“No,” I replied. His smile plummeted, so I quickly added. “I need to get cleaned up. I’m not going out there in front of my family and friends, fully fucked and panty-less. I need underwear.”
He climbed out of the chopper and helped me out the other side. “Come on then,” he said as he playfully smacked me on my bum and placed his hand on my hip, holding me to him as he led me to his office.
***
After a sneaky trip via the private elevator to our bedroom to clean up, Bryce and I re-joined the party and positioned ourselves behind a small table which had been set up on the step that looked down into the lounge area. The room had been decorated with hundreds of silver and blue metallic helium balloons with matching spiralling twine that dangled from each balloon’s securely tied lip. There were also approximately twenty large bouquets of white and blue roses, placed meticulously around the room. Trust Bryce to find a way to have blue roses for me. I smiled at their brilliance, which was nothing in comparison to the man standing next to me. The room looked magical, but it was still very simple and elegant, and I was grateful Bryce had stayed true to his word when he promised he would not go overboard. I really did not want that.
I had been appreciatively taking in the surrounding scenes, and had not initially noticed the enormous three-tiered cake that had been placed on the table before me. It was perfectly centred and looked stunning and delicious. It also kind of looked like the Empire State Building. No shit! It stood about one meter high with long rectangular panels of white chocolate secured to each side of the three square tiers, and each tier was topped with fresh raspberries. It was simply stunning and looked utterly delectable.
“I told you my cake was huge,” he whispered to me.
I shook my head at him and giggled. “You’re not wrong. You really are something else, Mr. Clark. White chocolate and raspberries, you honestly think of everything.”
He pulled me into his side as a number of waiting staff quickly passed out glasses of champagne to our guests. “I think of you, Alexis. You, our families, and no one else.” He kissed the top of my head then gently tapped his glass, in order to gain the room’s attention and hush the verbal communication flowing around it.
When the conversations passed to silence, Bryce began to speak. “Firstly, I just want to thank you all for coming today, to celebrate Alexis’ birthday. We both really appreciate you all taking the time to share this evening with us.” He let go of my side and placed his hand on the champagne flute he was holding, peering into it. “Look...I’ll start by addressing the elephant in the room by saying that it is no secret Alexis and I found each other under somewhat controversial circumstances.” He moved his gaze to me, a hint of guilt flickering in his eyes. I winked at him, encouraging him to go on.
“Controversial or not, the truest crime of all would have been to ignore true love. From the moment I laid eyes on this beautiful woman standing next me, my heart decided to once again function as it was designed to, and honestly, the feeling that came over me shortly after meeting her for the first time literally shocked the shit out of me.”
Everyone in the room let out a chuckle which seemed to relax Bryce.
“So, there I was, my heart going berserk, telling numerous parts of my body that my true love—my soul mate—had just entered my life. And knowing that it was criminal to ignore what I was feeling, I had no choice but to act. To say that I deliberately pursued Alexis is indeed correct. Do I feel guilty about that fact? Well...at that time yes, yes I did. But, knowing that she too felt the same way about me, but refused to let herself accept it, enabled me to push aside that guilt. Look, I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes in life you know you are going to do the wrong thing, that what you are about to do goes against everything you stand for. But there are also times in life when you have to ignore the morality of the problem that faces you and go with your heart. Because at the end of the day, your heart is what truly makes you happy. And Alexis is my heart, entirely.”
The room was completely silent, but the loud thudding noise my heart was making as it pounded in my chest was deafening. I had tears streaming down my face as I looked up at the man who fulfilled every part of my being.
He noticed me crying and gently wiped away the salty menaces that were trickling down my cheeks. I helped him rid my face of the moisture and choked back anymore tears that threatened to fall. I looked out over the room of smiling faces, some of which were even crying—my mother and sister being two of them—and some were playfully scoffing at Bryce’s romantic declaration—my brother and Derek being two of those.