Page 84 of Dropping Like Flies

Griffin said his vows and then slid a matching ring onto my finger. When the registrar invited us to kiss, we did, both of us smiling when we broke apart. Signing the register only took a few minutes, and then it was done, the entire ceremony taking no longer than fifteen minutes before we were out on the street again and getting congratulations from both Cade and Paul.

“What now?” I asked, feeling slightly dazed from the whole thing happening so quickly, and finding it difficult to get my head around the fact that I’d gone into the building without a husband and come out with one. Griffin seemed equally shell-shocked if how tightly he was holding onto my hand was any indication. We should have organized something. Not a party necessarily, but something to mark the occasion.

“Now,” Cade said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close, “I take us all for a slap up meal at La Gavroche to celebrate.” He laughed at my dubious expression. “Oh, come on. I had three whole days’ warning about this. That was more than enough time to pull some strings and get us a table.”

Paul cleared his throat. “When you say all, you mean…?”

Cade flashed him a grin. “Yeah, you too. But…” He narrowed his eyes at the detective. “Your free meal comes at a price.”

It was something of an oxymoron, but none of us pointed that out. Paul frowned. “What price?”

Cade leaned closer to him, his expression serious. “You erase Ben’s full name from your memory.”

Quite the battle played itself out on Paul’s face. A free meal at an exclusive restaurant that he would no doubt struggle to get into versus the opportunity to reveal a prized snippet of gossip at work and wind me up for the foreseeable future. Finally, he sighed and gave in to the inevitable. “Deal, but I’m having three courses.”

Cade winked at me. “You can have whatever you want.” He mouthed “that’s your wedding present,” at me and I nodded.

“I think we can safely say we’ve consummated our marriage,” I said, lying across Griffin’s chest, both of us sweaty from the bout of toe-tingling sex we’d just thrown ourselves into wholeheartedly.

Griffin chuckled as he stroked his fingers through my hair. “I think you’re right.”

I propped myself up on one elbow and studied him. “It occurs to me that there are a few things we should have discussed before tying the knot.”

“Such as?”

“When we’re going to tell our families?”

He shrugged. “Whenever you want.”

“Mine are going to think I’ve gone stark raving mad.”

He grimaced. “Yeah, I realize that. I’m just going to have to convince them that I love you with all my heart. They can call me as many names as they want, but I’m not going anywhere. Eventually, they’ll realize that they’re stuck with me.” He raised his head slightly off the pillow. “Anything else?”

“Where we’re going to live?”

Griffin didn’t miss a beat. “Your place. It’s bigger, and it doesn’t have any negative memories associated with it. Does that work for you?”

I nodded. “It does.” I was surprised he’d come to that conclusion without me having to twist his arm, but I wasn’t about to argue. “And then maybe we can find somewhere bigger. A house instead of a flat. We can get a…”

“Cat,” Griffin said.

“Dog,” I said at the same time.

I held my hand up and studied the ring, Griffin only allowing it for a few seconds before snatching my hand out of the air and dropping a kiss on the same finger. “I’ll buy you a better one.”

I smiled. “Have I ever struck you as a man who likes the finer things in life?”

“Once,” Griffin said, his answer making me frown.

I sat up indignantly. “When?”

“This afternoon when you were ordering the most expensive things off the menu.”

I relaxed back into the pillows with a laugh. “Ah, that was different. Cade was paying for it.” I thought back to the meal. We might not have had a reception, but we’d all made a speech, even Paul, so in that respect it had been like having one. “It was lovely of Cade to organize that.”

“Yeah, it was,” Griffin agreed. “He’s been a lifesaver for the past few years. Any other boss would have sacked me. I think he’s relieved that I’ve finally sorted myself out.”

“Have you?” We both knew what I was really asking.

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