Chase interrupted their back-and-forth by pulling his phone out and handing it to the woman. “Take one picture of us as newlyweds after it’s done.” When Katie looked at him, confused, he explained, “Proof that we did it.”
The woman asked, “Do you have your own vows prepared, or do you want to go with traditional vows?”
Katie turned her desperate gaze on Chase, silently pleading with him to make it stop.
Chase spoke to the husband who was holding the bible and preparing to marry them. “We want your most basic, simple wedding. Okay? We’re sort of in a hurry. We want to be married as of yesterday. So, can we just breeze through this?”
The couple exchanged a confused look.
Chase sighed. “I’ll make this easy for you. We want you to do the minimum required by law to make us legal. No pretty prose. No scriptures read. No long-winded vows. What do you absolutely have to do and say to make this a legally-binding marriage?”
Scowling, the man asked Katie, “Do you want to marry him, Miss?”
She got the feeling the couple thought she was being forced to wed Chase. They weren’t that far off. She stared at the man for a moment, frozen. Chase nudged her with his elbow.
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”
The man glared at Chase. “And you want to marry her?”
“I do.”
“Do you have rings?”
Chase pulled the box from his pocket. Without any fanfare, he pushed the plain gold band onto her finger. She started to reach for the other one, but he beat her to it. He put his own ring on his own finger.
The couple exchanged another look that clearly said they didn’t know what was happening and didn’t like it. “By the authority given to me by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife. I guess. You may kiss the bride... if you want to.”
Katie sought Chase’s gaze and locked on, looking to him for guidance on what to do. He put a hand on her waist and leaned down to kiss her. She lifted her chin and closed her eyes. Not knowing what to expect, she decided to be a lazy participant and let him do the kissing. Whether it was a simple peck on the corner of her mouth or a full press of his lips on hers, she would play along.
His hand slipped between her hair and face. He pulled her closer with a little more force than she generally liked. Then his mouth was on hers, and she forgot everything else. She’d read books that had fireworks exploding between people when they kissed for the first time. Silly and unrealistic, she had thought. Now, she knew differently. When chemistry was involved, a palpable off-the-charts chemistry that most people never experienced, fireworks were a definite possibility.
Her arms went up around his neck of their own volition, and she melted into the kiss.
The man that had just married them chuckled.
Katie and Chase released each other and simultaneously took a step back.
The elderly couple laughed with obvious relief.
“In all my years, I’ve never married anyone like the two of you,” the man said. “But now I get it. You just want to get to the honeymoon.”
Chase nodded in agreement and slid an arm around her. “Yep. Can’t keep my hands off this one.”
The elderly woman smiled at Katie. “I remember when John and I couldn’t wait to get to our honeymoon.”
John placed hands on his wife’s shoulders. “Someday you’ll be like us, married for forty-plus years and still going strong.”
Their words shocked Katie into speechless wonder. For a moment, she tried to imagine herself in forty years with Chase as her husband, living in a big house with grown kids and grandkids visiting them on holidays. Ridiculous. That wouldn’t happen in a million years.
She shook herself awake. They had entered into a temporary union. If everything went right, they’d be divorced in two years, and she would have a beautiful baby to raise.
Katie stared at him. Even though she wasn’t a prude by any definition and believed a girl should go after what she wanted, she’d never had sex with a stranger, and Chase Grayson was worse than a stranger.
He washer boss!
♥♥♥
Chase figured if he lined up every woman he’d ever kissed, he’d have enough for a Macy’s parade. To him, kissing wasn’t a big deal. It was just a prelude to the main event, a way to stir up his partner with a promise of what was to come. He’d always felt kissing was more for the woman than it was for the guy. But that was before he kissed Katie Greer.