12. Champion #3
I pulled into a gas station fifty miles from our destination. She stirred in her seat and sat up, smiling. That smile. You could light the world with that smile.
“Kitten. Do you want to drive for a spell?”
She stretched, arching her back and shifting her hips beneath her narrow waist. I hadn’t touched her for too long.
I was dying to do more than touch her. My mouth was actually watering and suddenly I wasn’t particularly tired.
There were benefits to this whole marriage thing, and I was looking at them.
She couldn’t be a virgin, and she needed someone to worship her.
I directed her to the little chapel in the brush off the beaten path that did quiet, custom weddings.
This next part was going to be tricky, particularly when my heart was pounding and I was starting to feel panicky.
I was going to be married? Only for six months.
It would be fine. She’d be safe from Dupre, and I’d be safe from my mother.
“Turn here.”
She pulled off the main road and drove down a lit gravel road, twinkle lights on either side of until she reached the old adobe church.
An ancient Joshua tree was wrapped in sparkling lights.
When she got out, she paused to look up like it was the most magical thing in the world. No, that was actually trepidation.
“It’s not a cactus,” I said and took her hand, walking with her towards the office on the side. She hung back only for a second before rallying and sticking by my side. When we got inside, José smiled brightly when he saw us.
Kitten froze when she saw his priest’s collar.
“Is that a real priest?” she whispered.
“Yes,” I whispered back. “Although he has an Elvis costume in the back if you’d rather go that way.”
She looked up at me, shock and horror warring with a hesitant yearning. “It’s so real. I figured it would be all neon and glitter, not an actually church and a priest. I’m going to hell for sure for not respecting the sanctity of marriage.”
I pulled her close, hating that she might be right. Would being with me taint whatever sweet innocence she had? Probably. Still, she didn’t need to know all the pieces of me, and she definitely would be safer physically with me than on her own.
Holding her close helped mitigate my own fears. This was a temporary marriage that was for her protection. It was like hiring on as a bodyguard for six months. There’s no one whose body I’d rather protect.
“Come on, Kitten. Let’s sign the certificate.” I walked over to the desk and signed my name on the line. ‘Nix Death-Hammer’ with a lot of flourishes and little devil tail at the end.
“You’re serious about your name?” she asked in a small voice.
I pulled out my driver’s license. Nix Death-Hammer was right there along with my age.
“It’s legal. We’re going to do this, right Kitten?
” It felt like my throat was going to swell closed and I had to run and run and run, right into the bush and never come back.
But she wouldn’t let me leave without a canteen, so I had no choice but to stand there and try to look stoic.
She smiled a little shy smile. “Yes, of course, but I didn’t expect a real priest.” She bit her bottom lip until she signed, ‘Sunshine Ray Wilson’ on her line.
She pulled out her license, and there it was, her real name and a really cute picture of her looking sleepy and confused.
It was not the best driver’s license photo.
I kissed her on the lips quickly, a sweet promise. “We’re going to get changed and meet in the foyer. Unless you get cold feet.”
“How can I get cold feet in the desert?” She hung onto me for another second before she turned and marched into room where her dress would be.
After I’d changed into my tux, I took my place next to the priest and kept shifting, adjusting my cuffs while I waited for Sunshine.
It’s not that I was nervous, just that I was anxious for this to be over.
It was a temporary job that required a tuxedo and the sooner the contract signing was over, the sooner we could forget what it was called.
“Are you going to come back for another year? It’s risky after the last Three-Hundred,” the old priest said. He hadn’t always been a priest, and I’d known him when I first came to Vegas.
“Business is still good. As long as it’s good, how can I quit and put all those people out of work?”
José sighed and tugged on his collar. “That’s life, things come, things go. This girl, she’s not your usual type.”
I gave him a chilly smile. “What’s my usual type?
” Was she supposed to take so long? Maybe she’d taken off into the desert without a canteen.
I’d definitely have to go after her, but I’d call in the calvary first. My crew could round her up in no time.
And then traumatize her to death. The thought of Jezebel with Sunshine gave me chills.
“Experienced, like one of your crew, but you never dated them. Hm. Not sure you have a type, Nix. She’s nervous. No one ever thought you’d end up at an altar even if you got a nice girl pregnant, but she looked more nervous than you.”
I glowered at him. “We’re madly in love.”
He gave me a large smile. “Of course you are. Good to see that you’re stepping up, being responsible for all that.”
“She’s not pregnant.”
He held up his hands like he didn’t mean to offend.
She came into view wearing a white lace dress, cinched in the waist and flaring out beautifully, like Grace Kelly, classic as a banana sundae.
She was so beautiful. I stopped breathing for a second.
What was I doing? This didn’t feel like a job, not when she looked like a virginal bride, gazing at me demurely, too nervous about going to hell for taking marriage lightly to smile at me.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t marry a woman that beautiful and sweet when she might be a crocodile to end all crocodiles.
Or worse. What if she really was a sweet virgin who would break her heart on me?
It wasn’t going to last forever, and her heart was delicate after all that time fending off psychos.
I stood there paralyzed while she stood across from me, and José started talking. The ceremony was very traditional, very short, and somehow I said the right words, and then we exchanged rings.
She smiled sunnily for the first time during the ceremony when she grabbed my hand and slid a very nice carved ring on my finger.
I took a little more time pulling mine out of my pocket.
She looked slightly betrayed when she saw the band with embedded diamonds, tiny wood elements, yes, but the framework was platinum, and the diamonds were as real as she seemed to be.
I held her hand tightly while I slipped the band over the appropriate finger, but her lips were trembling, and so were her fingers. I pressed a quick kiss to the palm and that was it. The wedding was over.
We were ushered onto the small dining patio in the back where a banquet was laid out for us, just the two of us, to be panicked and shocked together.
I piled a plate up with food and handed it to her, then did another for myself. And another when that was full. And another.
“Nix, you must be really hungry after having nothing but fish and loaves all week,” she said, staring at my fourth plate.
I cleared my throat. “They’re for you. I’m the hunter gatherer.”
She slowly, tentatively began to pile all the plates one on top of the other in a balancing act as impressive as the first time she’d skated down that rail. “Like you hunted gathered my ring. Now I’m a little ashamed of mine. When did you get it made?”
“After that first time, when you said what you wanted, I called an artisan I know. I’m sorry it’s not the one I made, but it was terrible.”
“But you made it. Never mind. Thank you for giving me what I said I want. I can’t fault you for that, and it is truly lovely.
I’m a little sad that it’ll last longer than our marriage, though.
So, all these plates, are you trying to fatten me up, or do you think I need that much energy for the hayride? ”
I blinked at her. “Hayride? You want to have a hayride tonight?” I cleared my throat.
I wasn’t a bashful type who had a problem using clearer words for things, and I’d wanted her from the first time I’d seen her, but what if she was a virgin?
No, she couldn’t be. It was fine. We’d have a hayride, and I’d help her get over whatever Dupre had done to her, and get her all ready for the next big, real relationship she’d have after we were finished.
We hadn’t really explored each other. I was still careful with her, and of course that’s what I’d always be.
I really, really wanted to forget about everything and just drown in her, but was that really on the table for tonight?
“I mean, that’s why we got married, isn’t it?” she asked, still balancing all those plates as she maneuvered over to a table.
“Oh. Right.” I thought it was to get more money out of me, but of course she’d pretend it was about morality. Unless it was actually about morality, and I wasn’t giving her enough credit. And she was an actual virgin. I broke into a cold sweat while my mouth went dry.
She laughed and shook her head then sat at a little table next to the pots of geraniums, under the twinkle lights. “I know that you married me to keep me safe. Thank you.” She gave me what felt like a real smile and I poured us glasses of wine before I remembered that she’d said she didn’t drink.
“Go ahead. I can drive,” she said with another smile then dove into the tamales.
“Mm. These are so good! Can we come back here even if we’re not getting married?
Maybe I should make some friends who are engaged so I can help them plan their weddings and aim them here.
Nix, this is really great.” She gave me another bright smile before taking another bite.
I wouldn’t have believed her enthusiasm, except that she ate everything on four plates, taking breaks to feed me while I stared at her, the world collapsing around me.
She couldn’t drive, because I’d have to get us into the hotel without things getting too intense.
We’d have to go in the back entrance so none of the fans or tourists could ask for an autograph.
I’d have to carry her over the hotel room’s threshold and then give her a hayride. Seduction. Slow and thorough.
What was I forgetting? Dean Martin was crooning about romantic things.
I should give her some of that romantic stuff if this was a seduction.
Is that what it was? I’d seduced women, but they were usually the kind that were already mostly seduced.
Whether she was a virgin or not, she didn’t take intimacy lightly.
I cleared my throat and stood up, holding out my hand. “May I have this dance?”
She looked shy and sweet while I led her to the open area on the side. The music was slow and romantic. Classic. I slid my hands over her, nothing too obscene, and she returned the favor, melting into me.
“You feel so good,” I murmured as we moved together, the spark between us growing into a flame the longer we danced.
I could say that, right? I wasn’t sure what a sweet woman like her would want to hear.
I’d given her the ring she said she wanted, but she was disappointed.
Maybe she didn’t know what she wanted. Or maybe she was nervous because she didn’t want to want too much. I was definitely overthinking.
She laughed and ducked out of my arms, eyes bright with excitement and nerves. “Let’s go home. If that’s okay with you. Unless some of your friends are coming to congratulate you. No? Good.”
She dragged me after her, away from the safe wedding hall, and back to her yellow car.
“Do you want to have a hayride in the back seat?” she asked once we got close to it.
I inhaled sharply as an image of her filled my mind.
She seemed unashamed of the idea, but she still called it a hayride.
There was dissonance there that I needed to unravel.
“No. I want our first time to be somewhere less public. Also, we’re going to sleep and have hayrides for days.
” I nipped the back of her neck, soft, gentle, but still possessive.
Mine. She had survived being married to me and deserved all the time, love, and sweetness in the world.
What did I deserve? Nothing good, but I wouldn’t tell her that.