BULKY
I expect him to be standing on the other side of the orange door.
But I never could have expected to walk into the hillside of swaying cherry blossom trees to find Gunner in a tuxedo, a pastor holding a bible to his left. Gunner’s head lifts at my entrance, his expression transforming with love, with worship. For me. I can’t believe it.
And taking one step, two, I realize I’m walking down the aisle to my own wedding.
My hands fly to my mouth to trap a sob, blossom petals falling all around me. Hot tears rush to my eyes. I can’t stand another single second of being apart from Gunner—and I run to him, leaping into his arms. Burying my face in his neck and circling my legs around his hips, letting him hold me like a baby while I cry.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Gunner makes a sound of disbelief. “You’re sorry? Josie, I’ve been a goddamn idiot. I should have known there was more to us than an arrangement. I should have trusted my gut, that we were right together, instead of unknowingly pushing you away. You needed love, not gifts. If you’d gone…baby, if I’d lost you, that would have been the end of me.” His hard mouth rakes over my ear, a shudder passing through his big body. “I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life that you went to such lengths to get my attention. Or I never would have admitted how much I love you. How badly I need you. If you lied, Josie, you only did it for us, so there will be no more apologizing. My wife doesn’t apologize for anything.”
Wife.
With my heart performing cartwheels in my chest, I curl my body more securely around him, vaguely aware of my parents and Paul entering the room, standing at the perimeter. “You really w-want to marry me?”
He pulls back and looks me in the eye, stroking a loving hand down the side of my face. “My life won’t be complete otherwise.” His voice shakes with emotion. “I love you so damn much, Josie. You are my happiness. You’re the good in this world for me. You are mine. If I’m not going to bed beside you every night for as long as I live, the devil might as well take me now.”
I can barely catch my breath in the face of my dreams coming true. “I love you, too. I love you with my whole heart.” I plant kisses all over his face. “My Gunner. Mine.”
“Sweetest words I’ve ever heard,” he growls, capturing my mouth in a hard kiss, his forearm sliding beneath my bottom. “Marry us. Just like this,” he says to the pastor, whispering the rest in my ear. “I’m never going to let your feet touch the floor. You’re going to feel like you’re floating for the rest of your life.”
“I already do,” I whisper, framing his face with my hands, the gentle fan blowing my hair around our heads. “I’m already in the clouds.”
We share another long, hungry kiss, unable to stop, even with our audience watching. “Reach inside my inner jacket pocket,” he instructs me—and I do—pulling out a diamond ring that qualifies as a small boulder, rendering me speechless. “Now put it on your finger, little girl, and say the words that will make me the luckiest man alive.”
I exhale shakily while sliding on the ring, then lean in to speak quietly against Gunner’s ear, my thighs tightening ever-so-slightly. “Yes, Papa.”
Epilogue
Gunner
Five Years Later
Every year, on the anniversary of our impromptu wedding, me and Josie renew our vows. It’s always the biggest party of the year—and it’s happening tonight. If you told me a decade ago that I’d be the kind of man who looks forward to parties, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I have this bright, bubbly little wife that turns everything magical. Which is why, although I’m supposed to wait until tonight to see the venue she’s decorating for the party, I simply can’t wait that long. I want her in front of me now.
A doorman holds open the entrance door of the forty-story building where the party is being held. With a bouquet of roses in my hand, I take the elevator up to the top floor, my dick already hard as nails. God. Five years later and my obsession with Josie’s pussy has only swelled. I’m horny and territorial and fascinated with every delicious inch of it. Just thinking about how wet she gets when I eat her out had me cutting a meeting short this afternoon to come here, surprise her at the venue.
Since marrying the love of my life, she’s become…my world. There’s no other way to put it. She travels with me, I discuss business decisions with her, we spend our weekends wrapped up in one another and our four-year-old son, Ryan. I didn’t know this level of happiness existed and I thank my maker for it every day. I can’t wait to renew my vows to her tonight. I love watching her blue eyes tear up every three hundred and sixty-five days, the feel of her mouth on mine afterward. Love hearing her say in front of everyone we know that she’s mine.