The Bachelor Contract(81)
“We really are still married,” she said in a stunned voice, suddenly needing to sit down. What did that mean? What did any of it mean?
“But we don’t have to be,” he said, quietly shattering her heart into a million pieces.
Tears welled. She couldn’t speak.
“This is your choice, Nik. In that folder is our marriage contract and our divorce papers. Sign them, and the settlement of twenty million dollars is yours.”
She gaped.
“Or—” Movement happened in front of her and then he took her left hand and lowered to one knee. “You could make me the happiest man alive, and marry me again, right here, right now, in front of all of our friends.”
Her right hand felt heavy with the documents, with the past that was included in them.
Her left—light.
“I’m not perfect.” She clung to his voice like a lifeline. “I think we both know that I don’t deserve you, but I want to spend the rest of my life proving to you that you’re worth it, that love is worth it. I want to prove—” His voice hitched. “I want our little boy when he looks down from heaven to see his mama in love. I want him to know that his dad tried the hardest to make her smile, so she forgets all the days—years—that he made her cry.” Tears fell in rapid succession down her cheeks. “Nikki, will you marry me? Again?”
The contracts fell out of her hands, making a slapping noise on the floor, and then she was on her knees reaching for Brant, trying to find his face, but before she could find his mouth, it was already pressed against hers in a healing kiss.
A kiss of both closure and new beginnings.
“Yes,” she whispered against his lips. “I’ll marry you…again.”
He slid a ring on her left hand, linking his fingers between hers, deepening the kiss, and then he grabbed her right hand and pressed it against his chest.
It felt just like her shirt.
She skimmed her fingertips down.
It was in Braille, too!
She knew it!
Still kissing him, she felt out the word and then gasped against his mouth, and tried like hell to keep herself from crying harder. “Groom. Your shirt says groom.”
“Care to guess what yours says?”
“Sexy?” she teased.
“Not enough space to put all the adjectives, Nik, but I kept one of the most important ones.” He grabbed her hand and slid her fingertips across the word.
“Bride.” She sucked in a harsh breath. “Well, that could have been awkward had I signed those contracts, huh?”
Their laughter floated between them, and then they were kissing again, the contracts forgotten. And the people waiting outside the room completely forgotten.
Until a certain shrill voice yelled, “Well!? Did she say yes?”
“Nadine.” They said the word in unison, like a curse, but with humor in their voices.
“She’ll just fight her way past Cole if we don’t let her in.” Brant stood and helped her to her feet. “Besides, we have a wedding to get to.”
Nikki froze. “Today?”
“Yup.” His grip tightened. “I hope you like your dress.”
The minute the door to the Zen room was pushed open, she was hauled away from Brant amid cheers and bursts of color.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The minute Nikki was ushered into the hotel’s bridal suite she felt like crying.
How often had she avoided this very room?
And now? Now it was hers to enjoy.
“Ladies!” Nadine let out a piercing whistle. “We have ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” Nikki shrieked.
“I’ve thought of everything,” Nadine said. “Though Brant picked out the dress.”
A blur appeared in front of her. A red blur.
That man. She loved that man. “My dress is red.”
“He said he wanted you to be able to see it,” Nadine whispered as sniffles sounded around the room. “And apparently bright colors were all over the runway this spring, so I allowed it.”
Well, that and she was a matchmaking psychopath. Brant could have asked to get married underwater and the woman would have been okay with it as long as she could plan everything.
Nikki reached out and touched the silky material. It was so smooth against her fingertips. It had to be expensive. There were thick straps that crisscrossed around the neck and down the back of the dress.
When she was done touching it, the dress was jerked from the hanger, and suddenly hands were everywhere as the shirt she was wearing was whisked away and the wedding dressed was smoothed over her body.
The dress fit perfectly.
“Jane!” Nadine called. “The shoes!”
“These,” Jane’s voice came from behind her, “are your something borrowed. They’re the first shoes Brock bought me and kind of how our story started. I know they’ll be perfect with this dress.”