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“Take me to bed,” I whimper against his lips. He smiles against mine. “Thank God. I’ve been dying to strip you out of this dress all night.” I laugh against his mouth before pressing a lingering kiss there. “Let’s go to bed, Mrs. Bailey.” I stand and he takes me by the hand. We begin to make our way to the house when I suddenly stop in my steps.

“We better say goodnight to Mia and Tyler,” I say, earning myself a scowl from an aroused Ashton. His mouth twitches with amusement before responding in a frustrated growl, “Fine … but then I’m taking you to bed, to ravish the crap out of you.”

I giggle as he hurriedly drags me in the direction of where his brother and sister-in-law are on the dance floor. We approach and an excited Mia launches herself at me the moment she sets eyes on us.

“There’s my bride BFF!” she exclaims against my neck before pulling away, her smile beaming against the fairy light glow. I figure half of her happiness is because she married her soul mate today; the other half is definitely consumed with the numerous glasses of champagne she’s sipped throughout the night. Mia steps into Tyler’s arms and pins her happy gaze on Ashton. “Ashton! You romantic. I loved today so much. I’m so happy you and Ava got married today.”

“So you didn’t mind us crashing your wedding?” Ashton asks with his usual humor.

“Hell no! If anything I was relieved … after everything with Riley … I had no idea how you’d be able to fix it. And I swear I wanted to kill her this morning,” she says flitting her eyes between Ashton and me with a look of anger. Soon, the anger dissolves and it is replaced with a smile.

“But you guys showed the world you were made for each other and it was incredible to be a part of it. I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding day.” I feel myself choking up at her kind words and I clasp Ashton’s hand tighter into mine. He looks down at me with an adorning gaze, his eyes glistening. “It’s a day I’ll never forget.”

Silence grows as emotion seeps into the atmosphere around us. After he stares at me for what feels like hours, he finally breaks his gaze and looks back at the happy couple. “We just came over to say goodnight as I’m taking my wife to bed.” His eyes turn devilish. “There are certain things I want to do to her right now and well … you can catch my drift.” Both Mia and Tyler burst out laughing while I’m trying to fight off the pink that glows against my cheeks.

“Ashton!”

“What?” he chuckles, a look of innocence softening his features as he pulls me deeper into his side, his fingers caressing my arm.

“Well …” Tyler starts with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Since my brother is currently pitching one hell of a tent right now, I’ll let you lovebirds get down to business.”

My eyes travel down to Ashton’s crotch and I gasp when I see his erection straining against the seam of his slacks. “What?” he says smirking, his eyes beginning to darken with lust. “It’s you who wanted to say goodnight … I wanted to take you to bed five minutes ago.” I roll my eyes and drag my aroused husband in the direction of the house, still trying to fight the burning embarrassment against my cheeks. “Goodnight guys!”

Laughter can be heard behind us from Mia and Tyler, followed by a, “Goodnight,” as we make our way towards the house, my embarrassment quickly turning into desire to have my husband naked and making love to me.

A sudden whooshing sound escapes my lips as I’m suddenly lifted into Ashton’s arms and my arms instinctively wrap around Ashton’s neck.

“What are you doing?” I gasp with a giggle as he begins to carry me towards the house as if I weigh the size of a feather.

“I’m carrying my wife over the threshold,” he says matter-of-factly as he continues to take one step after the other. Whoops and hollers follow us, and I find myself burying my face into Ashton’s neck, embarrassed from all the attention. The music and the cheers fade into the distance as we approach the steps of the veranda. Once we’ve entered the house, my skin prickles with excitement as we both get close to the only place on this earth where I want to be right now. However, we only make it halfway through the kitchen before the sound of Ashton’s name being called out stills him in his steps. My hands immediately tighten into fists at the sound of Riley’s Barbie sweet-as-pie voice. Ashton hesitatingly turns into her direction, staring daggers at her.

“What do you want? Because as you can see I’m just about to take my wife to bed.” His burley voice makes me jolt, but not because he scared me … it’s because the sudden anger hits my hormones in a way that can make a person self-combust with pure unadulterated lust. I push away the heat I feel spreading throughout my body and focus my fierce gaze on a sheepish looking Riley. She seems a little uncertain as she looks down to her feet before looking up to meet our stares, and taking several steps closer.

“I … um … I just wanted to apologize for last night. Today made me realize how serious you guys are …”

“Just today?” Ashton angrily asks. I try to get down from his arms but he just holds me tighter making it impossible for me to remove myself from his grasp. “You knew she was my fiancée … that in itself told you how serious we were, yet that didn’t stop you, did it?”

She heavily exhales. “I know … I’m sorry. I just … I saw the way you looked at her, as if she was the only person in the world who mattered and I wanted to feel like that, just for a little while.”

“That’s because she is the only person in the world that matters to me, her and Lily. They’re my family.” He clutches me even tighter to his chest, his arms not trembling in the slightest as he continues to bear my weight. Usually I’d feel incredibly awkward in a situation like this, but since it’s Riley, I kind of relish in the feeling of his strong arms keeping me in place, that not a single person or situation would ever be enough to let me go. His subtle action of holding me close to him is almost like a metaphor of his feelings for me.

To sink or swim, to fail or succeed, to do or die … I know he will always be at my side. As my anchor, my hero … and my husband.

“I know that now … I get it. You made a pretty good point earlier today …” Riley says, causing the muscles in Ashton’s shoulders to ripple and his jaw to tick at the impact of her words.

“That wasn’t proving a point to you, it was proving it to my wife, proving to her that she’s my life, the only person I see living my future with. I married Ava today because I love her, and you or anybody else will never take that love away from me, or Ava for that matter. You may have tried to break us up, but it didn’t work because nobody compares to Ava. She’s my forever. Now … if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to enjoy the rest of our wedding night.”

At this point Riley has become non-existent, and I find myself completely spellbound at the words that speak so passionately yet fluently from Ashton’s beautiful mouth. I see his mouth exchange a few more words, but I’m unable to register exactly what he says as the world seemingly disappears around us. All I can see is Ashton, and I find myself wanting to crawl deep inside him, deeper than humanly possible and lose myself within him forever.

Through my lust-filled haze, I can feel movement as he carries me through the house. As we reach the stairs, he begins to carry me to the top. He looks down at my dazed expression with a furrowing frown.

“Are you okay, baby?”

I blink at his question and find myself smiling as I look into his magnificent green eyes that look down at me with sheer love. “I’m perfect … well, I will be once you’ve taken me to bed.” His eyes widen excitedly and his steps get a little quicker, keen to reach our destination.

In seconds we’re outside Ashton’s childhood bedroom, and the moment he comes to a standstill, his eyes pierce into mine, a shade darker. “Are you ready, Mrs. Bailey?” He doesn’t need to elaborate on what he means because the blaze in his eyes tells me everything.