He’d rolled his eyes at her delighted glee when she’d sat on his lap in his office and logged into the website to look up her final grades. One A minus, and three As. He’d rucked up her skirt and fucked her over the desk, her smug face pressed into the blotter, her wrists crossed behind her back and bound with his hastily removed tie.
And now . . . now he was standing in front of hundreds of pairs of gawking eyes, waiting for his bride. His gorgeous, brave, brilliant and delightfully submissive bride.
They’d broken the taboo of not seeing each other today. He’d come into her room before she put on her dress and while she was in the obscenely expensive and decadent white lingerie he’d picked out for her, he’d marked her. Not a lot, just a few strikes of the evil stick along her shoulder blades where they wouldn’t show under her dress. She said they made her feel like she had wings, had asked for more even as her eyes watered. He’d refused.
There was going to be a lot of handshaking, hugging, sitting, standing, dancing. He wanted to remind her she was his but not because she was hurting in a bad way. He would rather die than harm her.
He tugged at his cufflinks, again, willing her to materialize at the end of the aisle. And then she was there.
The dress he’d picked for her, a modest structured silk number, made her glow. Her hair had grown out and was back to being her natural red, but it was tucked up, hidden by the long veil. They didn’t have any attendants, so there was no waiting for her as she floated down the aisle. Everyone in the audience probably turned, but he couldn’t see anything but her.
Step by step, she got closer and he found himself overwhelmed by the depth of his feelings for her. Without knowing it, she’d brought him back from the brink of disaster. Without trying, she’d made him a better man. He’d needed to be, to be worthy of her and the trust she put in him. That would be his goal for the rest of his life. To earn the love Keyne bestowed upon him so freely. He had to protect her from herself even in that. Something so precious and she’d hand it over to a man like him, no questions asked.
Silly little girl.
Or maybe not so silly, because he would fight to honor the promises he’d made to her until the day he died. She made him want to become the man she thought he was. Brave and maybe savvier than he’d ever given her credit for, to see he’d give anything to fill the shoes she thought he already walked in.
Her small shoulders were squared and he could tell she was holding herself tightly. Nervous. Her fingers were probably clenched around the stems of her bouquet, hidden away by the gorgeous flowers spilling over her wrists. He hoped her nerves were a result of the hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at her and not because of the commitment she was about to make.
Doubt hadn’t been a familiar feeling in his life until Keyne had come along. He’d experienced more doubt and uncertainty since he’d brought her home on that awful June day than in the rest of his life combined. Am I doing the right thing? Am I good enough for her? Those questions hadn’t made him weak, though. They’d made him stronger, smarter, more industrious. For her.
And for the last three-and-a-half years, he’d waited for her to change her mind; to find someone else who intrigued her, who she wanted to be with. Someone more appropriate maybe, although he couldn’t believe she’d ever find someone who would love her more. But though she’d had some flirtations with guys at school and she’d gone with Alice and Leisl to play at clubs with people other than him, she returned to him time after time. Not with reluctance, either, but with gratitude, relief, joy, and yes, love.
He didn’t regret for a second that he’d given her that liberty though it had made him anxious at times, but a little self-doubt was probably good for him. It gave him the certainty today that he was truly who—and what—she wanted, and he would give her everything she wanted, everything she needed without looking back.
When she reached him, she smiled. A brilliant, toothy grin that lit up her whole face, made her eyes shine like the emerald in her engagement ring that he’d given her the day she graduated. She was at once the exuberant, stubborn child he’d watched grow up and the sophisticated, sensual woman she’d become. He loved her so much, he thought his heart might fill to the brim too fast for him to bail it out. It would overflow and sink into the ground. But she would buoy him with her levity and her need.
After he’d lifted Keyne’s veil and folded it back over her hair, Deja took her bouquet. It hadn’t been easy for Deja to accept their relationship at first, but after spending some time with both of them, she’d slowly come to allow that they seemed to be very much in love. Her blessing hadn’t been necessary, but Jasper was glad to have it all the same.
Keyne grabbed his hand, threading her trembling fingers through his. He dipped his head to look in her eyes and mouthed, “Okay?”
She nodded, but he wanted verbal confirmation for this. This was bigger than any scene they’d ever done and he wouldn’t chance her happiness.
“Sure?”
“Never better. I love you.”
Devotion shown on her face, brighter than any star and it transmuted any concern he might’ve had that she wasn’t sure into the hottest confidence. He looked down at the tattoo adorning her wrist and smiled. Second star to the right.
They faced the judge together and said their vows, Keyne flushing the most perfect shade of pink when she promised to obey him. He’d make her say the words again tonight, over and over. While she was over his knee, while he bound her to their marriage bed, while he was inside of her.
He felt the weight of responsibility as he said his own vows, promising to cherish and keep her. Every wisp of hair, every freckle, every scar. I will keep you, Keyne, I swear. When the words had been said and their union made official in the eyes of the state and the public, he kissed her. Sealed his lips to hers in a promise, wrapped his hand around her waist and squeezed. My most precious possession. Mine.
It was a chaste kiss. They didn’t need to shove their passion for each other in everyone’s faces or cheapen it by posing for the press they’d allowed. Let them see it was a true, honorable, and solid love. Not some passing obsession or lust. He would care for her until he turned to dust and watch over her when that dust had turned to another star in the sky. She was his whole world, his whole universe, and he would hold her in the palm of his hand for as long as he could.
For today, he would hold her.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Cindy for believing I could pull off this book before you’d even seen page one. Having an editor who has faith in you is priceless. And thank you to the rest of the team at InterMix who helped get Keyne and Jasper out into the world.
I’m fortunate to have an agent who is my perfect fit. Thank you for always being there, Courtney Miller-Callihan!
Also thanks to AJ and Teresa. I put you through the wringer with this one, but as always, you (and my manuscript) came through smelling like roses. Maybe someday I’ll write a book with a suspense subplot; just not today.
To my friends MTS, LG, EH, and KO, thank you for the tea and the drinks and the dinners and the walks. I would be much less interesting and much less sane without you!
Huge thanks to Mr. Parker for making my career possible, and to Kidlet for not asking too many questions about this book in particular . . .
And, as always, my readers and reviewers. Thanks for coming with me on this ride, even if it took you out of your comfort zone at times. I’m grateful that you’ve spent your time and resources on my words.
Tamsen Parker is the USA Today bestselling author of School Ties. A stay-at-home mom by day and writer by naptime, she lives outside of Boston with her family. Personal Geography, the first book in her self-published Compass Series, was selected as a Recommended Read by Romance Novel News, a 2014 Buried Treasures Pick by All About Romance, and was also selected by Heroes & Heartbreakers as one of their 10 BDSM Romances You
Should Read.
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