Chapter 31 Shep
SHEP
“I’M NEVER DRINKING again.” Theo’s slurred words against my stomach were what finally broke through the heavy sleep that had me feeling like my body was pinned down by some unexplained force.
I cracked one eye open.
Actually, that weight was just Theo, sprawled across me completely naked with the sheets half thrown off the bed.
“Famous last words,” I said, shifting slowly up to my elbows. “Holy shit.”
“You feel it too, huh?”
“What the hell did we do last night?”
It seemed like it took all his effort for Theo to lift his left hand to show off the white-gold band that adorned his ring finger.
He was in such rough shape that I couldn’t help but want to play with him.
“Where’d you get that ring?”
Theo’s head shot up so fast he winced. I kept my expression curious, and his eyes narrowed on me. “I swear to God, if you tell me you don’t remember last night…”
“Oh, I remember, all right. You poured a bottle of whiskey down my throat.”
“Not what I was referring to.”
That perfect, round ass of his caught and held my attention under the light seeping through the edges of the curtains, and I licked my lips. “Like I could fucking forget one of the hottest nights of my life.”
Theo growled and moved to straddle me, pinning my arms down. “Try again.”
I frowned. “No, it wasn’t one of the hottest nights of my life?”
“And?” He wrapped his fingers around my left wrist and held it up between us. “Ring any bells?”
“Oh, right. We found matching rings—”
Theo’s face flashed with something a lot like panic, and I chuckled, bringing his hand to my lips to kiss his ring.
“Best decision I ever made, marrying you,” I said.
His eyes softened, relief settling his shoulders, and then he leaned down to kiss me. “You better say that. You’re stuck with me now, Winchester.”
“Rinaldi,” I corrected him, running my fingers through his hair to push the strands back from his face.
“You’re serious about that?”
“Like you said, Shepard O’Neil Winchester Rinaldi is a mouthful. But since you like a mouthful, it could always be Theodore Rinaldi O’Neil Winchester, or maybe—”
He clamped his hand over my mouth and smiled. “I just want you.” He grazed his lips softly over mine before trailing down my jaw. “No matter what you wanna call yourself.”
Even through the pounding assaulting my head, I’d never felt so content in my life with my man in my arms, the one I could now call my husband, and a lifetime ahead of us.
And, hopefully, many more crazy, last-minute decisions to come.
“How much do you wanna bet the guys are losing their minds right now?” he said as I wrapped my arms tight around him, wanting to feel him against me, skin to skin.
“On a scale of one to ten, a twenty. If Alessio shared our location—”
“Or if Wilson or someone at the chapel made a call. Although he did sign an NDA, so maybe not…”
“Could be one of the couples in line with us.”
“Or,” Theo said, “we got lucky and no one knows a thing. No one but us.”
Now that he was waking up, though, I could see the way he was practically bursting at keeping things quiet, and for once, I couldn’t blame him. There was an overwhelming desire to tell everyone that Theo was mine, and I lifted my head to kiss him hard.
“Why don’t you go check?” I said, grinning when he scrambled off the bed and began the search for his phone.
Shit. There was no telling where it was. I’d lost track of mine at some point, and it didn’t help that we’d put them on silent before walking into the chapel.
I sat up and scanned the wreckage of blankets, pillows, and clothes strewn across the room. Obviously we’d had a good time last night—the delicious ache in my body was also proof of that. Theo tossed things around as he searched for our phones, and I let myself enjoy the view.
“Found ’em,” he said as the pillows he’d thrown out of the way landed on me.
I took one and placed it behind my head. “Did we manage to stay off the radar?”
Theo swiped his thumb across the screen, and when his eyes widened, I knew the answer.
We’d been outed.
“I’ve never actually had a full voicemail box before,” he said, putting his phone on speaker as a familiar voice came over the line.
“Uh, what are you two going to Vegas for?” Alessio’s message started. “There’s nothing on the schedule, and I swear to God if you’re about to do something stupid—”
Theo chuckled and hit the next message, and Amaya’s voice came over the line.
“Of course you’re not answering your phone,” she muttered.
“I just got a call to confirm you and Shep eloped in Las Vegas tonight. What part about communication being the most important thing slipped by you at our meeting—”
I arched a brow at Theo as he smirked and turned off the message.
“Yes, Theo, how dare you not call your family’s manager to run our private life by her first,” I tsked.
Although, being in positions like ours, that was the right thing to do. The smart thing. The way I’d always done things.
But like we’d said many times since we’d gotten together: Fuck it.
“Where’s your phone?”
“Dunno,” I said with a lazy shrug. “Don’t really care, either.”
“Sure you don’t. Shepard O’Neil Winchester the third is never as relaxed as this man lounging in my bed right now.”
“A, this is not your bed, and B, I’m not sure how many times I need to tell you this, but my name is now Shepard Rinaldi.”
Theo snorted. “Which is exactly why I have…one hundred and forty-seven text messages.” He looked around the room, and when his eyes landed on his pants hanging off the side table, he grinned and reached under them for my phone. “Bet you have at least one hundred and fifty.”
“Why would I have more than you?” I said as I took the cell from him, not really caring one way or another.
“Because we’re in your country. News would’ve traveled quicker here.”
I rolled my eyes as my phone powered on, and when the screen flashed up, I scoffed.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Theo said, pulling the sheet over his crossed legs. “How many are there?”
They were still populating—that was how many there were.
“Shep?” I held up a finger, and Theo started to laugh uproariously. “Oh my God, and you thought my private life needed to be reported on. Is it still going?”
Nope. It had just stopped with a grand total of: “One full voicemail box, two hundred and four texts, and an amount of emails that’s making my eye twitch.”
“Merde. Apparently this kind of behavior is out of character for you, Mr. Winches—Rinaldi. Whereas most expect this kind of scandal from me.”
“Oh?” I arched a brow. “Run off and gotten married before, have you?”
“Well, not married…exactly.”
That got my attention. My head snapped up and I focused on Theo’s cheeky grin. “What the hell does that mean?”
He swiped a hand through the air dismissively. “Nothing.”
I grabbed the sheet he’d wrapped around his waist and hauled him toward me, making him chuckle. “What does that mean, Theo?”
“It just means that I might’ve run off and thought about it. But I didn’t actually do it.”
I narrowed my eyes on his twinkling ones. “Who is he?”
“Why? Are you going to track him down and—”
“Castrate him? Yes.”
Theo grinned and shoved me back against the headboard, then pointed to the phone. “Maybe some other time, tough guy. Right now, I think it’s more important you check some of those messages.”
He was right, of course. But the thought of Theo even thinking about marrying anyone but me made me feel suddenly homicidal.
“Does he live near us?”
“Oh my God, Shep.” He fell back onto the bed.
“Did you love him?”
“I was twenty.”
“Not an answer.”
“I was drunk?”
“You were drunk last night.”
He sat up then. “I was one hundred percent sober when I asked you to marry me, got on a plane, then walked down the aisle to make you legally mine for the rest of our lives. So unless you’ve changed your mind—”
I grabbed him and tumbled him to his back on the mattress, then planted my hands on either side of his head.
“I haven’t. I just wanted to make sure that when I message back all two hundred and four people who asked me if I got married last night, I can write back with full conviction that I did.”
Theo looked at the phone under my hand by his head, then back to me, before he arched his body up and rubbed his cock against mine.
“Think we could message them back later?”
“Not unless you want half of them to jump on a private plane and knock on our door. Remember, Alessio can track us, and I’m pretty sure your family could hunt us down too. You are royalty.”
Theo let out a sigh as I reluctantly moved off him.
I understood that reluctance. The minute we called back or sent out a text, our private bubble would burst. This perfect moment we were in would come to an end and the outside world would intrude—and while I couldn’t wait to tell people, I was also enjoying this time away from everyone.
“Who’s first on your voicemail?” he asked as I sat up. “Let me guess—”
“King,” we said at the exact same time.
I could only imagine what he would have to say about this.
I tapped open the recording and then hit speaker, and King’s deep voice filled the room.
“Shep, hi, I just saw some news on my phone that um, well… I’d just like to know from you if it’s true or not. I’m not trying to be nosy—”
“Sure he’s not.” Theo grinned, but I held my hand up so we could hear the end of the message.
“—but it’s being reported that you and Theo got married.
Like I said, I’m not trying to intrude, and if it’s real, I’m very happy for you both.
I just… Just call me back or message. If you need Alessio to put out any kind of copy, we could get Cooper to write it up.
If this is a mistake— But again, if it’s not, I’m happy for you both. Talk soon.”
As the message ended and I looked at Theo, his grin turned into a full-on smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that man sound so unsure of himself. I think he might’ve even stumbled there for a minute.”
“He’s probably still trying to wrap his head around it.”
“I mean, we did just tell him we were dating—marriage seems like a rather quick progression in his mind, I’m sure.”
“Look at you trying to be understanding of King’s feelings.”
“Oh please, you’ve just caught me whilst still in the fog of wedded bliss.”
“Is that what this headache is?”
“You’re hilarious. But I bet you won’t be making jokes when I tell you we’re going to have to do this all over again…televised.”
My smile immediately dropped. “What?”
“You married a prince—my public will demand it.”
It made sense, of course it did, that Theo—who was an actual prince—would have to make some kind of to-do about his nuptials.
But did it really have to be in front of… “Your public?”
“Oui, they are mine.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Could you sound more pompous?”
“Probably. But I am naked. That makes it slightly harder.”
“It definitely does,” I said, and looked down at where my cock had stiffened beneath the sheets, something about Theo acting so princely making my dick want to stand up and salute him. “But back to the point. When you say televised, couldn’t we just give them the video from last night?”
Theo moved to his hands and knees and crawled up the bed until he straddled my lap, naked and gorgeous as ever.
“Non, that is just for you and me. That was our moment.” He looped his arms around my neck and brushed his mouth over mine. “This other one, the circus, that will be for them.”
“That sounds so…”
“Horrible? I know. But it’s not like it will be the first time you’ve been caught staring longingly at me in the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate.”
“I wasn’t staring at you; I was glaring at you.”
“Potato, po-tah-to. You were still caught by Lucien.”
“You left teeth marks in my hand.”
“And if you’re extra nice to me on our wedding day, I might leave teeth marks somewhere more exciting that day. After all, we’ll have to re-create the entire event.”
I grabbed Theo’s hips and pulled him in tight, crushing his mouth with mine. “Is that right?”
“You might even have to sleep with the groom before he goes and stands at the altar.”
“Now that, I can get behind.” I tossed my phone aside and tumbled Theo down onto the mattress, the hundreds of texts waiting for me now the last thing on my mind. “Think we should practice?”
“Definitely. The world’s waited this long to hear from us. I think they can wait a little longer.”