by KB Winters
“Okay.” Her voice sounded far away.
“You know, for social media and all that. We also need to sign some paperwork for the license.”
“All right. I’m almost ready.”
I rounded back to the bedroom door and paused to take a long sigh. “Okay. See you down there I guess.”
“Okay, Miles.”
“It’s going to be okay, Penny. I promise.”
* * * *
The wedding music played through hidden speakers placed around the gardens off the main pool area. The space overlooked the ocean and I anchored myself to the mix of the soothing music with the crashing of the waves in the background. I’d changed into a pair of linen pants, a crisp white shirt, and had a lei of dark purple flowers hung around my neck. Waiting on my bride. God, that sounded strange.
“There she is,” Ted whispered from the corner of his mouth.
I turned my head to look at the double doors from one of the banquet rooms, and as the door pushed open, my breath hitched in my throat. Penny emerged in a long, white dress that hung off one of her shoulders, baring enough skin to make my mind wander. Her hands were wrapped around a bouquet of pink flowers and one of the blossoms was also tucked behind her ear. Her hair was up and her neck looked so soft and edible. I wanted to lick her right there.
She looked like a goddess.
At my dumbfounded stare, she smiled and my brain kicked back on again. I smiled back and straightened my posture as I waited for her at the end of the aisle. Two hotel workers were standing off to one side to serve as our witnesses and I could feel their eyes on us as Penny reached the end of the aisle and I reached for her hand. One of them darted forward and took her flowers and I gladly took both of her hands in mine, noting that they were trembling. I raised them to my lips and brushed a kiss against each set of knuckles.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Hi,” I replied. I wished I could bottle up some of my confidence and send it to her in that moment, to still her nerves and relay that it was all going to work out in the end.
Ted began his speech, but kept it short and sweet as there wasn’t a large crowd to address. We quickly arrived at the vows portion of the ceremony and I pulled the rings I’d ordered from my pocket. Penny’s eyes went wide at the sight of them and she directed a silent question to me with a flick of her eyes and an arch of her brow. I simply smiled back, waiting for Ted to finish his part.
“So, I understand you wrote your vows to one another. Miles, if you would like to go first,” Ted prompted.
I smiled and held up the ring, letting the sunlight of the late afternoon flicker over the diamonds. “Penny, this ring reminded me of you because of its beauty, but also because of its strength. You are an amazing woman and I’m so grateful that you’ve agreed to go on this journey with me. I hope I can make you as happy as you’ve made me and that together, we can each see our dreams unfold.”
Penny smiled softly at me and I slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit.
“Wonderful!” Ted exclaimed, eating up every word. “And Penelope, your vows to Miles?”
Penny cleared her throat. “Miles, I have to say, if anyone would have told me that this is where we’d find ourselves, I would have laughed in their faces—” I snorted back a laugh. “—but here we are. And I for one can’t wait to see what the future will bring to us. You make me laugh and you make me feel special every day. So, thank you.”
I nodded and held her stare as she slipped a simple white gold band onto my finger. I held her hands in mine and noticed they’d stopped shaking.
We were going to be all right.
“Beautiful words from a beautiful couple. I wish you a life filled with laughter, treasured memories, and blessings!” Ted continued on with the rest of the vows and once all the I Do’s had been said, he brought it to a close. “With the powers granted to me by the state of Hawaii, I pronounce you husband and wife. Miles Warren, you may kiss your lovely bride.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I growled, grinning as I wrapped Penny in my arms and took her lips with mine. Penny melted into the kiss and it took everything I had inside to release her when we’d officially gone past the point of an appropriate length of time.
Ted and the witnesses cheered and I scooped Penny up into my arms, laughing as she squealed in protest. I carried her down the aisle and stole another kiss right before slipping inside the hotel.
* * * *
“I seriously cannot believe we just did that! We just got married. We’re married?” Penny exclaimed, flopping down beside me in the sand about half a mile from the hotel. We’d completed a series of wedding photos and were finally alone.
She looked over at me and I laughed at her expression. “Is this the part where you have a panic attack?”
She bit her lip and thought about it for a moment. Then she took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and her eyes popped open again. “Nope, I’m good. Just surprised that we actually went through with it. I thought maybe one—or both—of us would back out before we got around to the I do part.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Nope. You’re all mine for the next year.”
“How romantic,” Penny said, giggling. “That was the most awkward part of the whole thing.”
“The whole till death do us part thing?”
She nodded. “I mean we lied to a priest!
“I highly doubt he was a priest. He didn’t have the fancy collar.” Penny rolled her eyes at me. “But yeah, I know what you mean. A little hard to keep a straight face through all these questions when the real answers would be a lot more fun.”
“The funny thing is that in Vegas we could be considered a long-term relationship. I mean let’s be honest, most of those people are getting plastered and married within a few hours. We at least gave ourselves the better part of a weekend before storming down the aisle.”
I grinned down at her as she dropped her head to my shoulder. “Very true.”
“So what do we do now?” Penny asked, rolling her eyes up my chest to meet mine.
“Well, we have less than twenty-four hours to break in our new marriage before returning to reality and since you so unfairly ruled out the way a normal couple would spend their first twenty-four hours as husband and wife, I’m gonna let you figure that out.”
Penny gave a soft jab to my ribs. “You’re just pissed that you’re not getting laid.”
“Come on. Big beautiful hotel suite, ocean view, a fully loaded minibar, and a Jacuzzi tab in the bathroom just the perfect size for two. Can you blame me if it makes me a bit single minded? I mean—I am a red-blooded man!”
Penny laughed. “Somehow I think that even if we were in a Motel 6 in the middle of nowhere with cheap beer and a swamp cooler you’d still be thinking the same thing.”
I roared with laughter, unable to even attempt to defend myself. The woman had me pegged.
“Come on,” Penny said, pushing off the ground. She spun around to offer me her hand and I let her pull me up from the sand. “If we only have a day in Hawaii I’m sure as hell not going to spend it sitting here talking about your horn dog tendency.”
“All right, smarty pants, where to?”
“I don’t know, just not here with your red-blooded-man syndrome.”
“Okay, since you haven’t come up with anything…I’ll give you a break—a small one, that is.”
“Okay, I’ll take it. Hell, right now I’ll take anything I can get!”
“There’s an authentic Hawaiian luau just down the beach from here. I overheard someone at the hotel talking about it. Dancing, drinks, and more food than you could imagine.”
Penny’s eyes lit up. “Sounds like a pretty good reception to me! Let’s go, there’s a really big Mai Tai waiting for me.”
I laughed. “All right then. Let’s hurry on over there.”
“Thank you, Miles. The luau sounds perfect.”
I winked at her. “I gotta keep my wife ha
ppy.”
Chapter Sixteen
Penny
Somewhere between the fantastical excitement of the luau and the sun peeking through the floor to ceiling windows of our hotel room, Miles and I ended up in bed together.
I blamed the six Mai Tai’s that I consumed over the course of the two-hour event.
However it happened, the result was waking up, tangled up with a naked man, and wondering what the hell had happened the night before. Sadly, this wasn’t my first rodeo. I’d been in this predicament before. Just never with my own husband.
I rubbed my groggy eyes with the back of my hands and groaned softly to myself. Penny what did you do?
I shifted out of the massive bed and tiptoed to the bathroom where I had stashed my suitcase. Whatever had happened the night before obviously involved losing my clothing. I shut the door softly to not wake Miles and crossed to the luggage rack where my suitcase was propped up. I slipped into a pair of denim jeans and a flowy tank top. I tugged a comb through my hair and then spackled on a bit of makeup before heading back into the bedroom.
Upon opening the door, I saw that the bed I’d just left was now empty. Crap.
I left the bedroom and went to the main living room of the suite and found Miles, now dressed as well, standing at the in-room espresso machine. I shut the door behind me and the sound caught his attention. A slow smile spread across his devilishly handsome face as he glanced over his shoulder at me. “There’s the Mrs.”
I placed my hands on the sides of my head. What on earth had I done? In one weekend I’d managed to completely blow up my life. In the light of morning, with a fairly clear mind, I couldn’t for the life of me remember why. Miles was arguably the hottest man I’d ever had the pleasure of meeting in real life—I mean, come on I’ll always have a place in my heart for Brad Pitt, who I actually met once at a movie premiere after party—and he was nice, intelligent, ambitious. All of the qualities I looked for. But married? That so wasn’t the plan.
“Would you like a latte, Mrs. Warren,” he purred at me.
I grimaced. “Do you have to keep calling me that? It’s not like I’m going to forget,” I said, my tone snarky and short. I glanced at the ring on my finger. It was a gorgeous ring and Miles’ taste was undeniably impeccable—but I couldn’t help but feel a prick of irritation whenever I caught sight of it.
It was an actual diamond, solid gold, and we’d had an official wedding. But none of it was real.
And for whatever reason, that irked me.
“Whew. Not a morning person. Okay, adding that to my list of things I know about you.”
I scowled at him and stalked across the suite and threw myself into one of the chairs around the small table. I instantly regretted the jerking motion at the resounding thud of pain in my head.
Damn Mai Tai’s.
I ignored his snarky little comment. “I like two sugar packets in my coffee.”
“Got it.” He brought me a small espresso cup a minute later and handed me two packets of raw, unprocessed sugar. It smelled heavenly and perked me up, slightly pulling me from my bad mood.
Ever so slightly.
Miles worked at the machine for another minute and then joined me with his own tiny cup, almost comical in his large hand. He sighed. “So, how did you sleep?”
“Fine. You?”
He dropped his eyes to his cup and swirled the contents. “Fine too.”
A minute later he added, “Nothing happened you know…”
I lifted my eyes to his. “What do you mean?”
“Last night, after the luau. We didn’t hook up, if that’s what’s got you so pissed off.”
“Good to know,” I replied, glaring at him. “But that’s not what has me pissed off.”
He leveled his stare at me. “Then what the hell is wrong? Last night you were having the time of your life. All happy and smiling and we were…good together…and now, it’s like, well I don’t even know. You’re just mad all of a sudden.”
I paused to draw in a long breath. My brain felt like it was slamming around my skull and each impact made me wince. “I’m not mad,” I said quietly. “I’m just adjusting to all of this, okay?”
Miles considered me for another long minute of silence and then finally nodded. “All right. I’ll leave you alone then. I need to pack and shower anyways. We need to be downstairs in about an hour. I’ve arranged for a ride to the airport.”
I nodded and returned my attention to my espresso cup. Miles pushed up from the table and stalked from the room, leaving me alone in my frustration and misery.
“What is wrong with me?” I asked myself in a tiny whisper.
It wasn’t like Miles had put a gun to my head and forced me into the arrangement. He hadn’t even offered anything all that compelling as bait. I was capable of getting a book deal on my own. So, what the hell was I doing in Hawaii with a giant diamond on my finger? I shook my head. It was like someone had commandeered my body for the weekend and I was only just now getting back behind the wheel.
“Get it together, Penny.” I threw back the scalding espresso and went to the bathroom to shower.
Just as I pushed open the door, I remembered that Miles had gone in there to shower—a detail that I recalled once the door was open enough to give me a glimpse of his naked backside.
“Sweet lord!” I gasped, unable to rip my eyes from the lines of muscles that rippled down his back as he pulled off the last few inches of his t-shirt.
He turned around at the sound of my cry and I squeezed my eyes shut as the front view came into sight.
Okay, okay, maybe after getting a quick look at the goodies.
“This is the only bathroom with a shower,” he said, his tone gruff.
“Right, I know…sorry.” I opened my eyes again at the sound of his footsteps striding to the attached bath. The suite only had one room, the master, and although there were two bathrooms, the second one only had a toilet and sink. “Sorry!”
“Don’t be,” he called back. I watched him finish his walk to the bathroom and bit my lip at the way his ass looked, all power and muscle, with each step.
He definitely didn’t skimp out on leg day.
Once the bathroom door was closed, I flung myself on the bed and waited for the heat that swarmed me to dissipate. Was that why I was so pissed off all of a sudden? I was just pent up? It didn’t make sense. I sighed and rolled to my back.
At the luau we’d played the part of a newlywed couple. There was lots of kissing, touching, and at one point I’d joined in the hula dancing and given him a private little dance.
I smacked my face and raked my hand down at the onslaught of memories. No wonder we were both so edgy.
We needed to get back to our own homes and have a few states between us.
It was the only way I—we—were going to survive.
I had no idea what the hell we were going to do once we were living under the same roof.
The water shut off and I sprung from the bed and forced myself to start packing. Miles strut out of the bathroom a minute later, thankfully with a towel cinched around his waist this time. “Here,” he said, crossing over to me. “Found these in the medicine cabinet.”
I opened my hand and he dropped a couple of white tablets into my open palm. “Thank you.”
I tossed the pills back and seconds after swallowing, Miles was back at my side, this time with a bottle of water. At the simple, but overwhelmingly sweet gesture, a hot flash of guilt washed over me. He disappeared into the bathroom, clutching his duffel bag, and the door shut before I could get my words out. I pushed out of my chair and started to gather up my belongings and wrangle everything back into my bag. My phone was on the nightstand and blown up with texts from Jasmine and Lo. I smiled at the messages as they scrolled past.
Jasmine: We’ve decided to take you in for a CAT scan when you get home. Have your doc send a pre-auth.
Lo: Send pictures! Like, now!
Jasmine: Okay, we changed
our mind about the CAT scan. But only if you tell us you fucked that man sideways last night!
Lo: Ignore Jazz, she’s horny cause Antonio is on a work trip.
Jasmine: Lo’s right. I’ve had a lot of wine.
Lo: Serious about the pictures though. How else are we going to decide what your future children will look like? Also, we need to start coming up with names for them. How do you feel about Poppy? Jazz thinks Penny and Poppy sound cute together.
Jazz: I ran out of wine.
It went on for pages and I was laughing so hard I was gasping for air by the time Miles popped out of the bathroom again. He gave me a bemused glance, his dark eyebrow raised. “All right out here?”
I nodded and forced myself to pull it together. I stashed the phone in my purse. “My friends are insane.”
“Aha.” He grinned slightly and I took a moment to check out his body. He’d changed into jeans and a relaxed t-shirt that wasn’t tight but still showcased his ridiculously fit body. I wasn’t sure, but I was beginning to think that even if he was wearing a burlap sack he’d still look hot.
So. Twitterpated. Must lick his chest.
“You all set?”
I nodded and glanced around the room, mentally adding up everything I’d brought. “I think so.” My eyes landed on my wedding dress that was hanging in the open closet. I dragged my eyes back to Miles and drew in a breath. “Listen, Miles, I’m really sorry for being a bitch this morning. I’m just—”
“Hey, hey, you don’t have to apologize,” Miles interjected. He gave a shrug of his broad shoulders. “It’s been crazy. I get it. So, no worries.”
“Come on, let me get this out.”
“Okay.”
“When you first brought this up, I don’t know, I kind of jumped at the idea like it was a life raft or something. Not because I needed saving, necessarily, but it was an opportunity to shake things up, I guess. I’ve done some wacky things in my life and figured this would just be another adventure. Win or lose, ya know? But, something…changed…yesterday. It became real. I was wearing a white dress, there was an officiant, a diamond ring,” I held it up to look at it for a moment. “Anyway, it all just got a little too real. I know that sounds insane. Like, of course it’s real, I knew that, but I guess I didn’t know it, know it.” I stopped and sucked in a breath. “I’m not making any sense, am I?” I shook my head, my blonde hair swinging around my face, as I answered my own question.
