Knight and Day (The Knight Erotic Trilogy, book 3 of 3) (17 page)

Lucien walked to meet them a little way before they reached the pergola, handing Tilly over to Kara as she moved away to join Dylan.

“You look so much beyond beautiful,” he said softly when they were alone, and Sophie found herself breathless and close to tears. He’d never looked more handsome, and the rare edge of vulnerability in his eyes made her heart swell with love for him. He’d laid aside all of his fears and prejudices against marriage for her, long held beliefs that had crumbled in the face of their big, huge, unconditional love for each other.

“You too, Lucien,” she said, reaching out to lay her palm on his cheek.

He turned his face into her hand and kissed it. “You ready?”

She laughed gently. “I’ve been ready since the first day I met you, Lucien Knight.”

He leaned down and lifted her in his arms. “You’re supposed to do this
after
we’re married,” she said, looping her arms around his neck as he walked towards the pergola.

“When did we ever do things the conventional way?” he said, his fingers finding the hidden zip at the side of her dress.

“Lucien…”

“Just checking for later,” he murmured against her hair, depositing her on her bare feet beneath the raffia canopy, then dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Come on, Princess. Let’s do this thing.”

Kara sat down facing the ocean with Tilly sitting on her knees and Dylan alongside her with his arm slung across the back of her chair. In front of them, the celebrant began the informal ceremony, welcoming them to witness the marriage of Sophie and Lucien. A tingle ran down Kara’s spine as she listened to the words, and for the first time ever she silently thanked Richard for standing her up at the altar.

This
was a real wedding.
This
was true love. Lucien and Sophie stood in front of her, facing each other, and no one else existed in their world at that moment.

Sophie looked down at Lucien’s hands holding her smaller ones, his thumbs gentle over her knuckles as the celebrant asked if there was anything she’d like to say to Lucien before she gave him his ring. She nodded and swallowed hard. There was so much she wanted to say.

“Lucien.” She looked into his beautiful eyes and stepped close. He held on tight to her hands. “You’ve taught me that love is so much bigger than I ever knew it could be.” She paused, gathering herself together. “I love you for so many different reasons. For your generosity and your spirit, for your loyalty and your strength, and for your vulnerability. I love you because you let me in.” She couldn’t keep the catch from her voice, and his eyes burned over-bright with emotion.

“I promise to love you forever, with every breath in my body.” She smiled, and then added under her breath, for his ears alone, “More than once a month with the lights out.”

He laughed softly and looked at the floor, nodding.

“You made me into the princess from all of the fairy tales I loved as a child, Lucien,” she said, and when he looked up at her again his eyes told her he loved her in a million different ways.

“I love you for the man you’ve always been, for the father you’ve become, and for the husband you’re going to be.”

She took his ring from the celebrant’s outstretched palm.

“Lying with you beneath the northern lights, or here beneath the Spanish sun… you’re my Viking and my sunshine.” The tears ran unchecked down her cheeks now. “You’re my hero, Lucien Knight.”

She slid the ring onto his wedding finger, holding it there for a few seconds, sealing it forever with her love.

“Always, Lucien. Always.”

Behind them, Dylan rubbed Kara’s shoulder, seeing the happy tears glittering on her cheeks as she cradled Tilly in her arms. He knew without question that he wanted her in his life forever, and he knew with almost as much certainty that he was going to lose her.

Lucien breathed in hard as Sophie slipped the ring on his finger. He hadn’t counted on the amazing sense of peace that seeing it there would bring him, or that he’d finally,
finally
understand the reason why people all around the world of all different faiths wedded themselves to each other forever. Why they placed their blind faith in someone else, and their heart in someone else’s hands, and trusted them not to break it into smithereens.

He drew Sophie close, her face in his hands, and kissed her mouth. Her lips were warm and pliant, salty with her tears.

“I think you’re supposed to wait until the end to do that,” she whispered, laughing shakily. As if Lucien was ever going to follow the rules.

The celebrant held his palm out, and Lucien took Sophie’s ring between his fingers with the reverence it deserved. And then he looked up at Sophie with all of the devotion she deserved, too.

“Sophie,” he said, and wiped the tears from her cheek with his fingertips. “There isn’t a single part of my life that isn’t a hundred times better for having you in it.” He wanted to remember the look on her face forever. “You’re the girl who kisses envelopes before you mail them,” he said. “The girl who still surprises me every single day. The world’s a better place through your eyes than mine.” He stroked the back of his fingers along her jawline.

“Before you, I thought I was a lone wolf. I was wrong. I need my pack. You. Tilly.” He laid his hand on her stomach. “This baby. All the important lessons in life I’ve learned have been from you.  You’ve shown me that love doesn’t have to break people.”

Reaching for her left hand, he stroked his thumb over the place her ring would fit.

“I promise to love you forever, Sophie, and to honour every perfect inch of your body with my own. Often. Daily. Sometimes twice a day,” he added. Behind them, Kara and Dylan’s soft laughter carried on the breeze.

“I promise I’ll never leave you, or screw anyone else, or break your heart.” He slid the ring onto her wedding finger and knew he’d never seen anything as profoundly perfect in his life. Sophie gasped softly, tears on her cheeks all over again.

“I look at you today, barefoot and beautiful, growing our baby inside you, and I wonder how the hell I got this lucky.” He moved her in close, sliding his arm around her waist and lifting her hand to his mouth. He placed his lips over her wedding ring and set the seal.

“You’re
my
fucking hero, Sophie Knight.”

They danced as the sun set over this most blissful of days.

Encircled in Lucien’s arms, Sophie laid her head on his shoulder and let her gaze slide slowly over the scene as he stroked her back. Tilly, crashed out on a cream, calico-covered lounger that had appeared out of nowhere just when it was needed.

Kara and Dylan, their arms wrapped around each other. Sophie could see Dylan’s face as he rested his chin on top of Kara’s head, and his expression told her all she needed to know about the depth of his feelings for the woman in his arms.

She breathed in a deep, happy sigh and closed her eyes, wondering if she'd ever experience such a perfect moment again.

Lucien Knight.

Her love, her hero, and finally, her husband.

Kara and Dylan made their way home in the Mustang a couple of hours later. He slung his arm around her waist, her sandals hanging from his fingers as they walked slowly along the beach towards the Love Tug, close enough to the water’s edge for the sea to wash over Kara’s bare feet.

"That was, hands down, the best wedding I've ever been to," she said, winding both of her arms around Dylan's midriff. It had been the most impossibly romantic of days, and she was ready now to tell the man at her side that she loved him.

He kissed the top of her head. "Starry-eyed fool."

Kara wriggled her toes in the shallow water. "I used to be." She stilled, smooched him a little. Warm mouths, soft sighs. "Still starry-eyed. But not a fool anymore," she said. "I picked you."

Dylan's conviction to tell her the truth dissolved in her kiss. He let himself roll the dice one last time. It had been the best of days. Let tonight be the best of nights, and come morning he’d tell Kara everything.

They were good plans. Great, even. Brave courses set for the best of reasons. But what neither of them had factored in was the vulnerability of their plans to outside interference. As they strolled up the beach, both spotted the lone figure ahead at the same moment.

For Kara, there was no moment of instant horror and panic, but for Dylan there most definitely was as the man drew himself up to standing as they approached the pathway.

Dylan’s fingers bit suddenly into Kara’s waist, her first warning that something was amiss.

“About time too,” the man said, a triumphant grin on his face as his sly gaze moved between Kara and Dylan.

“What the fuck…?” Dylan ground out. Kara felt her world tip a little at his expression, at the rage in his voice.

“I told you never to come back here,” Dylan said, his voice low and full of menace as he stepped protectively in front of Kara.

“Extenuating circumstances, bro.” Justin shrugged his shoulders with the look of a man who knows he’s holding an ace.

Fear spiked through Dylan’s heart as he remembered turning off his phone earlier that day. Had Justin been trying to reach him?
Had something happened to their mother?

Kara stood stock still, her mind reeling.
Bro?
This was Justin? This was Dylan’s surviving brother? There was little to link them, aside from their familiar accents and maybe their eyes. She made up her mind within seconds that Justin was a man with none of his brother’s virtues.

She placed her hand on Dylan’s arm as he moved threateningly towards the other man.

“Dylan…” she murmured, and Justin looked her straight in the eyes and laughed.

“Dylan?” He rolled his eyes. “Fuck, man!”

Dylan had his brother by the scruff of the neck within a second and had him pinned against the rocks.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” he growled. “Not like this.”

Kara’s world tilted even more queasily to the side.
There was something very, very wrong.
Dylan drew his fist back, but it stilled in mid air as Justin inclined his head towards someone new approaching the tense gathering. Kara swung around too, and they all watched as a woman headed towards them, stumbling awkwardly as she dragged a pushchair through the deep sand. Tall and skinny, her dark hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, her cotton dress was rumpled, and the tight, resentful look on her face spelled even more trouble.

“So you finally decided to show up,” she drawled, her eyes on Dylan as she came close to them.

Kara wrapped her arms around her midriff, an instinctively protective stance. She couldn’t speak. The look on Dylan’s face had again taken her breath. Whoever this woman was, she was no stranger to him.

Silence reigned for a few long seconds as the woman’s gaze shifted from Dylan to Kara.

“Looks like it’s down to me to make the introductions, darlin’,” she said, her eyebrows raised over her bitterly triumphant eyes.

Dylan let Justin go with a shove and turned to Kara. The look on his face broke her heart clean in two. Her world was about to turn upside down. She knew it in that split second as she waited mutely to hear what Dylan – or the woman - would say.

“Kara, please…”

“Oh, this is gonna be fuckin’ priceless,” Justin laughed. Without a second’s hesitation, Dylan swung around and punched him so hard on the jaw that he fell to his knees. Kara flinched, as much for the anguished, animal sound that left Dylan’s body when the blow struck its target as for the sound of knuckles smashing against bone.

“Some things never change, Matthew,” the woman said coolly, watching with apparent disinterest as Justin staggered to his feet, swiping blood from his mouth on the back of his hand.

Dylan’s heart was beating hard enough to give him a coronary.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

“Kara…” he said, hating the hunted look in her eyes and wanting like hell to hold her.

“She called you Matthew,” Kara whispered, her face ashen even in the moonlight. “Why did she call you Matthew?”

The woman’s eyes widened and a small laugh escaped her throat.

“Oh my God,” she said, amused, furious, dangerous beyond reason. “She doesn’t even know your fucking name.”

“Shut the fuck up, Suzie,” Dylan said, never taking his eyes off Kara. He reached for her hands but she stepped backwards, out of his reach.

“Who is she?” Kara demanded, terrified of hearing his answer.

Suzie didn’t shut the fuck up. She stepped up alongside Dylan instead and stuck her hand out. Kara stared at it dumbly.

“I’m Suzie, honey,” she said, retracting her hand with a shrug, laying it on Dylan’s bicep instead. “His wife.” She glanced sideways and waved her other hand towards the pushchair. “And that’s his son.”