My brows hitch up. “That was kind of mean.”
Smiling green eyes lock with mine. “Nope. Not mean. Accurate.” He sighs heavily. “Fuck, Chrissie, I want something in my life defined and certain. I want us to get married.”
“OK. Not mean. Frustrated.” I cross the room and sink down beside him on the bed. “So what do you want to do about being frustrated?”
He starts working his hand under my dress and I shove it away.
“I didn’t mean that kind of frustrated.”
He laughs, wraps me in his arms and pulls me with him until we’re lying on the bed. I don’t know why we’re laughing. But it feels good. Really, really good.
“Do you know where you want to take me?” he whispers. “We’ve still got a week. We’ll go where you want to. Let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t want to waste any of our alone time.”
I turn on my side facing him and fight back a smile. Jeez, he’s so sexy even when he’s aggravated and disappointed and fighting to be patient with me when he doesn’t want to be. I lean in and kiss him, and when I pull back, the color darkens in his eyes in that way that’s wonderful. Emotion and want join in lock-step in a jolt of clarity that rockets through me in an inescapable way.
“I know where I want us to go,” I say.
Neil shakes his head in that way that says he’s not buying it. “Staying here in West Hollywood doesn’t count as you making a decision, Chrissie. It’s a lack of decision.”
I choke on a laugh. Damn, the guy does know me pretty well. Wrong this time. Logical assumption.
“I’ve never been to Vegas before. I want to go to Vegas,” I announce.
He’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“Really. I hate Vegas. And you hate the desert. Why the hell would you want to go there?”
I stare at him. “Because in Vegas we can get married today.”
~~~
We step out of the over-air-conditioned county clerk’s office into the overheated Vegas sun. Crap, it’s scorching today and it is only April.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Neil asks for about the hundredth time. “It’s only a three-day wait in California. We can get married in Santa Barbara. Have Jack and my family there.”
I peek up at Neil. He looks a little bemused that I’m actually insisting we elope.
“Nope. This is a limited-time offer. Today or never.”
Neil smiles and then his expression takes on a more serious edge. “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”
The way he’s looking at me makes my heart overflow. God, how can he think that? I dragged him here.
“Do you remember our A-through-C marriage agreement?”
He taps the side of his head with an index finger. “Burned into my memory forever. A: You want to live in Santa Barbara. You want a house there and only there. B: If we have kids you won’t travel with me and I promise to never ask you to. C: You don’t want to wait to start a family.”
I kiss his arm. “No second thoughts. You remembered the agreement.”
He frowns. “Let’s get married in Santa Barbara.”
“No. Today. That’s what I want.”
He shakes his head and stares down the street. “Supposedly we can get married anywhere. Pick a place. They all look the same. Awful.”
He’s right, they do.
I point. “Let’s just go there.”
I pick the Heart of Vegas Wedding Chapel, because it’s the nearest one and they all do look the same.
Neil pulls back the door and I enter first. I quickly inspect the room. Awful just converted to hideous. Pink. I’ve never seen so much pink anywhere before.
I look at Neil’s reaction to this and it takes every ounce of control not laugh.
A middle-aged woman, short and bouncy and over-tanned, comes from the back and pauses at the counter. “Can I help you?”
“We’d like to get married,” I say.
She smiles in that duh hidden behind fake politeness sort of way since that’s pretty much all they do here, but she still asks what we want.
We’re given more papers to fill out.
I watch as Neil labors over the forms.
“Why does everything take so much paperwork?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer. He’s concentrating. I stare into the glass case I’m leaning against. Shit, they think of everything here. Rings. They even sell rings here. Your one-stop marital shop. I note a sign on the wall. Crap, you can even get a divorce, too.
My gaze anxiously moves around the chapel. God, it’s tacky here. Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe I’m being lame and not spontaneous and romantic.
I lean into Neil and bring my lips close to his ear. “We don’t have rings.”
He shakes his head. He continues to write. “I don’t have a ring. You do.”
My eyes widen, and he smiles into my questioning gaze, hands the required papers and our licenses to the clerk and pays.
OK, why so secretive, Neil?
A registry of some kind is shoved under my face. The lady points at a line. “Sign here.”
After we finish signing, the clerk goes into the back for the justice of the peace.
“What do you mean I have a ring?” I ask.
Neil reaches into his pocket for his wallet. “You’re a size six ring finger, right?”
I nod, alertly watching as he rummages in his wallet for something.
“I’m glad I got it sized right. No chance to fix it now.”
I try to see what he’s grabbing and he makes little motions so I can’t. He starts lowering to a knee.
Tears sting behind my lids.
“I’ve been carrying this for six months,” he says. “If you don’t like it, we can get something else. It was my grandmother’s wedding band. My mom wanted me to have it for you.”
I don’t want to cry, but I can’t stop it.
“Christian Parker, will you marry me?”
~~~
A strange sound pulls me from sleep. There is a moment of confusion before my eyes lock on the tacky Vegas strip hotel room, and I wonder where Neil is, and why there is the sound of sloshing water near the bed.
Then I see Neil. There are candles all through the room, surrounding that ridiculous Jacuzzi tub that for some reason isn’t in the bathroom. He is sitting in the center, the champagne we didn’t drink at dinner and two glasses resting on the tile edge.
I laugh at the nonsensical picture he makes and rub the sleep from my eyes. “How long have you been up?”
He smiles at me, his eyes lustrous and mildly dissipated at once. I flush. That was a poor choice of words.
“We have an early plan tomorrow,” he says, filling the champagne glasses. “I thought we should probably use the tub before we’re out of here. We’ve never done it before in water.”
I watch him rise, comfortable in his long-limbed body. He’s a gorgeous guy. It’s like I’m seeing him for the first time, or maybe differently now that I know he really is mine. No wonder all the girls at CAL were crazy over him. He is fucking gorgeous.
He leans in, claiming my mouth with his. His tongue dances with my own, bringing my senses fully awake. He eases back. Against my lips, he says, “I love you, Mrs. Stanton.”
The look in his eyes. The way he says that. That he wants to say that overwhelms me.
He scoops me up from the bed and carries me to that obscene tub. It’s suddenly absolutely perfect. There is a beautiful view through the wall of glass. Lights twinkling at night can make any city look beautiful, even Vegas.
I watch him, bathed in the soft glow of candlelight, as he lowers me into the water and then against him. His long-boned fingers start to roam my flesh as his lips return to mine. His head dips toward me, his lips a teasing presence on my neck, his hands a knowing glide across my flesh. I watch him move across my body, kissing and touching and cherishing me. He lifts me up, bringing me down to glove his erection. His mouth is greedily working at my breast. His cock is hard in my body, moving with delicious intensity. Fully filling me. His fingers are stroking me wondrously.