Blame it on the Champagne (Blame it on the Alcohol #1) - Fiona Cole Page 0,121

mine.

I shook my head and turned my back, heading to the kitchen.

I looked across the island. His hand thudded to the table, and his head hung as he muttered, “Fuck.”

When he heard the click of the gas stove turning on, his head snapped up. Holding his gaze, I held the divorce papers over the flame until it caught fire. His jaw dropped, and he shot up from his seat, and we both watched the flame lick at the paper over the sink. Once it reached my fingers, I dropped the remnants of the so-called freedom he gave me and that I didn’t want, running the water to wash away any evidence it existed.

Looking up, I sat the other contract between us. “I’m keeping this one. But I want you to help me. I want to learn. I want to be a team because Nicholas Knightly Rush, I love you too.”

“What?” he asked like maybe he imagined me saying it and needed to hear it again to be sure.

“I. Love. You. You saw me when no one else did. You appreciated me beyond what you could get from me. It took me a while to see it—for you to show it, but when you did, I never felt stronger—more sure. And I’ve never had that from anyone.” He rounded the island, closing in on me. “Nico, I love you, and I don’t want those stupid divorce papers. I don’t wa—”

I never got to finish. He pulled me into his arms and slammed his mouth down on mine. I didn’t hesitate. I sunk into his hard body, relaxing in his arms like I was coming home. I lost myself to the soft give of his lips, swearing to never go so long without kissing him again.

“Are you sure?” he asked between kisses.

I nodded, not wanting to pull my mouth away, but not given a choice when he pulled back to frame my face and meet my eyes.

“I love you, and I never meant to hurt you. I’m so sorry for everything, Vera. I may have started all this for revenge, but you have to know that how much I love you is true. Everything that brought us here—all the moments, the tiny traditions we created of our own—that was all real. We are real, and I will take every day you let me to prove it to you. And if you let me, I’ll do it forever and not just five years.”

“Fuck five years. I want to burn that contract, too. I want it all, Nico. I want you.”

“You have me. I’m yours.”

“Prove it,” I challenged.

With a growl, he gripped my ass and hoisted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and went back to kissing him.

We bumped into furniture, and I didn’t even bother coming up for air around our laughs as he carried me to our bedroom, where he spent hours proving how much he was mine, and I was his.

By the time night fell, we finally got our night in front of the fire, celebrating our love the same way it all began.

With a bottle of champagne.

Epilogue

Nico

“I still do, and I always will.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and the dimples I loved so much made an appearance with them. The sun reflecting off the water like tiny diamonds illuminated her face, bringing out the pale freckles I could stare at forever.

“I still do, and I always will,” she said.

The officiator spoke words on the importance of keeping our promise to each other now and forever, but all I could focus on was her smiling face and soft lips. It’d been almost twenty-four hours since I’d kissed my wife, and a second longer stretched like an eternity.

“Nico,” she whispered, laughing.

“What?”

“Kiss your bride,” she ordered.

I’d been so lost in her, I’d missed my cue, but I didn’t have to be told twice.

Wrapping my arms around her waist, I locked my lips on hers and hoisted her against my chest. Her arms wrapped around my neck, her smiling mouth pressed to mine, locking me in the most secure embrace I feared I’d never have again.

Soft applause mixed with the crashing of the waves, so different from the roaring applause of strangers at our first wedding.

“I love you, Nicholas Knightly Rush,” she said softly against my lips.

I’d never tire of hearing it or saying it in return. “I love you too, Verana Camila Rush.”

A loud catcall pulled us from our bubble, and I didn’t even have to look to know Raelynn