Page 140 of Insta Bride

I want to be your everything

Your heart, your soul, yours to use

Words from the heart are never easy

Opening wounds better left concealed

Showing you want I want is easier

Our vows, our lips, our seal

Kye

My wife floated towards me, down the staircase in a dress that only Elena could wear. Thick white satin kissing her curves, showing off her tiny waist and cupping her breasts in a heart. Her hair fell in loose, gloss waves, with hibiscus flowers randomly strewn through.

Naturally beautiful.

Already legally my wife, but this time we were about to make it official in front of people we loved.

Stopping in front of me, she reached up and kissed my cheek to the admonishments of the priest. Yes, this time we were doing it right. Her family priest would marry us, and my family’s minister would give the blessing. My mother joked that it would take the threat of wrath from two religions to keep me in line, but I knew better.

I loved my wife.

I knew what life was like before her. I knew what it felt like to lose her.

I would make her happy, or die trying.

“Friends, we are gathered here today—” her priest started as the band took their seats.

“The bride and groom have written their own vows, Kye?”

I took the hand of my wife and winked, “My darling Elena, I vow to take you as you are today, in my arms and in my life—”

Elena started giggling and I knew why, still, I continued, “On this crazy journey we’re on, I’ll promise you love and laughter and strife.”

“No, stop,” Elena almost doubled over in pangs of laughter. “You didn’t.”

“Oh, can you do better?”

“In a heartbeat.”

“Is that your heartbeat, or mine? I mean, yours is always racing when we’re together while I’m the one calm and in control.”

Luckily, she wrapped her arms and not her hands around my neck. “No one else understands, do they?”

“Not even in the slightest.”

Elena dropped her vows to the floor and mine quickly joined them.

“On the island, we didn’t write our own vows.” Elena’s words were for our guests, but her eyes remained with me. “We didn’t pick our own clothes, vows or even wedding destination. The only choice we had was whether to marry the person the producers had thought would make the better story. We’d all gone on the show looking for love. Some of us found it the first day, others we needed to take a while.”

I pressed my lips lightly to Elena’s before I continued, “The vows I started reciting were from our original wedding. Not all of them made it to the broadcast. I mean, why they wouldn’t have me promising strife on national TV is anyone’s guess.”

Once Elena’s parents started laughing, others joined in. My bride was still trembling in my arms. “Elena, the truth is, I wasn’t looking for love. I wasn’t looking for a relationship and before I met you, I would have rather faced death than marriage.”

“Good to know. I wasn’t looking for a—”

“Lying, cheating, asshole—sorry father,” I apologised to the priest. “I’ll only ever be one of those three.”