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Authors: Terri Anne Browning

BOOK: The Rocker That Holds Her (The Rocker...)

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“
Well if it isn’t the luckiest bastard on the face of the planet,” a deep, lazy voice called from behind me.

I turned my head to find Axton walking toward me. He was dressed up in new jeans and a burgundy red shirt with a leather jacket. Most of his tattoos were covered up, but his facial piercings were still in. I raised a brow at how put together my friend was today. The last time I had talked to him he had been the drunkest I ever remembered him being. I hadn’t really thought about the reasons for it until Drake, and then Shane, had told me what was going on.

Dallas Bradshaw, Lana and Harper’s old roommate and quite possible the hottest blonde on the planet, had broken up with Axton right after New Year’s. I wasn’t sure what had happened. The first time I had seen those two together I thought that it was really a perfect match. Truthfully, and I had told Emmie once after meeting the girl, I thought Dallas was Emmie’s doppelganger in personality and spirit.

Axton had been seriously infatuated with Dallas from what I had seen the few times that we went out together. But it was something that only those closest to him could see. Ax put on a front that made people think that he didn’t have a care in the world. That he was some rich, arrogant, asshole rock star that didn’t take life seriously. It was true that Axton lived hard and played harder, just as it was true that the guy could be a total bastard. But he was also the most sensitive and kindhearted guy I knew.

“You’re early,” I commented as I turned to shake my friend’s hand. There was still at least an hour before the guests would be allowed in. Security at the gates of our community was tight today. Emmie wanted to make sure that our wedding was kept private and quiet, not wanting our big day to be the product of the media circus.

Harper, who worked for
American Rocker
, was also our photographer today. Emmie had asked her to do a story on it for the magazine so that Demon’s Wings’ fans would get the true story of our wedding day. Harper’s boss was the happiest man in the media world right now. The exclusive was going to mean big things for his magazine.

Axton shrugged his lean shoulders, thrusting his hands into his jeans’ pockets. “Figured I would come and give you guys a hand…” He glanced around the tent. “Where is everyone?”

I grimaced. “She’s not coming man.”

Axton’s jaw clenched. “Who?” he asked the question casually enough, but even now he cast his eyes around for her.

“Dallas. She isn’t coming. Natalie and Linc arrived last night, but Dallas was too busy.”

“
What the fuck!” he exploded. “She can’t be bothered to come to her friend’s wedding?”

I sighed. “Axton she’s running on fumes right now. Nursing school is hard shit. From what Emmie and the others tell me, she barely has time to sleep because she’s studying hard.”

My friend frowned. “Nursing school? When did she start nursing school? Fuck, when did she even get accepted?” He whispered the last question, his eyes stormy.

“
Last month sometime. I only remember that because Emmie sent her some kind of big basket as a congratulation.” I shrugged. “Apparently getting into the nursing school Dallas got into is a big deal. They only take a perfect score on the entrance exam.”

“
That must have been why she came by…” Axton muttered to himself, turning away from me and walking away as if he had completely forgotten I was standing there.

With ten minutes to go before Emmie was supposed to walk down the aisle I was starting to shake. My heart was racing, my palms sweating, and my brain tormenting me. Was this what Drake had felt as he had waited to marry Lana back in December?

I was so ready for this thing to be over.

I stood at the back of the tent. After getting ready, I had dressed Mia and then handed her back over to Lana and Harper so that they could fix the little girl’s hair. As efficient as I might have been with dressing my child, I still had no clue how to handle her hair other than brushing it each day.

Nearly every seat in the tent was already occupied. We hadn’t invited more than twenty people that were in our immediate family. The members of OtherWorld were all in attendance. Liam was the only one to bring a guest, other than Devlin, who brought his ten-year-old son Harris that looked just like the long-haired, dark-eyed drummer.

I had always liked Liam’s sister, Marissa. When I had first met her she had been a very sick, very skinny teenager. I couldn’t honestly remember what cancer Marissa had had at the time, but I knew that if Liam hadn’t been able to afford the treatment she needed back then she would have definitely died. To look at her now you would never have known that she had once been so close to death. With her waist-long, dark chestnut hair, that porcelain complexion, and the curves that only a real man could handle, she was like some ancient goddess come to life.

Marissa was the kind of woman a man had to stop and catch his breath when he looked at her. Even women tended to be overcome by her sheer beauty, and not just because of the way she looked. There was something about her that called to others’ souls and made them want to be close to her.

She stood between her bother and Wroth, who was Liam’s cousin—but for some reason not Marissa’s—as she greeted me with a bright smile. “I’m so happy for you and Em!” she exclaimed softly giving me a gentle hug.

I gave her a careful squeeze in return before she pulled back. “Thanks, Rissa.”

She stepped back between her brother and Wroth, who shook my hand. Wroth had a tendency to intimidate everyone around him, even those that knew him better than I did. Having been in the Marines and serving three years in Afghanistan, he had demons that I didn’t think I ever wanted in my head.

“
You seem to be doing a lot better than Dray did a few months ago,” Liam observed. I noticed his eyes were glassy and wondered if weed was the only thing he was high on today. Last fall it had been cocaine that he was playing around with.

Of the five members of OtherWorld, Liam was the only one I couldn’t bring myself to like. When Drake had been drinking so much, he and Liam had been friends, if only because they both needed to self-medicate to sleep at night. I couldn’t even stand to be around the man when he was high like he was now.

I grimaced. “I’m shaking in my boots, man. Good thing I’m only ever doing this once. I don’t think I could handle this shit again.”

I talked with them for a few more minutes before my band brothers came out of the house. The three left to find their seats right beside of Lana’s father, Cole Steel. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Lana had been fathered by that particular rocker.

I waited for my brothers to join me. A glance at my watch told me that I had less than five minutes before my life changed forever. Drake reached me first, and gave me a hard hug. He slapped me on the back. I clenched my jaw, determined not to tear up.

Shane was next, squeezing the air out of me before stepping back and giving me a serious look. “You’re one lucky fucker, Nik. She’s so beautiful. Wait until you see her.”

I swallowed hard but didn’t say a word. I wasn’t sure if I could have gotten anything out even if I tried. Jesse stopped beside of me and I expected him to hug me or even punch me. But he just gave me a nod, his throat seeming to work with emotion, and the four of us headed to the front of the tent and the arbor where the minister was waiting on us.

My hands started to tremble and I clenched them into fists at my side. To look at me you would think I was in pain standing there with a grim look on my face that belied my true feelings. “Deep breaths,” Drake muttered beside of me with a hint of a grin. “It helps man. Trust me.”

I nodded, taking his advice as I sucked in a deep calming breath. As I released it, letting go of some of my tension, music began to play. It wasn’t the traditional music that most brides walked down the aisle to, but we weren’t the traditional bride and groom so why should anything else be?

Emmie had left the choosing of the music to me, and at first I had thought that writing a song would be the best thing. But after trying to find the words that described how I felt about Emmie, trying to put those words to music without breaking down and crying like a little girl, I had given up and set out to find something else. It had been by happenstance that I heard The Goo Goo Dolls’ song,
Come To Me
on the radio on my way home with Mia one evening. I had stopped in the middle of late evening traffic as soon as the words of the song had registered in my mind. It had been as if the song was written with me and Emmie in mind.

Now, as the song began to play through the speakers set up discreetly in the tent, I raised my eyes to wait for my bride to come to me.

Harper, followed by Lana, came down the aisle looking beautiful as ever in the pink and black dresses Emmie and Layla had commissioned a new designer to make for the bridesmaids. The pink silk trimmed in black lace ended at their knees, and they wore black ballet slippers. It was simple, classy, and so my Emmie’s style.

Next came Layla, her dress just a little longer than the other two girls. She caught my eye and gave me a wink as she walked toward us. For some reason that calmed me more than the deep breath had and I smiled back at her.

Lucy appeared at the end of the aisle with Mia right beside of her. Both girls wore silver dresses that looked like they should have had wings sprouting from their backs. Lucy held onto a little basket and walked patiently beside of her
cousin
as Mia took pink and black rose petals from the basket and carefully dropped them along the path they walked.

When the girls reached us, Mia gave me one of her chubby fingered waves before running toward Drake, whom she had attached herself to more so than the other two. Drake swung Mia up into his arms and gave her a smack of a kiss on the cheek, telling her what a good job she had done.

Meanwhile, I was anxiously watching the end of the aisle. Emmie hadn’t appeared yet and I was starting to shake all over again. But even as I started to take a step to go in search of her, my beautiful bride appeared at the back of the tent.

My breath froze in my throat. My heart, having been racing away in my chest, completely stopped as the most exquisitely beautiful woman came into my line of vision. Everyone around us disappeared. All I could see was Emmie. Her silky auburn hair was hanging down around her shoulders and was delicately curled to perfection. The dress she had finally found after months of searching was off the shoulders with a neckline that dipped and showed off her breasts in an alluringly sexy way. Black lace accented her waist, drawing my eyes to how tightly the cloth clung to her. The skirt was what I had heard Layla call a mermaid tail.

Maybe it was just me, but I was sure I was marrying the most beautiful creature I had ever set eyes on. Fuck, I was a lucky bastard!

Even though I hadn’t wanted to cry and had promised myself that I wouldn’t, I felt the tears sting my eyes. Emotion clogged my throat at how beautiful she was and I swallowed hard so that I could breathe once more.

Emmie took two steps down the aisle. That’s as far as she got before I found myself moving toward her, not even realizing I was doing so until I heard Shane asking me where I was going. Emmie stopped, watching me with eyes filled with her own happy tears as I closed the distance between us.

I was going to ruin her makeup, but I didn’t give a fuck. As soon as I reached her I wrapped my arms around her waist and lowered my head. I needed her kiss more than I needed air. She made a little whimpering sound in the back of her throat as we tasted each other for the first time in two days.

When I finally had the sense to pull back, I found her smiling up at me. “I think that was supposed to wait until after the minister pronounced us man and wife,” she whispered.

I dropped a kiss on the end of her nose. “I couldn’t wait that long.”

“Do you think we should get married now?” she asked with a grin that melted my heart and made me wonder why I had been so anxious in the first place.

“
Only if you kiss me again.” My lips where already teasing her own. “And tell me that you love me.”

She dropped her bouquet, delicate pink and black roses falling to the sand, as she cupped my face with both hands and kissed me. Even as her lips caressed my own, I heard her whisper the words I would never tire of hearing.

“I love you, Nik.”

Coming In 2014

The Rockers’ Babies

The Rocker That Wants Me

Reece—Book 2 (Title To Be Announced)

Playlist

Come To Me
by The Goo Goo Dolls

Warrior
by Beth Crowley

Hell Is For Children
by Halestorm

Wish You Never Met Me
by Papa Roach

Not Strong Enough
by Apocalyptica ft. Brent Smith

In The End
by Black Veil Brides