“The horror,” I gasped.
“Don’t make fun of your mother.”
I laughed and Jackson pulled the phone out of my hand, putting it on speaker.
“Hey, Mom. We talked, and we decided to take the date.”
Excited squeals made both of us wince and pull the phone away. “Oh, boys. You are going to have the best wedding ever. I promise. Just leave it up to me. I’m calling him back now.”
“Mom, we can call—”
“Nope. I’ll do it. I’m also booking a fitting for your suits. And flowers. Oh, and wine. Obviously, an open bar. We aren’t heathens.”
Jackson paled with each suggestion, but I gripped his thigh. When he turned wide eyes to mine, I merely leaned in and pecked his lips, offering him comfort without words, letting him know it would all be okay.
“We’re definitely not, Mom,” I said once I pulled away.
“Okay. Well, I’ll let you two go. Enjoy your day. Leave it all up to me. Love you.”
“Love you too,” we both said.
As soon as I hung up, I gripped his cheeks and made him meet my eye. “Tomorrow you will be my husband. Nothing else matters. This is our wedding. And we’re splitting it fifty-fifty.”
“Okay. Yeah. I’m good.”
“Good. Now let’s go pack so I can fuck my husband.”
7
Jackson
“All right. Marriage license is booked. Same as the chapel,” I said.
We’d just boarded a red-eye to Vegas and everything was coming together. I’d even splurged on the more extravagant package for the chapel. The one that came with a video. I wanted to remember this forever.
“Perfect.”
I kissed my fiancé and settled into my overpriced airplane cubby. When the attendant came by, I gladly accepted the champagne.
Through the flight, I managed to find the balance between getting my money’s worth out of this seat and not arriving in Vegas trashed. However, I was extra tired. Even in one of the cities that never sleeps, I couldn’t wait to get to our hotel and rest my eyes for just a bit. Besides, I knew tonight would be a sleepless one filled with surrender.
“Don’t even start,” Jake reprimanded when a hired car pulled up outside the airport to take us to our hotel.
My side eye grew more intense with each floor we climbed at the freaking Bellagio. All of a sudden, my first class tickets were mere pennies compared to the suite he booked us.
“You keep looking at me like that, and I’m going to fuck your throat harder than ever before.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
He smirked and my cock jerked behind my pants. God damn, I was always ready for this man. The thought of fighting him for dominance made the rush all the more intense, like sticking a fork in a socket.
Instead of starting the fight, he slapped my ass and stalked toward the bedroom, barely glancing at the beautiful view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. “Come curl up with me for a few hours before I make you mine.”
We set an alarm and curled into each other’s arms, Jake’s head firmly planted on my chest, his strong thigh thrown over mine.
He woke before me and when I got up with the alarm, he strutted back into the room with his hands behind his back and a big-ass smile on his full lips.
“I went ahead and ordered our suits.”
“What? Dammit. I’m paying for this one. I would have gotten us—”
He jerked two white T-shirts out from behind his back, still wrapped in plastic, a pseudo-suit screen-printed on the front.
I couldn’t help it. I fell back on the bed, shaking with laughter.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked, wiping tears from my eyes.
“As a heart attack. Got to have the full Vegas experience.”
“I guess I should be grateful they’re both suits and one isn’t a wedding dress.”
“That would be fun to explain in photos.”
He tossed me my shirt and we got ready. I came out of the bathroom to find him bent over, tying his shoe. He stood tall and dragged his hand through his blond hair. For a moment, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I think my heart stopped just before it started hammering a beat that sounded a lot like mine.
We’d been through so much and he would be mine. Fucking finally. The man I never thought I’d have was going to be mine.
“You okay?”
It seemed too good to be real.
“Are you sure?” I asked, letting the doubt have a voice.
“More than anything. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Another hired car waited for us at the entrance and instead of complaining, I gripped my fiancé’s hand and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
We rode in silence to the chapel and in no time at all, standing under the bright lights of Las Vegas with the cheesy Elvis impersonator looking down from his altar, I heard the most beautiful words of my life.
“I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may kiss your groom.”