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Knox held my gaze like I was a person and not just another piece of property his MC had recently acquired.
“Do you, Ivy Marissa Price, take Knox Coleman to be your husband?” He said more words, I was sure of it, but I heard none of them because the gravity of what I was doing chose that moment to settle on my shoulders.
My voice came out steady and strong, if slightly distant. “I do.”
“Do you, Knox Coleman, take Ivy Marissa Price, as your lawfully wedded bride?”
“I do.” His voice was deep and sure.
“Excellent.” The Justice of the Peace smiled. “By the power vested in me by the state of Colorado, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may seal your marriage with a kiss.”
Kiss, of course. I hadn’t thought much beyond the legal implications of getting married and now the kiss was here. I looked up at Knox.
He stared back with a look I didn’t know him well enough to understand yet. “It’s okay, Ivy.” He spoke so softly I wasn’t sure anyone but me heard him. “I promise.” He lifted his hand and cupped my jaw, his fingers gently brushed my cheekbone, before he pressed his lips to my temple.
Not my mouth. My temple.
I went completely still, unsure what to think about what that kiss meant. Even more unsure what to think of the heat and electricity that roared through my body.
Knox stepped back and turned to the JP. I did the same and we busied ourselves with the paperwork that made it official.
Ivy Coleman. Just like that I wasn’t the same woman I’d been for the past twenty-six years, and I had the paperwork to prove it.
Chapter Five
Knox
Ivy pushed her dinner around the plate for ten minutes like she was trying to organize each food by type instead of eating. She was quiet, almost sullen, like a child on punishment. I watched her for ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. “You know you won’t actually get full if you don’t eat.”
She looked up, startled, like she’d forgotten she wasn’t alone. Then something in her shoulders loosened, just a little. “Sorry. I guess I’m just trying to adjust. This is a lot of new all at once.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess it is.” Yesterday I lived alone and I slept alone and now there was another person who had a right to be in my personal space.
She went back to her food, almost eating some of it this time. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable exactly, but it was the silence of two people trying to figure out this new normal. “I’ve never lived with another person. Other than Rex. And my mom, but she’s been dead for a long time.” Ivy looked away, as if that last admission had cost her something.
I noticed she always called Rex by his name, almost never referring to him as her father. “I’m sorry about your mom. I had no fuckin’ clue.”
“Yeah, thanks. I was a kid when it happened, though I don’t really know what happened.” That admission cost her and she stabbed at a piece of chicken, but never brought it to her mouth.
My brows dipped into a scowl. “What do you mean you don’t know what happened?”
She flashed a bitter smile. “Just that. Rex just told me one day that she died. I didn’t go to her funeral and there was no gravesite.”
“Jesus! Fuck!” I exclaimed, raking a hand through my hair. “That’s tough, Ivy.”
She shrugged like it was no big deal, but her eyes were suddenly wet and glassy. “What about you? Ever lived with anybody?”
She had no way of knowing the landmine she’d stumbled on, so I didn’t lose my shit, I just stared back at her until she backed down the way most people did.
Those green eyes watched me closely, just staring back at me like that look could force me to answer. “You have to say something,” she insisted.
“No,” I shook my head. “I really don’t.”
Her eyes slid shut just as a heavy sigh escaped. “You don’t have to tell me anything, obviously. But you can just say that topic is off limits. It’s something you don’t talk about. Something.”
She was feisty and I liked it. “That topic is off limits.” I didn’t talk about Sarah, not ever. That particular door was shut and would stay that way forever.
“Okay.” Her words came out in a bland tone that said she was accepting that answer, but reluctantly.
