Page 110 of Bound

The word lands somewhere deep.

He pulls back just enough to whisper against my mouth.

“Mine.”

“Always.”

The reception is exactly the kind of excess I pretended I did not want.

Champagne. Crystal. A six-tier cake Cass could not bake.

Not yet. But one day. She’s taking lessons.

Music. Dancing.

He doesn’t let me out of his arms the entire night.

And I don’t complain.

At midnight, the last non-family guests leave.

The ballroom grows quiet. Then, it empties. He takes my hand.

Nerves settle in, making my knees grow weak.

He glances down at me. “One more ceremony.”

“The private one.”

“The real one,” he says.

The Bachman riverboat waits beyond the Village gates.

I have seen it before from a distance.

Tonight, it looks like another world.

Black hull.

Warm windows.

Gold light spilling across the Hudson.

No press.

No guests.

No hired orchestra.

Only family.

The rebuilt Village glows behind us as we walk toward the dock.

Every Bachman carries a candle that is not yet lit.

Lucian walks beside me.

My new husband.