Bound by freckles (Sebastian Sallow x Garreth Weasley x f!MC modern AU)

73rd Chapter - Year

The Christmas party flew by and already the Sallows' birthday was coming up, which we all spent together in our house.

Arwyn had offered that we were welcome to stay longer at the castle, but the others preferred to return home.

Lou and I kept in good and mostly just friendly contact and decided that we really needed to get together again at least the four of us. She sent me in some pictures of her wife, who somehow reminded me of an elf from fantasy stories. She had light blonde, waist-length and slightly wavy hair, was very small and really dainty. Sebastian and Garreth immediately offered to stand in for Arwyn when he commented that Lou's wife wasn't to his taste, but he laughingly refused, because he really wanted to watch me doing it with two women.

Lou and her wife, Malina, decided after some wild video calls that they would visit us for a weekend at the end of February.

Arwyn, now completely consumed by exam stress and writing his thesis, unexpectedly liked the idea. I thought at first he would turn it down because of the stress, but since we hadn't been able to spend that much time together in the last few weeks anyway, and he locked himself in the office for most of our free time and you could hear him recite whole paragraphs in a free chant permanently outside the office door, he just wanted to take some time off.

We booked the big bed in our basement bedroom and I took Saturday off. On Friday, Nancy still needed me at work, so we arranged for them to wait for me at home, and of course, they both came to the shop with Arwyn an hour before we finished work.

We enjoyed a more than fantastic weekend before it was back to the daily routine.

Arwyn focused on his exams again, while I was getting more excited by the day, due to the wedding coming closer and closer.

We planned to split the wedding into two parts. The wedding ceremony itself was to be held in a large and public circle, while the celebration afterwards was to be held in our small and intimate circle of family and friends.

In principle, we would have preferred to celebrate the entire wedding in a small circle, but as relaxed as Arwyn usually was about the duke dignity, in this case, however, he saw that it would have been really impolite and probably simply impossible for someone of his standing to hold the wedding in secret.

Garreth took the lead in planning the cakes, but, at least for our celebration, they could not possibly be baked by him.

Reza was similarly overwhelmed and excited as I was, so the men took over most of the planning and we only had to decide things like the choice of flowers.

The only thing Reza and I planned together with Anne was Reza's dress.

On the day my dress appeared to be ready, Arwyn lifted me out of our bed and measured my entire body again to make sure it would fit me.

On the last Saturday in February, when Arwyn had to go to a police station inauguration in Newcastle, he took me with him, of course. He seemed a little chillier than usual, which I blamed on the stress of exams, and routinely attended the event while always wearing a handsome yet insincere smile.

Early in the afternoon, when we arrived at the castle, Arwyn pulled me into his bedroom and blindfolded me.

When he undressed me, I thought at first he was going to have a go at me, but he dressed me again a moment later.

A silky soft fabric slid over my skin and apparently there was a lacing at the back, which Arwyn carefully closed.

Suddenly I heard him puff.

"What's the matter? Doesn't it fit?", I asked anxiously.

"No, Caelie. It isn't. You just look absolutely perfect. I think you're beautiful every single day, believe me. No matter if your hair is a bit greasy or if you have a pimple on your face. But now, at this moment, you are even more beautiful than usual," he said softly and undressed me again.Naked, I stood in his, or rather our, bedroom in the castle as Arwyn hurried back outside, calling out to me that I could take off the blindfold.