Tangled Up In You (Rogue #1)

Chapter 57

57

SOPHIE

“ Y our mother knows how to dance!” Gavin said with a laugh.

Sophie raised her eyebrows, caught between admiration and embarrassment. Her mother had definitely been enjoying herself, dancing with anyone—or no one—for most of the night. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her mother dance before, but it couldn’t be a sudden, new passion.

The accepting attitude her parents had adopted in St. Moritz had disappeared once Sophie informed them a wedding date was set. They made it clear then that they believed marrying a rock star after such a short engagement was a recipe for disaster. They thought she was being too short-sighted. They would have loved for her to stay engaged indefinitely, or at least for as long as it would take to show that their instincts were right. They insisted that she needed more time to develop and keep her own identity. Sophie’s promise to them that she was still going to get her college degree didn’t help.

Still, they had both showed up with enough goodwill to be a part of making the day special. In the moment before walking Sophie down the aisle, her father told her something she knew she would always remember.

“Your mother and I, we were always so concerned with granting you your autonomy that we may have erred in not always treating you like the child you were. But we did the best we could. And I just,” he said, “I just want you to know that we do love you and we trust that you’ll find your way. You’ll have a husband after this. But you’ll always have us, too.”

It was the most emotional her father had ever been with her. But rather than affecting her to the point of tears, it set her mind at ease. It was such a reassuring moment that when she met Gavin to say their vows, she was never surer of what she was doing. She didn’t have any nervousness, didn’t waver. Her father’s words had set her free to simply be. And what she wanted to be was Gavin’s wife.

That’s what she was now and had been for the last four and a half hours. Now she and her husband—she tingled just thinking that word—were standing near the cake, waiting for the band’s song to end so they could do the traditional cake cutting. Her mother, having exhausted her father, was dancing with Christian, and both were having a blast. Everyone at the wedding, in fact, had been in good spirits from the start and they showed no sign of slowing down. It was wonderful to be surrounded by such positive energy.

“What are you thinking?” Gavin asked. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him.

“That this has been the most amazing day of my life,” she said. “It almost feels like it can’t get much better than this.”

“I know. But it will. You and I are only just beginning, darlin’.”

She turned and took his face into her hands, meeting his eyes. “My heart will always be yours,” she said, playing off the vow he had made during their ceremony: “My heart will always search for yours.”

He smiled and started to speak, but she interrupted him.

“Except, that is, if you smear cake all over my face.”

He laughed and then kissed her. “There is nothing so delicious as you are, my sweet girl. No need for frosting on top.” Before she could speak, he continued, “You can trust me, in everything.”

“I know, baby. And I do.”

“Good. So you won’t have any concerns when I get up on that stage in a few minutes and take the mic, right? ’Cause I’m ready to kick this party up a notch.”

She laughed. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. Go ahead and show my parents what a real rock star looks like.”

“Their first Rogue concert will be at their daughter’s wedding. I like the sound of that!”

The wedding had included all the traditions Sophie had grown up wanting: a long white dress, walking down the aisle with her father, beautiful flowers, the heartfelt exchange of vows, the formal pronouncement of becoming husband and wife, and the various toasts and dances, along with cake-cutting at the reception.

So, when all of that had been fulfilled, she was happy to leave the customs behind and see the reception turn into a full-fledged concert.

Gavin brought Christian to the stage with him and the boys of Rogue soon displaced the hired band at their instruments. Shay and Martin had discarded their suit coats and ties. Conor still wore his full suit and looked impossibly put together after such a long day. Gavin had never been more handsome to Sophie as he stood at the microphone in his finely tailored navy blue suit, his tie undone and hanging around his neck, his shirt halfway unbuttoned.

“That’s my husband,” Sophie giddily told Felicity as the band started their first song.

“And that’s the song he wrote for you in school. Talk about full circle,” Felicity mused.

Sophie’s eyes widened as she recognized the song he had titled “Exotic Creature.”

“This is the first song I ever wrote for my wife,” Gavin said, and the gathered crowd screamed and applauded. “Conor was right in that toast when he said I was a little slow on the uptake when it came to Sophie. But I think I made up for it with this. Falling for her was the best thing I ever did. I’ll never stop falling. ’Cause as the song goes, I like this dizzy feeling.”

The room shifted their focus from Gavin to Sophie, and she blushed. Not because of the hundred-plus people staring at her, but because of the way Gavin was looking at her. It was love and lust and the certainty that she was his one.

What this man could do to her.

She was ready for the rest of her life to begin.