Page 52 of Derick

“You ready yet, Ruby rare? You’re already five minutes late. Want me to grab Hope and run? It’s not too late.”

I knew my brother would do it if I asked him to. On a sigh, I went and opened the door. Gasping, my gaze set on my brother, but it was him like I’d never seen him before. He wore a black, perfectly fitted suit, with matching black shoes. The slash of color was the dandelions pinned on his pocket jacket. He was clean-shaven, and his hair was in a neat, slicked-back ponytail. I knew my brother was good-looking—women had always oohed and aahed about it—but right now he looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine.

“You look so handsome,” I said. Toby’s cheeks got a slight pink to them, and I giggled.

He grabbed me by the waist and hugged me. “Wow, Ruby rare, I can guarantee you right now I’ve got nothing on you. You look like one of those Disney princesses in the movies you made me watch.”

“Toby, you’re messing me up, and this took hours.” I batted him away, still giggling. I was about to marry the man of my dreams. A man who treated me better than I could have ever even imagined. I was going to marry the man I loved. “Come on, I don’t want to be any later to my wedding.”

“It’s not like you have far to go. It’s just down the hall and outside. Ruby rare, this place is like a fucking palace, so it may take like a good ten minutes to walk down. The outside is just…” He shook his head and stepped back and offered his arm. “Let’s get you married to your man.”

We started walking arm in arm down the hall to the French doors that led outside. I smiled. “I can’t wait.” I walked faster, eager to see Derick and start living my happily ever after.

Toby picked up his pace to match mine. “You know I’m happy for you. Ruby, you deserve all this. That man out there worships the ground you walk on.”

“You’re damn right I do.” I burst out laughing when Derick stormed toward us only to stop a couple of feet from me. “Precious, you look breathtaking.” He stepped closer. “You were taking too long.” He shouldered my brother out of the way, took my hand, and jogged me outside and down the aisle as our family giggled and laughed until we stood before a priest. “Hurry up, I want her married to me now. She’s mine. Hurry and talk so I can say what I need to, because I do.”

Rolling my eyes, I beamed, because I loved it when he got all bossy and possessive like this. The priest started talking, and I gazed around me, my heart so full at all the faces I saw. I was so deliriously happy, and when I said ‘I do’, I knew that my happily ever after had just begun.

Twenty years later

My husband had just dragged me into the pantry. His hands were caressing my body, bringing me to the rising heat he always brought out in me. His lips kissed up my neck and his cock rubbed my arse.

“Have I told you lately how much I love you and that you’re the most beautiful woman in the world?” he said.

I giggled as I spun around to gaze up at my husband. “I love you too, but you do realize I came back here to freshen up, because I feel off. I can’t believe you got me pregnant again. I’m getting too old.”

Derick’s lips brushed up and down my neck. “You’re still in your thirties, and you don’t feel old.” His fingers slipped under my panties, and he sank two fingers into my core. My gasp was cut off when I heard our daughter.

“Poppy, do you know where Mum and Dad are?

“Oh princess, I’ve got an idea where they are.” My father-in law’s voice answered Hope.

“Really gross. Don’t they know it’s not normal to have twelve kids these days? They are so sickening. Urgh, I bet Dad’s trying for the twelfth boy he keeps saying he wants. This is so wrong, we’re having a family dinner to meet my boyfriend.”

“Speaking of brothers, where are they?” Lucas asked.

“Please Poppy, I need you to go save Jarrah,” Hoped pleaded. “They’re terrorizing him.”

The talking got closer to the cupboard Derick had snuck us away to.

“Princess, if he cannot handle your brothers, cousins, and uncles, he’s not good enough for you.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” Hope said. “You’re my poppy.”

My daughter had her poppy wrapped around her fingers, so much so that I knew without a doubt she could kill a hundred people in front of him and he wouldn’t believe it. Hope adored him, and I knew if her poppy truly didn’t like her boyfriend, she’d break it off. Although, the couple of guys she’d tried to date hadn’t ever made it past their first family meet. Hope loved her family.

“Princess, I’m always on your side.” His voice was always so calm when he talked to Hope.

“You do realize I’m twenty-three years old, Poppy.” The sass in my daughter’s voice had me wiggling away from Derick.

“Yeah, I know, way too young to date.”

“Mum married Dad when she was eighteen.”

Having pity on my daughter, I stumbled out of the pantry, batting Derick’s hands away.

“There you are,” Hope shouted. She grabbed me and brought me closer to the French doors. I stopped her before we went back outside.

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