breath caught in her throat as Gail sloppily speculated on her life with Connor standing directly behind her.
He’d heard.
She knew by his utter lack of reaction. The stillness in a form that was so much energy.
Jodie nodded sagely as Tina glanced up and, catching Megan’s eyes, let out a snort of laughter.
Closing her eyes, she drew several deep breaths.
They’d already put in their time. They could leave.
Maybe he wouldn’t say anything and they could just forget it.
When Megan opened her eyes, Connor was already around the table, no doubt as ready to make a break for it as she was. More. Gail wasn’t even his relative.
Or...well, not by blood anyway. Lucky.
And then he was at her side, sliding a hand around her waist as he pulled her close. Closer. And closer still until her eyes went wide as his marauding hand slid across her bottom in a slow, blatant caress to rest at the very top of her thigh. Face burrowed into the side of her neck, he drew a long breath, teasing his nose along the sensitive stretch of skin behind her ear.
He was making a point. Letting them see what she’d asked him to rein in for the sake of Gail’s special day. Really, she couldn’t hold it against him. In fact, it sort of made him her own personal hero.
Letting her pull back enough for decency, Connor smiled down at her. “What do you think about wrapping it up here?”
Tina’s chin pulled back and Jodie rolled her eyes. Gail scrunched up her nose and stuck out her bottom lip. “No. You’ve got to stay. Bride’s prerogative and all. It’s my day, so park it.”
Connor’s menacing half smile slanted over his lips as he looked at the table. All nonchalance, with one hand still resting dangerously low on her hip, the other tucked casually in his pocket.
“Bride’s prerogative,” he murmured. “Definitely.”
She should have seen it coming, should have known. But it wasn’t until he’d caught her hand that she saw what he was holding.
The floor dropped out from under her.
“Megan,” he said with a doting smile and a steely glint in his eyes. “I know you wanted to wait to announce our news, but I honestly can’t. Not. Another. Second.”
She was too stunned to react when he slid that gorgeous glittering band over her finger, raising their joined hands for everyone to see. “I know it was fast, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting this woman get away.”
Gail was the first one to pick her jaw up off the floor, her watery eyes now darting between the ring she wore and Megan’s. “You got married,” she gasped. “At my wedding?”
Megan started fumbling for something to say, for an apology maybe, though it didn’t really seem right. She opened her mouth, only to have the air squeezed out of her lungs by Connor’s arms wrapping snug around her. “No, of course not,” he assured with all the sensitivity of an assassin. “We got married first. This morning.”
Tina and Jodie were both shaking their heads as if understanding was impossible.
“I know it’s early, but I think we’ve waited long enough to get back to our honeymoon. So if you’ll excuse us...” And with everyone watching, Megan found herself swept off her feet, tucked into Connor’s arms. “Drinks are on me tonight. Congratulations.”
“WHAT IN THE HELL do you think you’re doing?” Megan demanded from the far side of the elevator where she stood, hands on hips, eyes boring into him like little embers of hell.
Connor snapped the picture from his phone then slipped the device back into his tux pocket before it ended up incinerated beneath his wife’s fiery glare, or more likely crushed beneath the spike of her sexy glass slipper.
“Documenting our first fight.”
For a moment, all the red-hot rage directed his way turned to utter shock, leaving her sputtering in a way he couldn’t deny he was getting a serious kick out of. But in a blink, she rocketed back to fury, leaning into the space between them, her voice going lethally low. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Come on, it’s something for the scrapbook. You’ll thank me later.”
“You know good and well I’m not talking about a picture.”
Yeah, he did. The way he knew taking a snap of her when she was this cranked up was probably a move just short of suicide, but like his decision to break his promise to her back in the club, it was one he wouldn’t regret.
“We had a deal,” she hissed, her eyes darting between him and the elevator’s digital display. “But maybe you forgot. Or perhaps our agreement didn’t suit your needs at the time, so you just changed your mind.”
The car slowed, sounding a low chime to alert them they’d arrived at their floor. The doors soundlessly opened and Megan turned forward—her face a mask of calm, belied only by the rapid pulse at her neck. Placing his hand at the small of her back, they stepped out into the main floor.
“Definitely the latter,” he answered quietly at her ear.
A taunt, almost daring her to lose her cool in the midst of all these people. But not Megan. She kept it together, impressing him more and more. Confirming once again how well suited she was to being his wife. Not that he’d make a habit of goading her in public or out of it. He didn’t expect much fighting, but it was important to know how she would handle it.
From there, they walked silently through the hotel, before arriving at their private villa.
He was more than ready to go toe-to-toe with her on this point, regardless of what kind of mad she had on. That scene at the nightclub was beyond unacceptable.
The second they were inside, Megan spun on him. “You promised me.”
He had. But circumstances weren’t what he’d expected, requiring a judgment call, and he’d made one. Firming up his stance, he crossed his arms.
“Did you hear what they said?” he demanded, giving his own mad its head. “I wasn’t going to let those catty, backbiting—”
Her hand cut through the air. “I don’t care what they said. All that matters to me is what you said. Your word. What it’s worth. What I can believe.”
He held her stare, not backing down. “You can believe I took you to be my wife. To honor, respect and protect, for all the days of our life.”
* * *
Megan blinked up at him, suddenly at a loss for words. “Those were our vows?”
“They were mine. And I meant them. I’m not the kind of husband to twiddle my thumbs while my wife is maligned. I would have liked to accommodate you tonight, Megan. I fully intended
