CHAPTER 22
Melinda
“I’m pretty sure this is a bad idea,” I tell Lowe as the ride attendant pulls on my harness first, then Lowe’s.
“It’s a great idea,” he assures me as he reaches a hand out to pat me on the top of my leg. Our seats are a foot apart on the circular base. My hand flies out and latches onto his, my fingers curling so hard he curses under his breath.
Leaning forward so he can see past the thickly padded harness, Lowe looks at me. “You okay?”
“I have a tiny fear of heights,” I admit to him.
His eyebrows furrow inward. “Why didn’t you tell me that when I suggested this ride?”
Well, probably because I was drunk and honestly, the Sling Shot didn’t look that intimidating when I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and we were just walking around all night. We’d stop into a casino and play a few games, have a few cocktails. We’d people-see. Have a few cocktails. We’d kiss. Have a few more cocktails.
I wasn’t thinking straight when Lowe looked at me with those mesmerizing eyes and suggested we go on a thrill ride. I would have done anything he asked.
I shrug. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Oh God, Mely,” he says with a nervous laugh and squeezes my hand. “Let me see if I can get you off this thing.”
Then he turns and calls over his shoulder in the direction the attendant went. Lowe was ignored, or the guy didn’t hear us, but then loud music starts blasting and my blood pressure skyrockets. My nails dig down into the back of Lowe’s hand with pure fear guiding my actions.
He’s a gentleman and doesn’t pull away, but calls out, “Close your eyes. It will be over fast.”
Yes, that’s exactly what I want to hear because “fast” is the speed by which I want to be launched one hundred feet into the air.
“Oh, this was stupid,” I call out in a quavering voice, my gut tightening hard. “So, so stupid.”
“We could have done something more stupid,” Lowe calls back and gives me a reassuring squeeze, which I know is hard with my nails embedded in his skin.
“Nothing more stupid than this,” I call back, pressing the back of my head into the cushioned headrest and slamming my eyes shut.
Lowe squeezes my hand again and laughs. “We could have gone to one of those gaudy wedding chapels and got married by Elvis. Or to that sex club we walked past… what was it called? The Wicked Horse or something like that.”
This makes me laugh. For a brief, glorious moment, I forget my fear. I open my eyes and lean forward to look at Lowe. He grins back at me and says, “See… forgot all about—”
I shriek as the cylinder shoots into the air. A string of curses flies out of my normally clean and fairly wholesome mouth, as I find vulgarity to be tedious. Lowe bellows out a laugh as we fly to the top, pause for a few seconds, and then I shriek again as we free fall back to earth.
Please, sweet baby Jesus. Let me live and I’ll never do anything stupid again.
♦
Lowe presses me into the door of his hotel room and kisses me hard. Pulling back only slightly so he can speak against my lips, he asks, “Can I carry you over the threshold?”
Yup… appears we could do something stupider.
But I don’t care. I laugh because I’m drunk, I’ve fallen for a beautiful man, and it appears I now have him as a husband. My hands slide into his hair and I pull his mouth back to mine. He pushes against me, his mouth opening, and the kiss goes a million degrees hotter than it’s ever been.
“Let’s consummate this marriage, Mr. Mancinkus,” I say into his mouth, and then give his lip a bite, which causes him to groan.
Lowe’s head pulls back but he doesn’t go far, looking hard into my eyes. “Regrets tomorrow?”
“You mean, am I going to question the fact that we got drunk, somehow decided it would be ‘fun’ to get married by Elvis, and now I’m shackled with a hot, gorgeous husband?”
“Something like that,” he mutters.
I laugh and slide one hand from his hair to his cheek. “You and I are so going to be ashamed of ourselves tomorrow morning, and we can worry about it then. But right now, you and I don’t have one thing holding us back from getting one hundred percent acquainted with each other on a carnal level.”
Lowe gives a mock groan of passion and leers at me in dramatic fashion. “I love it when you talk dirty, Mely.”
Giggling, I pull him back down for another kiss. Within moments, it ignites so hot we’re grinding against each other. It’s then I realize I’m unbuttoning the front of his shirt and reaching inside.
“Okay, let’s slow this down just long enough to get inside,” he says as he grabs my hands and pushes them away. “Don’t want everyone seeing my wife like this.”
I don’t laugh as Lowe reaches into his back pocket. I think we were both willing to do something utterly stupid by getting married, assuming we could easily get an annulment, but hearing Lowe say, “my wife” slams into me so hard that my knees start to buckle. I put my hand on Lowe’s shoulder to steady myself as he pulls out his room key and slides it into the electronic slot. He pushes it open and props a hip against it.
“Mely?” Lowe asks, and I find myself blinking my eyes to focus in on him. “You okay?”
I worry at my lip a moment and then ask him hesitantly, “Is there a chance this wasn’t a stupid idea?”
“What?” he asks with a stunned look on his face.
Oh, crap.
Crap.
He wasn’t feeling that same thing I was. If I called him my husband, he wouldn’t get all fluttery or have that feeling of rightness with the world that I experienced just for a moment.
“Never mind,” I say quickly as I turn away from the door to go to my room next door. “We’re drunk and this was just silly. We can rectify it in the—”
“Oh no you don’t,” Lowe says as he grabs me by the elbow and pulls me into him. “You do not get to start with the regrets yet.”
I pull my arm out of his grasp, and I’m mortified that perhaps I thought this was more than just drunken foolery, so it makes me grumpy. “Oh, so sorry, Lowe. I shouldn’t have regrets yet until you consummate the marriage. Wouldn’t want you to get blue balls or anything?”
Lowe just stares at me a moment, his face blank, and I think he might laugh at me, which would totally ease the tension, and then he’d forgive me for being such a bitch in this moment.
Instead, his eyes harden and he grits out. “I think being your husband gives me the right to spank your butt for that assumption about why we’re standing here right in this moment, but instead, I’m just going to chalk this up to you being unsure of what’s going on here.
My eyes narrow at him because he’s managed to make me feel foolish, and this is confusing since I have no clue how I should be feeling. “Then please enlighten me, Lowe. What the hell is going on here?”
Rather than answer me, his face softens and then I’m swept up in his arms. My own lock around him tight as he turns sideways and we step into his hotel room.
“First,” he says as the door swings shut behind us. “I’m carrying you over the threshold as promised and as a southern gentleman, it’s something I’m bound to do or else my mama will box my ears when I get home.”
I giggle and lay my head on his shoulder, because as confused as I am and as mad as he just was, Lowe at his core lets humor lead the way.
My belly starts to flutter as he strides into the room and lays me down on the bed. I go dizzy when he crawls on top of me, but just hovers on his hands and knees to look down at me seriously.
“Mely,” he says softly. “You and I just did something goofy fueled by alcohol. I can’t speak for your family, but mine will roll their eyes and go with the flow of it. Or… we did something that maybe was going to happen one day down the road anyway. If that’s the case, then this is going to make a hell of a story for our children.”
More fluttering in my belly at the thought of Lowe and me sitting in our house one day, surrounded by little kids.
“I know this is fast,” he continues, and I bring my focus back. “You and I have operated at one speed only since the day we met in the courtroom that first time. And that’s fast. Passionately fast.”
“But we haven’t even—” I start to say.
“No, you and I haven’t been intimate yet, but everything else we’ve done to get where we are right now has been done with passion. You get we have that between us, right?”
I nod. It’s so clear we have that.
“So, let’s stop worrying about it tonight, and when the alcohol clears tomorrow, we can decide what to do. But I say whatever we decide, we do it without regret, because I like you a lot, and I think you like me. Nothing we’ve done has been so stupid that we can’t still be friends after it’s all said and done.”
I let out a huge sigh of relief over his words, knowing that come tomorrow morning, Lowe won’t hate me and I won’t hate myself for our rash actions, or vice versa.
“One more thing we need to discuss,” he says seriously.
“Okay.”
“I want you, Mely,” he says in a deep voice. “You’re lying under me right now. We have a piece of paper saying we don’t have to wait another minute if decorum or propriety are concerns. I’m not much of a religious man, but right now under the eyes of God, your body is mine and mine is yours.”
“Oh, good God… is it possible to climax from words alone?” I murmur.
If he keeps talking that way, I’m going to find out.
Lowe smiles at me. A lazy, sweet smile but his eyes are heated. “This isn’t happening tonight unless you tell me in all honesty you’d have me in your body regardless of that marriage license. I think you and I were headed there soon anyway, but—”
“Lowe,” I interrupt him, bringing my hands to his face. “I would never think you did this just to get in my panties.”
“Others might,” he points out softly.
“I don’t care what others think,” I tell him firmly. “Only you. And if you care what I think, then yes… regardless of that license, I want you to make love to me. I have for a damn long time, and all the kissing and fooling around so far just isn’t enough. No matter what we did tonight or we do tomorrow morning, I want you. All of you. In every way.”
“Okay, you had me at the ‘make love’ proclamation,” Lowe says with a low laugh, bending his head down to graze his lips over mine. “But that ‘in every way’ really has me thinking dirty thoughts. Any objections to getting naked with me like right now, Mrs. Mancinkus?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” I tell him, and then his mouth is on mine.
We consummate the marriage…
Three times before we go to sleep.