“I love you,” I whispered, dipping my head to kiss her.

The vicar cleared his throat loudly again, making me stop short of her lips. I guess, traditionally, I was supposed to wait until after the ceremony before I was allowed to kiss her.

Rosie nodded towards the front. “Marry me and then you can do that all night long.”

She stepped forward, tugging on my hand, bringing me forward with her. Ashton was chuckling to himself on my right, so I tried my best to keep my composure and not do anything else wrong.

Throughout the long ceremony I could barely concentrate because every time Rosie moved a waft of her perfume made my mouth water, every time her hand brushed mine, I got the little prickles of excitement rush over my body. All I wanted was for this to be over; I wanted the ‘I now pronounce you husband and wife’ part, so I could press my lips against hers and finally taste her because I hadn’t done that since yesterday lunchtime.

When we had to kneel to get the blessing and say the prayer, murmurs and chuckles erupted behind me but I just ignored it and did my thing, determined not to screw anything else up.

I remembered all of my words, I didn’t stumble over her name, I didn’t even drop the ring like I was worried about. The rest of the ceremony passed without a hitch.

Finally, after what felt like hours of staring at Rosie and dying to kiss her, the vicar said the words I had been waiting to hear for the last half an hour. We were married. As soon as he started to say, “You may now kiss your bride” I was already kissing her.

The feel of her lips on mine, the way her arms went up to loop around my neck, the way her body crushed against mine as I pulled her closer, all of it made my heart race in my chest. I was married. Married to the most thoughtful, incredible, funny, smart and beautiful girl on the planet.

I pulled her impossibly closer as everyone else seemed to disappear around me; all that mattered was the taste of her tongue and the feel of her hand gripped into the back of my hair. When she made a little whimper into my mouth, I almost lost it completely. I needed her and couldn’t seem to get her close enough to me. My arms tightened around her, lifting her off her feet and spinning in a little circle which made her giggle against my lips.

“I love you, Mrs Peters,” I whispered, looking into her eyes. My whole future was mapped out before me. It didn’t matter what happened from here on out, as long as I had this girl in my arms every single day I could cope with anything.

Instead of replying, she just crashed her lips back to mine again in a scorching hot kiss that was seriously inappropriate for people to be watching, especially standing at the front of the church. The vicar obviously thought so too.

“I think your guests are getting impatient,” he said tersely. Rosie broke the kiss immediately and stiffened, as if she forgot where we were and that we weren’t on our own. She blushed and hid her face in the side of my neck as I wrapped my arm around her tightly.

“We’re just starting as we mean to go on,” I joked, winking at the vicar.

Rosie pinched my stomach playfully as she giggled against my neck. That was a typical Nate and Rosie moment. In my eyes, if the wedding had gone beautifully, then it wouldn’t be fitting for the pair of us. I smiled down at her and pressed my lips to hers again, just for a second before we turned around to clapping from the guests.

George looked like he was having trouble restraining DJ because he was fighting to come to the front with us again. I smiled and motioned for him to come over with us. Immediately, George let him go, and DJ skipped to our sides with a huge grin on his face. “So we’re all Peters now?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yep. We’re officially a family,” I confirmed, leaning down and picking him up, smiling as the cameras flashed everywhere around us.

“If I could just get you to sign the register,” the vicar said behind us.

I smiled over to Ashton and Anna, who were acting as our witnesses today. Anna skipped over, beaming from ear to ear. “Didn’t I tell you years ago that I would help you find a girl?” she teased, kissing my cheek.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I remembered the first time I had ever met Anna in the kitchen of my apartment where she’d been making coffee for Ashton. She’d promised to help me find a girl; of course, she’d only meant for the night.

I nodded. “It’s just a shame you didn’t let me meet her years ago.”

She shook her head. “You wouldn’t have been ready years ago; you would have run a mile at the first mention of commitment.”

I would never know how I would have reacted to Rosie back then. My guess would be that she would have charmed me then, the same as she charmed me now. I was destined to fall for her; she was the one for me – five years ago or this year, we still would have ended up together.

We took our time signing the register, making it all official. I made sure every single thing was correct and clear. By the time we had finished, people were assembling outside the church ready to take photos and throw their confetti.

As we stepped out of the church doors, the crowd erupted into cheers and a rainstorm of coloured paper and rice fell over our heads. Rosie laughed and looked up at me with eyes that were so loving that it almost brought me to my knees. I hoped she never stopped looking at me like that. I led her down to the car, confetti still being thrown from all angles. Once she was in, I headed around to my side of the old-fashioned car that she’d chosen for us for today. DJ was riding with George and Tracy, and we’d been told not to worry about him all day and night because the two sets of grandparents wouldn’t let him out of their sight.

As soon as we were on our own, she looked at me and we both just burst out laughing for no apparent reason. “I’m pretty sure I have more confetti in my bra than what landed on the floor,” she stated, trying to dig it out from the top of her dress.

I smiled and leant over, holding her hand still. “Leave it in there; I’ll get that out later. Hopefully some of the guests chose edible paper,” I flirted, brushing my nose along her jaw. She looped her arm around my neck, pulling me closer to her. “You look so incredible, Stripes. I just don’t have the words for you right now.”

She laughed quietly. “I have a word for you in your tux,” she replied, running one hand along the edge of my lapel.

I raised one eyebrow curiously, wondering what her word was going to be.

“Overdressed,” she whispered. Her lips crashed onto mine, and we made the most of there being blacked out windows and an opaque barrier between us and the driver as we sped to the reception venue.

The afternoon and night passed quickly and, if I was honest, I wouldn’t remember much after a couple of hours. I spoke to so many people that, by the end of the night, I could barely remember who I had thanked for coming and who I hadn’t. Dinner, speeches and first dances all passed in a blur.

By the time the party finished, I was more than ready to take my new bride up to our room and make this marriage binding. As people started to leave, George came over with a sleepy DJ in his arms.

“We’re going. Congratulations again. And you look after my little girl, you hear me?” George said, looking at me sternly as he shook my hand.

“You don’t need to worry about that, George,” I confirmed, nodding confidently.

I held out my arms for DJ, who immediately manoeuvred himself into my arms, hugging me tightly.

“So, we won’t see you until we get back from our honeymoon. You be good for Nanna and Grandad, okay?” I whispered, kissing the side of his head.

He nodded, hugging me tighter. “I will. I’ll miss you, but we can talk on the phone, right?” he asked, pulling back and pouting at me.

“We’ll call you everyday, I promise.”

Rosie came over then, taking DJ from my arms and whispering to him. He nodded along with what she was saying, hugging her and kissing her cheek.

“We’d better go, Stripes,” I suggested, nodding at the practically empty hall. The cleaning staff were already sweeping the floors and discarding the last of the buffet food. I smiled down at DJ. “I love you, Kid,” I told him.

He yawned. “I love you too, Daddy.”

I smiled, still loving my new title. At some point during the thirteen weeks since the fire, DJ had officially started calling me ‘Daddy’. It melted my heart every single time. He’d renamed Josh as ‘Daddy Josh’ whenever he spoke about him. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be smug about his little demotion, but I couldn’t help but be a little proud about it.

George stepped in then, taking DJ. After one last goodbye and an awful lot of instructions on how to look after DJ, Rosie and I were finally alone.

The predatory smile crept onto my face as I dragged my eyes over her. Time to see if anyone bought edible confetti!

“You’ve been a bad girl, Mrs Peters. Go to our room,” I ordered.

She giggled and took my hand, practically dragged me out of the function room and into the elevator. As soon as the steel doors closed, I pressed her against the wall making her squeal with excitement as I claimed her lips with mine. By the time we got to our floor, my shirt was undone, as was my belt, and I’d unfastened half of her dress. It appeared neither of us were in the mood for going slow tonight.

We staggered down the hallway towards our honeymoon suite, bumping into things as we walked because we were too busy making out to look where we were going. When we reached our desired destination, I fumbled with the key card, trying to get the stupid electronic door lock to open while still ravaging her mouth with mine.

Rosie took the card from my hand, pulling away and shoving it in for me. “I hope you don’t have trouble getting anything else in the right slot tonight,” she teased.

“I won’t have any trouble, trust me.”

Before she could step over the threshold of the room, I grabbed her and picked her up, making her yelp from shock. I laughed and kissed her as I carried her, kicking the door shut behind me. I was so excited that I could barely even breathe properly. This night was the start of the rest of our lives, and I really wanted to make it start off spectacularly.

Rosie kissed me hungrily as I stomped over to the bed, dropping her down roughly onto the mattress, making her laugh as she bounced a little. I straddled her h*ps and looked down at her excited face, as her chest rose and fell rapidly.

She sighed dreamily, and her nails scratched down my back gently, making my dick throb with anticipation. She was still wearing way too many clothes for my liking; it was definitely taking too long to get her na**d. I made a little moan of appreciation in the back of my throat and decided to get this show on the road. I couldn’t wait another second.

Unfortunately, she had other ideas. As I bent my head to kiss her, she shook her head and pushed on my chest to stop me. I pulled back, eyeing her curiously, praying that what Seth said about only ha**g s*x on birthdays and anniversaries wasn’t true.

“I have a wedding gift for you.” She smiled. “It’s in my overnight bag,” she added, nodding off to the side where our bags were.

“Oh fuck, we were supposed to buy presents? I’m going to f**king kill Ashton for not telling me that!”

She giggled and gripped my shoulders, rolling me over onto my back as she sat up on top of me, holding one arm across her chest, keeping her dress in place. “You didn’t have to get me anything; it’s not a tradition or anything. I just really wanted you to have this tonight,” she assured me, bending and kissing my lips softly. When she pulled back, my hands instinctively tightened on her waist. I didn’t want to let her go, I felt whiny and needy and I just didn’t want her to get off me even if it was only to get something from her bag three feet away from me.

She smiled and pushed my hands off her, climbing out of the bed and heading over to the bag. While she was busy, I took the opportunity to slip off my shoes. As I pulled it off, something white caught my eye on the sole of it. I turned it over to see I had two big letters: L and P, written on the bottom of one of my shoes in white marker.

Frowning in confusion, I grabbed my other shoe and looked at the sole of that one too, only to see H and E written on that one. Suddenly it dawned on me why people chuckled when I knelt down to say the prayer during the wedding. Some as**ole had written ‘HELP’ on the soles of my shoes so it would have been visible to the guests when I was kneeling. I laughed and shook my head. My best friend really was a jerk at times, but I wouldn’t change him for the world.

“What’s so funny?” Rosie asked. I help up the shoes to show her. “Ashton,” she guessed, chuckling.

I nodded and threw them to the side, wanting to get to my present already so that I could unwrap the present that I’d been looking forward to all night – my wife. I jerked my chin towards the tube in her hand. I literally had no clue what it was. “That for me?” I asked, eyeing it, trying to work out what it could be.

She smiled, holding it out to me. “Yep. I hope it’s everything you thought it would be,” she replied.

Confused, and more than a little intrigued, I took it off her. It was soft and about a meter long, it basically looked like a thick roll of gift wrap. As I pulled off the wrapping I still had no clue what it was. Whatever she’d bought had been wrapped in bubble wrap. I pulled off the rest of the paper and looked at it before unfastening the tape and unrolling it, thinking it would be something breakable. When the whole sheet was unwrapped, I looked up at her, confused. There was nothing inside the bubble wrap.

“Stripes, I don’t get it.”

She smiled at me knowingly. “You called me up one time, talking about how funny it would be to have sex on bubble wrap.”