I agreed to sign it on the condition that the staff understand this wedding was a private event, and they weren’t to tell anyone about it. They agreed enthusiastically, especially when I beefed up their tip. Then I scribbled Dylan’s signature on the album instead of mine, grinning to myself. My drummer’s autograph was totally fucking illegible. Pretty sure they didn’t know it wasn’t mine. If it was, no one would believe it was mine anyway.
I was the last guy in the band anyone would ever expect to find hanging out in a wedding chapel. Which was saying a lot. My band brothers weren’t exactly famous for their long-term relationships.
Then again, no one had ever seen me with Maggie.
Not like this.
Even I didn’t know what it would be like. What it would feel like to actually be with her. But I found my eyes following her around the chapel as she and Dizzy looked around, and it felt fucking good.
Sure, this had started out on a whim. At least, the proposal part. A testosterone-fueled impulse, brought on by Dizzy’s shitty treatment of his daughter and my own gut-deep urge to do anything in my power to protect her from him.
But it was an impulse six years in the making.
The fuse had been lit the day I met Maggie, and I’d been burning for her for a long, long time.
The closer we got to walking down that aisle? I was warming more and more to the idea of making her my wife.
Despite what my friends might think, what Maggie might think, I could totally do a wife and a marriage. If it was Maggie. Why the fuck not?
I’d had every kind of fantasy there was about the girl, and seeing her in that clingy pink dress holding those flowers? Yeah, I could be all over that.
My wife.
“So… what are you doing later?”
I glanced down to find Dizzy’s date getting up close and personal.
“You know,” she added, “after this?”
I stared at her. The fuck?
“I’m boning my new wife,” I told her, deadpan.
She smiled a little, and that’s when I noticed her eyes. She was blitzed on something. Didn’t smell of booze, though.
“Oh yeah,” she said, kinda dreamily. “She’s so pretty.” Then her thoughts seemed to wander away, and so did she.
I shook my head.
“We’re in luck, sweetheart,” I heard Dizzy say. “They’ve got my song.” I turned to find Maggie’s dad stuffing coins into a jukebox and looking over at Maggie.
Sweetheart?
Guess he was pretty fucking pleased with this whole event, then. Big improvement over calling her a slut.
Then the song kicked in and I cringed.
“Schoolgirl.”
Christ, but the man was clueless.
My gaze slammed into Maggie’s across the room. Her face was turning pink to match her dress. I couldn’t tell if it was repressed rage or laughter, or maybe some kind of allergic reaction to the song. Whatever it was, she bit it back and smiled, the epitome of the happy, blushing bride.
“Perfect!” she said cheerily.
She steered Dizzy and his date over to talk to the officiant, then came over to me while Dizzy pummeled the guy with questions, rolling her eyes. I actually felt kinda sorry for the guy, but dude was in the wedding business. Couldn’t be the first time he’d had to deal with an asshole father of the bride.
“Hey,” I said, taking her hand and drawing her close.
“Hey.” She looked up at me and bit her lip. And yeah, I liked fighting with Maggie, but even better than fighting with Maggie was seeing that truly rare but fucking beautiful spark of mischief in her eyes, the one that said we were on the same team. “I wanted to tell you… I was never that girl who dreamed of some big traditional wedding, you know?”
“That’s good, because this place is a fucking dive.”
She glanced around and shrugged. “Yeah. Good thing it doesn’t matter. But sometimes traditions can be nice. And since this whole thing is hella unconventional…” She grinned. “You know that ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue’ thing?”
“Sure.”
“Well…” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Dizzy was out of earshot and leaned into me. “Dizzy’s the something old,” she whispered.
I laughed. “Perfect.”
“And the flowers are new,” she said, twirling her bouquet. “Something borrowed… I thought maybe you could lend me that skull ring?”
“It’s yours.” I took it off and slid it onto her thumb again. Her thumb looked tiny and delicate engulfed in the big hunk of silver.
“And… well…” She reached down. “I know you picked the pink ones, but I needed something blue.” She slid the dress up her thigh and flashed me the electric-blue lace of her panties.
Instant flood of lust, straight to my dick.
“I think, traditionally, it’s supposed to be a blue garter, but I didn’t have one of those on short notice.” She bit her lip again, smiling. “You think this’ll work?”
“Yeah,” I said as she lowered her dress back down. “It works, babe.”
Then I leaned in and caught her mouth with mine. Just felt like the right thing to do.
I was marrying the girl.
I wrapped my hand around the back of her head and kissed her slow. I held her tight, breathing with her. I didn’t want to let her go. I just wanted to taste her, to smell her, to make her mine in every way.
Should that have scared me?
Maybe.
I’d never wanted anyone like this. Never wanted anyone to belong to me.
Never wanted to belong to anyone… until I met Maggie.
She pulled away, licking her lip and gazing up at me, heat and a strange unease thudding between us. Couldn’t say what it was. Didn’t know if it was bad or good. Just knew I wanted to kiss her again.
I leaned in and brushed my lips to hers.
“Hey, you two.”
Dizzy’s voice grated through the moment and I felt Maggie stiffen.
I glanced over at him. He was standing by the open doors into
