Epigraph #2
“I’m so glad you allowed me to walk you down the aisle today. I can only hope I did your father proud,” he said, and my heart warmed.
“I know you did,” I said, my voice tight with emotion. I was so happy to have Anton in my life and that my mom and I had him. He was such a great guy.
I hugged him, and he let me go to see that a line had formed. Now that Ares had let me go, others were stepping up for a dollar dance with the bride.
“Thank you very much,” Bru said, taking a dollar from Ares’s dad, Ramses. Bru was my man of honor, as my best friend. He leaned in toward me. “I can vouch for this one.”
“Thanks, son,” Ramses said, and Bru saluted him. Bru stood off to the side accepting dollars. That was one of his many jobs as man of honor.
I looked way up to Ares’s dad. He was actually slightly taller than my husband, if one could imagine.
My husband.
That was so crazy to think, that I had a husband, and, currently, he was dancing with his mom, which was so sweet. Literally, I couldn’t stand it. His mom, Brielle, had to look way up too, and Ares was beaming down at her. He spun her out, and she laughed.
“He’s changed so much with you,” Ramses said, staring at his wife and child. “He’s so happy.”
“He makes me happy too,” I admitted.
“All right, Dad. We have others waiting,” Bru said, winking at him. Ramses laughed and kissed my hand.
“Welcome to the family,” Ramses said.
Then the next dancers came up, including, like, all of Ares’s friends. I danced with Dorian, Wells, and even Sloane and Bow. Us three girls did a little dance circle.
“Okay, my turn,” Bru said, pausing the line for a minute. I noticed he put a twenty in the bag he’d been using for the money.
“Oh, big spender,” I said.
He laughed.
“Worth it,” he said. He was such a good guy, and I was so happy for him, for so many reasons; one of them being that he was the first of us to have a kid. His little girl, Bailee, was dancing with her mama, Bow, and Bru’s partner, Wells. I still couldn’t believe the three of them had a kid.
Bailee was so sweet. She was two now, and was now on the shoulders of Wells, who was spinning around.
You could hear Bailee’s laughter from here, and, even though Bow looked totally nervous because of the position her daughter was in, she was happily clapping along.
Bailee was almost the spitting image of her, but I could see her dad in there too.
“Still can’t believe you’re a papa,” I told Bru, and he shrugged.
“Literally the best job in the world.” He glanced at his family before smiling at me. “I second what my dad said. So happy to finally have you in our family.”
I was happy to be there.
“All right, Bru. You’re supposed to be taking money,” Thatcher said. Thatcher had his money out, and Bru laughed before taking it.
Bru stepped off to the side, and I got to dance with Thatcher Reed, who was also huge but in a different way. He was more landmass than a mountain like Ares.
“Sad we had to miss Aspen today,” I said. His girlfriend was a professional cellist and was currently on the last leg of her tour. I heard from her this morning, though. We video chatted, and she passed on warm wishes.
“I know she wanted to be here. She would have loved this. It turned out so beautifully,” he said, smiling as he glanced around.
It really surprised me how in tune he was with his emotions sometimes.
He was such a large dude, a football player actually.
He played professionally, like Dorian, though it was for a different team.
He smiled at me. “So how did today go for you?”
“Excellent. Truly the happiest day of my life.”
“Are there any ways Wolf made that easier for you?” he asked, surprising me. His shoulders lifted. “Like in what ways did he make today easy? Just curious.”
Again, this guy surprised me so much sometimes. I laughed, then shrugged. “Ares always has a way of naturally bringing me peace. It’s like he knows my needs before I do. You know?”
We both glanced at Wolf. He was just finishing another dance with his mom.
“Cool. Good to know,” Thatcher said, smiling for some reason, before stepping back. Ares strode toward us, and Thatcher put his hand out to him. They shook. “Congratulations again, my man.”
“Thanks, bro.” Wolf hugged his best friend before coming back to me. I’d never seen him so happy, and, if any or all of that was because of me, that made me happy.
I thought Ares would pull me into a dance again, but he took my hand instead. He led me toward the door, and I giggled, then sighed when he brought his lips to my ear.
“They’ve all had enough of us. You’re mine now,” he said, and I didn’t fight him anymore. I was happy to leave.
I was happy to spend the night with my husband.
Dorian
“Damn, baby. Yeah, that’s good. Fucking perfect,” I said, groaning.
There was nothing like my wife giving me head. Her dark curls draped over my cock like a veil, her throat tight and warm around me.
I pushed her hair out of her face. “Let me look at you.”
Sloane was stunning: a perfect culmination of every thought I’d ever had about what beauty was.
I wasn’t just talking about her features though.
Her heart managed to trump all that. All that physical shit could be taken away, but Sloane…
Fuck, she was the most beautiful person I’d ever been around.
Her dark eyes were framed with even darker eyelashes, her lipstick from today’s wedding smeared.
She moaned before sucking me down like a popsicle.
Fuck. Fuck.
I couldn’t take this shit, and pulled her off me. Her full lips were bruised and pouty, and I crushed my mouth against them.
She tasted just as good. I could taste both her and me. What we made together was always perfect.
“Dorian,” she gasped, her tongue dancing with mine. I pressed her onto her back before taking my dick and shoving it to the hilt inside her. She gasped again. “Oh, God.”
Oh, God was fucking right. Her tight little cunt hugged me just as securely as her mouth had. It always surprised me how tight she was. She shouldn’t be, with as much as we fucked.
“I’m your god, baby,” I said, and she smirked. She opened her mouth, I assumed to give me hell about what I just said, but I filled that mouth instead, with my tongue and then my fingers. She gagged, then groaned when I picked up the vigor of my hips. I took us both for a ride.
“Dorian!” she screamed, coming, and I was right there with her. I slammed my hips once, then twice before emptying inside her. Grabbing her tits, I sucked her nipple in my mouth.
Fuck, my woman tasted so good. Her thighs hugged my hips in a viselike grip as she came down from her high.
“I feel like I just got married tonight,” she said later, her arms wrapped around my waist. Our breathing had just evened out. She squeezed me. “I love you.”
I loved her too, so fucking much. We lived such an awesome life, and, even though I traveled like a workhorse for my job, Sloane and I remained constant.
She’d come with me when I went off to play football, and she had established herself as well.
She ran one of her dad’s art galleries remotely and had a studio not far from our apartment on the coast. Basically, our lives were fucking perfect.
“I know the feeling,” I told her. We watched her brother get married tonight. Ares Mallick was my best friend, and I was so happy to see him and Fawn finally tie the knot. She was wonderful for him.
I kissed her head. “And I love you, too.”
I got to watch my girl’s smile as she fell asleep, right before I did. I fell asleep warm in a hotel room with the woman of my dreams by my side.
And then my phone rang.
Grunting, I ignored that shit. Whoever it was could wait until morning. I silenced it, but when the phone rang again, I decided to answer it. It might be important.
It wasn’t.
Thatcher’s face was on the screen. I denied the call, but then, it rang again. What the fuck?
“You should answer,” Sloane said. Her eyes were closed, but she’d obviously opened them enough to see who called me. She hugged my waist. “You know him. He won’t stop.”
I was going to kill this fucker for waking me up. I answered. “What?”
“Good. You’re awake.”
“I’m not, so call back in the morning.” I hung up, but, of course, he called again. I answered. “I swear to God, Thatch. This better be an emergency.”
“It is,” he said, huffing into the line, and my eyes opened. “Did you know Prinze’s is closed tomorrow?”
My eyes closed again. This was not a fucking emergency. I scratched my abs. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad’s closed it for the week to celebrate Ares and Fawn,” I said. Prinze Jewelers was one of my family’s many businesses. It was also one I’d probably be taking over once I retired from football.
“What? Are you kidding—”
“I’m not. Now go the fuck to sleep.” I swore to God, this dude got so fucking bored without his girlfriend to entertain him. A night away from Aspen and Thatcher was losing his shit.
“D, no. I need the store open. I have a piece to get and it can’t wait.”
“Well, it’s going to have to. Go to bed.” I started to hang up again, but he pleaded with me.
“Dorian, I don’t ask you for anything.”
I opened my eyes again. “Yeah, you do.”
“I do, but not a lot. This is important. It’s a gift for Aspen, and she just texted that she’s coming in tomorrow.”
“Okay, so I’ll open the store for you in the morning and get it.”
“Tomorrow morning will be too late. I’m picking her up from the airport first thing.”
I gritted my teeth. “Thatcher…”
“Please, please, please, D. Can you meet me there tonight? You do that, and I’ll never bother you with anything again.”
Fat chance this fucker would honor that. When I glanced down, I realized I wasn’t the only one up and dealing with this. Sloane was smiling at me. It was a sleepy smile accompanied by a knowing look, and I knew I was about to get out of this bed.
I swear to God, this fucker owed me a million.