“Wait!” I interrupt impulsively. My heart is trampling my lungs from the inside, but I can’t let this poignant ritual go on without confessing how I feel. It just seems wrong to start our life together without being totally honest with him. Without fear, without hesitation, without deception.
“I love you,” I whisper, my throat clogging around the admission. I swallow hard and force my eyes to hold on to his. “I’ve been falling more and more in love with you every day. The longer I’m with you, the harder it is to imagine my life without you. I’m not here for any reason other than you. Just you. And I want you to know that I’ll put you first in my life. Before everyone and everything else, you come first. I don’t have anything else to give you, but I can give you that. I can give you me. Always.”
Time slows, spinning in a hazy circle around us, blurring out the rest of the world. Tag’s silvery eyes turn dark and stormy. I know that look. I don’t know all the things that it means, but I know how it makes me feel. It makes me feel loved. Wanted. Like I’m the only girl in the universes that he can see.
Tag raises his hands to cup my face and inches closer until his nose is almost touching mine. “Say it again,” he breathes.
My pulse thunders. My lungs freeze. My hands tremble. “I love you.”
And then he’s kissing me. Like we aren’t in front of a crowd. Like we didn’t just ruin the ceremony. Like we are the only two who matter.
And I kiss him back.
Because we are.
A muffled whoop and the resulting laughter draws us back to where we are and what we’re supposed to be doing. Tag lifts his head and smiles down into my face. I glance behind him to an innocent-looking Rogan, whose wink at me is his only admission of guilt as the whooper.
The minister clears his throat, drawing my eye back to him. “Taggart Gregory Barton, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” he begins again, as if there was never an interruption in his service. I slide a sidelong glance over to Tag. He’s still smiling at me. And I’m still falling deeper in love.
TWENTY-TWO
Tag
“What’s going through that beautiful head of yours this morning?” I ask Weatherly as I come up from behind to wrap my arms around her waist and lay my chin in the curve of her neck. I love how she tips her head to the side. I love how she arches back into me, like a cat rubbing her slinky body against my leg.
“That of all the great vacations I’ve been on, of all the exotic places my family has traveled to, I’ve never seen a sunrise like this one.”
“It’s the company,” I mutter, dragging my lips over the smooth skin of her shoulder.
“It is?” she asks, a smile in her voice.
“Definitely. Being with me makes everything better.” I let one hand slide down her bare, flat stomach to the elastic band of her panties. When I feel her crease and slip a finger inside, I find that she’s already wet. Her readiness is all it takes to inspire my readiness. With a light groan, I press my cock against the curve of her ass as I explore her more deeply. “And don’t bother denying it. I can feel how much you agree.”
“I wouldn’t dare deny it,” she assures in a breathy voice that makes me want to bend her over the balcony railing and let her bask in the view of Tuscany as I pound into her from behind.
“Good, because you’d be a liar,” I tease, licking the lobe of her ear before I sink my teeth into it.
“I’d never lie to you,” she pants, working her hips over my hand.
That cools my ardor a little. I believe her when she says she’d never lie to me. She’s better than that. But I’m not.
Not that I’ve lied to her, per se. I just haven’t told her everything. Omission isn’t lying.
Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.
“Weatherly, there’s something I need to tell you.” As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I wonder why the hell I said them. I have to think this through. I can’t let my feelings for her mess up everything. Too much is at stake. But I do have feelings for her. Strong ones. Stronger than I expected to have, especially so soon. But admitting them would be a disaster. I can’t do that yet. And when I do, I don’t want there to be these secrets between us, things she can’t know anything about at this point. When I tell her I love her, if that’s what the hell this is, then there won’t be anything else between us. Nothing to stand in our way.
My movements have stilled, so Weatherly reaches behind me to dig her nails into the side of my thigh as she rubs her plump little ass against my cock. “Can it wait?” she asks softly.
My balls tighten and thoughts of lies and omissions, of guilt and burden fade away into the early Tuscan sun.
“Do you really want to be doing that here?” I ask, pulling her tighter against me as I look around at the few other villa balconies. They’re all empty, the French doors shut, the curtains drawn. “Someone could easily look out and see us.”
As a spot of moisture is forming on my boxer briefs, I’m praying she’ll say she doesn’t give a shit and beg me to take her right here, right now.