Second Chance Vows novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Wedding Night

The bridal suite was at the end of the east wing, with a fire already lit and white roses on every table.

I shut the door, and the noise of the party fell away behind it.

Cosima stood in the middle of the carpet in her ivory gown with her hands clasped in front of her.

"You don't have to do this," I said. "It was a hard day. We can sit by the fire and talk."

"I don't want to talk," she said.

"I asked you to marry me because I needed a wife, and it was a bargain."

"You did," Cosima said. "I'd like to break that bargain, if you'll let me."

I crossed the room slowly.

I had been alone with her for five nights, and I had not once let myself think of her as anything but a person I was protecting.

Now my hands were not steady.

"Tell me what you want," I said.

"Take off my veil first."

I found the pins at the back of her head and drew them out one at a time.

The veil came away in my hands, and her hair fell loose over her shoulders, light brown and heavy.

I laid the veil on the chair.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Kiss me," she said. "Properly this time. Not for four hundred people."

I put both hands on her face, and I kissed her.

It was not careful and it was not short.

She made a small sound against my mouth, and then her hands were in my hair, pulling me down.

I backed her slowly against the post of the bed.

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