HAPPY READING
Sibel Pov
"I promise whatever you want, I will give it to you, baby. You never have to worry," Ryon's voice startled me.
"Hmm," I hummed, and he glanced at me.
I'd been so lost in thoughts that I hadn't noticed we'd pulled up to the registry. The wind in my hair was enough to send my thoughts adrift even before that my mind had been racing... What was I doing?
"Why then and not now?" I frowned, repeating the words floating around in my head.
"Are you having second thoughts? because I'm not," he said, and I watched as he shifted and pressed the engine to a stop. I pulled my dress down a bit, rubbed my sweaty palm against the slick material of the white silk dress I wore, and took a deep breath.
"Baby," he said, taking my hand and placing a gentle kiss on the knuckles of my fingers. My husband-to-be then turned my head towards him with the hook of his finger, and the look in his eyes was enough to make my heart gallop before multiple beats.
He was trying to calm me down but it was doing quite the opposite.
What was I going to say? My mind went blank, and it was ridiculous.
"I can't do anything without you... beautiful. I'm so used to you being everywhere, so use to you under my skin, to unnerved me, rattling me, and would call me out on my bullshit, you see right through me Sib, and I don't know how you do that shit, especially without saying a word."
"What does it mean?" I asked.
"A lot has been going on and right now... With my business, Menture Enterprise and..." he said, trailing off and looking into my eyes with so much emotion that I wanted to hold him in my arms and hug him tight.
"It's alright to share these things with me, Ryon," I breathe out. I needed to say focus.
"Baby," he turned entirely towards me and opened my fist, lacing his fingers with mine. He looked into my eyes and removed the few fly-away of my loose bun.
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to. Sibel, I love you regardless," he squeezed my fingers," but you drive me freaking insane woman, and I couldn't do this without you," he added.
"I know you don't want to talk about whatever it is, but I gathered it pushed you to this, and it is what I'm afraid of," I said. I do not want whatever it is to be the wedge that makes us broke.
"Nothing is pushing me to anything," he said, then paused. "I want you to be my wife. I want you for myself. I want you to be mine. I'm so used to you being where you're not supposed to be that I can't imagine you not here with me," he said. "I want to know I have my wife by my side, and that isn't going to change. Nothing can change the way you got under my skin, and I can never live in peace without you beautiful."
"Then I don't see why we need to rush. We can take our time... hire a planner, we can have our families there... You don't want your brothers there?" I asked, knowing how close they were.
"Look at me," he said, reaching out and grabbing my chin. He turned my face towards him again.
"I don't see a need to wait. I want you, I'm certain of it. I want to marry you. I want you all to myself. I've waited around for so many years, and I've even denied what I felt, but not anymore. I want the world to know, believe me. I just want your exams to be over so I can sail away with you... And shout it to the world over the ocean. There is so much that I want for us but with time... I want to do right by you, Sib... I didn't want to touch you... taste you, make the sounds I do when I'm inside of you until you were carrying my last name, until..."
"Is that what this is about?" I interrupted him.
"There's a lot more...baby, I promise it will all make sense, I promise you. Sibel... I never did romance. I thought I was incapable of it but with you... with you, I want it all. I'm incapable of staying away from you." He said and trailed his thumb along my lip, removing it between my teeth
"I guess I understand, but I'm not sure my mother would," I said, doubt still floating in the pit of my stomach with all the other unanswered questions. Whatever happened to dating, being engaged, then getting married and having kids? Why was this man in such a hurry?
I was doing this without my family. Big achievements were never celebrated without my mom's presence. The woman might kill me if she found out.
I was getting married before I completed university. That... I never saw that one coming.
I was getting married at a registry! Shocker!
And I was going to be a wife in secret or his secret wife.
This is our secret for now. The right time for our engagement will be announced. All the necessary plans will be made, he had said.
But when I dreamt of my wedding day, it was centered around my prince charming, a fairy tale with only happily ever after. Ever since I was ten years old and found a wedding magazine in my mom's cabin with a beautiful vintage Vera Wang iconic silk chiffon dress. I just knew I was going to be a princess sailing off into the sunset with my prince charming.
When I saw the way my father looked at my mother and caught them on many occasions, swaying to dead silence my faith in all things, love could never be shaken. I held on to my desires all through my twenty-two years on this earth and it was affirmed when the only man I was convinced God had created just for me, stole my heart at seventeen years old, and in return, I took his. And yes, I wanted his last name, but I wanted it in front of the entire world, especially Fiona.
Now, at twenty-two, all of my fairytale desires and fate had led me to the registry in a plain satin dress and more questions than answers.
Yesterday, this time, I was in a classroom taking part in my final exam, and today at... I quickly glanced at the dashboard timer, seeing it was twenty minutes to nine, and we should get inside. How could life change so quickly even if I was marrying the man I love, the man I had given myself to without a doubt? The man I was sure I wanted his last name with every breath. How could it all change so quickly?
Something wasn't right, and I didn't need my gut to tell me this. It wasn't just the withheld information that left me unsettled knowing this man and guarding his reaction. I think there is TROUBLE spelled in all caps. He never acts on impulse, and we both know this.
I guess we will have to figure it out. We were getting married in mere minutes, and that wasn't going to change.
I checked my reflection in the mirror one last time, and despite my fears, I couldn't deny how I felt his heart beating when we made love. I can't deny the way I felt when his body touched mine. I certainly can't deny how I felt so weak and turned to mush in his embrace. I've never felt so weak before Never met a man, so sure of how and when and where to touch, and just how much.
I couldn't get over the strange feeling, though. Something was going on that he wouldn't say, and I was a little outraged at myself. I was entitled to feel outraged, wasn't I? More so because of the very last-minute decision to wake up the next morning to be wed at the registry. A bride shouldn't have to be this confused on her wedding day.
I took a deep breath, inhaled deep, and exhaled the entire breath. If he said it would make sense, then I have to believe it would. I couldn't tell where that thought came from, if it was the butterflies in my stomach or the doom at the bottom of it but whatever it was, it made everything seem better even if it was just for a few seconds.
"We should head out. We don't want to be late for our wedding," Ryon said as he held out his hand, and I placed my hand in his and nodded.
I watched as Ryon took a deep breath as well and let go of my hand. He exited the car and moved around the front of it with long, confident strides and buttoned his blazer.
He opened the door. The humid air hit my face the minute he stepped back, and then he moved forward to help me out of his vehicle, and I watched him with the same intensity the sun scorched my skin.
The sun and its heat had started since the beginning of July and was on full blast this early in the morning. I wasn't complaining because winter was coming, and it was coming with the same intensity.
"Do you have your identification card?" he asked as soon as his hand came around my waist, bringing me closer to him.
He pulled and tugged at his tie with his free hand and straightened his blue jacket. "Got it," I replied, matching his fluid stride into the building and turning the corner where a neatly dressed man greeted Ryon first.
"Menture," the very tall average age man in a burgundy suit stretched out his hand to Ryon.
"Hawthorne," Ryon replied and shook his hand firmly.
"This must be the beautiful bride." He turned towards me and took my hand in both of his, then proceeded to take it to his lips.
"That's me," I smiled, and he kissed the back of my hand. "I'm pleased to meet the newest Menture."
"Let's make it official," Ryon said with a pat on Hawthorne's back, and he nodded. "Excited, aren't we," Hawthorne said as we moved in stride.
"Words could not describe it," said my soon-to-be husband. His hand resting on the small of my back, sent a ripple of shock waves through my body, instantly igniting all the nerve endings on my skin and sparking to life the place between my legs that I had been dying to burry his head and that massive weaponry he carries around so well between his tights.
I shuffled forward, trying with all my might to stop the fluttering between my thighs that was proving not to be satisfied.
Ryon gently pushed me forward, and on unsteady legs, I moved a little unsteady.
"Are you alright?" he asked, turning to face me.
I nodded a little awkwardly, and he eyed me with so much suspicion that I thought he wouldn't stop staring at me.
"Tell me you don't want to go through with this, and I will call the entire thing off. Tell me you're not ready, and this will not be a part of our history," he said after a few seconds of staring at me.
"It's not that," I whispered.
What is it, he asked and I wasn't about to tell this man in this hallway that my kitty jumps for him.
"Okay, you love birds here is not the place. I mean, let's get you two married first, at least," Hawthorne said, but neither of us looked his way.
"Say the word, Sibel," he whispered his cool mint and cinnamon breath fanning my face and I wanted to jump him here and now but...
"Girl, are you ready... Are you ready for us?" he asked not a clue about the havoc he was causing between my legs.
"As I'll ever be," I replied quietly. Usually, he was very in tune with my needs but I guess whatever was going on had Ryon out of it.
"Last second to back out," he said and I shook my head.
"Let's begin," Hawthorne said after a nod from Ryon.
"Repeat after me," Hawthorne said. "Ryon, since it is your sincere desire to become the husband of Sibel Benjamin, please repeat after me."
Hawthorne then opened a ledger and another large book on the desk between us.
"I, Ryon Menture, take you, Sibel Benjamin, to be my wife. At this moment, I promise before this witness to love you and care for you all of our days. I accept you with your faults and your strengths, even as I offer myself with my faults and my strengths. I promise to support you when you need support and to turn to you when I need support. I choose you as the one with whom I will spend my life." Ryon repeated.
"To Bride: Sibel, since it is your sincere desire to become the wife of Ryon Menture, please repeat after me," Hawthorne said.
"I, Sibel Benjamin, take you, Ryon Menture, to be my husband. At this moment, I promise before these witnesses to love you and care for you all of our days. I accept you with your faults and your strengths, even as I offer myself with my faults and my strengths. I promise to support you when you need support and to turn to you when I need support. I choose you as the one with whom I will spend my life." I repeated.
"Do you have rings to exchange?" Hawthorne asked, and Ryon took out a silver box containing two diamond platinum bands.
"Ryon, please place the ring on Sibel's finger and say: With this ring, I thee wed."
"With this ring, I thee wed," Ryon repeated.
"Sibel, please place the ring on Ryon's finger and say: With this ring, I thee wed."
"With this ring, I thee wed." I only just got out the words and Ryon reached for me to try to kiss me.
"We were not at that part yet," I stopped him.
"You may kiss the bride," Hawthorn laughed, and our lips connected before he could swipe the roof of my mouth with his tongue.
The door burst open.