They even wanted Bex and me for the cover of the album. Front and center. The bad boy and bad girl of rock that were not only band mates, but about to be married, too.

We’d taken the song ‘Broken’ that she had sung to me all those months ago and rewritten it. It was now called ‘No Longer Broken’, and it would be not only our debut song tonight at our first live concert together, but also the first single to our new album.

“We’re ready,” Bex said, setting her guitar down gently and walking up to me.

“Sure seems we are,” I said, setting my Gibson down and placing my hands on her protruding stomach. She was the fucking sexiest pregnant woman I’d ever seen. Her stomach being in the way had done absolutely nothing to deter our sex life. We had it just as much as ever before, and in some damn creative ways, too.

“Are you ready to marry me?” Bex smiled, looking down at my hands on her stomach. “Or should I say, us?”

“Hell yeah,” I said. “Can I practice the honeymoon first?”

Bex ran her hands up the front of my shirt and back down, stopping at the button to my jeans. “I thought you’d never ask.” If I thought that woman was a sex goddess before, her being pregnant made her even more so. I’d keep her knocked up for the rest of our lives if her drive stayed this high. She was fucking insatiable.

Bex stood up on her tiptoes and put her lips against my ear. “I want to still feel where that rock hard cock was inside me hours from now, Johnny. Do me. Hard. Take me from behind and make me scream your name.”

“Fucking hell, Bex,” I said, making quick work of clothes. Bex strutted to the futon where we’d spent so much time doing this same thing. Except after today, she’d be my wife, not just a lead singer of a band I wanted to fuck. She was the mother to my child and my whole world.

And I was going to give her every fucking thing she wanted. And then some.

“Are we crazy?” Bex laughed, wrapping my finger with a new Band-Aid to replace the ugly white gauze it had been wrapped in before.

“Well duh,” I said. “We knew this a long time ago.” She handed me a Band-Aid, and I wrapped it around her finger.

“Sexy,” she said, putting her finger next to mine.

“Only for a little while,” I said. “Then we get to reveal them.”

“Everyone here?” Bex smoothed her bump. She was wearing a short black lace dress with her favorite leather jacket. Her hair was curled and falling down her back. A black pearl choker finished off her outfit, and she had on bright red heels. It wasn’t anything you would normally see at someone’s wedding, but that was us. She was the most smokin’ hot woman I’d ever seen.

“Yes,” I said. My parents, Julia, Carter, and Calia, our band, and Cal were here. The only people we wanted with us on our special day.

Bex helped roll up the sleeves to my dark grey button down shirt. “You look good enough to eat,” she said, cupping me through my dark jeans.

“It’s our wedding night,” I reminded her, pushing against her hand. “And I can’t knock you up.”

“You already did that,” she laughed. “Now get out of here. It’s bad luck for you to see me before the wedding.” We both exchanged a look and rolled our eyes. Screw superstition. We’d already defied all odds.

I walked out and took my place by the stage in the bar where I’d first laid eyes on Bex, where I’d thought I was going to lose her, and where I realized that I loved her.

The beach was shut off for a ‘private event’ as the signs said and guarded with hired security guards. Our newfound notoriety made us be a lot more cautious than before. However, after our private party, we were set up for the biggest wedding reception/concert on the beach. We’d sold two hundred exclusive tickets for a hefty price within minutes of putting them on sale. Every single dime we raised would go to the foundation Bex had recently started to help young teen girls who were in foster care learn life skills and techniques to help them adjust to the real world once they aged out of the system. She’d also started a housing program to give them a safe place to live, which was now at capacity. Bex was looking into a bigger facility. Best of all, she was involved there and spent as much time as she could being a mentor for the girls.

“She okay?” Beau was officiating the ceremony, having taken an online course to be able to marry us. It went right along with us doing things out of the norm.

“Perfect,” I said. “Start the music. Let’s get this show on the road.” I looked over to my sister, who already had tears in her eyes. Carter was holding her hand tightly. My mom dabbed her eyes with a tissue, and my dad nodded his approval at me.

Things with my parents were better, and Bex had a lot to do with that. She’d encouraged me to heal that part of my life as well, especially since they were the only grandparents our baby was going to have. They were planning to be in Florida for the birth of both of their grandbabies, mine and Julia’s. While there were still things that were hard for me to get past about our relationship, I was willing to keep trying. I wanted to see them redeem themselves through my child.

They were very willing to take as small of steps as I wanted. They both called me at least once a week, and my mom had taken to talking to Bex several times a week. She was so excited about our baby and was already spoiling him or her rotten. They were genuinely listening to me now and not trying to control everything.

Bex knew to come in when she heard the chords to ‘My Forever.’ As soon as Natalie hit ‘play,’ the soft sounds of the song I’d sung for her started filtering through the speakers. Bex burst through the door in her typical fashion, making us all laugh. As she liked to say, she wasn’t girly or frilly. She was rough, tough, and also the most sensitive, caring person I’d ever known.

Beau recited words from his book in a monotone voice. We joked and made fun of him through the whole ceremony, taking nothing seriously. Once he got to the part about rings, we both made a show of taking off our Band-Aids. Today we’d gotten tattoos on our ring fingers instead of rings. Well, Bex’s was just henna since she was pregnant, but we’d get the real one as soon as our baby was born. Mine was barbed wire, a replica of the kind that kept me locked in my own prison for too many years. In between the wires was her name in jagged letters. Hers was an infinity symbol, with a small heart in the center on the front. My name wound around the symbol.

We recited normal wedding vows, leaving the personal stuff for behind closed doors. We weren’t the kind that liked to get all mushy in front of people.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Beau said finally. I dipped Bex back and kissed her from her neck to her lips, making our guests laugh and catcall.

Her eyes gleamed as I lifted her back up and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You’re mine.”

“You got that fucking right,” I said. “Now let’s go give some people a concert they won’t forget.”

The crowd screamed as Bex and I went onto the stage. They hadn’t known until they got here that we’d gotten married just a little while ago. After the ceremony, we’d had a quiet dinner together at The Outrigger, enjoying having all of our favorite people together at once.

“Surprise! Doesn’t my bride look fucking beautiful?” I shouted at the crowd. Bex curtsied, loving being on the stage. “You can only look, though, because she’s mine.” They laughed. “Did you see my baby, too? Cooking good in there.” The audience awed. “We’re going to do something brand new for you tonight. You’re the first to hear it. Are you ready?”

The group cheered. Of course, it being an outside concert, we’d attracted attention from up and down the beach. People were standing outside the guarded blockades, listening.