Page 146 of Conquered (Highgate Preparatory Academ:y Compendium)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
LILLY
I sit back, stomach pleasantly full after eating our delicious mash up of British and American cuisine.
We had scrambled egg and bacon on tiny pancakes, loaded hot dogs and chilli cheese fries, followed by a mango and cream dessert that looked like a boiled egg, and a selection of British cheeses and oatcakes to finish.
Patting my rounded stomach, I hear a deep chuckle either side of me.
“Full, Baby Girl?” Jax asks, his hand quickly dipping to ghost over my stomach in a protective gesture.
Like Ash and Kai, Jax wears a light grey tailored morning suit, with a rainbow waistcoat and tie.
Loki, my wonderful Knight of mischief, has gone for a full on rainbow suit, the fabric literally striped in rainbow colours.
And he looks fucking stunning, as do the others, all tailored perfection and clean lines.
Because of our unconventional seating plan - aka non-existent - I’m sitting at a round table with all of my favourite people.
Jax is on one side of me - I dread to think how he won that privilege - and Ash, my new husband, on the other.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the fact that I’m now married. I’m now Mrs. Vanderbilt.
Kai is on the other side of Ash, Loki next to Jax. Willow is here with us, chatting to Lex and Ryan, who are also on our table.
I cast a glance over my shoulder and catch Julian’s eye, shivering when he gives me a feline smile before turning back to talk to my uncle. Yep, Adrian turned up, and briefly congratulated Ash and I, although the smile didn’t reach his eyes as he shook Ash’s hand.
The sound of tinkling glass swings my gaze back to Ash, who rises in his seat, standing up and taking everyone in his sweeping steel gaze.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to start by thanking you for joining Lilly and I on our wedding day,” he starts, briefly glancing down at me, a warm smile tugging his lips up.
My own mimic him, my cheeks hurting from all of the smiling I’ve done today, most of which has been at my guys so I’ll take the pain.
“When Lilly agreed to be my wife, well, it truly was the happiest night of my life.” He’s staring at me as he says this last part, and my palms sweat, remembering that night at his parents’ manor house, and how fraught with tension it was.
But he means it, and I realise that really was a happy moment for him, one in a life full of sad moments.
“My wife,” he pauses, and takes a slight breath, letting me know that he’s as affected by these new terms as I am.
“My beautiful wife is a fan of Shakespeare, so I’d like to read Sonnet 116 for her. ”
He looks back down at me, holding my gaze as he recites.
“‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.’”
I take a gasping breath as he finishes, realising that I’d held it the whole time that he spoke.
His image wavers as I blink furiously, trying in vain to stop the tears from leaving my eyes.
Cheers erupt around us as he bends down, capturing my lips in a kiss so tender and gentle that a small sob sounds in my throat.
“I love you, Lilly Vanderbilt,” he tells me, his lips ghosting across mine as he pulls away so that I taste his words.
“I love you, Asher Vanderbilt,” I whisper back, my voice raspy as I try to talk through the lump in my throat.
Another glass rings, and I look to see Ryan standing up, tugging at the neck of his shirt, his face going slightly red.
“I was there when Lilly came into the world, kicking and screaming as Lex passed her into her mother’s arms. I was there when she learnt to crawl, then walk - at ten bloody months old mind, which I can tell you was a right nightmare!
” He laughs along with us, then holds my gaze.
“I was there when she started talking, when she went off to school for the first time, when she experienced a thousand other milestones that a young girl does. And some that she never should have had to.” I bite my lip, Ash gripping one hand and Jax the other, his other hand wiping away the tear that escapes.
Coughing, Ryan continues. “And now I’m here, standing in front of a beautiful woman, a beautiful wife, and wondering how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter.
” He swipes his own wet eyes, Lex handing him a tissue whilst a cry-laugh escapes her.
“And I couldn’t be more proud of the young lady that you’ve become.
We couldn’t be more proud. And your mum, well, I just know that wherever she is, she’s smiling and jumping around like a loon at how far you’ve come, at how much you’ve grown. ”
Tears track freely down my cheeks as I nod, unable to say a single thing to this man who is a father to me, in all but blood.
“You’ve found yourself good guys, little one.
Good protectors, who’ll take care of you for the rest of your life.
” None of us miss the way that Ryan gives no shits and includes all my Knights, not just Ash, and I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the whispers from the other tables.
“So, let’s raise our glasses in a toast,” he continues, a roguish look in his brown eyes as he lifts his champagne flute.
“To Lilly and her Knights!” he cries, a shocked giggle escaping my lips as others at our table raise their glasses and make the same toast. The rest of our guests follow suit, a little delayed as no doubt they thought they ought to be toasting the bride and groom, not the bride and grooms. Ah well, fuck ‘em!
“My turn,” Loki leans over to whisper, standing up and coming up next to me, holding his hand out. “Come on, Pretty Girl.”
I quirk a brow at him, but let him pull me from my chair and lead me over to the dance floor, a stage set up at one end.
There’s a band there, a beautiful quirky black haired girl smiling down at me, standing in front of a microphone.
I don’t notice much else as Loki leaves me standing in front of the stage, pressing a kiss to my cheek, then hops up onto the stage.
He confidently strides over to a high stool, which has an acoustic guitar propped up next to it, and a microphone in front of it. Grabbing the guitar, he sits down, giving me a panty decimating grin.
Then he opens his mouth and starts singing If We Never Met , by John K, and Kelsea Ballerini, and I just melt.
He holds my gaze as he sings, and there’s an intense look in his eyes, like although the song has a fun beat, he wants me to take it seriously.
And I do. I take the message he’s giving me into my very soul.
At one point, the girl starts singing, and Loki puts his guitar back onto the stand, hops off the stage, and grabs my hand, pulling me towards him and moulding his body to mine as we dance together. I’d somehow forgotten that this boy can move like he’s making love on the dancefloor.
He picks up the lyrics, singing into my ear as he moves his hips against mine in a slow, teasing movement, and my knees go weak, a fire igniting in my core at the memories of the times he’s been singing into my ear whilst being inside of me.
All too soon the song finishes, as does his movements, and I’m left pressed up against him, feeling just how affected he is with his heaving chest and hardness pressed against my stomach.
“You may be his wife, Pretty Girl,” he rasps into my ear, nuzzling my neck like he just can’t help himself. “But you’re my soulmate, the mother of my child, and I will love you for my entire goddamn life, and then some.”
“I fucking love you, Loki Thorn,” I manage to choke out, my voice thick with all the emotions that are swirling inside of me.
A throat clears behind me, and I turn to see Jax standing there, waiting a step behind us. Loki laughs, and I glance back.
“Your other soulmates await,” he tells me ruefully, pressing a kiss to the corner of my lip. Before he can pull away, I turn my face, kissing him full on, uncaring of our other guests as I kiss the shit out of him.
It takes a second, but with a groan he returns the embrace, matching my passion with his own.
Reluctantly, he pulls away, and looks at me like I am everything in the entire world to him.
Stepping away - luckily he’s managed to get himself somewhat under control so that he’s not walking around at full mast - he walks backwards, holding my gaze until I feel a warmth at my back, huge hands alighting on my upper arms.
“May I have this dance, Baby Girl?” Jax’s rough voice whispers in my ear, the same ear that Loki murmured into. I shiver with the feel of it, all rough hands and long nights spent wrapped up in each other.
“Yes, always,” I reply, turning and letting him hold me in his huge arms. It always feels like coming home whenever Jax holds me, like I’m in a warm room, safely tucked away from the raging storm outside.
The sounds of a country guitar start playing, and when a male voice starts singing, I recognise the song as Die a Happy Man by Thomas Rhett.
A happy shiver caresses my skin, and my lips split into a wide grin as Jax leads me into a slow country swing dance. He moves with a grace that only those of us who know him aren’t surprised by, and we twirl around the dancefloor, uncaring that we’re the only ones dancing.