He ran his hands over her nakedness, awakening her body to his presence. It was difficult to stay maudlin with a hot guy feeling her up.
“No more wallowing today. You’re mine, preciosa. You’re his too, but if he left us tomorrow, I still wouldn’t let you go.” He pinched one of her tender nipples, and she whimpered. His gaze went hot with desire. “Or don’t you want me anymore?”
She wanted to tell him they had to wait for Severin, but she did want him. She wanted to marry him. Today. He took her wrist and lifted it, then turned the ring he’d put on her finger in Belgium.
“You made me a promise that day, and today you’ll honor it.” He took her ring-adorned finger into his mouth and sucked, her clit protesting the waste of good sucking. She groaned.
“Why now, though? Why not wait until he’s ready?”
He pulled back, nipping her fingertip as he let go. Her clit was ready to disown both the man and his sexy mouth.
“Is Severin ever ready for anything? He’s a creature of habit that reacts to situations as they arise. He lives in the now. We can’t all sit around waiting for him.” He shook his head. “We could give him years but without the right catalyst, he won’t take the step. I want you as my wife, Minnow. I want him too, but one of you is better than neither.” He cleared his throat. “And I know you and Severin don’t care, but no child of mine is going to be born a bastard.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. You keep saying that! Like anyone cares about that sort of thing anymore,” she teased.
He shrugged. “I care. It means something to me.”
When he drew her to her feet, he pulled her against him and kissed her long and deep, until her body buzzed with an intense awareness of him. Despite the pain of Severin’s rejection and her own continued queasiness, she was excited to be marrying Rodrigo.
“Get ready, precious girl,” he said, ushering her toward the shower. “Our family is waiting.”
*
The decorations had fancy names she couldn’t remember. There was tulle – she knew
that one – and a metric shit-ton of flowers she wouldn’t even try to identify. Basically, the wedding planner, Talia, had made the whole thing pretty and white, which was called some other fancy word for the exact shade even though it looked the same as the fifty other swatches she’d shown them.
The effect was understated and classy.
She’d balked at the price tag, but Rodrigo had overridden her objections. It was still hard to adjust to being connected to two wealthy men. She couldn’t even think about the money in her own bank accounts. The numbers were incomprehensible to a girl who’d struggled to buy herself gifts from the dollar store not so long ago.
She hadn’t fought him on hiring Talia for long though. She’d been so worried about everything being perfect she’d been exhausting herself. Even if there were only a few people coming, they were the most important people in her life. She wanted them to remember the day she joined their families as a pretty occasion with good food.
Minnow felt like a sham in her loose white shift dress, walking barefoot through the grass. Virginal white, but she was about as far from being a virgin as a woman could get.
She toyed with the stainless bracelet Severin had bought during their only trip to the mall together. Above that rested the blue sea glass bracelet he’d given her that had belonged to Sutton. Church’s wife, Ilse, wore the matching one.
Today, although Minnow wore all of Severin’s marks of ownership, she would marry Rodrigo. Joy and sorrow warred inside her, leaving her with a weird tornado of feelings. She wanted to laugh and sob at the same time.
She aimed for looking serene, but didn’t think she was pulling it off.
Rodrigo stood in front of their tiny collection of guests, tall, square shouldered, filling out a suit in ways that should have been illegal. Her heart ached with how much she loved him, even though she’d seen him only minutes ago as he’d escorted her down the stairs, unwilling to take the chance that she’d actually leave him standing at the figurative altar.
From his position at the front, he grinned at her then at Severin’s nieces, who preceded her, then at her again. Not far in front of Minnow, Sage moved slowly at her little sister’s side, chin high as she guided Scarlet to the front. Scarlet was having trouble seeing through her bear mask, and the puffy paws she wore made it hard to hold the pillow with the rings, but she was doing a bang up job of the growling.
Rodrigo’s nephew, Santiago, watched the ring bear with avid interest as he stood, half in the aisle, alternately barking and rubbing a handful of mauled Cheerios against his cheek. Jorge, the baby, fussed as Dax jiggled him in his arms, so Mayte took him, instantly getting a smear of baby drool down the front of her blue silk bridesmaid dress. Ilse’s dress was still relatively tidy looking, but she was frowning in bemusement at Scarlet, whom no one had been able to dissuade from the bear costume. Her attitude really made her outfit – even more than the ears.
By the time Minnow reached the front, the wedding was more circus than romance. She could feel Talia’s bright, brittle smile – a woman who knew her best efforts had been wasted, but was being paid too well to complain.
When Minnow reached Rodrigo, he was grinning so hard she started to giggle, then couldn’t seem to stop. He grabbed her hand with all the finesse of an eager child, and turned toward the officiant.
The woman peered over Minnow’s shoulder at the crowd, her brow puckered.
Hope rising, Minnow turned to see what she was looking at, but it was only Sage trying to help Scarlet into a chair.
“Ready?” the officiant whispered.
Minnow took one last look around at their assembled family, then nodded to the woman. “Ready.”