After we were both spent, lying in a blissful heap of hot, sweaty bodies, with her hips still elevated, I rested my head in the valley between her tits. I placed tiny kisses anywhere I could reach without moving more than centimeters. Charlotte was running her hand contentedly through my hair, and I finally felt at peace. “I’m so in love with you, Charlotte,” I murmured, tilting my head back so I could look up at her beautiful face.
“Oh, Rhett,” she whispered with a beaming smile and a sigh. “I’m in love with you, too.” Then she smirked and tugged on my ear playfully. “You’re mine too, right? I own you?”
“You bet your sweet ass, baby.”
She giggled, a sound I truly adored.
“I can be an asshole sometimes, a possessive, jealous, cocky son of a bitch. But no one will ever love someone as much as I love you, Charlotte.”
Epilogue Charlotte
I found it especially fitting that I was about to walk down the aisle almost nine months to the day after I started my internship at Whitney, Inc. When I had picked the date, I’d selected the last possible Saturday that Rhett would agree to—only six weeks from when he’d told me we were getting married. After how many months it had taken for me to finally give in to my desire for him, he had refused to wait any longer to claim me in the eyes of the law.
I hadn’t known then how appropriate the date was going to be; I’d just wanted as much time as possible to plan the wedding of my dreams. When I’d turned up pregnant three weeks ago, it had hit me that I was going to carry our baby for the same amount of time that it had taken Rhett to slide a wedding band on my ring finger. Not that anyone other than my groom and I knew the significance of the timing yet. We’d decided to keep the news to ourselves until after we came home from our honeymoon.
Walking toward the door of the room I’d used to get ready, our secret was on my mind as I pressed my hand against my belly. It was the first moment I’d been alone all morning since the wedding planner had just come to get the bridesmaids so they could line up for the processional. Between my sister and all my female cousins, keeping the bridal party small had been impossible. Luckily, my dad had basically signed a blank check so I could get whatever I wanted for the wedding—after losing his mind over the fact that his baby girl was getting married.
Speaking of my dad, I jerked my hand away from my stomach when he swung the door open before I reached for the knob. “Hey, Daddy.”
He gripped my wrist and twirled me around as he scanned me from head to toe. “You’re such a beautiful bride.”
“Thanks.” I did an extra spin before smoothing out the skirt of my dress. “I’m not sure how the designer managed to finish the gown in such a short amount of time, but she did an amazing job.”
As he bent his arm so I could slide mine in the crook of his elbow, he shook his head. “You’ve got it backward. You make the dress more beautiful, not the other way around.”
“Aw, Daddy. You can’t say things like that right now,” I wailed, sniffling back tears. “You’re going to make me cry.”
He patted my hand. “I guess I’d better stop then. It’s my job to kick someone’s ass whenever you cry, and your mom will join in on the tears if I fuck up your wedding. So you better buck up before you get me into trouble, kiddo.”
Gah! He was being too sweet for me to handle right now. I was only a little more than a month into my pregnancy, but I was already so darn hormonal. It didn’t take much to set me off lately. Rhett had found me bawling over a silly commercial with kittens the other day, for goodness' sake.
I needed the mood to lighten up big time before my dad realized that the wedding wasn’t the only reason I felt so emotional. If he figured out that I was pregnant, then odds were good that he’d decide that it was Rhett’s sexy butt that needed kicking. Fluttering my eyelashes, I murmured, “And before I mess up my makeup. I don’t want to test how waterproof this mascara really is. Can you imagine everyone’s reaction if I walked down the aisle with big black streaks going down my cheeks?”
“I don’t know why you bother with that stuff when you’re already just as gorgeous as your mom.” I was starting to worry he’d make me cry again when he just chuckled, leading me out of the room and down the hallway. “But we both know that your brothers would never let you live it down if that happened.”
Rolling my eyes, I added, “And they’d have the photos to prove it.”
“Then you better rein those tears in, kiddo. Or else, you’ll hear about mascara-gate for the rest of your life.” His dark green eyes were filled with humor as he winked at me, making me laugh.
My joke had done the trick, and the tension eased from my body as we made our way to the chapel. When we came to a stop behind my bridesmaids, the music switched to the song Rhett and I had picked out for me to walk down the aisle to. After I’d narrowed it down to “Make You Feel My Love” and “At Last,” he had wanted to go with the Etta James song. He felt as though the lyrics were perfect for us because he’d found a dream that ended his lonely days when he spotted me with the rest of the interns during the tour on my first day.
Any hope I’d
