“And why is that?” she asked, licking her lips as he filled her.
“Because I’m never letting you go,” Connor swore against her lips.
“Good, because I would hate to have to go for my pliers if you did.”
Chapter 40
November
“I can’t believe we did it,” Connor said, pulling into a spot on the freshly paved parking lot of the newly renovated Strawberry Manor.
“And one week ahead of schedule, too,” Rory said, beaming with excitement as she looked at the beautiful new hotel. He had to admit that it was beautiful, but that wasn’t what he’d meant.
He chuckled as he threw the truck in park. “I meant, I can’t believe that we’re married.”
“Well, I really wasn’t left with much of a choice,” Rory reminded him, smiling that pleased little smile that she’d been wearing since the nervous Justice of the Peace announced them as husband and wife over an hour ago.
After the initial shock, the Justice of the Peace decided that they needed a little fatherly advice and explained that he believed that they were making a mistake and that perhaps they needed to take some time and come back on December 2nd. At first, Connor had been pissed that he was interfering, but by the time the J.P. mentioned December 2nd for the third time, it became clear that the man had placed a bet that they would get married on December 2nd. Once the J.P. resigned himself to losing two hundred dollars, he’d married them, glaring at them the entire time until the deed was done and he could storm off.
“You didn’t have a choice, huh?” Connor mused, reaching for his wife as she unclipped her seatbelt and moved to straddle his lap.
“No, not at all,” Rory readily agreed with an impish smile that had him wishing that they could skip the final inspection and start their wedding night early.
“And how’s that?” Connor asked, wrapping his arms around her.
“I had to do it for our deal, of course,” Rory said, nodding solemnly and looking so damn serious that he couldn’t help but laugh.
“For our deal, huh?” he asked with a chuckle, leaning in and stealing a kiss.
“Mmmhmm,” she murmured, returning the kiss.
Before he could deepen the kiss, Rory opened his door. She pulled away and climbed out of the truck, jumping back when he reached for her with a teasing grin.
“We need to clear the site so that we can start that insanely expensive honeymoon that you promised me,” Rory said, heading for the manor.
“That wasn’t part of our deal,” Connor pointed out as he climbed out of the truck.
“It is now,” she said, sounding happy.
“Do I get a veto?” Connor asked, following her.
“Sorry. You’re a married man now, Connor. Your job is to fulfill each and every one of my needs,” Rory explained, throwing him a wink over her shoulder.
“And you need an insanely expensive honeymoon?” he asked, chuckling as he veered off to the right towards her trailer.
“I really do,” Rory said, sounding happy, really fucking happy and for a moment, he was content with just watching her as she made her way inside the manor.
How had he gotten so lucky? Connor couldn’t help but wonder as he turned around, hoping to get this done quickly so that he could move on to the insanely expensive honeymoon that his beautiful wife was demanding, when he realized that he had one last problem that he had to handle before it bit him in the ass.
“I heard you tell Andrew that this was all a game,” Jacob, the surly assistant from hell, said numbly as he looked at Connor with what could only be described as disgust. “I kept my mouth shut because I thought Rory could handle herself, but apparently, I was wrong.”
“It’s not what you think, Jacob,” Connor said, taking a step towards the man only to have him take two steps back.
“Then, you didn’t just marry Rory so that you could take over her company?” Jacob demanded.
Connor opened his mouth to tell him that he had it all wrong, that it wasn’t like that anymore, when he realized that this simple misunderstanding had just blown up into a huge fuck up in under sixty seconds.
“Married?” Johnny repeated, sharing a confused look with his brothers as they quickened their pace and headed towards him, looking pissed. As he watched the five large men make their way towards him, Connor realized that there was no way that he could explain any of this without landing in a body cast. They wouldn’t believe him, not that he really cared, but he did care if his wife believed him. As he watched them approach and listened as Jacob ratted his ass out, he realized something very important. He was out of options. So, he did the only thing that he could think of.
