Page 44 of Twister

Bucky traveled with Rose, but once we’d settled into the fifth wheeler, we’d decided that Lucy was better off staying with us.

She seemed to tolerate Bucky well whenever he was with us but appeared much calmer on the weeks when he was at Jackson’s.

Rose had initially been sad about not having Lucy with her and Bucky, but when it became clear that Lucy preferred to snuggle in Daniel’s lap every night, she’d relented.

“Daniel and Marshall want everyone to put their fucking phones away during the ceremony so they can see your ugly mugs instead of your fucking phones. Fuck knows why.”

Jackson and I looked at each other and started laughing. I was so happy that Malone’s had offered to record all this for us to watch back later.

The gentle strains of the wedding march started getting louder through the speaker in the ceiling, giving us the cue we were waiting on.

Once I put on the pewter-colored suit jacket that was long enough to trail behind me as I walked up the aisle—the one expensive concession I’d made to see if I could wow Daniel today—Jackson stepped in front of me to straighten the white bow tie that we’d fought over for far too long trying to get it to sit right. “Are you ready?”

Absorbing the sensation of my wedding present to Daniel, I fidgeted with his pewter-colored tie for something to do as I took a deep, steadying breath, and as I released it, a sense of peace greater than anything I’d ever felt came over me. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

A warm smile spread over his face as he finished fiddling with my bow tie and placed his hands on my shoulders and gently squeezed. “Good. Let’s get this show on the road, then.”

He turned around to look for the bouquet of flowers we’d picked up earlier. Once he’d found it, he handed it over, then opened the office door, gave me one last soft smile and a quick nod, and began his walk.

As I’d been instructed, I slowly counted to five, took one more deep breath, and followed him.

The moment I laid eyes on Daniel, I felt my lips spread into the widest smile I could physically create.

Both he and Henry wore three-piece gunmetal-gray suits; however, where Henry wore a tie of the same color, Daniel’s was white.

Apart from agreeing to a monochromatic color scheme, neither of us had seen the other’s outfits until that very moment.

I hadn’t even seen Rose’s steel-gray and black suit, as Daniel had worked with Rose on finding the right one for her when he and Henry had ordered their own suits, but it matched us both beautifully.

Daniel must have loved how I looked, too, because a look of stunned awe swept over his face as I trailed Jackson up the aisle before his bottom lip trembled slightly, and with one thumb, he wiped a tear away.

Henry leaned into his brother to say something to him, but Daniel never took his eyes off me. He responded with something that made Henry chuckle and focus on an impeccably dressed as always Blue, who was sitting in the front row with their parents.

Far too quickly, I found myself at the end of the aisle and staring into Daniel’s shimmering eyes.

“My God. You’re gorgeous,” he whispered before he ducked in, cupped my jaw, and stole a kiss.

A kiss that quickly turned filthy.

I moaned at the same time as I heard Kajir curse. “Calm your fucking tits, Daniel. We’re not at that point of the fucking ceremony yet.”

The room erupted into laughter.

We both whined when Henry pulled his brother back, breaking us apart.

I did my best to follow Daniel, but Jackson held me back. When I turned around and growled at him, he held his palms up, even though he was grinning at me. “Give me your flowers, Mars.”

I looked down at the roses in my hand. Oh. Right. It probably would be a good idea to hand them off. I shoved them at him and turned back to Daniel with a wild grin.

Only to be stopped by Kajir’s oversized palm landing squarely in the middle of my chest.

“I swear to everything that is holy in this world, Kajir, I will fucking cut you right now if you don’t let me go. I don’t care how fucking large you are. I will climb you like the gigantic fucking sequoia you are and tear you apart until you’re nothing but fucking kindling.”

More laughter. Why was there more laughter?

The noise was enough to make me stumble and look around.

Oh.

That’s right.

We were in the middle of my wedding.

To Daniel.

Mm… tasty Daniel. I licked my lips and leered at my soon-to-be husband, my hands clenching and releasing in my desire to get to him. He looked just as unhinged as I felt, barely restrained by his brother.

“Okay,” Kajir said, holding me in place with incredibly little effort. Fucker . “I can see we’re going to have to fucking hurry things along a bit before this descends into any more fucking chaos.”

Yet more laughter.

Well, at least we were being entertaining. I’d take that win.

“I had this whole fucking speech ready about how we’re all here to witness Daniel and Marshall formally commit to each other in fucking marriage, and how their love is a source of fucking strength that they can use to nourish each other and those who they hold most fucking dear and important to them. Blah, blah, fucking blah.”

Everyone’s laughter grew louder.

I scowled. Move it along, people. I had a man I needed to sex up. I leaned into Kajir’s palm.

He held steady and gave me a gentle shove back. “Easy, Marshall. Five more fucking minutes, and then he’s all fucking yours.”

Hmph. I scowled harder.

“I think we’re going to need to skip their fucking vows. I’m sure they were lovely, but let’s get to the important fucking parts.” He looked at Rose. “Where are the fucking rings?”

A highly amused Rose held them both up before separating them so she could hold my ring up for Daniel.

“Right. Daniel, put that on Marshall’s fucking finger and repeat after me.”

When Daniel tugged at Henry’s hold, Henry let go but kept a close eye on him so he could be ready to pull us apart again.

Daniel took my ring from Rose’s palm and let out a trembling breath before he gently took hold of my left hand and shakily slid it down my ring finger.

“I give you this ring as a symbol of my love…,” Kajir prompted steadily.

“I give you this ring as a symbol of my love,” Daniel repeated quietly, staring into my eyes, leaving no doubt to the veracity of his words.

“… our strength together…”

Daniel let out a wobbly breath. “Our strength together.”

“… and my promise to learn and grow with you.”

“And my promise to learn and grow with you,” Daniel finished, trailing his fingertips up my palm until they reached my wrist. Tingles swept up my arm from the point where we touched and down my spine, spreading out to every part of my body. “I love you, baby. So fucking much.”

“Not in the fucking script, Daniel,” Kajir muttered before he sighed. “Okay. One down, one more to fucking go.”

The crowd laughed in unison again.

“Rose?”

She held up Daniel’s ring for me.

I snatched it from her with a quick apology and shoved that ring on Daniel’s finger so fast, Kajir didn’t even have a chance to say one word.

Daniel beamed at me.

“Right.” Kajir coughed. “Um, okay. Repeat after me, Marshall.”

I glared at him and waved my free hand around to tell him to get on with it.

In response, he raised both eyebrows at me.

So I scowled again. “Given enough time and dedicated effort, kindling can turn into fucking toothpicks, Kajir.”

All he did was give me a wide grin.

Fucker.

“I give you this ring as a symbol of my love…,” Kajir said slowly but clearly.

Now he was just fucking with us.

“I give you this ring as a symbol of my love,” I said quickly, looking into Daniel’s eyes as I massaged his left hand with my thumbs.

He bit his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing.

“… our strength together…”

I lifted Daniel’s palm to my lips and gave him a quick kiss, glaring at Henry, who took a single step forward. “Our strength together.”

Daniel swept his thumb over my cheek before Kajir coughed, causing Daniel to reluctantly pull back with a pout.

“… and my promise to learn and grow with you.”

I beamed at Daniel when I said, “And my promise to learn and grow with you.” I pulled Daniel’s hand back to my cheek and held it there, ignoring Kajir’s grumbling. “You’re my everything. I love you, Daniel.”

“Fucking finally,” Kajir said. “Moving right along. Daniel, do you take this man to be your wedded husband?”

The purest joy lit up Daniel’s entire being. “I do.”

“Marshall—”

“I do.”

Yet more laughter from the crowd behind us.

Kajir gave me a flat stare. “Let me ask the fucking question, Marshall. It doesn’t count if I don’t ask the fucking question.”

I frowned and growled at him. It wasn’t my fault if he was so fucking slow.

“Marshall, do you take this man to be your wedded husband?”

“I do.” There. I’d answered his question. Could I sex Daniel up yet?

Kajir grinned at me like he could hear my thoughts.

Hell, maybe he could. He seemed to know things no one else did sometimes.

He’d predicted we’d be married in February before Daniel and I had even talked about it, after all.

“By the power of your love and commitment and the authority vested in me by the state of South fucking Dakota, I now pronounce you husbands. You may—”

That was all I needed to hear before I launched myself at Daniel.

He let out an oof when we collided, stumbling a step back before Henry steadied us both with a hand against Daniel’s lower back.

And then we were kissing. Our lips locked, our tongues massaging and licking, our mouths sucking at each other like our very next breath depended on being as connected as humanly possible.

For all we knew, they could have been.

“—kiss.” Kajir sighed and threw his hands up in defeat. “I don’t know why I even fucking bothered learning this fucking script.”

A cheer went up behind us, but we couldn’t have cared less. Neither one of us pulled away from the other for longer than it took for us to take our next shuddering breath.