Chapter 12
Twelve
Nash
I see her eyes moving from my eyes to my lips and back to my eyes. “Now, let’s go eat,” I urge, kissing her softly. “We need to keep up our strength.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “We don’t need to keep anything up because that’s not going to happen again.”
“I mean, not right now.” I grab her hand in mine, and I don’t expect her to follow me, but her fingers wrap around mine exactly how she did last night. We walk out of the bedroom hand in hand, both of us wearing the hotel robes, as I lead her to the table the room service attendant put all the food on. “I didn’t know what you ate, so I ordered one of everything,” I say once we get to the side of the table. “I also got you a mimosa,” I tell her, walking over to the bottle of champagne in the ice bucket. Picking up the bottle of champagne and popping it, the sounds make her jump a little as the top spills over, so I move closer to the bucket. “Baby, give me a glass.” I point at the two crystal glasses set on a silver tray with orange juice and pineapple juice.
“I said I wasn’t drinking again,” she reminds me as she hands me both glasses.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” I wink at her as I pour half of the glass full before the bubbles fill it up the rest of the way, then hand it back to her. “We’re already married. Unless you want to have a baby?”
“Are you out of your mind?” she shrieks, grabbing the glass from me before sliding into the chair in front of her. “A baby?” She shakes her head. “This”—she points at the table before grabbing the pineapple juice instead of the orange juice—“is one reason we should get divorced.” Filling the rest of her glass with the juice. “My husband would know what I eat for breakfast.”
“What do you eat for breakfast?” I ask, pouring my own glass of champagne. “To my wife.” I hold up my glass, and she reluctantly clinks her glass with mine. “The best wife ever,” I declare, pulling out the chair right next to hers. “Top of the charts, baby.” I wink at her as I take a sip of my champagne.
“Okay, what did you get?” She ignores me as she sips her mimosa before looking at the five plates covered by domes.
“Pancakes and French toast for sweet, a plate of scrambled eggs with sausage and bacon and of course white toast, wheat toast, and an everything bagel.”
“So literally one of everything,” she notes, picking up a dome.
“Basically,” I confirm, watching her grab a piece of pancake and then opening another one to scoop some eggs on top of the pancake in a line. I watch, fascinated with what she is doing as she opens the lids until she finds the sausage and bacon, putting one piece each on the pancake. “What are you doing?” I ask her as she starts to roll it.
“It’s a breakfast taco,” she says, smiling. “A husband would know that.”
“You learn something new about your spouse every single day,” I inform her. “My parents still learn something new about each other every single day.” I grab a pancake and copy what she just did. “Speaking of my parents, I should call them.”
“That would be nice. Unless they are on Instagram, then they probably saw it,” she says, taking another bite of her concoction. “Apparently, we posted it on our Instagrams last night or this morning.”
“What picture did we use?” I ask, and she just stares at me.
“It doesn’t bother you that we posted we were married on your Instagram?” she asks as if posting her on my Instagram is the end of the world.
“Nope. Saves me from doing it tomorrow,” I state. “I do have to call Kailyn and ask her to postpone all my meetings for the next two weeks.” I make mental notes to do all the things. “When is the family vacation?” I ask her as I take my own bite and agree it’s pretty good. “You know what this is missing?” I take another bite. “Hash browns.”
“Vacation is in two days,” she answers, dipping her taco in the maple syrup container. “I have to go to New York and get my things.”
“We’ll go back to LA together.” I chew. “I’ll grab my stuff, and then we’ll go together to New York.”
She stops mid-chew. “Wait, you’re coming with me?” Her eyes move side to side.
“Baby, it’s practically our honeymoon.” She rolls her eyes. “Now hurry up and eat because I want to get to know my wife better.” I take a bite of my taco. “I have some chocolate sauce and champagne, and I want to know if it tastes the same on a person.”
“You aren’t getting me all sticky with that.” She laughs.
“Okay, fine, you can eat it off me. Either way, I win.” I wink at her, and she shakes her head.
By the end of the meal, I even add in the maple syrup, and she is a sticky mess. Well, we both are.
The next day, we fly back to LA, and we are there for literally an hour before we have to fly to New York. “Mrs. Griffin,” I say when she gets into my car after being away from her for a whole hour, “you didn’t even give me a hello kiss.”
“Isn’t Mrs. Griffin your mother?” She turns so her back is against the door. “I’m sure she will give you a hello kiss.”
“Very funny,” I deadpan, leaning forward to kiss her, and she kisses me as if we haven’t seen each other for a day instead of an hour. Her hand comes up to hold my cheek as our tongues slide into each other’s mouths. “Hi, wife,” I say softly against her lips, “you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she replies, and we make our way over to the plane that will be flying us to New York. “There are a couple of things we need to discuss.”
“We’re on vacation,” I say. “Can we discuss things when we get back? Right now, I want sun, sand, and sex with my wife.”
She laughs. “You can have that without me.”
“But I don’t want anything without you.” I take her hand and kiss it. Grabbing our bags, we make our way to the plane, and the flight attendant is there waiting for us.
“Mr. and Mrs. Griffin, welcome aboard. We have a delivery,” she says, looking at Zoey, who looks at me and then at the attendant with a confused look.
The white box is in the middle of the tray table. “Um, are you sure it’s for me?” she asks as she walks and sees her name on top of the card. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.” I pretend I have no idea what’s in the box as she unties the white ribbon and opens the box. She moves the tissue paper to the side and sees the jean jacket folded in the middle. “What is this?” Her eyes are bright, and a smile fills her face as she takes it out of the box.
“Turn it over,” I tell her, and when she does, she throws her head back and laughs.
“Very funny.” She shows me the back that is all glittered with the name Mrs. Griffin. “Thank God you put your name on there. Now they know where to return me in case I get lost.”
I snort. “As if I would let you out of my sight,” I say as she puts the jacket back into the white box.
We sit in the seats side by side, and when we are able to, we get up, and I drag her over to the couch. “Come make out with me.”
“I’m not making out with you.” She shakes her head.
“Why not? We can just make out. It doesn’t have to lead to sex,” I say, grinning, “unless you want it to.”
“You are out of your mind,” she says, sitting on the couch. I sit next to her, extending my arm over the back of the couch, and pull her to me. It takes a minute before she’s making out with me. We’re side by side at first, and then I slowly pull her onto my lap. By the time we land, she’s lying on top of me. I think we spent a total of ten minutes not making out with each other.
My cock is hard like a rock. I can tell she’s on edge because when we get into the foyer of her house, she drops to her knees and takes me into her mouth. I give her one minute before I pick her up by her armpits and slam her against the wall. Her legs wrap around my waist as I move my pants down my hips. She picks her skirt up, moving her panties to the side so I can slide into her.
“You better hurry,” I urge her as I thrust into her. “It was a long six hours.” I don’t have to say another word because she bites down on my bottom lip and comes at the same time as I do. “Fuck,” I groan when I slide out of her, and her legs fall to the floor. “That was the longest foreplay of my life.”
“The plane ride tomorrow is only four hours,” she mentions. “It’ll be better.”
“I almost asked for a blanket so I could finger-fuck you,” I admit, and she gasps. “Exactly, I don’t want to die before we go on our honeymoon. After that, I don’t think I’ll care.” I slap her ass as we walk in the dark house. “I need a shower and bed.”
We slide into bed, and even though she tries to pretend she hates to be held, she is in my arms and asleep in less than a second. The flight the next day is about the same, except she would set timers so we stopped making out for a full twenty minutes.
In the truck on the way to the resort, I don’t care what she says, I pull her into my lap and make out with her the whole way. “We need to test out the bed first,” I say to her as the truck comes to a stop. “I need to get into you.”
“You’ve been in me twice today,” she reminds me as she steps out of the truck.
“That doesn’t count. We weren’t in the same time zone as we are now.” I grab her hand, bringing it to my lips as the driver takes the bags out of the back of the trunk.
I look around the lobby, spotting Caine walking our way, wearing shorts and a white polo T-shirt. “Well, well, well.” His voice echoes in the empty lobby. “If it isn’t my brother.” He stops in front of us and then looks at Zoey. “You must be my new sister-in-law.”
I watch Zoey, who laughs nervously before she side-eyes me. “I guess that would be accurate today.” She smiles but sarcastically adds, “Not sure about tomorrow.” I can see she’s anxious now as she looks around to make sure that it’s just the three of us. “I need a drink,” she admits.
“Isn’t drinking what got you married to my brother?” Caine says, laughing.
“You’re right.” She laughs with Caine, and I close the distance between us, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her to my side. “I’m never drinking again in my life.”
“Doesn’t matter to me. The damage is already done.” I wink and smirk at her as I hold up my left hand.
“I’m going to go see my family,” she says, putting her hand to her stomach, so I know she’s nervous.
“Do you want me to come with you?” I ask, and she shakes her head.
“Me, I know they won’t harm.” She gets on her tippy-toes and puts her hands on my shoulders. “You, it’s a toss-up.” She walks away from me, and I snatch her wrist in my hand, pulling her to me. “What the?—”
“Kiss,” I demand, bending and kissing her lips softly. “Now you can go.”
“One of these days…” She pretends to be irritated as she walks away from us, mumbling something I think has to do with me and my death.
I watch her as she walks through the lobby to the back of the hotel. “I thought I was crazy getting involved with Grace,” Caine says, and I look back at him as he shakes his head, “but Zoey?” His face fills with a grimace. “The whole family is like big and beefy.” He motions to his arm, exaggerating the muscles.
I chuckle, trying not to let it get to me. “Your in-laws have guns. And not just like one or two.”
He nods. “Yeah, but, like, it’s one shot, and I’m a goner.” He laughs. “For you, it’s drawn out. If one gets tired, they tap out, and another one comes to kick your ass.”
I move into the lobby, going to the desk and giving the woman my name. Of course the whole hotel is booked out for the family. “Like, seriously, what the fuck are you thinking?” Caine asks when she hands me the keys to my room.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” I answer him honestly. “All I knew is we were sitting down and she looked more beautiful than anyone I’ve ever seen in my life. All I could think was I want to make her mine.”
“So you ask her to date you. Jesus, you don’t marry her.” He shakes his head. “That makes more sense than ‘Hey, let’s get married.’”
“I was in the moment.” I shrug, and I’m about to say something else when I look over and see Stone and Christopher coming my way. “Oh, fuck,” I mumble, “here we go.”
“I’m going to be very fucking pissed at you if you make me fight on my family vacation,” Caine hisses as they get closer. Stone’s face is full of fury, while Christopher looks like he’s trying not to burst out laughing.
“There you are,” Stone says, then looks around. “Where the hell is my sister?”
“She went that way.” Caine points to the right. “She just left. If you hurry, you might catch up to her.”
“You’re really married?” Stone asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Yup,” I answer, trying not to be rude but also trying to tell him I’m no pushover.
“What the fuck?” he seethes.
“It was spur of the moment.” I look at him and then Christopher.
“I wasn’t invited either,” Caine adds, pointing at himself. “I think they wanted it intimate.”
“They wanted it intimate?” Christopher laughs at Caine’s words. “They weren’t even dating.”
“Well, we’re married.” I hold up my hand. “I’m sorry we did it without telling anyone, but…” I smile when I think about that night. “I won’t be sorry I married her.” He just stares at me. “I will say, best fucking thing I did in my whole life, hands down.” I slap Caine’s shoulder. “Now, if you guys will excuse me, I’m going to go find my wife.”
“You mean my sister,” Stone grumbles, and it’s then Christopher just bursts out laughing.
“I’m sorry, dude, I tried to keep from laughing.” He slaps Stone’s shoulder. “I was ready to pounce, but you sounded like Uncle Matthew right then.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Stone growls. “This isn’t finished,” he tells me, and I look over my shoulder.
“I hope when you have the chance, and you think about you and Ryleigh”—I turn to look at him—“and how if you had the chance to make her yours permanently, would you have taken the chance for her to change her mind or would you have married her on sight and not cared about anything else but her?” He doesn’t say anything. “That’s what I thought. And between us, you can be pissed at me about all of this but just don’t take it out on Zoey. You want to be pissed and take out your frustration, I’m more than happy for you to take it out on me. Whatever you want to dish, I’ll take it.” I stare into his eyes. “But you treat her like you always have.”
“She’s my sister, you know that?” Stone reminds me.
I nod at his statement. “Yeah, she is.” I smirk before the smile washes off my face, and he sees I’m not playing with this. “I will take her far away from here if anyone makes her fucking sad.” My voice is tight. “Because now that’s my job, to keep her happy and safe.” I see him watch me. “Since, you know, she’s my wife.”