I needed to be closer to her for this conversation. Holding her hand wasn’t enough; not when it seemed like she was ready to bolt for the door. So I rose from my chair and tugged on her hand to make her stand up with me. Once she was on her feet, I led her over to the small sofa along the wall, underneath a row of windows overlooking the Strip. I sat down first, and then I pulled her onto my lap. “There we go. New rule; any serious conversations between us happen with us as close as we can get.”
Her gaze darted over to the bed before she scanned my face. “The idea has merit, but I’m going to have to point out the obvious. As comfy as I am on your lap, this isn’t as close as we can get. Not when we’re alone in a hotel room with a big bed right over there.”
All it took was the suggestion of us in that bed together for my cock to press against the zipper of the jeans I’d pulled over my boxers. “Correction. As close as we can get and still manage to talk without ripping each other’s clothes off.”
“Good point,” she laughed.
“You in my lap when we both have clothes on is about as close as I can manage.” I ground my hips upwards, letting her feel how hard she made me. “And not without needing to exert a fuck of a lot of effort.”
“Then I guess I should help you out and offer you some hints, in case you’ve already forgotten the question you’re supposed to be answering. Private plane. Chicago. This afternoon.”
“No flights for me. Not until you’re ready to get on the plane with me,” I promised. I only had three months to get her on one because I needed to be in Chicago for summer training camp in mid-September. If it took longer than that, I was screwed—and not in a good way. But a hell of a lot could happen in three months. Hell, Jason had managed to knock Cee-Cee up in less time than that. I should, at the very least, be able to talk my wife into staying married to me and moving to Chicago. That’s what I hoped, anyway.
“You can decide to stay in Vegas with me; just like that?” She shook her head, like it was impossible for her to believe. I nodded in response, and her eyes widened.
“I already talked to Alison last night about keeping my room here longer than I’d initially planned,” I admitted. “She told me to stay for as long as I wanted.”
Jason’s mom had also said something about a job at the hotel for Alessia if she wanted it, but I wasn’t ready to share that information with her. I wasn’t going to keep it from her forever, but I figured I could wait until she brought up the need to search for a job before I mentioned it. My hope was that it wouldn’t come down to that because she’d decide to move to Chicago with me and find one there instead. Or skip the job entirely if I knocked her up last night.
“Wow. You’re really planning to stick around.” She shifted in my lap and wrapped her arms around me, giving me a squeeze.
It was only a hug, but there was something about the action that struck me hard. Right in the chest. She’d shown her appreciation for the small things I’d done for her before—the breakfasts, dresses, bath, and flowers—but it felt like this meant more to her than anything else had. “You were worried about me leaving, weren’t you?”
She nodded her head jerkily, burrowing into my embrace, and sniffled a little.
I leaned deeper into the couch cushion and slid a finger under her chin to tilt her head back. Her green eyes were brimming with tears, and a couple had spilled down her cheeks. I swept them away with my thumbs and pressed my lips softly against hers. Although my cock was as hard as a steel pike between my legs, this kiss wasn’t intended as a prelude to sex. It was meant to offer comfort. To reinforce that I was there for her and wouldn’t have it any other way.
No matter the intent, the kiss quickly spiraled out of control. Our tongues tangled. Teeth nibbled. Hands caressed, finding their way underneath our shirts to stroke bare skin. By the time I lifted my head, we were both out of breath, our hearts racing in our chests.
“Can I add an addendum to your rule?” she asked, her fingers trembling slightly as she smoothed down the front of my T-shirt where she’d bunched it up during our kiss. “If all serious conversations have to take place with me on your lap, they should also end with a kiss like that one.”
“That’d sure as shit stop us from ever going to bed angry with each other.”
“I like how you’re comfortable saying things like that,” she admitted softly. “Talking about our future together like it’s a foregone conclusion.”
I hadn’t really thought about it that way, but it made sense since it’s what I considered us to be. I just needed to convince her of it, too. And it sounded like I was on the right path for that. “Then I’ll keep it up.”
“Okay.”
“As long as I have you on my lap and it’s serious conversation time, we should probably discuss another foregone conclusion.”
“Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like this one as much as the last?” She tilted her head to the side, and her blond hair spilled over my hand.
I played with the ends while I answered, “Probably because it’s a conversation we should have had last night.”
“Last night?” she echoed, her brow wrinkling in confusion.
“Before I took you bare.” And discovered it was the best damn feeling in the world to have her tight pussy wrapped around my cock without anything between us.
“Oh!” Her plump lips formed a surprised O.
“I’ve always practiced safe sex,” I rushed to explain. “I’ve never gone without a condom before you.”
“But condoms aren’t one hundred percent safe and you’ve”—her nose scrunched up like she smelled something bad—“been with a lot of different women.”
“There hasn’t been anyone in almost three months, and I was tested at the end of the season only two weeks ago. I’m clean,” I swore. “I’d never put you at risk like that, Alessia.”
“And it’s been a lot longer for me. Like a couple of years long. You don’t need to worry about me having anything, either.”
It was official. I was an asshole. I didn’t have any right to be angry about her past since she was a hell of a lot less experienced than I was, and it sure as fuck had been a lot longer since she’d been with another guy. But even the hint of her having sex with someone else had me clenching my hands into fists. Not in anger, though. In jealousy because I considered her to be mine.
While I was struggling to gain control over my possessive streak, Alessia dropped her gaze to her lap and whispered, “But I’m not on the pill.”
At any other point in my life, with any other woman, I would have been freaking the fuck out about a possible pregnancy. With Alessia? My cock grew harder, and I wanted to fill her with my come again until I turned the possibility into a reality. After all the shit I’d given Andrew, Jason, and Ryan, it turned out that I might actually be the craziest motherfucker amongst us when it came to his woman. I’d only known her two nights, and I could already picture her belly round with my baby.
But if she wasn’t ready to think about moving to Chicago with me, then she sure as fuck wasn’t ready for me to admit that to her. So I tried to lighten the mood. “At least you won’t be a pregnant bride.”
Her head jerked up and she glared at me. “That joke isn’t any funnier than the one about us waiting to have sex until we were married.”
“Are you sure? Because I thought it was at least a little bit funny.”
“Oh yeah? How funny do you think Jason and Cee-Cee will think it is?”
“Alessia!” I sputtered, surprised by the accuracy of her verbal spar when she’d only met them yesterday.
She flashed me a triumphant grin. “Uh huh. That’s what I thought.”
“Shit, let’s pretend I never said that, or else Cee-Cee will think I was trash-talking her,” I groaned. “Then Jason will try to kick my ass, and I’d hate to embarrass him over something I didn’t mean in the first place since there’s nothing wrong with being pregnant when you get married.”
“I guess I
can keep your secret. So you don’t have to beat up your friend at the start of his honeymoon.”
“Thanks,” I chuckled. “The poor guy already has to live with the embarrassment of knowing that I talked you into marrying me on the first night we met, and it took him a whole three months to get Cee-Cee down the aisle.”
“I’m married to a crazy man!” Alessia hopped off my lap, her hand going to her lower belly. “And I might already be pregnant with his baby!”
She paced the floor, and I wiped my smug grin off my face when she paused in front of me to glare.
“Is your brand of craziness genetic? Andrew seemed fairly normal last night, but I haven’t met your parents yet so I can’t be sure.”
“My brother was a great hockey player. He’s a smart businessman. But he’s the furthest thing from normal when it comes to Josie. And when you meet my parents, you’ll find that we get it from our dad.”
“I guess it’s only fair, considering my family has its own brand of crazy. At least yours is the kind that makes the guy want to stick around,” she grumbled, her hand covering her belly again. “Which’ll be a good thing if you really did knock me up.”
I couldn’t stand how sad her eyes suddenly looked. Swiftly rising to my feet, I pulled her into my arms. “There’s a story behind that, isn’t there?”
“Not a good one.”
“For better or worse, beautiful,” I reminded her.
“Seriously crazy,” she whispered, taking a deep breath before she continued. “My dad walked out when I was in my freshman year of high school. Not just on my mom, but all of us. Me and Ariana, too. One day he was there, and the next he was gone. No goodbye. No explanation. Nothing.”
I didn’t know the guy, but if I ever met him I was pretty sure I’d end up kicking his ass for the shit he’d put Alessia through. “That was what, six years ago? And you never heard from him again?”
“My mom got served divorce papers about a year later. She didn’t contest it because he offered her a small settlement and she couldn’t wait to get her hands on the money.”
I stroked my palms up and down her back in a gesture meant to offer comfort while she recounted her difficult past. “It couldn’t have been easy, raising two teenage girls on her own. I’m sure she needed the cash.”
“If only that’d been her reason,” she sighed. “I didn’t know it at the time, but she was gambling with money she couldn’t spare. We never seemed to have enough to make ends meet, and I used what I earned from my part-time job to help fill in the gaps.”
Shit. She’d only been sixteen back then, holding down a part-time job to help her mom. No dad around. A mom with a gambling problem. Alessia hadn’t had an easy time of it.
When I’d been that age, I was attending an expensive boarding school because they had one of the best hockey programs in the country. As long as I pulled in decent grades and stayed on the team, my parents covered everything for me—including the brand-new car they’d bought me when I got my license.
I’d lived a blessed life. One I was determined to share with my new wife.
“Alessia.” I waited for her to lift her head and meet my eyes. “Those days are over. No matter what happens between the two of us—and make no mistake, I’m going to do everything in my power to convince you to stay married to me—I’ll make sure you don’t have to struggle like that again.”
“Alec, no. I didn’t tell you all of that to make you feel sorry for me because I want money from you.”
“I know you don’t, beautiful. But you’ve got my ring on your finger.” I rubbed over the underside of it with my thumb. “And I might have already gotten you pregnant.” I slid my other hand between us to cradle her belly. “That makes you doubly mine. And I take care of what’s mine.”
“You really are a caveman. I should probably do something about that or else you’ll think you can walk all over me.”
“Nah.” I grinned at her. “You’d be disappointed if I wasn’t.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” I echoed.
“It’s not like I’m going to admit it to you. That’d only make you worse,” she laughed.
“I married a smart woman,” I complimented her.
“Smart enough to notice you broke our new rule. That was definitely a serious conversation, and I wasn’t in your lap.”
I gently brushed my lips over hers. “But you were in my arms, and that’s just as good for me.”
“Enough with all the sad stories and life-changing realizations. I think we should do something fun today.”
“Then it’s your lucky day! How does a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon sound?”
“Like something I’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance.”
“Good, because Ryan and I made arrangements to do one this morning but now he’s not here and I’d hate to let the sight-seeing tour go to waste.” Especially when it was something my wife wanted that I could easily give to her.
Chapter Nine
Alessia
Alec and I had somehow already fallen into a morning routine, only three days into our relationship. Once again, I woke up with his body wrapped around mine. He got out of bed first and showered before drawing me a bubble bath. This time around, it was very much needed because my muscles were a bit sore from our tour of the Grand Canyon.
We’d switched our plans up a bit so we could spend the morning with Alec’s friends and family before heading as a group to McCarran Airport. We said our goodbyes and dropped them off at the private jet terminal and then headed over to the tour company’s hangar. Alec upgraded us to a private tour, with just the two of us on the helicopter. We went through VIP check-in, and less than an hour later our pilot descended four thousand feet into the depths of the Grand Canyon to touch down next to the banks of the Colorado River.
The rock formations on the western rim of the canyon were awe inspiring, and the picnic service included in the private tour was such a romantic touch. We ate a late lunch surrounded by the seventh wonder of the world, and then we’d hiked around the Native American Hualapai lands for about an hour. Alec was in better shape than me, which was no surprise since he was a professional hockey player, and I’d overdone it a bit to keep up with him. But it’d been well worth it for the amazing views of the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, and the Hoover Dam, with the Strip as a grand finale.
Our excursion the day before, which we’d followed up by walking the Strip after we got back, had left me with a big appetite when I woke up. So I had Alec add scrambled eggs with American cheese to my order of waffles, while he stuck with his egg white and vegetable omelet.
“I feel like we have our orders reversed. Isn’t the woman the one who’s supposed to order healthy stuff while the guy eats whatever he wants?” I asked as I pushed my plate away from me after practically licking it clean.
He lifted his shirt and patted his washboard abs. “You married an athlete, beautiful. Even during the off-season, I have to watch what I eat.”
“What about our first breakfast together? You didn’t order anything healthy then.”
“I can have a cheat day every now and again.” He winked at me. “And I’d already consumed a shit ton of empty calories drinking with you and your sister the night before. Those frozen drinks she kept picking out during our walk were basically sugar mixed with alcohol.”
“You didn’t have to drink them.” I shook my head, laughing as I got up and grabbed my shoes.
“And risking pissing your sister off? No way. It didn’t take me long to figure out I’m better off being on her good side.” He held the door open for me, waggling his eyebrows. “A hunch that was proved right when she maneuvered us into that wedding chapel.”
“Keep reminding yourself of that today, when we use you for your muscles and get you to do all the heavy lifting.”
He stood behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle and lowering his mouth to my ear while we waited for the elevator. “Feel free to use my muscl
es whenever you want. For anything you need.”
His tone was thick with sexual innuendo, leaving me in no doubt exactly how he hoped I’d want to use him. I fanned myself with my hand. “Is it hot in here? I feel like it’s about a thousand degrees.”
His deep-throated chuckle followed me into the elevator. The sensual tension between us wasn’t the least bit dimmed by the three other people already inside. Or the ride over to a car rental place where we picked up a truck. It wasn’t until we headed out of the touristy area towards my part of town that things turned awkward. Gone was the glittery Las Vegas from all the commercials, and it reminded me of the differences between Alec’s life and mine.
“Hey, I can hear you thinking over there,” he claimed when he pulled into the parking lot of the complex where my sister and I lived with our mom.
“Maybe you should wait in the truck. Let my sister and I take care of bringing our stuff down,” I suggested, staring out the window with my arms crossed protectively in front of my body.
He parked at the curb, near the front door of our building, and I heard him turn in his seat towards me. “No can do, beautiful. I’m not going to sit in the truck while you two do the heavy lifting. Not only would your sister strip me of my white knight nickname for it; I already told you I take care of what’s mine. Part of that is doing the heavy lifting for you.”
“I know.” It’d been a long-shot, but I’d felt like I had to try at least.
We both got out of the truck, and he grabbed my hand when he caught up with me on the sidewalk. “Nothing I see inside that building is going to change my opinion of you.”
I stopped and looked up at his face. “And what is that, exactly?”
“That you’re the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Whoa. My knees turned to jelly at his declaration, but I didn’t have long to indulge my reaction because my sister called out to us from the top of the stairs, “Quit being lazy and get your asses up here!”
“Hold that thought, beautiful. We’ve got all the time in the world to have this discussion. I promise.”
Married Into Love Page 8
