by Zoe York
“Don’t distract me with sex,” she whispered as he kissed down her neck.
“I wouldn’t dare.” He scraped his teeth against the fluttering pulse point right above her collarbone. “I’m making you a margarita and we’re talking about where else we can get married.”
She laughed. Sure, it was still tinged with an edge of nervous panic, but he was funny, and this felt good, and it was going to be okay.
Between them, his phone vibrated. He straightened up and put his finger to her lips again. “Stay in this position. I’m not done with you.”
She rolled her eyes and moved away, pulling out the margarita makings as he answered the call.
“Yes, sir. It’s fine. I just got home.”
She watched as he rolled his shoulders back, squaring off in that unconscious way of his, pushing his six-foot-plus frame to its full extent. Ready for action. And as the conversation played out in front of her, she had a weird sense of deja vu.
“How badly injured is he?”
“I see.”
His gaze flicked to her on the next silent pause and her stomach clenched. “I…I’m getting married shortly, sir. Yes, I understand.” His jaw clenched. “Of course. Oh-five-hundred tomorrow. Thank you.”
The first night they’d met, she’d brought him back to her hotel room and a very similar phone call interrupted them mid-make-out.
Something told her this interruption was bigger. More inconvenient.
He winced as he hung up and slide his phone onto the counter beside her. “Where were we?”
She shook her head. “Don’t spare my feelings, Jason.”
He groaned and pressed his forehead against hers. “I love you.”
“I know. I love you, too. What is it?”
“It’s nothing yet.”
She rewound the conversation she’d just heard in her head. “There’s a mission?”
“Another officer was in a motorcycle accident. He was supposed to deploy at the end of next month.”
“And they want you to…replace him on tour?” She tried to swallow and couldn’t. A hard ball of feelings had lodged itself in her throat. “Jason?”
He kissed her instead of answering. No more softness. Now he pressed into her roughly, claiming her mouth, and she let him. No matter what, she was his. But they’d planned…a big, frothy wedding. Giant dress, two hundred guests, and a ridiculous cake that smelled like sugar and lemons and would somehow…
Never be consumed.
Her breath hitched as she launched herself into his arms, kissing him back. Damn it. She had two choices here. Freak out further, or put on her big girl panties and deal. There was no part of her that wanted to do the latter, of course. She wanted to stomp her feet and cry that seriously? Could nothing go right for her wedding?
But this man was going to be the best husband.
And their marriage was going to last a billion times longer than the party that would start it.
It would also have many more of these kinds of phone calls.
That was the deal.
So she kissed him with everything she had, clinging to him because she didn’t want to let him go, ever, but she always would.
Chapter Fifteen
They didn’t get to the margaritas. They tumbled into bed, making love with an intensity that took Jason’s breath away. He’d always felt like this with Julie—she made his chest tight, like it wasn’t quite possible that she could love him with the job that took him away at the worst times.
But she did, with her entire heart. So after they’d caught their breath and she’d rolled out of bed and pulled on his shirt, he followed.
Together they made a late-night snack and sat down in front of the big-ass wedding binder.
And even though there wasn’t much he’d cared about for the wedding, at the realization that it might not happen, he was a little sad, too.
“When might you leave?” she asked quietly.
“Six weeks out, maybe five.” Deployment calendars were always shifting. “Four would probably be the safest window.”
“Four weeks,” she breathed. “And I need to find a new venue.”
“We need to find a new venue. Not just you. We’re in this together.”
She nodded, staring down at the neatly printed map of California in front of them. They’d picked Napa because of proximity to her friends and co-workers. He felt a stab of guilt that he didn’t know the area better. “Maybe something in Monterey. Nathan and Emme could hunt around…they did the quickie wedding already. They know who to talk to.”
She shook her head fiercely. “No. There’s not enough time to be flying back and forth for planning meetings. Speaking of flying, I need to make a list of everyone…I can probably swing things so people can change their flights…”
She was starting to spin again. He pulled her into his lap, ignoring her wiggles of protest. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to send emails to every nice hotel up and down the coast that’s within driving distance and find one that can accommodate the wedding. Blitz attack. Then we’re going to take two days this weekend and go check it out. And we’re going to get this wedding back on track. Leaner and meaner and maybe a bit sooner, but it’s going to be the same thing. You’re going to wear the same dress and we can even see about having the photographer fly down from San Francisco. Okay?”
She gave him a solemn, lip-trembling look. “What if we don’t find a place?”
“We will. And when we do, we’ll find a way to make it even more perfect than the winery.”
“We might not.”
“What kind of attitude is that?”
She bit her lip. “A realistic one?”
“What’s the worst case scenario?”
“We don’t find a venue,” she said, her voice hitching.
“And then what would we do?”
She closed her eyes for a second. “A park. Or the beach…a restaurant, maybe?”
He didn’t want to get married in a restaurant, but the beach part sounded good. “Yeah. We could do a picnic, maybe. On the beach.”
“That sounds…nice.”
“Okay, so in our blitz emailing, let’s mention we’re open to any out-of-the-box ideas. Deal?”
She nodded. “Deal.”
“Can we go back to bed now?”
She leaned in, close enough her lips brushed against his and she slowly shook her head. “Who says we need the bed?”
When Julie woke up the next morning, Jason was long gone to that early morning meeting about the tour she didn’t want to think about him going on.
And her phone was vibrating.
Not a phone call, she realized as she groggily held it in front of her face. The three buzzes she’d heard were all email notifications.
There were six responses to their email blitz already.
Four apologetic notes that they were already full for the new weekend they’d picked.
One generic email that didn’t give her much hope.
And another that made her sit straight up in bed. A hotel in Orange County had replied just three minutes ago.
I’m so sorry that your wedding has hit these unexpected snags. The planning process is overwhelming enough without disaster striking. We might be able to help, especially if you are genuinely interested in an “out-of-the-box” solution as you mentioned.
We don’t have many rooms available that weekend, but we could coordinate with other hotels in the area and arrange shuttle service for your guests.
For the service, we have a number of officiants we recommend. I can put you in touch with them by telephone or email.
For the reception, dinner would be difficult (but not impossible) to accommodate. How would you feel about a breakfast or lunch wedding? We could also do a late-night reception. Let me know if you have time to talk today and I can give you a call, or put you in touch with our wedding coordinator.
Julie read the email over twice before kicking her feet and squea
ling.
Could it be this simple?
She pressed her hand to her chest and willed her heart to settle-the-heck down. First, she’d call the hotel. Then she’d text Jason and let him know they were driving to Laguna Beach.
The Craftsman-style hotel wasn’t at all like what she’d pictured for her wedding—no raffia-wrapped wildflower bouquets here. This was posh elegance. Gardenias or orchids, maybe.
A week earlier, Bridezilla Julie would have cared about that. Did orchids match her dress?
But now she didn’t care. Much. She was still making a list for the new florist in her head.
“This is quite the find, Jules,” Jason said as he lifted their bags out of his Mustang. She tried not to giggle when he gave the valet a concerned look before handing over the keys to Betty.
“It’s even prettier than in the pictures,” she said instead of teasing him.
Inside, they were warmly greeted by the front desk staff, who confirmed they had a dinner reservation that night and a meeting with the wedding coordinator to make a final decision on the wedding details in an hour.
She totally thought they’d just go to their room and relax for a bit, until she stepped onto their balcony and saw the breathtaking view. She sighed and whirled around to get Jason, but he was right there already.
“It’s perfect,” she breathed—and promptly burst into tears.
“Hey,” he murmured, brushing his thumbs over her cheekbones as he lifted her face. “What’s this all about?”
“I don’t know. It’s perfect, and I was going to tell you about that, and then I opened my mouth and…”
“And it’s so perfect it makes you cry?”
She laughed despite herself and shook her head. “I think the events of the week are crashing in on me right now. Plus, yes, it’s perfect, and I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“Worst-case scenario?”
“Oh, stop.” But she relaxed into him, because it was a good exercise as he’d already taught her. Voice the worst-case scenario out loud, and it would almost always sort itself out. “I don’t know. I can’t see a way this isn’t going to be perfect.”
She could feel him grin against her cheek. And then he said exactly the right thing. “Let’s go swimming.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jason wasn’t quite as confident as Julie that this hotel was perfect for their wedding. It was gorgeous, no doubt, but it was…slick. Wealthy and perfect. He was neither.
His bride looked right at home in the luxurious infinity pool, though, and he was reminded with a pang that before him, Julie had dated men who would stay here, do business here. She was polished and full of grace. She would shine like a diamond.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked as she swam back toward him.
“How much I like that bikini.”
“Liar.”
Yeah, maybe he was. “This place is nice.”
“Too nice?”
Maybe for him. “Not if you like it.”
“I think you’ll really like the team here.” She wrapped her arms around him, her skin warm and wet and glowing in the late afternoon sun. “Give it a chance.”
“I’m giving it more than a chance. If you like this place, this is where we’re getting married.”
“I want it to be right for both of us.” A frown pulled between her eyebrows and he smoothed it away with his thumb.
“Okay, mind totally open. Promise.”
It took three minutes for the wedding coordinator to win him over. That had to be a record.
They met with her in the lobby, but instead of dragging them to an office, she led them outside, right past the pool they’d already explored, to a perfectly manicured stretch of lawn that overlooked the Pacific Ocean.
“This is the first option for a ceremony. This would be available any time of day, but particularly in the early morning, with the sun rising behind you, the photographs are just stunning. The light on the bride’s skin…” She trailed off and beamed at Jason. “Well, not that your bride needs any special lighting. But it’s really quite lovely.”
“Morning?” He frowned. Julie had mentioned that was one of the available times, but he’d already settled on a luncheon wedding in his mind. “Isn’t that…too simple?”
The coordinator stepped back. Smart woman. She knew the question was for his Jules, and she stayed right out of it.
Julie did a slow circle, then shrugged. “I don’t need a fancy wedding. I need a real wedding, with tears and vows and above all else, a celebration that feels like us. For two people that spend a fair amount of time working before dawn, maybe it's appropriate?”
“When do we have to decide?”
The coordinator cleared her throat and they swiveled their heads to look at her. “Take the weekend,” she said smoothly. “Now if I could show you where we might set up a brunch buffet?”
She walked them through all their options, then they headed back through the hotel. They were going to dinner, and they had a lot of things to consider.
“One concern with breakfast is if the guys get a bit rowdy,” he admitted. How often did they have a horde of military guys descend?
She just laughed. “We can handle rowdy.”
“We might put that to the test.”
Julie shook her head as he took her hand and they headed toward the restaurant.
“What? Too much honesty?”
She laughed. “No. Just the right amount.”
“I think this place is perfect, by the way.”
She groaned. “We’re getting married at dawn, aren’t we?”
It was a definite possibility.
“Can’t sleep?”
Julie turned. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of Jason, shirtless and his sleep pants riding low on his hips. She shook her head. “Mind was spinning, so I got up to check out what it might look like at this hour.”
“I’ve always liked dawn on the Pacific,” he rumbled, joining her on the balcony. “The sun at my back, and the sky lightening, turning purple, then pink and orange. I think the coordinator might be onto something.”
Julie had been thinking of a civilized breakfast hour, not first crack of light, but…
She turned around again as Jason pressed against her back and they looked down on the pool and the lawn together. “It’s so still this early. It’s beautiful.”
He picked up her hand and brushed a kiss over her knuckles before pointing their fingers together to the beach that curved off to the south. “We could have pictures taken down there, before the ceremony. Right about this hour.”
“That’s insane,” she whispered, but her heart skipped a beat. “I’d have to have hair and makeup here at some obscene time.”
“You’re beautiful just like this,” he whispered, his kiss dusting her neck now. “I love your hair down and mussed up from sleep.”
“I’m not having sex hair for our wedding.”
“Shame.” He scraped his teeth against the curve of her ear. “Okay, so the hair and makeup people come early. And they keep it simple.”
She tipped her head back and laughed. “Pictures at dawn?”
“Just an idea.” He traced her neck with his fingertips. “Or we could wake up early and have sex before the wedding.”
“I assumed you’d stay with the guys the night before,” she whispered.
He snorted. “I’m going to spend six months with some of them. And away from you. We’re sharing a bed the night before our wedding. I don’t give a damn about tradition. The thought of waking up with my bride, and making love to her while we watch dawn break…”
She shivered as his hands smoothed down her body, cupping her breasts and teasing her nipples before drifting lower. “We can’t see dawn from our bed…”
“Hmm. We’ll have to come out here again.”
“Someone might see.” She giggled as he hiked up her t-shirt and pressed his growing erection to her panty-covered bottom.
“Good point.” He picked her up and carried her inside. “Who needs to see dawn when all I want to see is you, naked and spread out for me?”
She wiggled in his arms, but it was no use. Even though she was tall and curvy, he could manhandle her all he wanted and they both loved it.
He peeled her out of her clothes and kissed her neck again, her breasts. She moaned as he sucked first one nipple, then the other, driving her wild with his tongue as his knees pushed her legs apart.
She writhed beneath him, so distracted by the tug of desire shooting through her that she didn’t realize he was already nudging into her until he pulled out with a strangled laugh.
“Condom,” he muttered.
She’d left her pills at home on her last group of flights out east. She’d missed three days, so they were being safe…
But they’d talked about her staying off the pill and working on a baby when he got back from tour.
She reached for him and shook her head. “We don’t need one…maybe?”
“That’s not a maybe kind of statement,” he said, his eyes burning as he gazed down her naked body. “You want me to use one or not?”
Wild excitement leapt inside her. “Not.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. “Completely.”
“Oh, babe.” He fell on top of her, big and heavy and strong, and he was grinning as he entered her again. He took his time pressing inside, filling her up. The stretch was good and familiar, but the promise was new. Exciting. “I love you,” he growled as he dipped his head, and she just had enough time to whisper it back before he was kissing her, his tongue mimicking the thrust of his length between her legs.
He consumed her, claiming her with every part of his body. His hands held her to him, one on her hip, the other around the back of her neck. His chest hair teased her nipples as he rolled up and into her. That was soft and silky, and the hair on his legs was crisper, rougher against the inside of her thighs and her calves as she clung to him.
