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I can’t stop myself from pushing it back with my free hand. I don’t pull back, though, and instead, I find myself caressing his face with a feather-light touch when he bends down just enough for me to reach without standing on the tips of my toes.
“I love you, Twirl.”
“I love you, my king.”
A throat clears then, and the priest opens the Bible in his hand. There’s a passage his finger lands on, a blessing or a lesson he’d like to share, but it isn’t necessary.
“I don’t need you to speak.” My eyes are on Malcolm, who looks at me with so much love and pride. Tears come to my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. Instead, I say two words that bind us. Here. Now. Forever. “I do.”
“I do,” my husband repeats, lips now hovering over mine while his arm snakes around my waist. “Until the day I die and after, London Asher. I will always love you and our little nugget.”
1
“I CAN’T BELIEVE we’re finally doing this one. Your dad would love this,” Gem says from behind me, arms wrapped around my midsection and her chin against the center of my back while we wait for the tour to begin. It’s our bloody tradition. A rule no matter what country we’re in or what holiday we’re celebrating; if there’s a whacked-out tour, we’re doing it.
Serial killers. Folklore. And her favorite—the Mafia.
It’s why on a cold-as-fuck Valentine’s in dear old London’s East End, I’ve booked us one she’ll fancy, to say the least: a walking tour with an actor and facts that will have her Googling the shit he spews for the next few days after.
It also buys me time to do a favor for my cousin.
There’s a job he’s interested in, and I’m intrigued as well. It’s out of the normal Jameson operations, nothing to do with drugs or weapons, but will require a bit of both to achieve the end goal. He wants a rare Egyptian artifact, and while I don’t understand why, I bet his left nutsack it has to do with a woman.
“What I do for love, Gem. What I do for love,” I mock grumble for her benefit, and her snorts say I’ve accomplished my job. The sound warms the heart of this arsehole that doesn’t deserve her but thanks God for the privilege of calling her his. “Are you excited about this one? Anything you want me to ask since I know you’ll tell me to do so while the man is speaking?”
“Don’t be an arse, love,” she mimics my accent, and if I didn’t love this woman, I would be offended. Just fucking terrible. “I just have some footnotes to go through as we walk. Whatever he doesn’t explain, you can kindly demand he does.”
I shake my head, holding back a chuckle at the one-word descriptor. I’m anything but amiable. “Kindly?”
Slipping beneath my arm, Aurora looks up at me with innocent eyes. Sneaky girl. “Who can say no to your charm?”
“What do you really want?” Gem opens her mouth, but shuts it at my raised brow. For a few seconds, she pouts as if I’m the one in the wrong. “Tell me—is this going to cost me my dignity or possible jail time?”
“You’re so overdramatic.”
“Am I adding kidnapping charges to my already thick criminal file?”
“If it gets me a private tour...”
“You, love, are shameless.” The man we’ve been waiting for comes to the front of the group and begins his spiel on the whos and whats and all the vast history of criminal activity that’s graced these very streets. That’s also when the people around me disperse and begin to head toward an eatery I’ve bought out with the sole purpose to entertain them until the next tour starts in a few hours. They’ll drink and stuff their faces while my girl gets the one-on-one I knew she wanted.
“How long?” Gem asks as the tour guide meets my eyes, and I signal with my hand for him to take a five. I paid a lot of money for this—more than what they sell out in one year for her to enjoy this—and if I want a moment with my wife, everyone needs to jump and run. A delicate hand cups my chin and turns my face toward hers. “Answer the question, Mr. Jameson.”
“On the plane ride back to Chicago after our Vegas wedding.”
“Only you would plan our Valentine’s after I was kidnapped and you massacred those inside the chapel.”
“It’s my gift to humanity, love. I’m the inappropriate planner.” At my response, her eyes narrow and a hand goes to her hip, the move accentuating my favorite place to grip. “Does that bother you?”
Gem tries to fight it, but I see the beginning of a smirk on her mouth. The cute curl of her upper lip and the twitch in her cheek give her away. “No...”
“No...?”
“I find you impossibly adorable right now, okay?”
“Much better.” Then I’m turning my lips and nuzzling her palm before licking it. “Ready to enjoy it?”
“But what about all those people?”
