Man of Honor (Battle Scars #3) - Diana Gardin Page 0,75

beside me. As she walks toward him, I rest a hand on his shoulder. He’s trembling.

The singer, a friend of Berkeley’s from college, is singing the steel drum version of “Over the Rainbow.” I’m caught up in the moment just like everyone else, watching her drift across the sand toward the only man in this whole world who could hold her heart. Mea’s eyes are shining with unshed tears. Feeling the heat of my gaze, she glances at me and beams. Something passes between us, then. A promise?

Could this be us one day? When I look at Mea, do I picture the rest of my life? Being chided by her sass, swept up in her perpetual tornado, loving her body each and every night? Is that something I want to hold on to?

The answer is an unequivocal yes.

I don’t know when it happened, exactly. But sometime between the first time I loved her body and this moment, I fell headfirst under her spell. There’s no other woman in this world that could keep me guessing the way she does. No other woman who could beckon me across a crowded room with one crook of her finger. No other woman who simultaneously makes me crazy with frustration and insane with greedy lust.

She’s mine.

And I want it forever.

When asked to share their vows, Dare and Berkeley state that they’ve written their own. It’s not surprising, since I think underneath all that broodiness my boy is actually a poet. Berkeley’s an artist, she would never want to conform to the traditional vows. They pledge their lives to each other with beautiful, heartfelt words.

“I, Dare, take you, Berkeley, to be my wife. The first and last person I think about each and every day. The mother of my future children. The love of my life. The first day I saw you I decided you were an evil vixen siren who’d been sent to mess me up for anyone else. It was partially true. You’re definitely a vixen, and I answer to your siren’s call. But evil? Never. You’re the sweetest, most thoughtful, kindhearted woman I’ve ever met. When I fell in love with you, Berkeley, I found my family. My home. And I promise that for the rest of my life, I will make that home the happiest place for the both of us. I will cherish you, honor you, respect you as my partner, and let you decorate every room in our house without a single complaint. I pledge my life to you today. Forever.”

Hers is spoken through the haze of tears falling from her lovely eyes. “Dare, the day I met you, I pegged you for a dark and brooding army egocentric.” The wedding guests burst into laughter. “But I was wrong. You taught me that judging someone by past prejudices can be fatal. No matter what I thought of you then, I couldn’t get you out of my head. And I still get those same butterflies whenever you walk into a room. You’re my love, my partner, and my hero. I pledge my life to you now. I promise to always be the person you can turn to in times of distress. I promise to be the mother to your children. I promise to love you through every peak and every valley this world might bring us. But most of all, I promise to be your compass, so that you’ll always know where to come home.”

The ceremony ends shortly after, with Dare dipping his new wife to kiss the hell out of her in front of family and friends.

I pull Mea closer to me as we wander over the dance floor. The soft strains of a slow Bruno Mars hit waft through the air, but I barely hear the music. My senses are overwhelmed with her. Her smell invigorates me, the feel of her body pressed against mine is a drug. Her head rests against my chest, and there are no wayward curls tickling my nose.

“I miss those curls,” I whisper into her ear, loving how her body shivers in response.

She glances up, warm brown eyes meeting mine. “I straightened it this morning. You don’t like it?”

I smooth a hand over her espresso-colored locks. When straightened, her hair falls over her shoulders in a thick sheet. She’s gorgeous either way. “Love your hair, baby. No matter how you style it. Those curls just make you wilder. I like you wild.”

Her lips curl, a seductive smile making the blood pump harder in