Jimmy never did that. When I was struggling and he forged ahead of me, he just kept going. I’d told myself it didn’t matter because he was going to have to wait for me one way or another.
But Nico had stopped on the walkway, and he was holding out his hand.
Even this stranger, whom I’d known for a couple of hours, was more thoughtful than Jimmy had been after six years in a relationship, including a four-year engagement.
Huh.
I slipped my fingers between Nico’s.
It felt awkward.
Jimmy wasn’t a hand-holder, and there hadn’t been anyone in my life before Jimmy, which meant I wasn’t really sure how to do the hand-holding thing.
I flipped my hand around so that my grip was underneath his because I was shorter by a mile. Otherwise, I was going to have to practically dislocate my shoulder because he was so much taller than I was.
But he somehow flipped his hand around underneath mine again so that he was holding just my fingers, and then he lifted my hand and bowed from his waist.
Absolute terror gripped my chest and rose through the veins in the sides of my throat.Too much.
His lips barely pressed against that highest peak of my knuckles where he held my fingers, and his gaze flicked up at me just as the softness of his mouth and warm breath touched my skin.
Holy maloney, Nicolai was gorgeous. The clear white illumination from the church’s security system made his teal-blue eyes almost glow where he was looking up at me, and dark shadows cut under his strong jaw and cheekbones. His dark hair flopped over his forehead, silky smooth and blunt cut in front, tapered to velvet and a sharp line on the back of his neck above his crisp white shirt. Everything about him was groomed and polished and expensive.
The terrified clench moved down my stomach and shook my knees.
He was just some guy I was taking care of until he sobered up. This wasn’treal.
I didn’t want tolikehim.
Nicolai looked up at me, which meant that his eyes were just an inch below mine because he was bending over a lot. “Why such big eyes, my bride?”
The clenching had filled my throat, so I had to make stupid growling and choking sounds to force it to open up. “Just never had anybody do that before. Or at least I’ve never had anybody do it likethat.”
He straightened up, but then he covered the place where he’d kissed with his other hand like he was sealing it. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-one.”
His tiny lean backward suggested that I’d said the wrong answer, but he kept a hold on my hand. “Of course, I knew you must have been at least eighteen because the clerk accepted your identification for the license, but I thought you were a little older than twenty-one.”
“Why? How old are you?”
His blue eyes, almost green in the yellow streetlights, were steady as he seemed to examine me. “Twenty-eight.”
Relief washed some of the shaking away. “Oh, okay. After that buildup, I thought you were going to say you were forty or something.”
Nico smiled and shook his head. “Merely twenty-eight.”
The silliness of this conversation washed over me, and all that freaking-out feeling rinsed away. The fact that we didn’t even know each other’s ages didn’t matter because we weren’t really getting married because I wasn’t going to sign the marriage license. “Sure, that’s fine. I mean it’s fine with me. Are you okay with it?”
His slow nod felt like he was taking this whole marriage thing way more seriously than I was.
“Are you still drunk?” I asked him.
“Absolutely mortal.”
“I do not know what that means, but I’ll take your word for it that you’re wasted.”
His soft laugh in the night felt cozy, like we’d laughed together often, and he spun on his heel and strode a little slower this time toward a low building that looked like a rectory behind the church, still holding my hand and towing me after him. “Let’s find a priest.”
