Page 101 of The Girl I Once Loved

“Oh, baby, just because there’s no ring on your finger yet doesn’t mean you’re a free agent. Your heart, body, and soul all have my name branded on them, and don’t you forget it,” he murmurs, running his thumb leisurely down my chin and my throat until it finds the swell of my breasts above the simple sundress I have on.

My heart is drumming a mile a minute, as I try very hard not to focus on the fact that Noah, in a few words, just told me his plans to marry me. And the little smirk that plays on his lips tells me he knows exactly what he’s doing.

“You never did like to play fair,” I pant as he draws little circles on my tender flesh. “I’m surprised you even went inside and left me all alone out here to talk to Gael. The Noah I knew back in the day would have planted my ass on his lap and watched every second of my breakup.”

“Trust me, my restraint was solely for your benefit. And baby, promise me something? No more talk of Gael or breakups? My fragile ego can only take so much.”

“Is that right?” I taunt, pressing myself against his already hard cock. “It doesn’t seem that fragile from where I’m standing.”

“Fuck,” he moans, his ocean gaze clouding over with lust. “Where are the parentals?”

“They’re having lunch with Daisy and Derrick and his folks in town. Why?”

“Because I can still see his hands on your face and his lips on your mouth, and that shit just won’t do," he growls, picking me up and pulling my legs around his hips. “Now I can fuck you here, out where the whole world can see, or in your bed. Just decide quickly while I can still muster the strength not to be inside you.”

I wrap my arms around his neck, my mouth right at his ear. “If I’m yours like you say I am, then I guess you’ll figure it out,” I whisper, before biting his earlobe.

“On the porch it is then,” he groans.

And as he slips my panties to the left to thrust deep inside me right there where anyone can see us, I forget all about book deals and broken promises. I forget about wedding rehearsals and shattered hearts.

Because none of it matters in the grand scheme of things.

All that really matters is us.

And our love.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Skylar

Fairytale weddings are only supposed to happen in books. Not in Thatcher’s Bay, of all places.

Leave it to my sister to sprinkle a little bit of magic on this island.

As sunlight filters through the stained-glass windows, illuminating the grandeur of the cathedral, whispers of awe echo through the hallowed halls. The packed-to-the-brim church is decorated beautifully with warm colors and more flowers than I’ve ever deemed possible being contained in one place. Flowers adorn every pew and every corner, their fragrance filling the air with a delicate sweetness. The altar, dressed in ethereal white, stands proudly at the end of the aisle, awaiting the couple’s arrival. I can’t help but smile when I run my fingertips through the hidden daisies in the various bouquets, something I’m sure Derrick must have insisted on.

“Skylar,” I hear my mother call out from down the hall, her head poking out of the changing room where my sister is currently holed up. “Did you bring it?”

“I got it, Mom.” I smile, hurriedly walking towards her.

“Thank God. Your sister was just about to call the whole wedding off,” my mother jokes half-heartedly, but knowing Daisy, she’s probably spent the last half hour threatening to do just that.

“No need to call off the wedding just yet,” I taunt, handing my mother the family heirloom that I had to run back to our house to retrieve from her jewelry box.

It’s a simple pearl necklace. Nothing fancy or even that expensive, but it’s been in our mother’s side of the family for decades, and for some reason, Daisy demanded that it be her something old.

My mother opens the door to the room to let me in and then quickly closes it shut behind me, probably more afraid that her eldest daughter will make a run for it than she is of anyone sneaking a peek at Daisy in her gown.

My heart leaps to my throat when I see my beautiful sister in her long flowing white gown, looking like Venus herself. Her long blonde hair is up, exposing her long slender neck, leaving tendrils of blonde curls to kiss her face.

“Daisy,” I breathe out, tears starting to coat my eyes, as my mother puts the necklace on her.

“Nope!” Daisy shouts, pointing a menacing finger at me. “None of that. I’m this close to losing it already. If you cry, then I’ll cry. Then, of course, Mom will cry seeing us cry, and before you know it, all the Ames women are bawling their eyes out and ruining perfectly good makeup that took hours to put on. Don’t you dare do it, Sky,” she orders, but her voice comes out too shaky and nervous for us to pretend my sister isn’t, in fact, freaking out.

I tread ever so carefully towards her, like one would do when confronting a scared animal that is seconds away from running for cover.

“Daisy, are you hanging in there okay?”

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