by Virna DePaul
“Grace, honey, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Europe. About the tour you’re canceling over my dead body.” Doctor’s appointments be damned. Disorders didn’t change from one day to the next, at least not the one she had. There would be time for doctor’s appointments and tests and medical crap when they got back. But there would only be one amazing trip of a lifetime with her husband.
“I can’t go to Europe without you, Grace. I won’t. You’d have to tranquilize me to get me on a plane without you.”
Grace grinned and waved her hand through the air like no big thing. “Of course you’re not going without me. You think I’d miss my honeymoon?”
* * *
Max tried to still the pounding in his heart, thinking that maybe he hadn’t heard right. There was ringing in his ears and he wasn’t sure if it was from the car accident or from the reverberations of her words.
“Honeymoon?” he asked, almost scared to question it. Max sat up and cupped Grace’s chin. “Are you putting the wedding back on the table? Are you telling me that you want to tie the knot and go on that European honeymoon just like we planned right before you got your diagnosis?”
Grace grinned at him, her eyes the deepest blue he’d ever seen them, her hair as golden as the sunlight that streamed in all around them. She was his angel, one he would do anything for. “Yes. That’s what I want.” Her smile alone slayed him and brought him back to life in the same instant. There she was—the Dixie he knew and loved. She hadn’t gone away. She’d just been hiding in the dark.
They kissed then. Passionate and joyful. Not the most artful of kisses they’d ever had, considering neither of them could stop grinning. He nipped at her lips and she laughed, then squeezed him just tight enough to have him wincing against the soreness in his ribs.
She gasped and pulled away. “I’m so sorry. I forgot. I’ll go get the nurse.”
“No, Dixie, baby, come here…” He looped her around the waist before she could slide out of bed. “You’re not going anywhere. Not until I get you good and married to me. And I’m not waiting a week. I’m not waiting another day.” Max let intensity and command color his tone of voice. He didn’t care if he sounded unyielding. In this case, he knew what they needed. He knew what was going to be best for them. He knew that he needed to take the indecision off the table. He needed to get. this. shit. done.
“There’s a chapel downstairs. I asked the nurse when they brought me in the room. She said people get married there from time to time.”
Grace seemed to hold her breath for a few seconds, her eyes wide. Then she smiled and Max knew everything was going to be okay. “Don’t we need a license?”
“Check my coat pocket, over there on the chair.”
Grace jumped up and tore through his coat. She found the license, read it over, then looked up at him. “But this is dated for today.”
“I couldn’t not be married to you anymore. Whatever you want to do after we’re married, freak out, whatever, I don’t care. As long as we’re married first. I can’t lose you.”
“You want to get married today,” she echoed, her eyes wide with disbelief, but at the same time, he could see that she was good for it.
“I want to get married this second,” he corrected her.
Grace looked down at herself. “But I’m in jeans.”
Max barked out a laugh. “I want to marry you in jeans. Just as you are.”
“Just as I am,” Grace repeated. “Unclear diagnosis and all. Freak outs and all.”
“Freak outs and all. That’s when you’re most appealing to me, actually. When you need me. You do need me, right, Grace?” He took her hands in his.
Grace flung herself back onto the bed, the marriage license floating down to the ground like a feather in the wind. “I need you now and forever. Every damn day, Max. Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for slapping me upside the head when I needed it. I want to marry you just as you are, too. Bandages and bruises and all. Bossy and all! I kind of like the bossy part.”
Max laughed and felt a weight lift off of him. At the same time, he felt his cock stiffen at her words. If she liked bossy, he would show her bossy tomorrow at home. Or maybe in this very bed tonight when the nurses weren’t looking. Even though his ribs ached like a bitch, his headache was splitting his head in two, and his eyebrow didn’t feel too hot either, he’d still want his wife, Grace Sinclair. NO. Grace Dalton. He’d actually never felt better in his entire life.
Less than an hour later, Max and Grace walked out of the hospital elevator and onto the chapel floor. Melina and Rhys, Lucy and Jamie, and all their kids were waiting for them. Each person held a bouquet of colorful flowers, except for Milly, who just wore a few on her soft little headband. So stinkin’ cute she was.
The second that Tabitha spotted Grace and Max getting off the elevator, she raced over to them. Tabby thrust one of the two bouquets she held in her hands toward Grace.
“Ant flowers,” she said, patting the flowers then Grace’s cheek.
“There’s ants on the flowers?” Grace asked, looking up at Melina for clarification.
“No,” Melina called. “We told her they’re the flowers you get for becoming her Aunt.”
“Ohhh,” Grace grinned and planted a wet kiss on the little girl’s cheek. “They’re my auntie flowers.”
“And your wifey flowers,” Max added, impossibly touched to see the woman he loved giving so much affection to his niece. Truth be told, they’d all been a family long before this moment.
“And your sister flowers!” Rhys called across the room.
“And your…friend flowers,” Lucy said, stamping her foot. “Well, I guess you getting married doesn’t really change that one. But whatever! Just come on and get hitched already! We’re tired of the back and forth.” She winked at Max then smiled at Grace.
Grace set Tabby back on the floor, only to immediately pick up Charlie, who charged her. All of them moved together into the chapel. It was small and simple and even though it wasn’t the perfect wedding he’d wanted to give her to make her dreams come true, it was just perfect in Max’s eyes.
Because he knew he was making her dreams come true, just like she was doing for him. Plus, he still had every intention of giving her a second formal wedding when they returned from Europe.
“Where’s the chaplain?” Grace asked, nuzzling Charlie’s soft curls.
“Well, about that…” Rhys cleared his throat, looking at Max.
Max scrubbed a hand over his face. Jesus Christ. No chaplain? How many obstacles were they going to have? He supposed another one wouldn’t make a scrap of a difference. As long as he got his woman, everything else was small potatoes.
“The chaplain isn’t in today,” his brother explained, “BUT luckily there’s a different kind of chapel down the street and Jamie did some fast talking so...”
A door in the back of the chapel opened and in walked… Elvis, sequined jump suit and all. “Are we ready to love me some tender, folks?”
“Jesus Christ,” Max muttered, looking sideways at Grace, not sure what he’d see. Elvis freakin’ Presley would be marrying them? An old, sweaty Elvis at that?
But all Grace did was laugh in delight, humor dancing in her beautiful eyes. Something had changed. She no longer seemed fearful, worried about wedding details, or stressed about life. She seemed at peace. Finally. “Perfect,” she whispered, taking his hand.
He leaned down to kiss her, then stared into her eyes. “Yes. Perfect.”
Thank you for reading Wedding the Bad Boy. I hope you enjoyed seeing the Dalton Brothers again, along with their loves (women and children). Be sure to check out Book 8, Bedding the Boss, Eric’s story, coming out soon, as well as my other sexy romances, including my new romantic comedy series, Kiss Talent Agency!
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www.virnadepaul.com
Books by Virna
KISS TA
LENT AGENCY
Book 1: Lip Action (Simon): Click here to purchase
Book 2: Locking Lips (Caleb): Click here to purchase:
THE BEDDING THE BACHELORS SERIES
Book 1: Bedding The Wrong Brother (Rhys): Click here to purchase
Book 2: Bedding The Bad Boy (Max): Click here to purchase
Book 3: Bedding The Billionaire (Jamie): Click here to purchase
Book 4: Bedding The Best Friend (Ryan): Click here to purchase
Book 5: Bedding The Biker Next Door (Cole): Click here to purchase
Book 6: Bedding The Bodyguard (Luke): Click here to purchase
Book 7: Bedding The Best Man (Gabe): Click here to purchase
Book 8: Bedding The Boss (Eric)**
HOME TO GREEN VALLEY SERIES
Book 1: What Love Can Do (Quinn): Click here to purchase
Book 2: The Way Love Goes (Conor): Click here to purchase
Book 3: I’m Gonna Love You (Brady): Click here to purchase
Book 4: Best Of My Love (Riley): Click here to purchase
Book 5: Because You Love Me (Sean): Click here to purchase
HARD AS NAILS
Book 1: Hard Time (Street): Click here to purchase
Book 2: Hard Case (Slate): Click here to purchase
Book 3: Hard Core (Axel): Click here to purchase
Book 4: Hard Place (Jericho): Click here to purchase
Book 5: Hard Act (Davis)**
GOING DEEP SERIES
Book 1: Down Deep (Heath): Click here to purchase
Book 2: Royally Deep (Kyle): Click here to purchase
SAY YOU LOVE ME SERIES
Book 1: Say It Sexy: Click here to purchase
Book 2: Say It Sweet: Click here to purchase
ROCK CANDY SERIES
Book 1: Rock Strong: Click here to purchase
Book 2: Rock Dirty: Click here to purchase
Book 3: Rock Wild: Click here to purchase
Book 4: Rock Free**
PARA-OPS PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE SERIES
Book 1: Knox: Chosen by Blood: Click here to purchase
Book 2: Wraith: Chosen by Fate: Click here to purchase
Book 3: Dex: Chosen by Sin: Click here to purchase
**Coming Soon
Kiss Talent Agency
Lip Action
(Kiss Talent Agency Book 1)
Marissa
Appearance is everything to my upper-crust mother, but when she insists I take back my pedigreed-but-cheating ex? I’d rather stab myself with a salad fork. So I blurt out I’m dating someone new. Someone like…that smoking-hot, vaguely familiar guy across the restaurant, who could be the next James Bond.
Turns out he’s the star of my favorite, cheesy, sci-fi soap opera. (Don’t judge me.) One minute I’m fantasizing about Borg and his green-hued abs. The next, Simon Dale is making me an offer my sex-starved body can’t refuse.
Simon
I’m up for a breakout movie role that’ll launch me off the B-list, but I don’t need a script to read the scene between Marissa and her mum. Even though I’m a London gutter rat who never rubbed elbows with a Royal, I easily slip into the role of Marissa’s doting boyfriend. Why? I need a favor in return— a steady girlfriend, just long enough to convince the producers I’ve changed my wild ways.
Trouble is, I’m going all Method on this relationship—and close to losing the one thing that could break me. My heart.
Locking Lips
(Kiss Talent Agency Book 2)
Caleb
As a photographer, I appreciate contrasts. The stiff, snobby brat on the flight from New York turns out to be a scared, vulnerable woman who warms my heart. The icy cold soda she dumps in my lap leads to the hottest sex of my life in an LA dressing room.
When I watch her walk away, I feel something I’ve never felt before. A twinge of regret that I’ll never see her again. Except we do meet again. And she’s driving me insane.
Heather
Clearly, I’ve lost my mind.
Turns out the owner of the deep, sensual voice that kept me from needing the airline barf bag, who lured me completely out of character to indulge in anonymous, semi-public sex, is the photographer for my designs’ first photo spread in Bella fashion magazine.
Worse, our artistic visions clash. And every time we butt heads, our butts somehow get naked.
I can’t let my hormones cloud my judgment. I tried having it all, and it didn’t work out. I have to stop envisioning a life with him, and get my head back in the game…before I lose everything.
Bedding The Bachelors Series
Bedding The Wrong Brother
(Bedding the Bachelors Book 1)
Determined to find her inner sex diva, Melina Parker enlists her childhood friend, Max Dalton, to tutor her after hours. Instead, she ends up in the wrong bed and gets a lesson in passion from Max’s twin brother, Rhys Dalton, a man Melina’s always secretly wanted but never thought she could have.
This #1 Bestselling Contemporary Romance is rated HHH ("Heat, Heart & HEA") and involves a bed mix-up, hot identical twins, sex lessons, naughty word games, light restraint, a shy sex bomb who's afraid she's boring and a playboy hero determined to prove she's got everything he'll ever need.
Bedding The Bad Boy
(Bedding the Bachelors Book 2)
This bad boy is ready to work some magic...
Identical twin and Las Vegas performer Max Dalton has always been the number one bad boy in his family, and he's appreciated the women and fame that comes along with his reputation.
Grace Sinclair is on a mission when she comes to Vegas, one that involves asking Max, her best friend's brother-in-law, to give her the pleasure no man's ever been able to. She suspects Max has more layers than he lets people see, but she's determined to keep her heart safe even as she offers him her body.
What neither of them plan on is love--or the triangle the media stirs up with Max's blonde bombshell actress friend.
Will Grace see beyond Max's bad boy façade long enough to trust him with her heart? And will Max figure out what he really wants before he loses the one woman who makes him believe in love again?
Bedding The Billionaire
(Bedding the Bachelors Book 3)
Free-spirited Lucy Conrad enjoys her friends but keeps others at a distance, especially her affluent and judgmental family...and the billionaire she once dated, Jamie Whitcomb. Despite their explosive chemistry, experience has proven she'll never fit into his world.
Charismatic Jamie enjoys work, women, and wealth. When duty demands he take over running the family business, he jumps in full-throttle; his only regret is Lucy's refusal to take the ride with him.
Then tragedy strikes and Lucy realizes that in order to gain custody of her orphaned niece, she must prove she can fit back into the high-society world she once rejected. The solution? Accept Jamie's make-believe marriage proposal, and be seen as the type of mother her niece deserves. Respectable. Controlled. Willing to play the game.
With her faux-fiancé by her side, Lucy exchanges dirty martinis and leather for champagne and silk. But when the passion between Lucy and Jamie only grows greater, they have to make a choice: back away from each other and not get hurt...or risk everything for the kind of love money can't buy.
Bedding The Best Friend
(Bedding the Bachelors Book 4)
As the new year approaches, nice girl Annie O’Roarke finds herself bored and lonely. She wants more excitement. More adventure. And more sex…even if it won’t be with her secret crush, her best friend, Ryan Hennessey. Annie’s determined to be “bad” for once in her life, and that includes completing her “naughty” list in a city where being bad is just an ordinary day: Vegas.
Ryan Hennessey is a firefighter who relishes his time off with Annie. Annie’s the only person he can count on and he’d never jeopardize their friendship. Then Ryan discovers Annie’s “naughty” list. Although he’s stunned Annie is raring to explore her wilder side, he
doesn’t trust anyone else to keep her safe.
So long as he’s there to protect her, Ryan’s going to teach Annie the true key to being a bad girl.
A bad girl takes what she wants.
Will Annie be brave enough to act on the passion that sizzles between her and Ryan? And will Ryan convince himself and Annie that love is worth gambling for?
Bedding The Biker Next Door
(Bedding The Bachelors Book 5)
Jill Jones has good friends, a great job, and a steady amount of dates. What she doesn’t have is a kinky or wild bone in her body—or so she thinks. Then she meets a handsome tattooed biker who lights her on fire. Suddenly she’s saying yes to all sorts of things, starting with a night in bed, no strings attached.
A security expert, Cole Novak protects others for a living, but he’s weighed down by grief that he couldn’t save the most important person in his life. Then he meets Jill, and for one night she brings color back into his world…only to walk away, plunging him back into the now-familiar darkness.
