Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40297 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40297 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
When we reached the bedroom, I expected him to lay me on the bed. Instead, he set me gently on my feet beside it. My heart was still racing as he reached into the bedside table drawer and pulled out a small black box.
My breath stopped completely as I realized he wasn’t done making my dreams come true.
Ares turned to face me and opened the box, revealing a stunning diamond ring that caught the low light and sparkled.
As he plucked the ring from its velvet bed, his voice was rough with emotion. “I’ve known you were mine since the first time I saw you. You’re gonna be mine forever. Marry me, Cecily. Let me be the man who supports every single one of your goals while you chase gold. As your husband.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks again, but this time they were pure, overwhelming joy.
“Yes,” I whispered, then louder, laughing through the tears. “Yes, Ares. Of course I’ll marry you.”
He slid the ring onto my finger with steady hands, then pulled me against him and kissed me until I couldn’t see straight. Then he finally picked me up to place me on the bed, stripping all my clothes off…only to put my leather vest back on.
“Gonna take you with nothing but my property patch on your back and my ring on your finger.”
That was exactly what he did. Over and over again throughout the night.
As we lost ourselves in each other, the future stretched out in front of us…and I had never been more sure that everything would work out exactly as it should.
EPILOGUE
TYRE
Christmas lights glowed across the compound, strung between poles and wrapped around trees in warm white strands that reflected softly off the pool water behind the clubhouse. The Florida air carried just enough chill to justify the giant heaters scattered beneath the tents, but not enough to ruin the night. Music drifted through the yard, mixed with laughter, clinking glasses, and the low rumble of my brothers giving each other shit near the bar setup Fury and Gauge had thrown together beside the clubhouse.
And right in the center of all of it stood Cecily. My wife.
The realization still hit me like a punch every time I looked at her. She was fucking beautiful in a way that made it hard to breathe right. Her dress hugged her body before falling in clean lines to the ground, the winter lights catching in her wild, red hair while her brown eyes searched for me through the crowd.
The second she found me, her whole face lit up.
Mine. That feeling hadn’t faded once since the day I met her. If anything, it’d only grown stronger.
I leaned back in my chair at the head table, whiskey in one hand, while I watched her laugh with Jana, Ashlynn, and Lark near the dance floor. The wedding itself had been exactly what she wanted—intimate and outdoors under the lights behind the clubhouse with our families surrounding us. Just us, our people, and promises that settled deep into my bones the second I slid my ring onto her finger. And I’d meant every damn word.
Across from me, Blitz smirked over the neck of his beer bottle. “You’ve been staring at your wife for twenty straight minutes, brother.”
“Fuck off.”
He chuckled, entirely unbothered. “Just saying, if you keep fucking her with your eyes like that, one of the old ladies is gonna hose you down.”
Edge dropped into the empty chair beside me and snorted. “Too late. He’s already mentally stripped her naked at least six times since dinner.”
“Seven,” Nitro corrected dryly from further down the table. “I counted.”
I flipped all of them off without taking my eyes off Cecily. “One more word about my wife and sex coming from any of your mouths, and my woman will be remembering our wedding day as the one where several of my brothers lost limbs.”
That only made the assholes laugh harder.
Kane leaned back beside Savannah, his arm stretched lazily across the back of her chair while he watched me with obvious amusement. “Leave him alone. Man just got married.”
“Exactly,” Edge shot back. “Which means he’s legally obligated to suffer through our commentary.”
Century lifted his beer. “It’s tradition.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t even find it in me to be annoyed tonight. Not when Cecily glanced over again and smiled at me like I was the only thing she saw in the entire fucking world. It hit me straight in the chest every damn time.
A few minutes later, she slipped into the empty chair beside mine, her fingers brushing over the back of my neck while she leaned in close enough that her perfume wrapped around me immediately.
“You’re staring again,” she murmured near my ear.
“You’re my wife. I’ll stare whenever the fuck I want.”
Her cheeks pinkened slightly, and I grinned against the side of my whiskey glass.