You Promised | Mark Sloan ✓

── bonus chapter!

MARK RUBBED ALONG HIS jaw as he rounded back to the table to cross off the last item on his very long list. The pencil in his hand got set aside, yet his mind remained unsettled.

He heard three short knocks from behind and made his way towards the sound, twisting to unlock it and swinging the door open. He blinked slightly at the person who raised a brow at him.

"I can't sleep," Norah voiced out as she stepped into the room while he closed the door after her.

"Thank god... Me neither," Mark admitted, letting out a long exhale. He ran a hand through his already messy hair with a nervous chuckle. "I mean, I've been walking laps around here-"

"Wow. I can't sleep because you're not beside me, and you can't sleep because of nerves?" she deadpanned, her hands on her hips. "How very romantic of you, Mark Sloan."

"Well, that, too, of course," he smiled sheepishly back at her, and she shook her head with a small sigh.

With a teasing look slowly forming on his face, he lowered his head and caught her lips with his as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He grinned into their kiss, carrying her up while moving them towards the bed.

"You sure you should be here the night before..."

"Screw traditions, but as long as you and I don't tell a living soul, we'll be great," she mumbled as her back collided with the soft mattress, "Especially April, though, she'll nag the crap out of us."

He rested his head on his side of the pillow, staring into her eyes that, he swore, were shining in the dim room; she would say his were glimmering through the moonlight that shone in through the glass window.

He turned to lay on his back, and she moved closer to him, resting her head on his chest while her arm draped across his body. He hugged her and placed a kiss on her head.

Lub dub... lub dub... lub dub... lub dub...

He could tell that she was about to fall asleep, but his mind was still swimming with too many things at the same time.

He could hear the faint laughs of people a distance away, the clashing of the waves not too far from the resort they were staying in, and the breathing sound from the woman right beside him.

"Kai's almost two and a half," he spoke up, breaking the peaceful silence, and she lifted her head to him. The growing smile on his face was hinting at her something-which, of course, she knew what it was. "Laurie, I know you can read my mind."

"Indeed, and I know what you're hinting," she narrowed her eyes at him. His eyes started to glow, and she scowled at him but reached up to kiss his jaw. "Three years is a nice gap, huh?"

"Mm-hmm."

"But love, can't you just wait like, literally, one more day?"

He snorted and shook his head, his hand already travelling to the hem of her shirt. "You know that's not possible."

"I also know that you're suggesting this because you're nervous as hell," she stated with a shrug, and he chuckled.

"Well, you're not wrong... but can you blame me?" he asked, staring into the eyes that he fell in love with, over and over again; a smile tugged on his lips as the words came out dreamily,

"We're getting married tomorrow."

The four words were enough to make her give in, and she connected their lips into one. "And you're not permitted to faint."

❦ ❦ ❦

THE BRIDE SAT IN FRONT of the mirror. Norah lowered her eyes to her phone, where she was close to breaking her record in Subway Surfers. The heat of the curling iron radiating beside her seemed to not bother her, at all.