“I like how things ended up too,” Case said. “And since my story about winding up in jail that one time was probably a selling point—honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I’d put the beer bottle in that guy’s hand myself. How’s that for too much?”
Lydia smiled. “If it’s because that’s how much you want to have a hasty werewolf wedding with me, I like it. If you have a fetish for getting hit over the head with bottles, I’m a little more concerned.”
“No, thank God. Seems kind of unsafe.”
“Then I think it might actually be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”
Case’s thumb traveled slowly across her cheek until it reached her mouth, and he drew it across her lower lip in a gentle, lingering caress.
“In that case, do you want to have our first kiss before we’re actually in front of a justice of the peace?”
This time it was Lydia’s turn for a very emphatic gesture. She nodded her head almost frantically:Yes, I do. I really, really do.
Case leaned in, and his lips met hers.
His mouth was softer than she’d expected, given the windburned flush on his cheeks and the calluses on his hands. It felt like heaven. She parted her lips, and Case deepened the kiss. He tasted good, and somewhere deep inside her, Lydia had the sensation of the perfect key going into some lock she’dnever even known existed. Some new feeling was unleashed. She curled her fingers into the sheepskin collar of his denim jacket. The brush and slide of his lips over hers set off a train of fireworks inside her, pops and sizzles of sensation racing through her nervous system.
If she didn’t stop now, they were going to commit several acts of public indecency in this truck before they even got out of her driveway.
Pulling herself away from Case’s mouth and Case’s hands took everything Lydia had, and what made it all the harder was that she really didn’t want to do it at all. At this exact moment, she wasn’t sure she gave a damn if half the town saw her get a jump on consummating her marriage.
But what if Reeve came back and saw it too?
Thatwas a dash of freezing cold water to her libido. She couldn’t think of anything that would slam her legs together faster than that.
Meeting Case’s eyes started everything up all over again, though. His pupils were wide and dark, and his mouth was a little smeared with her lipstick.
Lydia was pretty sure she had some common sense and discretion, but they both felt far away right now. All she wanted was to climb into his lap.
She had to wrap her hands around the steering wheel to keep herself in place.
“That was a hell of a first kiss,” she said.
“Very much agreed.”
“But we should probably—”
“Go get married?”
“I was thinking more ‘not fool around in front of my house in broad daylight where anyone can see us,’ but yes, that too.”
Lydia buckled her seatbelt, congratulating herself on how well she was pretending that she didn’t feel absolutely drunkwith lust. She was ninety percent sure she seemed functional and everything. Good for her.
Then Case touched her arm and all her pretensions fell apart again, like they had when they locked eyes.
They needed to go to bed together as soon as this sorry excuse for a ceremony was over, otherwise she would die of sexual frustration and Case would have to fight Reeve all on his own. That wouldn’t be very fair.
“What?” Lydia said. She needed to ask before she lost her brain all over again.
“Before you take us to the courthouse, I have a couple ideas. You deserve a lot more of a wedding than you’re going to get, but I want to at least give you the best one we have time for.”
It was hard to argue with that, especially since the words dried up in her mouth when she tried. She really didn’t think anyone had ever taken care of her like this before. No one had ever gone to this much trouble just to make her happy.
She’d been going through life with a tight band around her chest, a responsibility that made it hard to even breathe freely, and then Case had come along and loosened it. She never got the sense that he thought she was weak—not at all—but he didn’t act like she always needed to be strong. He didn’t act like she would disappoint him if she sagged into him for a while and buried her head in his shoulder.
She had turned his life upside-down and inside-out, and he wanted to give her a nice wedding.
He wanted to givethema nice wedding.
