Matching rings. White gold.”
“Rose gold.”
Audiv pressed her body to his, nodding and shaking her head at the same time. “White gold with a band of rose gold in the middle.”
That seemed like a good enough compromise. Antonio ran his hands over Audiv’s body, loving the way she felt beneath his touch, loving the soft moans that echoed from her throat. Loving the knowledge that they were bound together in the strongest way two people could be bound; in love, in unity of thought, in marriage, and soon, in body as well. A pressure built in his pants. It was only unfortunate that they couldn’t take their time with this first time, the way he’d want to… It had been so long since he’d been with a woman that he wasn’t going to have the control. Especially not when Audiv’s body was so lush, her kisses so eager, and the warmth in his chest so strong.
“I love you,” he whispered into her ear again. “More than I can tell you.”
Audiv moaned as she started to kiss his neck and used one hand to flick open his top button. “Then show me.”