Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
DEVOTED
Ella
From the moment we’d landed in Vegas, Gordain had paid for everything. I’d booked the flights with my savings, but Gordain had insisted on managing everything else. The taxi, our marriage licence, the iced coffees we bought as we’d waited for the officiant to get our paperwork ready.
Our wedding itself.
He handed over his card and told me to let him handle it. It was a strange feeling, having someone I could share responsibilities with.
I was going to pay him back so big.
“Ella and Gordain?” Our names announced, we left our chairs and followed the man through a curtain and into a small hall.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the officiant announced, though it was just us plus another member of staff who was acting as our witness.
“Welcome to this special event on this beautiful morning, the marriage of these two people. Ella and Gordain have been lucky enough to find one another in the sea of people in this big, big world. Their search is over. Today, we join them together and make them one.”
Gordain’s hand tightened around mine. He’d chosen the vows from the selection offered and the order of service.
“Both have travelled far to be with the other. Alone, life has thrown obstacles into their path, but together, they will overcome all their troubles. That is the meaning of marriage and the ultimate function of true love.” The man beamed at us, and I wobbled on my feet.
So tired. So…confused. It was moving too fast.
Under my skin itched a dawning sense that what I was doing wasn’t right.
“Marriage is a commitment where our happy couple accept each other as a friend, companion, and lover for life. It is an honourable estate not to be entered into lightly but thoughtfully, reverently, and wholeheartedly. Ella and Gordain. Today, you bring two families together and make your own.” He glanced at his paper.
“The Fitzroy and McRae names will be forever united in your love. Marriage is not a casual event but one of great significance. The vows are binding and, with that in mind, Ella, repeat after me.”
That was it.
I couldn’t tell Gordain I loved him in my wedding vows.
Panicked, I held up a hand. “No. I mean yes. But wait.”
The man stopped, his mouth open.
I took a breath. “I just… Can you give us a second?”
The officiant snapped his mouth closed. I pulled Gordain by the hand, dragging him after me to the thankfully empty reception outside the curtain.
“Did you hear all that? The commitment and how we can’t take this lightly?” I said, my hand at my neck and with a glance back to the hall.
“Aye. I’m not.”
I gawked at him.
“We promised each other our truths,” he said. “This might have started for a specific reason, but ye told me on the plane not to talk about it ending. Which means we won’t end it.”
It wasn’t the tiredness that had warmth rushing through my veins.
He took my face in his big hands and tilted up my chin. “Want me to go first?”
I opened and closed my mouth.
“I love ye, Ella Fitzroy. It started when I came for ye at Belvedere and it’s grown stronger every day since.”
“You love me?” I whispered.
“Aye.”
“I love you, too.” My voice broke, and my heart cracked wide open. “I couldn’t say it for the first time in front of strangers.”
Gordain smiled, wonder in his expression. He stroked my hair. “I didn’t mind. Seems to me once ye start saying it, ye can’t stop.”
“How the hell can we get married now?”
He choked out a laugh. “Now we’ve decided we love each other?”
Did that make more sense or less? “You don’t have to do this.”
“I do.”
We linked gazes.
This was scary. Or perfect. But mostly terrifying.
“I’m scared,” I said.
“You’re scared? I’ve never loved a lass before.”
I melted against him. He crushed me to his chest.
“I’m so sorry, G. This is so messed up. There has to be a million things we need to say to each other, to do with each other, before we get anywhere close to marriage. Don’t you want that?”
“On the flight out, I decided that this would go however you needed it to, but for me, it’s the start of something wild and incredible.
So we get married first and then work out the rest?
I want to go wherever that takes me. But, Ella,” he released me and pressed his lips to my cheek, “if you don’t want this, that’s okay, too.
I meant what I said. End it, if you want.
Or stay in it. Your call. Just give me your truths. ”
I took a deep breath. “This all feels upside down now. I want our families here.”
“Aye. I want to be in my kilt, my family tartan, with my brothers and your brother at my back, their lasses and bairns with us. I want us to be in the Highlands with mountains at the door. I want to celebrate this with everyone we know looking on and witnessing the statement we’re making.
But most of all, Ella, I just want you.”
He pressed my fingers as suddenly, I couldn’t speak. “We need to go back in.”
“But—” I started.
Gordain, so calm and in control against my reeling nonsense, kissed my other cheek, trailing his lips over mine to get there. Fire, ready and hot, blazed up my spine.
“Save those lips for your vows,” he commanded and led me back into the room.
The officiant fixed his smile in place and steepled his fingertips. “Are we ready?”
“We are,” Gordain and I said in unison.
“Super. Ella, repeat after me. I, Elinor Isla Moncrief Durant Fitzroy, take thee, Gordain Lennox McRae to be my lawful wedded husband.” The man mock-wiped his forehead. “Fancy names, folks.”
I said the words, taking in the increasing intensity in Gordain’s looks
Then it was his turn, and he said my name like it was beautiful.
“And now for the vows.” The officiant dipped his head at me. “Ladies first.”
He gave me my line, and I repeated it.
“I promise you, Gordain, before these witnesses, that I, Elinor, will commit my life to you. I will love you, with my whole heart, I will nurture you, and cherish the bond that we have made. I will celebrate you and our love so long as we both shall live, and this is my solemn vow.”
If we hadn’t stepped outside to talk, I couldn’t have said the words without adding an explanation, a caveat, to make sure he knew he had an out. Now, I meant every word. I loved him, and the vows gave me a path to follow. A way to work through the brand-new feelings.
Peace bloomed, immediate and soft.
“Gordain, please place the ring on Ella’s finger.”
“Oh!” I turned to the officiant. “There’s been a mistake. We don’t have a—”
Gordain pulled a box from his pocket. I stopped and gaped. Where on earth had that come from?
He opened the box, and I clasped my hands to my mouth.
The ring was platinum, fine and elegant, with a stone. A sapphire. Deep blue-green and stunning.
It must have cost a fortune.
“When did you…?”
“Manhattan.”
“You stepped out and…”
“Lucked out in the first antique jewellery place I found. The stone matches your eyes. It was made for ye.”
My eyes filled with water. “G…”
“You like it?”
“I love it. I love you.”
I swear Gordain’s eyes got wet. He inhaled hard, nostrils flaring and his lips pressed together.
A waving hand broke our eye contact. “Listen, kids, I’m sorry to rush you, but we have another couple waiting. Your conversation has put us behind. We have two little bits, then you can take this show on the road.”
“Sorry. I’m good. That was just unexpected.”
Gordain took my hand.
“Repeat after me,” the man continued.
“I’ve got this.” G shook his head then looked me squarely in the eye, his fingers poised to put the surprise ring on mine.
“I promise ye, Elinor, my Ella, before these witnesses, that I, Gordain, will love ye my whole life. I will be there whenever ye have need of me. I’ll support your plans and aid ye.
Everything I have is yours. Anywhere you need to go, I’ll fly ye there, and I’ll fly ye home again, too.
You are my world. My heart and my soul are devoted to yours. This is my vow.”
He slid the ring onto my finger, and two tears streaked down my cheeks. Gordain swept them away with his thumb.
“Well, all right then! Now, with the power vested in me by the laws of the state of Nevada, I pronounce you husband and wife. Gordain? Kiss your lady.”
G ducked his head, and his mouth met mine in a tender peck. It was nowhere near enough. With a small sound of need, I kissed him hard, happy to forget we had an audience. Gordain smiled against my mouth then took my lips in a plundering kiss.
Only the celebrant’s polite cough had us separating.
It was done. We were married.
The creeping exhaustion took its toll, and I sat in the reception while Gordain got the paperwork in hand. I jolted when fingers touched my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to G’s bright expression.
“Done. We can go to the airport now. Back to New York for round two with the lawyers.”
Another flight was the last thing I needed. I wanted to hole away with Gordain and kiss him until my lips ached and then burn up all that lust with our bodies.
“It’ll be over before you know it,” he said, reading me correctly. “Then we’ll check into a cosy hotel and sleep for two days straight.”
“Sounds like bliss.” I hauled myself to my feet, and we left the chapel, and Las Vegas, behind. “But don’t expect much sleep.”
The return flight was pain in an aluminium tube—broad daylight and busy. It was all I could do to keep my buzzing head steady. Gordain held my hand, and we leaned against each other, senses jarring from the noise and every jolt.
Five hours had never seemed so long.
By the time we’d fought our way through the New York traffic to the lawyers’ office, both of us were staggering.
I stopped Gordain outside the door. “I’ll check if you’re needed, then you go find a hotel. Get some sleep.”
He made a face of sheer disbelief. “Like I’d leave ye.”
That was that.