Epilogue
STRYKER
My wife stood beneath a web of warm lights strung between the farmhouse porch and the ancient valley oak, laughing with her parents, her brothers, and Bex while the August evening settled gold across the pastures.
The ivory dress followed every soft curve I had already memorized, narrowing at her waist before flowing over hips my hands kept finding whenever she came within reach, and tiny white flowers had been woven through the thick chestnut braid falling past the middle of her back.
Our baby was still too small to change the line of her body, but I knew exactly where my child rested beneath the silk, and every glimpse of my ring on Jacqueline’s finger sent the same primitive satisfaction through my blood.
The ceremony had taken place beneath that oak a few hours earlier.
John and Justin had walked Jacqueline down the aisle together, both wearing expressions that suggested they still considered handing their little sister to the president of a motorcycle club a questionable decision.
Neither had actually tried to stop her, though, which proved they possessed some intelligence beneath all that city polish.
I hadn’t written a long vow because Jacqueline already knew I loved her and intended to spend the rest of my life building whatever she dreamed up next.
I promised she would never face anything alone again, that the ranch and every life we created on it would remain protected, and that I would choose her every day even when she reorganized things I had already put where they made sense.
She laughed through tears at the last part, then promised to love both the man who carried her around like she weighed nothing and the stubborn oaf who moved her coffee mugs without permission.
When I slid the ring onto her finger and kissed my wife for the first time, I gave her a smug smile that said I finally had her right where I wanted her.
Jacqueline turned as though she felt me watching her, and the smile that warmed her face still hit with enough force to tighten my chest. She excused herself from her parents, ignored whatever her brothers were arguing about, and crossed the lawn with one hand resting protectively near the small secret beneath her dress.
I met her halfway, wrapped my palm around her waist, and pulled her against me before she finished lifting her face for a kiss.
“You disappeared,” I murmured against her mouth, taking the soft lower lip between mine while her hands settled over the lapels of my black suit.
I’d worn my cut for the ceremony and removed it for the first dance only because Jacqueline had asked, but the leather hung over the back of my chair close enough to reach.
“Been married two hours, and you’re already neglecting me. ”
Her eyes filled with amusement as she leaned more fully into my chest. “I was twenty feet away, Brogan. Mom wanted to know whether I’ve been eating enough, Bex wanted to know whether I’m sleeping, and my brothers are arguing about the new rehabilitation barn as though I haven’t already approved Justin’s design. ”
“You haven’t been sleeping enough.” I slid my hand from her waist to the slight curve of her lower stomach, spreading my fingers over the place where our child grew while heat moved through me at the memory of exactly how that baby had gotten there. “Your old man keeps waking you up.”
“My old man has no self-control,” she whispered, her cheeks turning the deep pink that still made my cock hard every damn time.
“Because my old lady keeps sleeping naked against me.” I bent close enough for my beard to scrape lightly along her ear, enjoying the shiver that moved through her body before my voice dropped beneath the music and conversation.
“She also makes sexy little sounds in her sleep, rubs that sweet ass over my cock, and expects me to act like a reasonable man.”
Jacqueline’s fingers tightened against my cut, and her gaze darted toward the guests before returning to me with embarrassed heat. “You cannot say things like that at our wedding reception.”
I kissed the corner of her mouth and murmured. “You want me to stop, quit looking at me like you’re wondering how fast I can get you upstairs.”
“I wasn’t wondering that.”
“Liar.”
Her giggle slipped between us, soft enough that no one else heard, and I decided the rest of the reception could survive without us for a few hours.
Jacqueline apparently read that decision in my face because she placed both palms against my chest and reminded me that we hadn’t cut the cake yet.
I told her cake was available every day while marrying her only happened once, but she laughed and caught my hand before I could lift her into my arms.
“You promised me one more dance.” She guided me toward the section of flagstone patio cleared for music. “Then cake, and after that, you can decide how much longer you’re willing to share me with our guests.”
“Five minutes.”
“Brogan.”
“Ten. I’m being generous because you’re pregnant.”
Her mouth curved as I drew her into my arms, one hand closing around hers while the other settled low against her back.
The song was slow and Jacqueline rested her cheek over my heart and followed without making me pretend dancing required more concentration than tactical movement.
I could feel the warmth of her body pressed against me and the soft press of her stomach beneath my palm, and the knowledge that she was my wife and carrying my child almost turned the moment into something too private for a lawn full of witnesses.
“You’re staring at me again,” she murmured, lifting her face until those bright blue eyes met mine.
“Gonna keep doing it.”
“Even when I’m old and gray?”
“Especially then.” I turned her beneath my arm, caught her when she came back against my chest, and the faintest curve touched my mouth when her laughter carried over the music.
Beyond her shoulder, the frame of the new barn rose near the lower pasture, designed around the rehabilitation stalls and treatment spaces Jacqueline had sketched at the kitchen table months earlier.
Justin had adapted his design to preserve the original foundation stones, and construction crews had begun rebuilding before the ashes fully cooled.
Our veterans’ equine program would use part of the finished facility, giving the club another reason to fill the ranch with men who needed work, horses that needed patience, and the woman who somehow healed both without realizing it.
Jacqueline followed my gaze and rested her hand over mine at her stomach. “Grandpa would’ve loved today.”
“He would’ve loved you being happy.”
The song ended, and a burst of laughter near the makeshift bar pulled our attention across the lawn.
Bex stood beside Cipher with one hand resting on the polished wood, her pale-blue maid-of-honor dress ending above a pair of white boots while her hair moved around her shoulders in the evening breeze.
He’d known exactly who she was before she introduced herself because Cipher didn’t walk into a gathering without identifying every person, vehicle, camera, and possible vulnerability.
She was nineteen, Jacqueline’s best friend, and Sheriff Raines’s only daughter, which to someone as logical as Cipher, amounted to three separate hands-off signs in front of a man who treated emotional decisions like faulty code.
That knowledge hadn’t stopped him from watching her throughout the reception, though he had apparently convinced himself no one noticed.
Bex had though, which explained the determined tilt of her chin as she said something that made his black brows draw together.
Jacqueline followed my attention and whispered, “She’s been trying to get him to dance for twenty minutes.”
I snorted. “Cipher doesn’t dance.”
“He could.”
“He can also disappear underwater for several minutes. Doesn’t mean he enjoys it.”
My wife elbowed me lightly before returning her attention to the bar. Bex smiled up at Cipher and said something I couldn’t hear, but the invitation was obvious in the way she smiled at him. Cipher stared at her for a second too long, then answered quietly enough that the music swallowed the words.
The brightness in Bex’s expression dimmed by a fraction.
She covered it fast, lifted her chin and said something that made his jaw tighten, then she walked toward the dance floor without glancing back.
Cipher remained beside the bar, expression blank to anyone who didn’t know him, but one hand closed around his untouched glass hard enough to whiten the knuckles.
“What did he say?” Jacqueline asked, concern pulling her brows together.
“Probably something logical and stupid.”
Jacqueline canted her head, frowning. “Those aren’t the same thing.”
I sighed. “With Cipher, they overlap more than he’d admit.”
One of Raines’s youngest deputies intercepted Bex before she reached the tables. He held out his hand, and Bex accepted his invitation with a smile and let him guide her onto the dance floor, where he placed one hand at her waist and bent close enough to make her laugh at whatever he said.
Cipher’s attention locked on that hand, and I groaned when he set down his glass and crossed the lawn.
“Shit,” I muttered.
If he said something to my wife’s best friend and hurt her feelings, I was gonna kick his ass.
The deputy saw him coming and straightened before Cipher reached them, which showed the kid possessed instincts worth keeping. Cipher stopped close enough to force him back half a step and looked pointedly at the hand resting low on Bex’s waist. “You’re fucking done.”
Bex’s smile vanished. “Excuse me?”
Cipher didn’t remove his stony stare from the deputy. “I was talking to him.”
“I know exactly who you were talking to,” she snapped. She stepped away from the deputy and faced Cipher with anger brightening her eyes. “You don’t get a say in what I do or with who!”
Cipher’s gaze never left her face, though a muscle shifted once along his jaw. “His hand was too fucking low.”
“It was on my waist.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
The deputy cleared his throat, muttered that he needed another drink, and escaped before Sheriff Raines noticed a club enforcer and his daughter arguing in the middle of the reception.
Bex watched him leave before turning back to Cipher, her cheeks flushed for reasons that had nothing to do with shyness now. “I don’t belong to you.”
Cipher’s jaw hardened. “I know.”
Bex poked him hard in the chest. “Then stop acting like I do!”
Cipher went completely still, which usually preceded either a breakthrough or violence with him. His gaze dropped to her mouth, returned to her eyes, and revealed enough before he locked it down that even Jacqueline drew a quick breath beside me.
“You should,” he told Bex in a voice too low for anyone farther away to hear, “That’s the problem.”
He walked away before she could answer, disappearing toward the garage while Bex stood with her hands fisted at her sides and fury gathering behind her eyes.
Jacqueline started to move, but I caught her around the waist and held her against me.
Bex needed a moment before her best friend descended on her with questions.
Cipher needed considerably more than a moment, although I doubted all the logic in his head would survive seeing another man touch the woman he had already decided he couldn’t have.
“Oh, that’s going to be trouble,” Jacqueline murmured.
“Not ours.”
“You noticed too?”
“Baby, everyone noticed.” I turned her gently until her attention returned to me instead of the beginning of another brother’s bad decisions.
I slid my hand down the elegant line of her back and settled it over her ass, pulling her close enough to feel the renewed pressure of my erection.
“My wife promised I could stop sharing her after cake.”
Jacqueline’s breath caught as my fingers tightened through the ivory fabric. “I said you could decide how long.”
“Decided.”
The reception continued around us for another twenty minutes because my wife possessed more patience than I did and insisted on hugging every guest before we disappeared.
When Jacqueline yawned and tried to hide it behind her hand, I slid one arm beneath her knees and lifted her before she could object.
“I can walk,” Jacqueline reminded me, though her arms circled my neck as naturally as breathing.
“I know.”
Her laugh warmed the side of my throat as I carried her up the porch steps. At the doorway, Jacqueline glanced back and her expression softened before she looked at me, one palm resting over the place where our child grew while the other curled against my shoulder. “Today was perfect.”
“Not finished yet.” I carried her inside, kicked the door shut behind us, and pressed her against it long enough to take the kiss I’d been wanting since she crossed the lawn in that dress. “Still gotta get my wife naked.”
Her fingers slid into my hair while the shy, but strong as hell woman I’d met behind a shotgun smiled against my lips with no shyness left between us. “Then take me upstairs, husband.”
I had spent most of my life building walls around what mattered.
Jacqueline had walked through every one of them, handed me a future I hadn’t known to want, and stood beside me while I made it permanent.
Now she was my wife, carrying my child in the home we were rebuilding together, and there wasn’t a man alive stupid enough to try taking any of it from me.