“I’m not going to the hospital.”
“You will if we make you,” Sed said.
“I’m fine. Fuck. Get off my back.”
“I think you should go,” Brian said. “If you’re fine, they’ll just look you over and send you on your way.”
“After I sit in the ER waiting room for five hours.” Trey unwrapped a cherry sucker and stuck it into his mouth. “Not going.”
Brian heard the bedroom door open. His heart leapt to his throat. He was on his feet even before his bride appeared in the doorway.
The fitted bodice of her gorgeous white dress pressed her breasts up and together in a most beguiling manner while its gathered skirt made her waist look impossibly tiny and her hips look extra curvy. Myrna covered the center of her chest with one dainty hand. Light caught the diamond engagement ring on her finger. The ring Brian had put there a couple of hours ago. The ring that proved she’d agreed to be his. The ring that he’d convinced her to accept even though she’d protested its expense. He was proud of his small victory. The diamond was ginormous. No guy would ever consider hitting on her with that rock on her finger.
Myrna’s auburn hair was pulled back in an elegant twist with loose tendrils framing her beautiful face. She’d applied her make-up to make the green in her hazel eyes pop, and the coral color that had been applied to her soft, pouty lips made them look even more kissable than usual.
Stunning. His woman was stunning. And his.
Even though Myrna’s physical beauty stole Brian’s breath, there was something that rocked his world even more than her face and her body. It was the blended look of love, anticipation, and trust in her wide eyes as she stared at him from the end of the corridor that had him completely out of his head.
“I think I’m ready,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion.
Brian couldn’t keep his hands off her for another moment. He dashed down the hallway and swept her into his arms, drawing the full length of her body against him.
“You shouldn’t kiss me yet,” she said breathlessly.
“Why?”
“I just put on lipstick.”
“Then you’re going to have to put it on again.”
She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I can live with that.”
He lowered his head, pausing with his lips a hair’s breadth from hers. His heart thrummed with anticipation, and his cock stirred to attention against his upper thigh. After a moment, her eyes flipped open. He watched her pupils constrict as she focused on his eyes.
“You’re right,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t kiss you.”
“Why not?”
“I want to marry you first.”
“Then let’s get going, because I really need to be kissed. Among other things.” Her hands slid over the white dress shirt she’d talked him into wearing. “You look so handsome in this shirt. I want to bite off your buttons.”
At her words, he no longer felt like a douche for wearing it for her.
Brian took her hand and walked backward down the bus aisle toward the exit, tugging her with him. He couldn’t take his eyes off her even to watch where he was going. “Trey, I hope you found those rings,” he said as he passed the dining table.
“I’ve got them. Where are we going?”
“The first drive-thru wedding chapel we encounter.”
“We can’t all fit in the Thunderbird,” Eric said.
“We’ll just shove you and Jace in the trunk,” Trey said.
“We’ll follow on my motorcycle,” Jace said.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Trey asked, wrapping an arm around Jace’s shoulders.
“I don’t call a trip in the trunk of a car with Eric an adventure. More of a nightmare.”
“Hey,” Eric said, “I took a shower this morning.” He sniffed his armpit. “And remembered deodorant, you lucky motherfucker.”
Trey laughed.
Brian hoped the ceremony didn’t take too long. He had a powerful need to strip that dress off Myrna’s gorgeous body and get her worked up enough to bite off his buttons.
Chapter Five
Myrna seriously needed to get a bigger car. Her pink ’57 Thunderbird convertible coupe did not seat four comfortably. Hell, it didn’t seat three comfortably. Brian, Trey, and Sed sat hip to hip across the white leather bench seat, leaving Myrna to sit on their combined laps and smoother them all with the huge skirt of her gown. Layers of satin did not mix well with the brutal Vegas heat. Still she had no doubt that she hadn’t chosen this dress—it had chosen her—so she’d had no choice but to claim it as her wedding gown. To hell with comfort and practicality. She was getting married to fucking Brian “Master” Sinclair—in her opinion the greatest guitarist who ever lived. She was determined to look beautiful for him even if she died of heatstroke.
The car pulled into a drive-thru wedding chapel, the rumble of Jace’s Harley following behind them. As they sat in line waiting their turn, Myrna fidgeted with her engagement ring. She’d vowed never to get married again. How had she fallen into this trap? Oh God, what was she thinking? This would never work. Brian was a rock star; she was a college professor. Their worlds were on opposite ends of the spectrum. How would they ever manage to stay together when they’d be forced to spend so much time apart?
Brian’s hand covered hers and squeezed. She looked into his eyes, and her concerns instantly evaporated. This was how she’d fallen. Exactly this. He was wonderful, and she was incredibly lucky he hadn’t given up on her. And they would make it work. They would. She wouldn’t give up on him, on them, ever.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“I’ve fallen.”
“And I can’t get up!” Eric said from the back of Jace’s motorcycle, which sat idling next to the car’s passenger side.
“Eric, we’re going to have to gag you, aren’t we?” Sed said and reached out of the car to make a grab for him. Eric jerked back just in time.
“I have a gag,” Jace said. “But it’s back on the bus.”
If Myrna didn’t love these guys as her surrogate family, she would have clobbered them all. “Guys, today is all about me,” she said, “so shut the hell up.”
Brian chuckled and lifted her hand to his lips. He kissed her knuckles. “That’s one reason I knew I had to marry you.”
“Because I’m bitchy?”
“Because you don’t treat my band mates like rock stars.”
“She does bitch at us,” Trey said.
“Constantly,” Sed added.
“And I, for one, like it very much,” Eric said.
The car in front of them pulled away, and Brian eased up to the window. Jace moved the motorcycle next to the car and shut off the rumbling engine. They were greeted by Elvis Presley. Well, a pretty good imitation of him. Elvis slid his large, white-framed sunglasses down his nose and offered a wide smile.
“I say-uh, welcome to the Chapel of Rock, baby.”
“Fitting,” Trey said.
“Do you got the paperwork, baby? We need a license to make it legit.”
Brian handed Elvis the marriage license they’d picked up at the bureau that morning. “Best sixty bucks I ever spent,” Brian said.
While Elvis did whatever it was he needed to do with the marriage license, Brian slid up to sit on the trunk of the convertible with his feet resting on the front seat. He drew Myrna up to sit across his lap, wrapping one strong arm around her back. He took her hand in his free hand, holding it gently. She stared into his eyes, and his encouraging smile made the entire world melt away. This was really happening. She was marrying Brian Sinclair. Becoming his wife. Forever. Her smile widened until her
cheeks hurt.
“Is this man your hunka hunka burning love?” Elvis asked.
Myrna laughed. “I’ll say.”
“Does this woman have you all shook up?” Elvis asked.
Brian grinned. “Yeah, she does.”
Elvis broke into a decent rendition of “Love Me Tender.” Sed joined him in the second chorus. By the time Elvis finished, the entire band was accompanying him at the top of their lungs, even Brian. Myrna couldn’t stop laughing. How many women could claim that Elvis and Sinners serenaded her on her wedding day? Only her. And as obnoxious as it was, their willingness to make fools of themselves on her behalf meant the world to her. At the end of the song, Myrna hugged Brian and whispered into his ear, “God, I love you... and your stupid band too.”
He chuckled. “That’s good, because you’re stuck with us for life.”
And where that idea had once terrified her, a lifetime suddenly didn’t seem long enough.
She looked up into Brian’s intense brown eyes, her throat tight with emotion, her eyes prickling with tears.
“Do you have vows you want to recite to your baby?” Elvis asked.
Words tumbled from Myrna’s lips like toppling dominos. All the things she’d been afraid to voice, to feel, since she’d first met Brian, poured out in one rush of emotion.
“I don’t know how you knew what I needed more than I did. Or why you refused to give up on me. I’m just so very glad you didn’t. You loved me when I didn’t want to be loved. Lifted me when I didn’t realize I was down. Gave me so much I was too stupid to take, too afraid that I’d come to need you and lose myself. I thought that by loving you, I’d become weak. I know now that loving you doesn’t make me weak, Brian, it makes me stronger.” She tugged his hand against her chest over her pounding heart. “I know I’ve hurt you more than once, and I don’t know how to make that up to you other than trust you with my heart and love you the way you deserve to be loved. That’s what I vow. I vow to love you and tell you often. I vow to stay beside you no matter what the future brings. Have faith in you. In us. I also vow to be true to you—heart, mind, body, and soul—and never cheat on you with Sed.”