Chapter Five
As violins played the opening passage of Etta James’s “At Last,” James led Quinn to the center of the dance floor and drew her to him. Her hand gripped in his and pressed to his chest, his cheek rested against the side of her head. She melted against him as they began to slowly sway in time to the song.
“What do you say, Mrs. Anderson? You ready to blow this Popsicle stand?”
“I am. Doing all the traditional reception stuff has been fun, though, hasn’t it?” She leaned back and shot him a wicked smile. “I especially enjoyed it when we fed each other cake.” The smoldering look he’d given her when he’d put her finger in his mouth and sucked off the frosting—to hoots and hollers of the delighted guests—had her knees buckling.
“That was pretty great, although I gotta say my favorite was removing your garter,” he said with a wolfish grin.
A shiver rolled through when she recalled the feeling of his hand unhurriedly running up her thigh. “Yeah,” she croaked. She cleared her throat and tried again. “That, um, yeah. That was pretty good, too.”
They fell silent and danced, with Quinn’s head resting on his chest.
“I’m a little disappointed, though,” James said a moment later. “You’re not wearing the lacy holster you told me about.”
She picked up her head and looked into his face. “I do have two thighs, you know.” She smirked when she felt him jolt. Piling it on, she added, “And your hands are gonna have to travel a little higher.”
The hand on her back pressed her body hard against his. “We need to get out of here.” The same urgency in his voice stirred in her.
“We really do. Besides, next up in the parade of traditions is the wedding night.”
There was a gleam in his eye when he said, “And we don’t want to break with tradition.”
“No, we don’t.”
The song ended and they kissed, the sound of the applause of their friends and relatives enveloping them. Mindful of the fact they were still in public, they kept their kiss brief. Fueled by their flirtations, however, it packed a serious wallop.
Hand in hand, James and Quinn left the dance floor and started their good-byes.
“The day James came to the library and I saw you two together, I knew he was the one for you,” Nicole said as she squeezed Quinn in a tight hug. “Even if you didn’t know it yet.”
“You were right. Thanks for being the charter member of the James and Quinn Fan Club.”
Nicole laughed. “You’re welcome, Q.”
“I love you,” Quinn said, her throat taut with emotion.
“I love you, too.” Nicole released her and gave James a hug. “You keep my girl happy.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command.
“I will. Always,” he said with equal seriousness. He straightened and his tone lightened. “I’m looking forward to keeping up with my husbandly duties.”
Nicole’s eyes glinted with approval. “Then my work here is done.”
“Thanks, James,” Brian said as they shook hands after Quinn had hugged her friend’s husband.
“You’re welcome. And thank you.” Something passed between the two men Quinn didn’t understand.
As they walked toward James’s family, Quinn said, “What was that about?”
“What?”
“You and Brian are up to something.”
He kissed her cheek. “Don’t be paranoid.” When she side-eyed him, hard, he sighed. “Trust me.”
She always trusted him. Placated, she answered, “Okay.”
They said their good-byes to James’s family. Quinn noted, in addition to the palpable tension between his divorced parents, James’s grandparents didn’t appear to be too thrilled with their daughter’s recent life choices either. Going forward, when it came to James’s family, Quinn’s game plan was simple. She’d support her husband and keep her head down.
When James and Quinn joined her family to say their farewells, Monroe shook James’s hand and said, “George and John have to put their kids to bed, but the rest of us, like me and Madison and Tom and Nicole and Brian and Kelsey, are going for drinks at the bar. You should come hang out with us for a while.”
Quinn shot her brother a sour look. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nah, it’ll be fun,” Madison said and clapped James on the back.
“Ignore your brothers,” Marie said, pushing between the twins and pulling Quinn into an embrace. “You and James go. Have a wonderful honeymoon and give us a call when you get back.”
“We will.” She hugged her mother tighter. “Thanks for everything.”
Marie rubbed Quinn’s back. “You’re welcome, honey.”
Quinn slipped her arms around her father and held him tight. “Thanks, Dad. You and Mom are the best.”
“Anything for our little girl,” Robert said gruffly and kissed the top of her head.
She stepped back and swiped at the sudden tears streaking down her cheeks. Through blurred vision, she watched her husband and father shake hands. When the two men she loved most in the world did one of those awkward, backslapping man hugs, a watery chuckle burbled up.
Finally, they went to say good-bye to Quinn’s grandparents. After kissing her grandmother’s cheek, she said to her grandfather, “Thank you for sending James to the library.”
His blue eyes twinkled. “You’re welcome, angel.”
“You couldn’t have known this would happen,” James said.
“Well . . .” His voice trailed off.
“Oh, Chester,” Grandma said and gave him an exasperated look. “He didn’t know,” she said to James. “Although once he told me what he was up to, we both had a feeling something good could come of it.”
James took Quinn’s hand and threaded their fingers together. “Best assignment ever.”
Quinn smiled at her husband.
“Okay, you two.” Grandma flicked her hands at them. “Shoo.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” James said.
“Bye.” Quinn gave her parents a little wave while James tugged her away. He snatched his tuxedo jacket from the back of his chair and, with his hand still clasping hers, strode out into the hotel lobby.
Quinn veered for the bank of elevators that would take them to their room. To her surprise, James kept walking straight for the front entrance of the hotel. “Change of plans,” he said and gently pulled her along.
“What are you up to?”
They went through the front door. Parked in the valet drop-off area was the black town car that had ferried them from the church to the nearby hotel where the reception had taken place. The driver, who had been standing next to the car waiting for them, opened the back door. He nodded crisply and said, “Mrs. Anderson. Mr. Anderson.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow at James in question.
His response was a slanted smile and a sweeping hand toward the open car door.
She narrowed her eyes at him and then smiled, secretly pleased by this unexpected twist. She slid into the backseat, and once she’d wrangled the long skirt of her dress, James bounced in next to her. The door closed with a solid thunk. Seconds later, the car glided away and turned onto the street.
“If we’re on our way to meet with a contact, you’re sleeping on the couch tonight,” she teased.
“I guess it’s lucky for me we’re not.” He loosened his tie and unbuttoned the button at his throat. “Lucky for you, too,” he added with a lascivious grin.
She snickered and playfully slapped the side of his leg with the back of her hand.
“There’s someplace we need to go,” he said without elaboration.
“You do realize we could be alone in our room right now.”
The interior of the car was dim, but she could still see earnestness on his face. “I’m hoping you’ll think it’s worth the wait.”
Quinn rested her palm on his cheek, leaned over, and kissed him. “I’m sure I will,” she murmured and kissed him again. Without their lips breaking contact, he shifted, slid his arm around her waist, and rolled into her. They were nearly horizontal and kissing each other hungrily by the time the town car made a series of sharp turns and came to a stop.
James lifted his head and grumbled, “I’m seriously questioning my earlier thought process.” He pulled Quinn upright. “I’m pretty sure I’m a complete idiot.”
“No, you’re not. If you went to all this trouble, I’m sure it’ll be worth it.” She looked out the window and grinned. “An In-N-Out drive-thru?”
“To commemorate our first date.”
“Hmm. I seem to recall at the time you made a point of saying it wasn’t a date.”
“Yes, and you will also recall I admitted the next day I was kidding myself about how I felt about you. And I asked you to go out with me that very night.”
She remembered. It was the night that had changed her life forever. She pecked his lips with hers. “Good point. I’ll allow it.”
“Plus, I thought we might be hungry after the reception. Did you eat any of the dinner?”
“I ate a few bites.” Her brow furrowed. “I think it was chicken.”
“See?”
“Now that you mention it, I’m starving.”
“Me, too.” He reached across her and pressed a button on the door panel. The window slid down with a whir. “Double-Double, fries, and a chocolate shake?”
“Obviously,” she said in a lighthearted tone.
His pleased grin warmed her.
When they pulled even with the speaker, James placed their order. The car crept forward and stopped at the window.
The teenager in the red apron and white shirt looked dumbfounded when he opened the window and saw Quinn, resplendent in her wedding dress, smiling at him. “Hi,” she said and held the money out as if it weren’t one of the most unexpected things ever.
“Hi.” His voice was filled with awe. He took the proffered twenty-dollar bill and, seconds later, said, “Here’s your change. Your food will be ready in a minute.”
“Thank you,” she said brightly. She handed James the cash and giggled. “I don’t think he’s blinked once since we pulled up.”
“He’s blindsided by how beautiful you are.”
“You’re sweet.” She gave him a soft kiss that swiftly turned scorching. “And unbelievably sexy.”
A throat cleared behind her. She twisted around.
“Your food.” The worker passed two drinks and a white bag across the gap. “Ketchup?”
James bent over and peered out the window. “Yes, please.”
He stared at James, somehow more stunned than he was before. But at least he was blinking again. The guy shook himself from his stupor, grabbed some ketchup packets, and dropped them in Quinn’s outstretched hand.
Now that they had everything, James waved and said, “Thanks.”
The young man raised a hand hesitantly and intoned by rote, “Have a nice evening.”
“You can count on it,” came James’s enthusiastic reply.
“Wow,” Quinn heard the young man say in reverence as the town car pulled away.
She put up the window while James took a Double-Double from the bag. The aroma filling the car made her mouth water. Eating at In-N-Out was one of the things she missed most now that she lived in Virginia. “I think you’re his hero,” she said, taking the burger from his hand.
“As well I should be. I just got to marry you, didn’t I?”
“Flattery and Double-Doubles will get you everywhere, Mr. Anderson.” She took a huge bite of her cheeseburger. At its gloriousness, her eyelids fluttered and she released a deep, satisfied groan.
“I’m not sure my fragile male psyche can handle it if I don’t elicit at the very least a similar response from you later.” James bit into his Double-Double and grunted in approval.
She swallowed and sipped her milkshake. “Trust me. You have nothing to worry about.”
He grabbed some French fries from the paper tray, swiped them through the blob of ketchup he’d squirted from the plastic packet, and held them in front of her mouth.
Her lips grazed his fingertips when she bit into the clump of fries. After he popped the ends of the fries in his mouth, Quinn took his hand and licked the salt from his fingers. His breath hitched in his chest when she kissed his open palm.
“Um, yeah,” he said with a shiver. “Neither do you.”
She smiled at him and took another bite of her cheeseburger. It gave her immense satisfaction to know she could rattle his cage as much as he did hers.
After they’d demolished their burgers and fries, Quinn’s eyebrows knit together when she glanced out the window. “We should be near the hotel.” When she saw the name of the street they’d crossed, she grew more confused. “We’re near UCLA.” They were twenty miles from where they’d started. She’d been so distracted by James and the food, the world beyond the interior of the car had become irrelevant.
“I know. It’s okay. We’re not going back to the hotel in Redondo.”
“What? Why?”
“We’re going to a different one. I didn’t want to stay in the same place with everyone else. It seemed weird.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m sorry. I guess I should have. I wanted it to be a surprise, something just for us. Only Brian knows where we’ll be. And he won’t spill unless it’s an absolute emergency. As a thank-you for keeping my secret, I gave him the key to the honeymoon suite.”
“So that’s what you two were up to. Nicole will be thrilled. And I do like the idea of being off everyone’s radar.” They had spent a lot of time with a lot of people over the last few days.
“Exactly. It’s just you and me. Besides, who knows what Madison and Monroe might have cooked up to mess with our wedding night?”
“I know better than anyone what kind of goofballs those two are, but I don’t think they’d do something like that. I mean, they’re thirty years old.” Seeing his dubious expression, she sighed. “You’re right. Chronologically, they’re thirty, but there are times they have the maturity of a couple of twelve-year-olds.”
“And they may not have planned anything. I didn’t want to take the chance of the phone ringing every ten minutes or walking into a room crammed with balloons or . . .”
“Squeaky toys stuffed under the mattress.”
“Yeah.”
“Good call,” she said.
They relaxed until the car turned into the driveway and stopped at the front entrance of a luxury hotel. A valet opened her door. “Good evening and congratulations.”
“Thank you,” she said and smiled.
James bolted from the car, ran around the back to her side, and helped her out. While she straightened her dress, James spoke to the driver hauling their luggage from the trunk. “See you back here tomorrow at noon.”
“Yes, sir.”
Quinn took James’s elbow, and the newlyweds entered the posh lobby. She tried to ignore the stares from the handful of people as they walked toward the front desk. She couldn’t blame them for rubbernecking. She would have, too.
It wasn’t long before they entered their room, the bellhop trailing behind them. He set their bags on the floor, and once James tipped him, he barely made a sound as he discreetly slipped from the room and closed the door.
The first thing Quinn did was step out of her heels. She hummed a happy sigh. Next, the bobby pins came out. She raked her fingers through her freed mane.
James shrugged off his tuxedo jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair. As he worked to remove a cuff link, he dipped his head toward the bottle partially submerged in a silver ice bucket. “Do you want some champagne?”
Her dress rustled as she moved to stand in front of him. “Here, let me.” She deftly flipped the little bar on the back of the cuff link and pushed it through the hole with her thumb. She set it on the table and took his other wrist. “I’m good right now, but you should have some if you want. I’d like to wash off all this makeup first.” After removing the second cuff link, she worked the buttons of his vest. “But before I do that, I need to get out of this dress.” She couldn’t keep the coy smile from her lips when she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “I can’t reach the buttons down the back, so I’m gonna need you to undo them.”
Her gaze flicked to his face.
Her smile widened at the gleam in his eyes. “Anything for my wife.”
She unfastened the last button, removed his vest, and tossed it away. Her hands ran over his chest and slid under his suspenders. “Anything?” She pushed the straps over his broad shoulders and ran her hands over his muscled arms.
His eyes never left her face as she pulled the end of his necktie through the knot and leisurely drew it from under his collar. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “Anything,” he said in a strangled whisper.
He took the tie from her and flung it away. “Your turn.”
She slowly spun until her back was to him.
A chill raced up her spine when his knuckles grazed her skin as he fidgeted with the top button.
With each button he loosened, his hands moved a little lower. The pressure inside her built. By the time he reached the small of her back, the air around them crackled with electricity.
From behind, his hands slithered under the bodice and skimmed over her belly. The dress slipped over her hips and fell to the floor. A pool of white lace covered her feet.
Her hands rested on his forearms curled around her waist. His taut muscles twitched under her palms. She closed her eyes and hummed with pleasure when he pressed his lips to the top of her bare shoulder. Like a slow burn, he took his time, leaving one sensual kiss after another as he made his way toward her neck.
Not wanting him to stop, she tilted her head to the side. His arms tightened around her, crushing her against his flat abdomen. Her legs almost gave out when he dragged his parted lips over her neck. His hot breath scorched her skin.
She couldn’t take it anymore. He was driving her out of her mind. She turned around, hauled his face to hers with her hands, and crushed her lips to his. He released a low, throaty moan when she slipped her tongue into his open mouth. They kissed each other ravenously, the skin of her bare back sizzling under his splayed hands.
She tugged at his shirt until it was free of his waistband. One hand roamed his bare back while the other gripped his firm butt. The feel of his hard body under her touch nearly sent her into orbit. She kissed him deeper and harder.
James broke the kiss and slid his mouth to her throat. “You make me crazy.”
She fumbled with the button of his trousers. “And you have too many clothes on.”
He peeled his unbuttoned shirt off over his head and blindly tossed it away. It landed on the bucket of entirely ignored champagne.
While James yanked off his shoes, removed his ankle holster, and ripped off his trousers, Quinn went to one side of the giant bed and flung back the covers. Pillows arced through the air.
She clambered onto the bed at the same time James launched over the end of it. She bounced when he belly flopped onto the mattress next to her.
Side-by-side, he levered onto an elbow and settled a hand on her hip. She cupped his face in her hands and drew him to her. They shared a kiss so passionate, so enflaming, so arousing, she was about to incinerate where she lay. She needed him. Bad.
His hands and lips were like magic, driving her closer to the edge. A mind-blowing shock wave rolled through her when they came together. Sparks exploded in her vision as she cried out and arched against him as he thrust into her. Spent, he collapsed on top of her.
He rolled off, but kept her firmly in his arms. Within a few minutes, his breathing turned deep and regular.
Supremely contented, Quinn burrowed further into her sleeping husband’s embrace. Her meandering thoughts before she joined him in slumber were of her mother’s words. Sure, married life wouldn’t always be rainbows and sunshine. But so far, with double cheeseburgers, a luxury hotel room, and teeth-rattling sex, it was off to a really, really great start.