Page 127 of Merry Me
“Hmm,” I said, forcing a thoughtful tone as her tongue made another slow, deliberate pass across my skin, this time dangerously close to the base of my cock. My hips bucked slightly, and she smirked, knowing exactly what she was doing to me. “Nope. Not a fucking one.”
Her grin deepened, pleased. “I didn’t think so.”
And then, finally, she lowered her mouth to the head of my dick, her lips grazing the tip with a slow, deliberate swirl of her tongue, teasing the sensitive slit before parting to take me in, and I stopped pretending I had any control left at all.
NATALIE
Snow fell like whispers.
It drifted outside the wide frosted windows of the receptionhall, turning the whole world soft and white and still. It was the kind of snowfall that asked for silence. Reverence. Like the sky itself had paused to bear witness to my big sister’s day.
Inside, the place looked like something straight out of a winter wedding catalog. Twinkle lights wrapped around the old timber beams, low-lit and tangled in pine boughs, casting everything in that soft, flattering glow people pretend isn’t on purpose. Real candles lined the aisle—flickering, steady, like even they knew not to screw this up.
I stood at the far end of the aisle, bouquet in hand, my dress pressed and perfect. But my chest?
It felt tight. Too tight. Like my ribs had lost the memo on how to stretch. Like if I breathed too deep, everything I was holding together might finally…not.
He was here somewhere. My father.
And just the thought of that made something inside me curl with tension. A quiet kind of dread. Like I was still waiting to be picked, to be seen, to be enough.
I hated that he was here. I hated that his presence was pushing up against all my edges like he had a right to be part of this day. Like he hadn’t missed every important thing leading up to it. Like showing up now earned him a seat at the table and a warm welcome and a neatly folded name card that didn’t sayLiar.
And yet, somewhere between the sobbing and the sleeping, sometime around the moment I stopped shaking in Easton’s arms and instead decided to suck his dick, I’d decided something.
He wasn’t going to ruin this.
Not for Paige. Not for me.
And I wasn’t going to use it as an excuse. Not this time. Not to shut down. Not to run. And especially not to put more distance between myself and the man who’d held me through the worst night I’d had in years. The man who made me laughwhen I was still shaking. The man who watched me like I was something precious.
I wasn’t going to run from Easton.
I was so tired of that part of myself.
The part that always braced for the leaving. That read love like a ticking clock—one I couldn’t see but always heard, just waiting for time to run out. The part of me that flinched when things got too good, that called it self-preservation when it was really just fear in a prettier dress.
But not today.
Today, I wasn’t going to run. I wasn’t going to sabotage something just because it felt like it might matter too much. I’d already wasted too much time pushing away the very things I wanted most. And I was done.
The music swelled, a single violin, warm and aching, and I took one steady breath before stepping forward.
I wasn’t the bride.
But fuck, it sure felt like something was beginning.
My heels clicked softly against the polished wood floor. One step. Another. The hem of my dress swished around my ankles like it had something dramatic to say. The bouquet in my hands—white roses and holly leaves with pinecones tucked in like secrets—trembled just enough to give me away.
But I barely saw anything. I barely noticed the rows of smiling faces, the blur of twinkle lights and flickering candles. Because my head? My heart? Every part of me was already tangled up in one person.
Easton.
The boy I never really stopped loving.
The man I was slowly, terrifyingly letting back in.
He stood at the front like some kind of cinematic fever dream—tall, still, terrifyingly composed in a suit that looked custom-cut to ruin my life. The fabric hugged his shoulders like it had personal feelings about him, narrowed at the waist in a way thatshould’ve been illegal, and honestly? It made breathing a whole situation.
