Wulfram von Hannover
Wulf held Rae’s cool hands in his while he answered, “Oui,” to the Mayor’s standard questions about taking Rae as his wife. The world had seemed to slow for him, to focus down to these few, momentous words that were a pivot in his life.
Beside Wulf, his cousin William stood in for Constantin. Constantin would have held the rings and made inappropriate jokes before the ceremony, his gray eyes laughing and daring Wulf to make a break for it.
Reagan said, “Oui.”
William laid Rae’s ring, just a platinum band, in his hand, and he managed to get it on her slim finger even though his hands shook a little. They should have waited for the religious ceremony for rings, but Wulf couldn’t bear that. He wanted evidence. He wanted to remember the look of his band on her hand.
William handed Wulf’s ring to Rae, and she took it from him with her head held high. It seemed like she had finally gotten over that shyness with his family, thank heavens. She slid it on his hand and switched to English. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
The archaic wording was lovely. Her warm fingers around his were everything.
The Mayor pronounced them man and wife.
It was done. Wulf breathed.
Rae looked up at him, waiting.
Generally, Europeans don’t kiss at wedding ceremonies, especially the civil wedding, but he would do anything for her. He slid his hands up her arms, around her back, and felt the strength in her body. His lips brushed hers, kissing her gently, just tasting her, then pulled back.
Tears wobbled in her warm, brown eyes.
Wulf watched Rae, his Rae, his wife. Her hands were delicate on his shoulders, and he kept his grip light around her slim waist. Oh, Lord, that impish look in her warm, brown eyes could keep him going for a thousand years, and that happiness, and that charm. His heart clenched.
He had survived until this moment. It was enough.
He signed his name on the license, and she signed hers, and whatever came after this would come in its own time. Relief blew through him in a great gust. Whether or not they ever had the religious ceremony, they were legally married, and Rae would inherit everything. His Swiss and German lawyers already had that paperwork in their offices, ready to file. He had signed it all while she was shopping with Flicka a few days before. Her autism clinics would spring up all over the world like mushrooms in the Black Forest.
The four witnesses signed the documents, and Theophile Valencia gathered up the marriage paperwork and handed it off to the French clerk.
Wulf had planned a small reception at the hotel followed by a private supper with a few friends, and then the plane home. Rae would arrive in time for her classes on Monday morning, as promised.
The bedroom on the plane would offer them some privacy, some time for them alone.
He could hardly wait to ask.
While the thought of it filled him with elation, it was enough that he had married her. No matter what else happened on this bright, sunny day in Paris, it was enough.