Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
“– the kiss is after the vows, Mr. Spencer.”
Our lips parted from each other when the priest’s voice interrupted us and my whole body flushed in embarrassment.
“I couldn’t wait,” Killian simply said, his lips still hovering over mine, so close. “You see, I’m neither a patient nor a virtuous man.”
The old man released an exasperated sigh. “Can we go ahead with the ceremony now?”
“Wait,” my husband said. He cradled my face between his big hands and gave me a simple peck on the lips and then a hard kiss, before finally pulling away. I was left breathless and aching, and Killian was smirking. “Okay, we’re ready now.”
The priest began speaking again and I tuned him out when he started talking about the meaning of marriage – the importance of the holy bond between husband and wife.
“Do you, Killian Spencer, take Julianna–”
“I want to say my own vows,” Killian interrupted.
“Right, okay. Go ahead.”
Killian’s hands tightened around mine and he laced our fingers together. A solemn look covered his face. “I’d always regret the day I spoke those hate vows to you, wishing I could take them back because I know damn well how much those words hurt you.”
I shook my head, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. “I hurt you too,” I whispered.
Killian’s lips curled with a bittersweet smile that broke my heart. “Today, I want to take you as my wife – the way I should have the first time. With proper vows,” Killian said, his voice deep and thick with rough emotions. “I promise to love you without condition, to honor you each and every day, to wipe away your tears and to make you smile harder. To make you laugh when you’re sad, to hold you when you’re hurting and to love you even when you can’t love yourself. I choose you, Julianna.”
There it was. The part of our story that seriously needed a re-write. The part where I never gave him a chance to choose me. In the past, I took that choice from him. Ripped it away like a fool and a merciless lover. And now, he was choosing me. Against all odds. After everything. Leaving all the pain and lies behind – the secrets and manipulations, Killian was choosing me as his wife.
There was so much conviction in his voice when he continued to speak.
“I chose you then, and I choose you now and I choose for the rest of our lives. I choose you because you’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. You battled everything ugly and harsh, and look at you – you came out alive and fighting, you rose from the ashes and you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. I choose you because you make my heart happy. I choose you because your soul is pure. I choose you because you were made for me. I vow to put all my effort in making this marriage work and to give you the best version of me. Good days or bad days, I will give you the best of me because you don’t deserve anything less, Princess. For as long as we both shall live, I will be by your side–for better or worse, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer. You are my one and only today and every day. Do you? Do you… choose me? Do you take me as your husband?”
A strangled sound left my throat before I could stop myself. I nodded when I couldn’t find my voice. “I do,” I said quietly and then louder, more assured. “I do, Killian. I choose you.”
“Would you like to say your own vows?” The priest asked me.
“Yes,” I said. “I, Julianna Spencer, choose you Killian Spencer to be my husband and my partner through life and ever after. I vow to always honor you, to love you, to comfort you, to encourage you and to never give up on us. Whether we are at our best or our worst, I will be your wife and your best friend. I will share your hopes and your dreams. I vow to always put us first, to always choose us, when time gets hard. I will love you even when you make me mad. I will love you even we’re fighting, because I know at the end of the day, we will always comfort each other. I will go to battle for you. I will fight the world for you and because marriage is both ugly and beautiful, I vow to walk through the ugly and beautiful with you. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. Do you take me, as your wife?”
I was crying by the time I was done speaking my vows and Mirai’s beautiful work at my makeup was probably messed up.