Hold On (Play On #2.5)(27)

“I’m clean. You?”

“Hmm, yeah, why?”

He nudged my bikini bottoms out of the way and suddenly thrust inside me. I gasped in pleasure and shock.

“I thought… no sex,” I panted.

“Angel, there’s cupcake and brownie crap all over the bottom of this pool. If it needs to be cleaned anyway…” He pumped into me harder to make his point.

And that night we made a memory I’ll never forget. Gray making love to me with the dark snowy Montana mountain as our backdrop. We came together, in a harmony that fit the moment perfectly and as I clung to the man I loved, he brushed his lips against my ear and whispered, “You owe me a cupcake.”

I laughed because he was funny… but mostly because that’s all I ever wanted to do now that he was mine. Love, sex, laugh.

Heaven.





Epilogue



Snow Ghost Lodge

Eighteen Months Later



It was August, the slopes were closed and wouldn’t open until skiing season restarted in November, but the stunning Snow Ghost Lodge was open to a private event.

A small but beautifully organized wedding. Even if, as the wedding planner, I did say so myself.

Since it was my wedding I could get away with it.

I thought I’d feel nervous on my wedding day but my butterflies were excited ones because I couldn’t wait to change my name to Autumn King. Couldn’t. Freaking. Wait!

The last eighteen months had been a challenge but one that Gray and I overcame with the ease of two people who loved each other enough to make anything work. I’d extended my holiday by a week in Montana to meet his parents and his brother Noah. Thankfully, they liked me. Like a lot. It came as no surprise that Gray’s family was as loving as he was.

The hard part came when Gray decided to come back to Scotland with me to meet Killian and Skylar.

Killian did not make it easy at first, but he soon came to admire Gray’s straight-talking. He pretty much told Killian in front of me and Skylar that he loved me, I loved him, and if Killian loved me as much as he was supposed to he’d get over his shit and give Gray a chance.

It was exactly the right thing to say to my brother and thanks to Skylar, who had turned him into a romantic even if he wouldn’t admit it, Killian gave Gray a chance. We stayed for a month before it was time to head back to Montana for Gray’s work. During that month Killian proposed to Skylar and I was content in the knowledge that I didn’t miss out on that moment.

However, the idea of me moving to the US did not go down well with Killian. In fact, our relationship became a little strained when I moved to Montana. Gray had to work overtime to help me adjust to my new life.

I busied myself setting up my new event management company—something that was not easy to get off the ground but I worked my arse off and with a little help from Susan and word of mouth, I started to get work and my portfolio began to grow. Skylar got Killian on a plane and they spent a month with us that May. They flew over a couple more times during the summer and between that and video chatting I didn’t feel like I was missing out too badly. Over time, Killian realized the depth of Gray’s love for me and that he had a good family who showed me a lot of love, too, and the strain between us disappeared.

Come November, Gray and I flew back to Glasgow but we didn’t stay for six months. I had my company now and so did Gray, and the truth was that Killian and Skylar could move to Timbuktu and I’d never lose them. No matter where we were, we had each other.

Gray and I stayed in Glasgow all through Christmas (something that didn’t go down well with his family and was one of the aforementioned challenges we had to face) and the month of January. In early February, I stood beside Skylar as her maid of honor as she and Killian married in secret in Loch Lomond. Only me, Gray, our friend Eve who used to work for Killian, Skylar’s ex bandmates Brandon and Austin and their respective dates, and her manager Gayle attended. Her other ex-bandmate and just plain old ex, Micah, declined to attend for obvious reasons.

The press didn’t find out about their marriage until four weeks later when Skylar and Killian were spotted by paparazzi in Los Angeles wearing wedding bands.

After my brother’s private wedding, Gray and I headed home to the US. Gray got in some skiing time before the slopes closed and I returned to planning events, including our own wedding.

I should note that Gray proposed to me the day after we arrived back in Montana a year before Skylar and Killian’s wedding. Of course I said yes, but while Gray wanted to get married right away, I wanted my brother to be truly happy for me before I asked him to walk me down the aisle.

I needed him to know he was doing the right thing by giving me away to Gray.

Gray understood but it still annoyed him and he wasn’t good at hiding his impatience for the next sixteen months.

Turning to look up at my brother as the entrance song started up beyond the double doors, I squeezed his arm. “You look nervous. You know you’re doing the right thing.”

Killian stared down at me. To the outside world his expression seemed remote. But I saw a million emotions in the dark brown eyes so like my own. “I know,” he said, his voice low, hoarse. “I’d have kidnapped you and taken you back to Glasgow by now if I didn’t know that.” He covered my beautifully manicured hand resting on his arm. “No one deserves you, kid. No one. But Gray comes pretty damn close. That’ll just have to do for me.”