Luis held Sheridan in his arms beneath the covers of their bed. His brown eyes connected with hers as his lips descended slowly. Her breath caught in her throat and she murmured words he couldn’t hear over the crackle of the fire. His lips traced a path across her cheek to her ear, causing her to shudder in delight. Beside the bed lay a bucket of ice with champagne waiting to be opened as the clock chimed twelve: the strike of a new year.

“I love you,” he whispered, tugging on the lobe. “My beautiful new wife.”

“My gorgeous new husband,” she breathed, the wedding band she wore catching the firelight. “I’m so glad we eloped this evening, Luis. There’s no other place I’d rather be tonight than in your arms.”

Their eyes met again and both added, “Because the arms you’re in at midnight are the ones you’ll spend the rest of the year in.”

He brushed his fingers through her hair and kissed her eyelids gently. Midnight lay just moments away and he wanted their first night together to be special and wonderful. He never believed in making resolutions on New Year’s Eve; after all, how many times did he actually keep the ones he made as a child? Once maybe twice? This time he intended for every word they ever said to come from their heart and soul, not from some stupid tradition. As husband and wife they owed it to themselves to have this first New Years to be one filled with honesty and love…

It would set the tone for their first year as man and wife.

“Ten seconds to midnight,” she looked into his eyes.

“Nine,” he punctuated with a kiss.

“Eight…seven…six,” they counted together, heads pressed close so that they shared the same air. The face of their partner was blurred from the close proximity of their eyes, but neither blinked or looked away. “Five, four, three.”

“Two,” Sheridan could barely speak as emotion tightened her throat.

“One. Happy New Year, my love,” he silently spoke as off in the distance fireworks were shot in the air, the explosions heard even here in their bedroom. The brilliant colors highlighted their walls and casts rainbows on the floor.

“Happy New Year,” she watched as he sat up slightly and poured them each a glass of champagne. Love songs played softly on the radio beside them as they linked their arms and sipped from the flutes. The golden fluid flowed from the cups. “To a life of love.”

“I’ll drink again to that,” he replied, touching his glass to hers and taking a sip.

Both fell silent for a moment, leaning back against the headboard lost in thoughts of the past few years. So much had happened between them, so many things had torn them apart, but each and every time they ended up together again. Sheridan remembered her first year in Harmony and how painful it had been. That New Year’s Eve the Martin imposter had died at the Seascape, crashing through the window. Luis had spent his first night in the cottage then, having fallen asleep on her couch when she left to cook him scrambled eggs. Her fingers had run through the shorter hairs above his ears and she had imagined life with him.

As if drawn by a magnet, their eyes quickly lifted and fixed again. Both realized they had been remembering the same night and laughed. “It was the first of two wonderful New Years, wasn’t it?” Luis asked.

She nodded, snuggling closer to him. “It certainly was.” Sheridan hesitated a moment, thinking again about what she had felt that morning when she found Luis still fast asleep on her couch. It had been love and she knew that now. “You know, Luis, even back then I loved you. I was too stubborn to admit it but more than anything I wanted to wake you and make love to you.”

Luis chuckled softly. “We both fought so hard against the one thing that was real. We never saw it,” he ran his fingers down her shoulder. “Let’s make a resolution for the new year.”

“I didn’t think you believed in them,” Sheridan’s eyes fluttered shut as his hand moved across her chest, tracing the sheet that covered her breasts.

“I don’t,” he told her. “But this will be a special one between us as lovers, not just something two humans want to change.”

“All right,” she murmured, “I’m game. What do we resolve?”

“To never keep secrets from each other again. From now on whatever we feel, think or want, we clearly state to each other and act on those feelings, no matter what,” his eyes met hers. “I love you and I want you to know it every second of every day. I resolve to show you my love forever and always.”

Sheridan smiled, eyes shinning brightly. “I resolved to be honest and true and to follow my feelings where you are concerned. I promise to love you, Luis, every day of my life.”

“Now we should seal it with a kiss,” he wiggled his eyebrows, leaning in to claim her lips.

Sheridan moved away slightly, a devious twinkle in her eyes. “I think a resolution like this needs a different kind of seal on it, Luis. I think this one needs to be cemented with our love.”

“Oh, I definitely like how you think,” Luis laughed, using the pads of his fingers to remove the sheet from her chest. He grabbed the green glass bottle of champagne and drizzled it over her chest slowly. She arched from the chill but moaned when his mouth began to suckle the sour fluid from her body.

“I never want to be without you,” he spoke, his voice muffled by the creamy white skin of her stomach. When she had come to him begging him to run away and marry her, Luis had been reluctant. Tomorrow they were due to marry other people but tonight she had wanted to spend her life with him. He had met her at the judge’s office, refusing to let this one last chance to be with her slip between his fingers.

The building was quiet as he wandered the halls looking for the proper room. Sheridan had told him they would be married in the judge’s chambers, room one eleven towards the back of the first floor. Both had promised to be there but Luis and Sheridan both said if one didn’t show they were going to assume they had decided to go through with the wedding the next day. He wasn’t sure he could take it if he walked into the room and found she had opted not to come.

“Luis! I knew you wouldn’t leave me standing here alone!” Sheridan cried, seeing him come down the hallway. With tears in her eyes, she threw her arms around him and held him close, letting the fear she felt subside.

The judge smiled when they walked in hand in hand. Luis revealed the two rings he had kept with him since the moment they were to be married over a year ago. The simple gold bands had the one phrase they both held dear to their hearts: ‘til death do us part.

“I suppose you are the very fortunate Luis,” the judge shook his hand. “Why don’t we get this started so you can ring in midnight privately?”

They nodded and joined hands, reading each other’s souls through their eyes. The judge began the ceremony with a small word or two about true love and how it should never die, but neither heard exactly what he had said. He asked if they had special vows and Sheridan shook her head in agreement. “I believe we do.”

“Then Sheridan, you may begin.”

Clutching her fiancé’s hands, Sheridan let her heart speak for her. “My heart has belong to you for such a long time and never before had I loved someone as much as I love you. I would give up everything to spend one night with you. Today I take you as my husband to love forever. I vow to give you my heart and soul letting no one else ever come between us.”

Luis wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek. “Though I was definitely hard to deal with at first, I know that it was love at first sight and I was too stubborn to see it. I never believed it was possible to love someone so much that it literally hurt. I don’t want to spend a day without you and I vow from this moment on I will be the dedicated husband you deserve. From this moment on I promise to love, cherish and honor you as if you were a priceless diamond. I love you forever and always.”

The judge smiled, passing them each a ring. “Sheridan, place your ring on Luis’ left hand and repeat these words: I am forever bound in heart to you with this ring.”

Sliding it onto his ring finger, Sheridan could barely speak. Struggling, she echoed. “I am forever bound in heart to you with this ring.”

Luis didn’t need to be prodded as he placed the gold band on her finger. “I am forever bound in heart to you with this ring.”

“By the powers vested in me by the state of Maine, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride, Luis.”

Luis grinned brightly, pulling Sheridan into his arms and kissing her passionately.

“Oh Luis,” she moaned, holding his head to her chest.

His fingers continued a journey across her body, teasing her nerves to an awakened state. Every cell and nerve was on alert as his mouth and hands slowly brought her higher and higher. Slowly she began to quake as the first waves of pleasure washed over her.

Panting, she pulled his lips to hers and kissed him, using her tongue to stroke his. He shifted over her, waiting no time to join their bodies on their wedding night. She cried out into his mouth, already feeling her body begin to respond to his new torment. He set a slow steady rhythm, watching as she writhed beneath him close to the proverbial edge. Their hands linked, wedding bands pressing into the skin of their spouse but neither released the grip as they climbed to the peak together. Sheridan tossed her head back as her climax crashed against her; her entire body shook in his arms as he soon followed her over the edge.

They collapsed, their limbs entwined with a fine layer of perspiration coating their skin. Luis’ head rested besides Sheridan’s on the pillow, her entire body pinned beneath his with one of his muscular legs resting between hers. His breath brushed against her ear as he panted, trying to calm his wild heart.

She turned her head to the side and kissed her husband gently. “Finally I know that no one can ever separate us. We’re going to be together and have a real family.”

“I don’t have much to give you, Sheridan,” he kissed the tip of her nose, “but I do have a love that is true and my heart. Tonight I give you both and my promise that nothing will ever tear us apart again, not Antonio or your family, nothing.”

She sighed contently. “That’s all I need to get by, Luis. I swear.”

They didn’t need words to express their deepest desires or emotions because their souls spoke through their eyes. Merely watching each other, both felt the overwhelming truth that nothing would ever change between them for love was forever binding. Rolling onto his back and pulling Sheridan into his arms, Luis caressed the skin of her shoulder and hip, thinking of nothing but his beautiful bride. Suddenly, he started laughing.

Sheridan poked him in the side, frowning. “What are you laughing at, Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald? I don’t think anything funny has happened.”

“No, I was just thinking about the last new year’s resolution I made. I was eighteen and nothing seemed to be going right so I resolved to never make another new year’s resolution unless it truly came from my heart and not from something I knew I could change without promising it at the strike of midnight. It seemed futile since no one ever keeps their end of the deal, you know what I mean?”

Sheridan blushed. “I’ve often made resolutions I never kept. I remember once I said I was going to learn to cook before I got married, obviously I failed at that one,” she chuckled.

Luis smirked. “Well I can teach you to cook but I think tonight we did the right thing. Instead of making promises of things we want to learn or fix about our lives, we made honest vows that come straight from our heart. That’s how I want to spend the rest of my life, Sheridan, using my heart to rule our lives and not my head.”

“I think that’s the perfect idea, Luis. So many times I over-thought things and made it hard for the two of us to actually get along. Far too often we complicate our own lives and plan things to the very last detail, sapping the fun out of everything.”

“So no more planning,” he smiled.

She nodded. “You know what’s best about this no thinking policy, Luis?”

“What’s that, baby?” he questioned.

“The fact that the second I start wanting you, like right now, I can have you,” she straddled him, pinning his hands against the bed with a soft laugh.

He chuckled, pretending to struggle but instead letting her have her way with him. “I’m already liking the idea of following our hearts,” he told her. “And I’m sure it’s only going to get better as time goes on.”

“Oh I promise each and every time it will be better than the last,” she silenced him with a kiss before ravishing his body, uniting them once again in body. All night long they sealed the promises they made in ways that only two lovers could. It was the beginning of a year they would never forget; one of fifty great years they would celebrate in each other’s arms.