His gaze went down to her distended belly where their baby was still forming. This was his family and she was all he loved. The others were completely unimportant to him.

Let them laugh and mock. Not a one of them had a woman so fine to call his own.

But he was the lucky bastard who did.

Seth was the lucky bastard Lydia had claimed—the one she’d risked her precious life to save.

He led her hand to his lips so that he could kiss it before he laced his fingers with hers. “When your hand is in my hand, I tremble with an unimagined joy. Never once did I think I could be as happy as I am right now. And every day that I’m with you is better than the one before it. For you, alone, I would bleed and I would die. But most of all, without you, I could never live. So long as I breathe, I will always love you and I will spend the rest of my life making sure that you never doubt the fact that you are the air I breathe.”

Lydia pressed her lips together to keep from crying as Seth laid his soul bare to her.

And in front of the others, no less. He wasn’t the kind of man who spoke of his feelings and never publicly. If for nothing else, she’d love him for this.

But her reasons for loving him were too many to count.

She laid her hand against his cheek and kissed his lips.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Savitar snapped. “You’re jumping ahead, woman. It’s your turn to make a vow to him.”

She kept her hand on Seth’s cheek as she stared up into the steel blue eyes that had stolen her heart and changed her life in ways she’d have never thought possible. He had made her complete. “When I was a child, I learned a poem that was often read to me by mother. Since she couldn’t be here today, it seems only fitting that I quote it in memory of her … and share her love and mine with you.

“Love is patient. Love is kind.

“It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.

“It is not rude. It is not self-seeking.

“It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.

“Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

“It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

She bit her lip before she recited her own words to him. “While I lived a life without you, Seth, I no longer can imagine one that doesn’t begin and end with seeing your gorgeous face. My heart beats only for you, and forever I will stand by your side. No matter the challenge or enemy, I am, and will always be, yours.”