Page 66 of Ivory Oath

All of this.

“Will you marry me?”

29

VIVIANA

“Did you hit your head?” I ask. I run my fingers through his damp hair to check for myself. A few chips of ice cling to the ends, but there’s no blood. No cartoonishly-large goose eggs that I can see. He looks perfect. So I gently remind him, “Mikhail, we’re already married.”

“That didn’t count. It wasn’t real.”

“It’s not real?” I pull back. “It wasn’t…”

There was a priest. Rings. Vows.

Sure, the ceremony was thrown together at the last minute and I wanted the “‘til death do us part” chapter of things to happen much sooner than later, but it seemed real enough.

“Breathe.” Mikhail grabs my arm, his thumb working a soothing circle along the inside of my wrist. “The piece of paper is real, but the feelings weren’t. Not back then. Not the way they are now.”

Oh.

He’s watching me so closely I feel like he’s inside my head. Like my thoughts are playing out on a Jumbotron for him to enjoy. Funnily enough, that doesn’t scare me the way it used to. There’s nothing in there I don’t want him to see.

No doubts. No secrets.

He knows all of me… and he still wants to get married? Again?

I don’t realize I’ve said that part out loud until Mikhail answers. “I don’t want anyone to question who you are to me.” He thumbs the column of my throat possessively. “Especially not you.”

Mikhail’s hand shifts to my cheek to dab away the tears that finally forced their way through my shock. He gives me a tentative smile. “Are these because you’re happy?”

After the emotional Tilt-A-Whirl of the last few hours, I’m barely functioning. Self-awareness definitely isn’t on the table.

“I d-don’t know,” I stammer. He frowns and I rush to correct myself. “I mean, yes! Yes. Of course I’m happy. I just don’t know—I didn’t see this—I don’t have a dress.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Is that your only argument against? Because, to be honest, I prefer you without one.”

A wild laugh bursts out of me. “Are you telling me you like the way I look naked in the middle of our marriage proposal?”

“Only if it means you’re going to accept.” His calloused fingers slide down my hand to circle the gaudy ring I chose for myself a couple months earlier. He strokes the length of my finger and my God, I didn’t know knuckles had so many nerve endings. “Though I’m definitely not above forcing the woman I love down the aisle again.”

That’s me. I’m that woman.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that.

I turn my hand in his, stroking my fingers over his rough palm. “Another forced wedding? You never learn, do you?”

“There’s nothing to learn. I’m just finally admitting what I knew all along: I want you to be mine forever, Viviana.”

Tears flood my vision at the tenderness in his voice. All I see is the blurry shape of him reaching for me and pulling me against his neck. I reach beneath the warm water and grab Dante’s little hand. He’s still sleeping, but he squeezes back. Like, even in his dreams, he knows it’s me.

That’s the way it’s been with Mikhail. The moment I saw him, I felt it. Felt this.

We’ve been fumbling through the dark for years, always moving towards each other even when we had no idea why. Now, we’re finally here, and I’m never letting him go again.

Anatoly and Raoul are at the cabin within the hour with a doctor in tow. Where they found a doctor willing to commute on short notice to the middle of nowhere for a cabin call is none of my business, I decide.

“I didn’t have to put a gun to his head, if that’s what you were going to ask,” Anatoly whispers in my ear when they arrive. He pulls me into a tight hug that lifts my feet off the floor.

---