Chapter 6
6
JOSS
To some, forty thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money. For me, it was a life changing amount. Which is exactly why I couldn’t take it. I tried to stand firm, tried to insist it was his money, not mine.
Rylan talked me in circles before he backed me into a corner.
If I told him I lost, he’d tell me I won, therefore he won, and he got whatever he wanted—which was me having the money. If I said I won, so I should get what I wanted, he’d tell me my winning meant he won, so he was going to make me feel like a queen. The only way I could get him to give in at all was to accept half of my jackpot.
He grinned like a madman before he made me sign the papers for my half, then told the cashier to take the taxes due on the winnings out of his portion.
My mind raced with dollar signs as Rylan offered me his arm and walked me out of the casino like I was some sort of royalty. But when he pulled to a stop down the street and turned me to face him, I felt like the earth had slid right out from under my feet.
“Promised I was going to make you feel like a queen,” he told me before dipping down and planting his lips on mine.
I wanted to struggle. I wanted to grip him by the back of the neck and kiss him until I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to yell at him that he already had, there was nothing more to do.
My brain short circuited the minute his tongue met mine. The only response I could give was to clench my fists in his hair and hold on for dear life.
He pulled back before I was ready, and I would have thanked him for holding onto me and keeping me from falling if his smile hadn’t stolen my breath.
“Now.” He looped his arm around my waist and pulled me close before he swept a loose tendril of hair from my face. “The way I see it, I still have to give you anything you want or take you anywhere you want to go.”
“Rylan—”
He stopped me with a finger to my lips. “Fight me and I’ll make you take the rest of your fortune.”
“You wouldn’t.” His response was to raise a single brow, and I knew without him saying anything that he would.
He absolutely would.
“Fine.” It was so hard not to mirror the grin my response brought to his face. I schooled my features, then smoothed my hands over his chest as I tried to think of something to give him. But there was nothing. Nothing that he hadn’t already given me. Nothing that could be better than this—being wrapped up in his arms while he made me feel like the queen he thought I was.
I lifted my gaze back to his and tried on a smile that didn’t fit. My eyes burned as I watched a softness fill his features that I never thought I’d see directed my way.
“I don’t know,” I finally whispered, my fingers tightening around the fabric of his shirt. “I just want to be here with you.”
“Here?” Rylan leaned in closer, his mouth just inches from mine.
“Anywhere with you.”
He closed his eyes as he dropped his forehead to mine. His arms tightened around me, making me feel safe and loved and wanted. When he opened his eyes and trained his full attention on me again, I swore he stole my breath right from my chest.
“Let me choose?” It wasn’t more than a raspy whisper, but even over the noise of the crowd, the words he spoke went right to my heart. I nodded, smiling as he did.
Only to have that smile disappear as he stepped back and let me go.
Rylan descended to the sidewalk, going down on one knee. It was just like the position I found him in back at the boutique, except this time, instead of a shoe in his hand, he held a tiny blue box.
“Joss Monroe,” he said, the rasp in his voice sending chills throughout my body. “You’re the adventure I’ve been looking for my entire life. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?”
He took the ring from the box and slid it onto my finger, and my breath hitched before tears fell from both my eyes.
“Rylan.” My knees went weak, and I lowered myself to the ground, all while he held my hand and guided me down slowly. “It’s… I don't know what to say.”
“Say yes, gorgeous.” He pressed a light kiss to my lips. “Tell me I’m not the only one who feels this. Like we were meant to be together. Like this feeling in my chest isn’t just a fluke, but the start of a love that could last a lifetime. Say yes and let me take care of you. Let me love you for the rest of my life.”
“Rylan,” I whispered again, my tears slicking my face even though I was very aware of the crowd of people gathering around us, gawking. I couldn’t find it in myself to care about them, though. Because my heart told me to listen. My heart told me this man was the real thing. The love I’d been dying to find since I was a child. The man of my dreams.
“Marry me, gorgeous. Right here. Right now. Tell me yes and we’ll?—”
“Yes.” I gripped his face between my palms and crushed my mouth to his. The crowd around us cheered and clapped and whistled and yelled, but all I could focus on was Rylan. On his taste. On his smell. On the strong grip of his hands and the smooth slide of his palms over my body. Of the warmth his touch left behind, and the thud of my heart as it thanked me for listening.
“Marry me tonight,” Rylan murmured against my lips. “Let me make you my wife, and I’ll make you my queen. I’ll take you back to my room and feed you chocolate covered strawberries and make love to you for the rest of our lives.”
Pressing a finger to his mouth, I edged back just enough to look into his eyes. “You had me at chocolate covered strawberries.”
Laughter rocked his body, and he pulled me into his chest. “Let’s get out of here.” He rose to his feet and pulled me with him before taking my hand and guiding me through the pack of people around us and to the less crowded sidewalk a few feet away.
He walked fast, faster than I expected, his enthusiasm for life never ending. Meanwhile, my attention was split between the ring on my finger and his hand in mine.
Once upon a time, I dreamed of getting married. Of walking down the aisle with the man of my dreams waiting for me at the end. A man who’d love me. Take care of me. Someone I could love.
But in the past few years, I’d finally realized it wasn’t going to happen. Not to me.
Not in this lifetime.
Until now.
Rylan pulled to a stop, pulling our hands between us and thumbing at the ring. “What do you think?”
My stomach flipped and my heart thudded hard in my chest. My voice came out a whisper as it squeezed through my tight throat. “It’s beautiful.”
“You like it?” Rylan’s voice wasn’t much louder than mine, and the rasp of it so close to my ear made me shiver.
“I love it.” I lifted my gaze to him from the ring and offered him the honest truth. “It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted.”
A man to love and care for. One who was kind and caring and wanted nothing more than my happiness. One who could sweep me off my feet and make me feel things I wasn’t even aware I could feel.
And a ring that was a near-match to the picture on my vision board back home.
Rylan’s face morphed in front of my eyes. I watched as what could have been anxiety transformed into the softest smile. “Perfect ring for the perfect girl?”
Gah! It wasn’t me who was perfect, not by any means. It was him. The perfect man walking into my life at the perfect time.
Tears clouded my vision, but I didn’t want them to fall. So I kissed him. I leaned in and kissed him, hoping that act alone could portray the words I couldn’t find.
“You ready for this?” Rylan nodded toward a set of wide stone stairs leading to what could only be considered a bureaucratic office building. A sign near the stairs said, “Welcome to the Marriage Bureau.”
That look was back on Rylan’s face—one that made me think he was waiting on my answer with bated breath. I nodded, and my heart filled with untamed happiness when a smile burst across his face, and he dropped a kiss to my nose. He pulled me up the stairs and into the Marriage License Bureau, and held me close while we waited, his gaze finding mine repeatedly, like he couldn’t believe I was here.
I could barely believe it myself. Not as we signed our names on the line. Not as we rushed down the street to a little chapel Rylan directed me toward. Not as we got inside and were welcomed like we’d been expected all day long.
“Right this way,” the lady in the pale pink suit said after we’d signed their guest book. Rylan kept his hand on my lower back, letting me take the lead. She stopped beside a small room and gestured inside. “You’ll find your dress and shoes in there.”
“My dress?” I peeked inside and I swore, I went speechless. Hanging from a hook near the mirror was the same beautiful dress Rylan had picked out for me back at the boutique. The halter top had dipped low, the lightweight silk had felt like I was wearing nothing but air, and I’d had to wipe a tear from my eye before I stepped out and let him see it, because I’d never felt more beautiful in my life. Now, I raised my hand to my mouth, then turned my attention to him.
“What do you think?” The smirk he wore told me just how thrilled he was that he’d taken me off guard. It made me want to slap him. It made me want to tear his clothes off him and make him put his mouth to good use.
Rylan swiped his thumb under my eye, smearing wetness across my cheek.
“How?” It was all I could ask. The only word I could make come out of my mouth.
His smirk fell into something softer, though no less aggravating. He took my hand in both of his and prodded at my ring. “Been wanting to buy you something like this since you jumped off the Strat after me. When you were changing back at that boutique today, I snuck out.”
A gasp snuck from my throat. “What?”
“While the ladies were ringing up all your pretty clothes, I had them pack up this dress and shoes and send it here. Then I ran over to the jewelry store next door and picked this out.”
“Rylan.” More tears sprang from my eyes, but he kissed me before I could wipe them away.
“I want you, Joss. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. No adventure has ever made me feel the way you do, and I promise I will do everything I can to give you the life you were meant to have.”
With my hands clenched in his shirt, I fell apart in his arms. His warmth, his kindness, the love I could feel emanating from his very being, stitched my heart together into a patchwork that mirrored his.
After I pulled myself together, after I’d dressed in the beautiful dress he bought me and stood at the foot of the chapel aisle, I felt my heart straining for him where he stood near the front. He still wore the tight jeans that hugged his thighs and ass, but he’d changed into a purple button up that matched the colors in my dress. Everything in me told me to run his way, to jump into his arms, to stay there for the rest of my life.
With the biggest smile on my face, I walked up the aisle and took his hand. And I vowed to love him and cherish him the way he cherished me.
We were happy.
We were in love.
Just me and the man of my dreams.