In a completely uncharacteristic move for me, I made no attempts to be a good hostess. I didn’t greet all the guests, and I didn’t make the rounds to mingle, or to share my time. I left that to…whoever. I knew my mother, father, my devilish brother, Camden, or hell, even Jackie, could take over those duties. This was supposed to be my day, and so I took that literally, doing the only thing I wanted to do. Akira and I danced, for hours and hours. We completely monopolized each other, stopping occasionally to chat and catch up with friends and family, but my goal was to spend as much of the magical night in Akira’s arms, and I thought I succeeded admirably.

We weren’t the only love-struck couple I caught mooning over each other that night. James and Bianca did much the same, dancing and sharing positively indecent looks for most of the night.

The party lasted into the next day, and we were dancing barefoot on the beach, out of sight from our guests, as streaks of dawn light began to color the sky.

Music from the party drifted to us. We were far enough away that we only caught bits and pieces of it, barely enough to keep rhythm.

Akira sprawled out on the sand at my feet suddenly, smiling up at me, as happy and carefree as I’d ever seen him. “Have you heard of the Hawaiian custom of wedding night beach sex?”

I gave him a rueful smile. I was long past the days of falling for all of the local custom shenanigans. Generally, any sentence that began with, ‘Have you heard of the Hawaiian custom?’ ended with a prank.

“No, I haven’t. And it’s past the wedding night. I’d say it’s officially morning now.”

“That’s what I meant. Wedding morning beach sex. It’s a well-known fact in these parts that if you have wedding morning beach sex you’ll both live to be a hundred, at least.”

“Technically, yesterday was our wedding morning. Today is the next morning.” I broke off, giggling, as he tickled me until I fell on top of him.

“I think you’re missing my point,” he told me with a grin, still tickling me mercilessly.

“What’s your point?” I gasped, trying in vain to tickle him back.

“We need to make love on this beach right now if we want to grow really, really old together.” He let up tickling my waist, burying his hands in my hair to kiss me. I was straddling him by the end of that long kiss.

I pulled back to smile into his eyes. “Well, as long as it’s really, really old,” I murmured, resealing my lips over his.