“Crackers.”

“Why crackers?”

“Rachel said she didn’t feel good. Make her eat those,” he said, and then shut the door.

Maddie eyed me through the mirror, and I’m sure Candice would have been doing the same if her face wasn’t near my butt at the moment. “You don’t feel good?”

“I just got a little queasy earlier, I’m feeling better, but those will help.” Oh Lord how those would help. “It’s just nerves.”

She handed me the little package and I quickly opened it up and popped the first one in my mouth just as Candice jumped up.

“Okay, it looks perfect!”

I turned in the mirror and smiled at my underwear. “So cute,” I said through a mouthful of cracker.

It was a white thong with a thick band of see-through material, ruffled on each side of the band, and a mix of cotton and lace for the rest. But the best part was the satin bow that covered anything that shouldn’t be seen. Thong or not, I still wanted it covered.

The girls made me finish the crackers before they helped me put on my dress, and as soon as I saw the completed look, with my hair in a low bun off to the side just as Maddie had done it in the dress shop, an overwhelming feeling of peace settled over me.

My mom would have loved to see me like this, my dad would have been proud of the man I had chosen. And now, I couldn’t wait to get to that ceremony so I could finally become his wife.

“Naked or not, we’re coming in,” Mason said as the door flung open.

“Mason!” Candice and Maddie scolded him, but he just shrugged.

“You look beautiful, Rach,” Eli said and pulled me close to whisper in my ear. “And I really don’t like that guy.”

“He’s harmless, I promise.”

“Uh-huh.” He gave Mason a look as he stepped back, and Mason stepped in to get his hug.

“For real, the dude hates me!” Mason hissed at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “But you look gorgeous, Kash is gonna die when he sees you.”

“Thanks, Mase.”

I watched Eli and Mason leave with Maddie and Candice, and then turned to see Candice’s dad, George, tearing up.

“No, no! Don’t cry. Because if you cry, then I’m going to cry, and I so can’t cry right now, George!”

“I know, I’m not crying. It’s just dust or something.” He wiped at his eyes and held his arms out for me. “So proud of you, baby girl. Your mom and dad would’ve been too.”

I hugged him hard before releasing him. “I know they would have.”

He blinked a few times before turning away. “Damn dust.”

“Yeah . . . damn dust,” I said and fanned at my face so the tears gathering in my eyes wouldn’t spill over.

“Come on, let’s go do this before the dust ruins my makeup.”

My head jerked back and I looked at him before busting out laughing. “Oh yeah, your makeup would definitely be all over the place.”

Putting my arm in the crook of his, I let him lead me out of the room, and we waited until it was our turn to walk down the aisle. The second my eyes found Kash standing at the end of it, my body warmed and my heart took off. He was standing there in black slacks, a light gray button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, and a black suit vest. He looked amazing, but what I couldn’t take my eyes off was the huge smile that spread across his face as he watched us walk toward him.

The second my hand touched his, I took what felt like my first real breath since we’d left the dinner last night.

I was where I belonged. He was my home. And I was so ready to marry him.

Kash

PUSHING RACHEL UP AGAINST THE DOOR to our hotel suite, I captured her mouth with mine before making my way down her neck as I searched for the key in my pocket. Once I found it, I fumbled with sliding it in the lock twice before giving up and kissing her again. She laughed against my lips and grabbed the keycard out of my hand, and turned her body around so she could attempt to get us in the room.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her against my chest as I made a trail of openmouthed kisses across her shoulder and up the back of her neck. A soft giggle bubbled up from her chest but quickly cut off when I grabbed her hips and pressed my hard-on against her. She shivered in my arms and her head dropped back onto my shoulder just as the light turned green and the door unlocked. I quickly pushed us inside and let the door slam shut behind us as I hurried her to the bed, my hands going to the zipper on her dress as we walked. It’d been getting to the point where I would have taken my wife right there in the hall, not caring about anyone that may have seen us.

As soon as the zipper stopped its downward path, I stopped ours toward the bed and pulled away from Rachel so I could watch the dress fall from her body. The material pooled around her bare feet, and I took my time letting my eyes reverse the path the dress had just taken. I groaned when I saw her lingerie.

“Rachel Ryan, you’re trying to kill me before we can consummate this marriage.”

“I love that name.”

“Not as much as I do.”

Turning her around to unhook the top, I stopped breathing for heated moments as my hands gripped her hips and slid down her ass.

“This”—I nibbled on her earlobe and ran my fingers over the see-through, barely there material—“is the fucking sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

White lace and a ribbon. Who knew?

“Kash,” she said on a breath and pressed herself against me. “If you don’t take it off soon, I will.”

“So impatient,” I teased, but even as I did, my hands went to the dozens of hooks on the top. With each unclasped hook, I placed a kiss on her shoulder, the back of her neck, the sensitive spot behind her ear . . . and with each one, her knees shook a little more.

When I was finished, I tossed the material aside before pressing her back to my chest again. Grabbing her chin, I tilted her head back and up so I could capture her mouth with mine as I palmed her heavy breasts. She groaned into my mouth and arched her back as her hands covered mine. She slowly removed my hands and guided them down her waist to rest against her stomach, and released me to run her hands through my hair.

Letting the tips of my fingers trail over her stomach and across her hips, I brought them down to the barely there underwear and let my thumbs run inside the band. Taking a step away from her, my lips curved up in a smile at her disappointed groan, but I just pushed her closer to the bed and pressed a hand down at the top of her back. Realization hit her blue eyes, and she bit down on her bottom lip as she rested her forearms on the bed.

I ran my hands over her bare ass again before grabbing the filmy material and slowly sliding it off her hips, down her thighs, and to the ground. She stepped out of her underwear, and I kissed my way back up her legs, biting softly on the back of her thigh just before I stood.

She was so fucking beautiful—so perfect—and she was finally mine.

I’d just barely begun teasing her, and was sliding one finger inside her when she suddenly turned and sat on the bed, facing me. Her hands reached the top of my pants and made quick work of unbuttoning and unzipping them, before dragging them, and my boxers, down. She grabbed my length in her hands, running them up and down a few times before she brought that sweet as sin mouth to me.

I groaned, and my hand automatically flew to her head, but I forced it to stay relaxed instead of gripping her hair. I tried to watch her as she built me up faster than I ever have before, but my head kept dropping back, my eyes rolling to the back of my head as she teased me with her lips and tongue, and her hand continued to work me. She moaned around me, and I about lost it right then when I looked back down and saw her touching herself too. Holy shit.

Pushing her away from me felt like an impossible task, but I needed to. I’d planned this whole night out in my head, I was going to go slow with her, I was going to spend hours worshipping her body. But as the night had progressed, we’d both gotten needier, and there’d been no way to start slow once we were finally here. But I wasn’t about to do this.

A confused look crossed her face when I grabbed the hand she was using on herself and moved it away. “This is my job, sweetheart.”

“Okay, but I wasn’t done with you,” she argued and started to reach for me again, but I stopped her hands.

I quickly took off the suit-vest and shirt, and threw them across the room as I kicked off my shoes and stepped out of my pants. “Rachel,” I said and laid her down on the bed before crawling on top of her. “I know you weren’t, and Christ, that was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen you do,” I told her and pulled her toward the center of the bed. “But the first time we get off as a married couple, isn’t about to be in your mouth, and you’re sure as shit not about to do it yourself.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but I thrust inside of her, and all that came out was a throaty mix of pleasure and pain. I rocked against her faster and harder, and my head dropped to the crook of her neck, a low growl emanating from my chest when her nails dug into my back. I’d always loved the noises she made whenever we were together, but the sounds she was making now had me gripping the comforter and pushing into her harder as she began tightening around me. I clenched my teeth as I held off my own orgasm, but the second her body began trembling around me, I let go with a roar I’d tried to suppress by biting down on her shoulder.

We were both breathing hard as I slowed my movements inside her, and after I pulled out, I collapsed onto my back, pulling her onto my chest. Neither of us said anything as we lay there. I don’t know what it’d been, if it was the fact that Rachel was finally mine, if it was the erotic noises she’d been making, or if it was something more . . . but that had been the most intense sexual experience we’d ever had. And all I could do, now that it was over, was lie there and hold her close to me.