Page 27 of Won't Back Down
Willa just gave a helpless shrug and smile before she snuggled back into me. It was instinct to tighten my arm around her and brush a kiss to her brow.
Gabi clapped her hands. “Let’s celebrate. Bree is, of course, in charge of drinks. There are appetizers, and we even got cake.” She gestured expansively to a tiered stand loaded with little cupcakes iced in wedding white with what turned out to be our initials piped on top in blue.
Willa took one look at those cupcakes and teared up. “I didn’t… We didn’t… How did you do all of this?”
Hoyt’s grin was secretive. “A little bird told us what you two got up to today.”
Now it was Willa who looked back at Mimi, who simply blew her a kiss and said, “You’re welcome.”
I braced myself to do whatever was needed to extract my bride in case this was all too much, but instead she laughed. “Thank you.”
And that was how we found ourselves in the middle of a wedding reception we hadn’t planned for the marriage we hadn’t known we were entering more than twenty-four hours ago.
Somebody produced a knife, and we were ordered to cut the cake. Together, we sliced right down the middle of one of the cupcakes, which turned out to be Italian cream—Willa’s favorite. Mimi wasn’t the only one who had her phone out to take photos as we fed bites to each other. I didn’t smash cake in Willa’s face. She’d have hated that. Instead, I held it out so she could take as big or small a bite as she liked. I ate the entire half she offered me. Her eyes lit with challenge as she did the same, then turned to lick a trace of icing off my thumb.
My dick leapt at the feel of that little tongue against my skin and the expression of impish delight on her face as she did it. I told myself it was just in the name of selling our cover that I reeled her in. “You’ve got a little something right…”
I licked the icing off the corner of her mouth. And then that mouth was right there. No newly wedded man in his right mind wouldn’t kiss his wife after that. It was strictly performative.
Except she sighed into the kiss, rising against me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders as she kissed me back, and I was lost. She tasted of butter and sweetness and something deeper, richer that had to be simply her. Everything in me craved more of that taste, and I chased it, deepening the kiss, pulling her closer. She opened for me on a little whimper that set my blood aflame.
It was the cheering and whistles that broke through my out-of-control lust. For a moment, I could only wonder why the hell all these people were here, why we weren’t alone to follow this madness to its inevitable conclusion.
And then I remembered.
Somehow, I found the strength to pull back. But as I stared down at my wife, with her rosy lips swollen from mine and those eyes so hugely dilated with arousal, all I could think was, I am in so much trouble.
CHAPTER 13
WILLA
The summer sun hadn’t yet set by the time I rolled up to Sutter House later that night, but I was already yawning. The sugar high from the cupcakes I’d eaten was wearing off, and everything that had happened in the past few days was catching up to me. After our impromptu wedding reception—I still couldn’t get over how enthusiastic everyone had been about this marriage—we’d gone by the lighthouse to collect Sawyer’s things, and by the cottage for me to pack a bag with the basics for a few days, along with Roy and all of his accoutrements. He was in full velcro mode after being left at home for so much of the past week. Poor neglected pup.
Sawyer parked beside me as I got out of the Jeep and sprang Roy from his seatbelt. He climbed out, shouldering a duffel bag. “Is it just me, or do you also feel like you’ve been hit by a semi after all that?”
“Definitely not just you. I still can’t believe everything Delilah and Florence managed to organize.”
He popped the back hatch and snagged one of my bags. “Let’s just be grateful they’re using their combined powers for good.”
“Seriously.” I snagged the other bag, and we trudged toward the porch.
Roy’s soft, almost soundless woof drew my attention down to the beach. I gasped. “Look.”
Far below, at the edge of the water, the wild horses milled. Waves frothed around their hooves. Sun glinted off the pewter gray coat of the stallion who’d protected this band most of my life. He looked positively regal as he circled around them, which was the reason I’d dubbed him Triton years ago. King of the Sea. Automatically, I did a quick headcount. Twenty-four. This was most of the herd. It felt almost as if they’d come out en masse to give their blessing to this marriage. Which was a ludicrous thought on multiple fronts, since this wasn’t real.
I thought back to the reception, to that kiss after the cake. No, that hadn’t just been a kiss. That had been full-on making out. In public. And damn, now I really wanted to do more of it in private. With considerably fewer clothes. Because this was our wedding night, damn it. Even if this was supposed to be temporary, why shouldn’t we take advantage of this? Clearly, we were both attracted. Weren’t we? Or had that whole thing just been a performance on his part to sell our newlywed status?
It hadn’t felt like a performance.
But I’d been too caught up in my own arousal to focus on anything but how he’d made me feel.
I knew he’d married me to protect me, probably not in small part out of the guilt I knew he still carried over the night I’d drowned. I wanted it to be more than that. Not that all that wasn’t huge, and not that I wasn’t grateful. But I couldn’t bear to put myself out there, only to be reminded of all that and gently rejected if he didn’t feel more for me. So I said nothing as I turned toward the door and let us into the house.
Inside, I was immediately struck by the mountain of things that needed doing. “I guess there are a lot of logistics we’ve got to figure out. I’ll need to pack up all my things at the cottage to move up here. And what about your stuff?”
“Right now, this is pretty much it, other than what’s still in the truck. I’ve been on the go for quite a while. Friends packed up the rest of my shit in Naples, and it’s waiting to be shipped. I need to contact the Navy and give them the address where to deliver it.”
That was going to be here. We were going to share an address. An address was the least of the things I expected us to share, but somehow it felt intimate. A sign of joining lives. Why that felt different from sharing an address with Bree, I couldn’t pinpoint beyond the fact that I didn’t imagine getting naked with her. And I certainly hadn’t just vowed to love, honor, and cherish her.