Page 68 of Ivory Oath

He swoops his thumb along my hip bone, sending tremors through me. He saved our son’s life and proposed to me in the same day. With the way I’m feeling, it might be best if a man of the cloth isn’t around to judge.

Anatoly claps his hands together. “Well, you’ll be happy to know?—”

“They really won’t.” Raoul drags a hand over his jaw and gives me a sympathetic grimace. “I swear, I tried to avoid this.”

“You’ll be happy to know,” Anatoly repeats, a little louder to be heard over Raoul’s shit-talking, “that after the last time you made me run around the city looking for a justice of the peace who made house calls, I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Mikhail asks as Anatoly digs in his pocket for his phone.

He clicks on the screen and turns it towards us.

I squint, reading the bolded words on the webpage as virtual confetti falls down from the search bar. Oh, dang, you’re ordained. I look at Anatoly over the phone. “That can’t possibly be legit.”

“I promise you that Vow or Never is a very legit business. I paid thirty dollars and my official certificate is coming in the mail within the next sixty days.”

“No,” Mikhail says, aghast.

“Unfortunately, yes. I would have it already, but my name was misspelled on the first one. Somewhere out there, Anthony Novikov is an ordained minister and has no idea.”

“I meant, ‘No, there’s no way in hell you’re officiating my wedding.’”

Raoul claps a hand on Anatoly’s shoulder. “I told you he’d hate it.”

Anatoly shakes him off. “You expect too much, Mikky. Kidnapping a medical professional and a man of God in the same afternoon is too far. Luckily for you, I’m the next best thing.”

“If you’re the next best thing to a man of God, then God help us all.” Mikhail pinches the bridge of his nose like there’s a headache threatening to end his life.

Anatoly pockets his phone and presses his palms together. “You know I’m Team Mikiana. Or Vivail. Whichever you prefer. The point is, I’m on your side and I would never disrespect the sacred ceremony that will be your second shotgun wedding.”

I tip my chin back until I can see the hard line of Mikhail’s jaw and the amusement he can’t quite hide dancing in his eyes. “I don’t mind, if you don’t. I just want to be married to you.”

His hand flattens over my stomach and he pulls me tight against him. I feel his hard length against my back. “As long as we end the day joined forever, I don’t care.”

There’s a double entendre there somewhere but I’m too busy staring up at him, breathless, to find it.

“Sooo…” Anatoly whistles awkwardly. “Am I suiting up, then?”

Mikhail releases me to grab the front of his older brother’s shirt. “Don’t fuck this up, Nat.”

Anatoly just grins.

30

VIVIANA

We get married for the second time at the base of the stairs.

While I was busy making myself look like I hadn’t spent the day ice-fishing, saving my son’s life, and then crying both horrified and happy tears, Raoul and Anatoly placed candles on every step and draped a set of extra bedsheets from the ceiling like a canopy.

It’s more than I expected. More than I need, for sure.

I would have happily made these vows to Mikhail in our bed, wrapped in each other and a sea of blankets, without any witnesses at all. The only thing that matters is the man waiting for me. And the little boy cuddled in the chair just behind him.

“You look pretty, Mama,” Dante whispers as I approach.

My heart swells and I kneel down in front of him to press a kiss to the end of his nose. “Thanks, bud.”

Anatoly showed up with a backseat full of dresses. Mikhail heard me stammering about having nothing to wear to a wedding and covered his bases. Smart man.

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