“Look at us, making this marriage work.” Wow, shouldn’t he be panicking at this point? They were nearly at the altar, his bride looked fan-fucking-tastic, and he was going to pledge his troth for at least the next few months to her. Yet, he remained totally calm.
He reached forward and brushed his fingers at her neckline, which was silly because it was just the two of them. There was no show. Honest as hell, he wasn’t trying to look at her cleavage, but she totally had it on display, and it wasright there.
She smiled at the graze of his fingertips, visible goosebumps forming along her skin. She was a curated jewel he wanted to touch. Just because it didn’t make sense to touch her, didn’t mean he wouldn’t. If anything, he’d never been good at doing what he should.
“You look really pretty, Noodle Cup.” He gave the lamest compliment in the history of compliments, but he meant it from the bottom of his soul. She was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen. The fact that they were about to go get hitched on a pirate ship was only the icing on the proverbial cake.
She snorted, lifted herself up on her toes, and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth.
Now, that? That was unexpected.
“You look handsome, too, Knox,” she said against his lips before lowering herself to straighten his bow tie.
“Did you want to tell me why we’re starting late?” he asked, toying with one of the curls along her neckline.
“Not really.” She shook her head, but she grinned while she did it, so he wasn’t super worried she’d been exercising her rights to non-disclosure nookie.
Not that it was his concern if she was, he just sort of hoped she wasn’t.
Fine, he seriously hoped she wasn’t. The thought of it made an imaginary toothpick lodge sideways in his throat.
“You gonna tell me anyway?” he asked.
“The callback was today.” She said this like she was confessing something super important. “I got them to move it earlier, but then they wanted me to run other scenes. It took longer…”
“You should’ve told me.” He frowned, and he didn’t like frowning when he looked so hot, and she looked so pretty. Those were reasons to smile.
“I didn’t want you to feel like this didn’t matter.” Her breaths came quickly.
“Aren’t we supposed to be a team?” he asked. “At least during this whole thing.”
She pulled the side of her bottom lip in. “Yes?”
“I’m going to use one of my compromises,” he announced. Though he’d sort of hoped he could use them for food-related stuff, this mattered more. “When something is important to us, we tell the other so they can support us.”
“Okay,” she agreed, quietly.
“Did you get the job?” He lifted his eyebrows, hoping like hell she did.
She nodded and her whole body radiated happiness. “I did.”
He liked that happiness for her.
“Wanna get married now?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows like he’d been practicing it in the mirror that morning.
She didn’t answer, but she grinned. “You?”
“Eh.” He lifted a corner of his lip, and lied. “Not really.”
“So let’s do it anyway?” she asked, taking his arm with hers.
“Yup,” he agreed. “I hear there’s a champagne fountain waiting for us at the end.”
She laughed, and he led her toward their temporary future.
“Congratulations, Irina,” he whispered, and he meant it.
Chapter Sixteen
