“Are you happy?” I asked, my mouth near her ear. She nodded.
“So happy,” she said, turning in my hold and wrapping her hands around my neck. “I really, really, really fucking love you, Victor Reuben. Despite your aversion to marriage.”
I grinned. She was so clueless. “I don’t have an aversion to marriage.”
“I heard you talking to your parents the other day.” She paused, her blue eyes searching my face. “I’m okay with that. I don’t need to get married again. Been there, done that, bought the shirt.”
“Fuck that shirt.”
“You say that about everything that has nothing to do with you,” she said, laughing. “I’m just saying, you have a really great life. I’m not here to disrupt your organized, meticulous lifestyle. I just want to be part of it.”
I sighed and bent my knees, pulling her down to the warm blanket we’d been given when we got here. I held her gaze as I spoke to make sure there was nothing I said that would escape her realm of comprehension.
“You once said this was a goal for you,” I said, waving a hand around the set around us. “My goals were always career-driven, and when I attained those, I realized my goals had changed a little and that somewhere along the way you became my goal. I’m in love with you. I’ve achieved a lot in my thirty-one years, and I’m proud of those accomplishments, but none of them make me feel the way you do. When we go back home, my next goal will be to get you to move in with me, and later on down the line it’ll be to get you to agree to marry me, because I love you and I never want to be without you.”
It took a moment for my words to sink in, and when they did, she blinked, and blinked, and the tears forming in her eyes began to fall. I caught them as they did, brushing them away.
“I’m goals?” she whispered, smiling.
“You are every goal I never knew I wanted.”
Our lips met in a slow, sensual, long kiss that made me want to run back to the hotel and fuck her in our hot tub. When we broke apart, we smiled at each other.
“You know, this is the second time you’ve proposed to me,” I said. “That’s a record for somebody who says she doesn’t care to get married again and just finalized a divorce.”
She blushed, looking away. “I never said I was against marriage just because it didn’t work out for me before.”
I caught her chin and made her look at me again. “Good, because I’m going to marry you.”
“You say that as if you know I’ll say yes.”
“Haven’t you learned by now?” I asked, pulling her bottom lip into my mouth and letting it go with a pop. “I always get what I want.”
She was it for me. I’d never in my thirty-one years wanted anything the way I wanted my beautiful, feisty, and sexy Nicole Alessi, and I knew I never would.
Two years later
“YOU SHOULD JUST quit your job and design wedding dresses for a living,” Talon said as she did my makeup.
“Maybe one day I will,” I said, looking up as she applied eyeliner.
“You’re going to look incredible. Victor is going to wish he’d asked you to marry him eight years ago.”
I smiled. “I wasn’t ready for him then.”
“He is pretty intimidating,” she said, smiling.
“A little.” I paused. “Are the girls ready?”
“If by ready you mean dressed, yes. Mike said they’re picking up all the flowers they scattered during their practice session, though.”
I laughed.
“Stop moving.”
“Sorry.”
There was a knock on the door, followed by the loud voices of Hannah, my mom, Mia, Estelle, and Chrissy. Mia and Chrissy hadn’t stopped talking since they met at the bachelorette party last week. They were highly entertaining to be around. I think all of us agreed on that. All of us except Victor, who groaned every time they walked into a room together.
“I so hope you guys have daughters,” Estelle said. I smiled and reached to touch her pregnant belly when she stood beside me.
“So your brother can have a heart attack by the age of forty?” I asked.
Estelle laughed.
“He’ll be a great dad,” Hannah said. I completely agreed with that sentiment.
“He would be, and they’d make beautiful babies,” my mom agreed. When I first told her that instead of moving into another place when my lease ended, I was moving in with Victor, she flipped out, but then she came to the U.S. and met him, and they instantly hit it off.
“I completely agree, and so will you,” Meire added as she walked into the room.
Mom’s head whipped around quickly. We’d all gone out to dinner numerous times through this process and it had given Mom and Meire a chance to get to know each other. I doubted Mom would approve of anybody Dad married, but she seemed to have a lot of respect for Meire.
“You look incredible,” Chrissy said.
“I know, right? I wanna marry you right now,” Mia added.
I laughed. I was already feeling overjoyed, but having these people in my life, on this day, took my excitement to another level. I didn’t want a big wedding this time around, but once we started adding up our family members and friends, we ended up with two hundred people on our list. I put eloping on the table, but Victor turned it down as quickly as I said it. He didn’t say it in so many words, but I knew he didn’t want me to compare this wedding with Gabe’s and mine. Not that I ever would. Victor made me feel stable, and cherished, and loved, and even though I could make a million comparisons and give a million reasons as to why this marriage was a one hundred percent sure thing, I didn’t. It wouldn’t have been fair for me to diminish the good I’d once had with Gabe just because we hadn’t worked out.
I’d seen him a couple times when he’d met up with me at the dog park to see Bonnie. Something the paparazzi loved to speculate about, much to Victor’s annoyance, but he was okay with us maintaining a friendly relationship.
“I don’t expect you not to be friends with somebody you were with for that long, but it doesn’t mean I like the attention it gets,” he’d said. “And I still think he’s an asshole.”
He did appreciate Gabriel sending him a box of Cuban cigars and a bottle of Blue Label as a congratulatory gift for our wedding, though.
“That was a nice thing to do. He owed me for keeping you from me all those years,” he’d said when Marcus dropped off the present at his house, which we’d been sharing since we came back from our trip to Iceland.
Marcus no longer drove me around. Well, not all the time. I definitely didn’t need security anymore, but we’d kept in touch and now he had to deal with Victor’s and my rants. He seemed to be totally okay with both, but preferred Victor’s, probably because the rants usually happened over basketball, baseball, or football games, which were a thing in our house. I hated sports, so how I ended up marrying somebody who was so obsessed with them was just . . . crazy. I loved it, though. I loved having a house full of people.
He’d brought up marriage a few times, but I never imagined him getting down on one knee. I never imagined him pulling me into his arms one night as I’d walked through the door after a long day at work and holding me for the longest moment. Just holding me and breathing into my hair. When he leaned away from me just slightly and wordlessly searched my face, I began to worry. I was going to ask what was wrong, what had happened, when he dropped down on one knee and took a little black box out of his pocket as he looked up at me.
“I’ve had this ring for a few months, but there hasn’t been a right time for me to ask, with work, and everything else we’ve had going on. There’s never a right time because that’s how life is. It’s always chaotic, it’s always hectic, and work will never stop, and I love sharing that with you. I love being able to come home and have you as my sanctuary. You’ve built that for me, with me, and I want us to have it forever. I don’t want to imagine a life without you, Nicole Alessi. Marry me.”
I still got teary-eyed thinki
ng about it. Estelle saw the look on my face and slapped my arm playfully, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Stop it. You can’t cry,” she said.
“I know. I was just thinking about Victor.”
“Ugh. Yeah, I’d be crying too,” Mia said, making us laugh.
“Are you ready?” my mom asked.
I nodded. “Yes.” And I had been.
My dad’s eyes widened when he saw me, a huge smile spreading over his face. I remembered the last time we’d done this and how serious he’d looked. Today he looked carefree, happy, as if he’d been waiting to give me away his entire life instead of wanting to grab me and lock me in my room forever. I asked him what changed, and he chuckled.
“I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you’ve already done this?” he mused, and locked eyes with me. “Or maybe it’s the man you’re marrying. I see the way his eyes light up when he hears your name, and the way he takes care of you and puts you over everything. Not many things can drive him out of the office, you know? You did good, Nic. He’s one of the good ones.”
I smiled, feeling myself tear up again. Shit. I needed to stop doing that. “I know.”
When the church doors opened, our friends stood up along the aisle, but the only man I saw was Victor, who looked fucking edible in his sharp tux. Victor, who didn’t look at me like I was the end of something, but rather, the beginning of everything. I loved that man. So much. When I reached him and he shook hands with my dad, I felt my heart nearly jump out of my chest. This is what it felt like to be complete. This is what a fairy tale was like. This feeling right here. This was goals. This moment.
We looked at each other for a long, quiet moment, one filled with endless possibilities, the way our future together felt.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered as the priest started the mass.
“So do you,” I replied. His lips curved up.
“I know.”
I shook my head, rolling my eyes.
“You already signed the paperwork, Nicole Reuben. No going back now,” he said, his eyes twinkling.
He was so keen to mention that every five minutes since the day we’d gone to the courthouse. His face had been priceless when I’d reached for the name-change form and filled it out. I’d not taken Gabe’s last name. I didn’t really want to change mine, as I loved the name Alessi, but I knew how much it meant to Victor, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Nicole Reuben had quite a nice ring to it.
“I would never,” I said.
“Not even if I was richer?” he asked. “Not even if I was famous?”
“No way. Been there, done that, bought the shirt.”
His eyes darkened. “I tore that shit up.”
“Victor,” I whisper-shouted, giving him a pointed look. We were at church.
“I’m just saying, my shirt’s better,” he whispered with a shrug, then smiled. “And much bigger.”
Note from Claire:
Thank you so, so much for reading!
The characters in this series will forever have a part of my heart. They’ve been there for me when I needed to focus on the lighter things in life and believe in love so powerful, it could pull you out of any funk life wants to bury you under. I hope they did the same for you!
If you can take a minute to write a quick review, I would be incredibly grateful!
Also, if you’d like to receive a bonus scene from Victor and Nicole, fill out this form:
http://goo.gl/forms/aWqhuRGhxz
Xo,
Claire
I’m not going to name everybody because publishing a book takes a village, and my village has so many wonderful people in it that I’m afraid I’ll forget to name some of them, like the bloggers who share my things, the authors who support me, and the readers who continuously tell their friends to buy my books. You’re the ones who matter most, so thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
To my SQUAD. I love you. #SQUADGOALS
MY FYW girls. I’d be lost without you.
B.B.F.T. & the incredible girls in my FB group — YOU ROCK.
Willow A., Jenn W., Rachel K., Yvette V., Tiffany C., Michelle K., Lisa C., Julie V., Clarissa L., Sandra C., Priscilla P., Jen G., Jessica S., Katie R., Bridget P., Toski C, Karinna B., Anabelle, Diana, Barbie, Mimi, and the list goes on and on! — you guys are incredible and deserve a medal for putting up with me.
Every single blog who has shared my cover, read my books, reviewed them, and spread the word — I appreciate you more than words can say.
TRSOR- THANK YOU for putting together my tours.
Sarah at Okay Creations- thank you for putting up with my anxiety and designing the most amazing covers on my shelf.
Marion Making Manuscripts & Karen Lawson- The dynamic duo! I love your eyes.
Stacey Blake- you’re a queen. I love you.
Other Books by Claire Contreras
Kaleidoscope Hearts
Paper Hearts
Catch Me
The Darkness Series
There is No Light in Darkness
Darkness Before Dawn
The Contracts & Deceptions Series
The Devil’s Contract
The Sinner’s Bargain
Claire’s mailing list
THE FIRST BOY I fell in love with used to regale me with stories about kings and queens and war and peace, and how he hoped to one day be somebody’s knight in shining armor. I lived vicariously through his late night adventures, watching the way he swung his hands animatedly as he told his stories, and loving the way his green eyes twinkled when I laughed at his jokes.
He taught me what it feels like to be touched and thoroughly kissed. Later, he taught me the pain one feels at the loss of someone that you’ve grown attached to. The one thing he forgot to teach me was how to deal with the way my chest squeezed after he broke the ghost of what heart I had left. I’d always wondered if it had been a missed lesson. Now I wonder if maybe he’d been trying to figure it out for himself, or if he just never felt anything at all.
Buy now!
Kaleidoscope Hearts
Elastic Hearts (Hearts #3) Page 29
