I head to the kitchen. Flicking on the gas burner, I hold the page to the flame and watch it ignite. Slowly, the white page turns black as my past burns away with my thoughts of a mother who might have loved me.
“Are you okay?” Logan asks from behind me.
Once the letter is gone, I turn to regard him. “I’m just fine. Nothing I needed in there anyway. I’m stronger without her, and I realized something,” I tell him, stepping into his hold. “I’m nothing like her, and it’s the best thing I’ve come to realize about myself.”
And I know it’s the truth. I never want to be anything like a woman who could do what she did. One day, when I do have a baby, he or she will know love, happiness, and a family that doesn’t forsake you for material things. I’ll love that child because it’s a part of Logan and me.
“There’s something else she said,” I whisper, knowing that the confirmation will certainly break him. But he needs to know, to have closure.
“What is it?” His dark eyes burn into me, searing me with more question than he voiced.
“Your mother,” I start slowly. “She’s… she’s dead, Logan.” When I look at him, I see the sadness flit across his handsome, rugged face. And I wrap my arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you for telling me,” he mumbles into my hair as he buries his face into the crook of my neck. He doesn’t want to show me his emotions, and I allow him to hold me as he comes to terms with the news.
We stand together, holding each other up for a long while. Silence is calming as it surrounds us. I’m not sure how much time passes when Logan finally pulls away, cupping my face in his hands and smiles.
“Thank you for being here with me. You’re a beauty,” Logan says. “And I love you.”
“I love you too, my Broken Prince,” I tell him as I snuggle into his warmth.
Epilogue
Four months later
My father looks at me like I’m a princess. Today of all days, I feel like that girl I read about in books when I was a kid. I feel like I’m special, more so than normal because as Dad takes my hand, I take a deep breath and turn to the aisle.
“Make sure I don’t faceplant on the carpet,” I whisper to him, causing him to chuckle.
“Never, sweet girl,” he tells me before leading me to my destiny.
When I was ten years old, I met a boy.
When I was eighteen, I ran away from home because said boy didn’t want me.
And now, I’m all grown up, and I’m marrying said boy. He’s no longer convinced he’s a monster, just a broken man who grew up too quickly. It’s what happens when monsters raise us. Logan has come to terms with himself, with his desires and mine over the time we’ve been together. We’re both older, grown up.
By the time I reach Logan, he’s become blurry because the tears threatening to spill are sitting on my lashes. The moment I blink, they slowly trickle down my cheeks. Logan takes my hand, bringing my knuckles to his lips.
“You look perfect,” he tells me before we turn to the man before us. Words are spoken, but I don’t hear them because my heart is thrumming wildly in my ears. It’s a rhythm I find solace in for the moment.
As time passes and we turn to each other once more, Logan takes my left hand, lifts it, and places the sleek, golden band on my ring finger.
“There was a long time where I thought marriage was for fools. I believed that finding love was not something I’d ever do because I could never find a woman who would see past the exterior and look deeper. But you, my beauty, did just that.”
His voice catches, and I have to swallow back my own emotion, or I’d be a basket case of tears right now. But they’d be happy tears. Definitely happy.
“When you accepted me for who I am—not your knight in shining armor—but your Broken Prince, I knew I’d found my Sleeping Beauty.” His words warm my chest, my heart beats against my ribs, and I can’t stop the tears from falling now.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I promise you forever.” Logan slips the ring all the way to the last knuckle. The golden band sits beside the diamond ring he gave me only a month ago. Even though we’re not perfect apart, we’ve found flawlessness together.
“Logan.” His name on my lips feels so natural as I take his hand and slip the thick gold ring onto his finger. “You’ve taken my wants and needs and made them your own, and I’m so thankful you did. Even though we walked a very strange, long, and winding path to get here, my heart is filled with more love and happiness than I’ve ever experienced.” The ring fits perfectly, and I smile up at him when I say the last few words. “Forever and a day, my Broken Prince.”
The priest says his final words, announcing us as husband and wife, and the few guests we have whoop loudly when Logan pulls me in for a kiss. The guys who helped us when we needed it most—Dax, Kael, and Axel—along with their partners are here. My father and Abigail, his friend that has been around a few times over the past few weeks. I’m so happy to see my father has found a friendship that had long since fizzled out because of my mother’s wrongdoings.
We don’t need much more than this. And there’s still one more thing I need to tell Logan, but not here. Our hands lock in a tight hold as we make our way down the aisle and out the doors into the sunshine.
“By the way,” I whisper quickly before everyone follows us. “No drinking for me tonight.” With a naughty wink, I tug him toward the car that will take us up to the cabin, where we’ve set out tables for our guests to join us for dinner.
Logan
“You’re a bad girl for teasing me,” I tell her in the cabin as our new puppy races up the steps behind me as I carry my wife to the bedroom. She wanted a dog, and I got her one. “Prince!” I call out to him, and he stops for a second before bounding onto the bed we bought for him.
“I wasn’t teasing,” she mumbles, “Merely stating facts.”
“You’re pregnant, and you waited until after the ceremony to tell me.” I set her on the bed, and she compliantly lies back. She waits for me, like always, as I slowly undress her. First her sweater, then the blue sweatpants she was wearing. Soon enough, she’s in a pair of panties and her bra, both white and lace.
Looking down at her, I take in her perfectly curvy frame, beautifully smooth skin, and her tits cupped in the soft material, which is making my cock ache. Tonight, we’re trying something new.
I reach for the silk ribbons and get to work in binding Vera’s wrists to the bed frame. Once they’re secure, I move to her ankles and do the same. She’s bound, mine, and she’s looking at me with mischief in her gaze.
Her breathing slows as her lashes flutter, and she closes her eyes. “I’m ready,” she whispers in the low-lit bedroom.
My cock throbs when I see her looking like a perfectly bound Sleeping Beauty. Silence stretches between us, and I move to the bedside once more, picking up the sharp steel blade. With a gentle murmur of, “Don’t move,” I slice away her underwear, tugging the scraps away from her body, and bring her panties to my nose. “Your pussy smells like dinner and fucking dessert,” I tell her as I unbuckle my belt and shove my pants, along with my boxers, down.