Page 53 of Crazy Little Thing Called Love

His grin widened into a full out smile as he stood and pulled her up into his arms. “Then we better make good use of the ones we have and hit up the store later.”

As he bent, mouth descending on hers, the small voice inside her head screamed she was making a huge mistake, but she blocked it out. At the moment she didn’t care if having sex with Del led to trouble later. Right now, all she wanted was the hot press of his body against hers, the surging rush of pleasure he elicited with just a touch, the absolute rapture she felt when they joined.

“Come on, sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear, lifting her into his arms and heading down the hall toward her bedroom. “Let’s see if I can make you scream again.”

“I did not scream.” Her indignant tone came out as more of a breathy whisper because Del was doing marvelous things with his tongue against her neck and, oh hell, she totally did scream.

“Whatever you say, Sassy,” he chuckled.

She said yes. Yes, to Del. Yes, to the real sex and fake marriage. And yes, to finally taking something for herself.

CHAPTER 17

The next day, Cassie was in the middle of working on a new line of gemstone necklaces when a soft rapping sounded from her front door.

“Knock, knock! It’s your maid of honor, and I come bearing gifts.”

Cassie hurried to the door, opening it to face her best friend with a wary smile on her face. “It better not be more alcohol.”

Charlie groaned. “Do not say the A word around me. I’m still recovering. I can’t even look at the stuff right now.”

“You work at a distillery.”

Her friend shrugged, stepping inside and heading to the couch in the living room. “I’ve been working mostly from home this week.”

“If you didn’t bring any booze, what do you have for me?”

“Magazines. A freaking boatload of them.”

Charlie tipped the canvas tote bag she wore over her shoulder out onto the coffee table. Dozens of bridal magazines dumped into a haphazard pile on the polished wood.

“Wow, that’s…are they all different?”

“Yup. Who knew there was so much wedding stuff in the world, right?”

She certainly didn’t. The small mountain of happily smiling women dressed in white lace and silk stared at her, mocking her with their perfectly styled photos. It all looked so…phony. Kind of like her upcoming nuptials. She could easily be one of the posed brides staring into a camera, faking the happiest day of her life, because that’s exactly what she planned to do. She and Del were just pretending, or had been until…

Crap, she didn’t know what they were now. Friends? Lovers? Two people who were getting married for purposes other than love, but still had sex?

She could use a good talk it out session with her best friend right now. Too bad her best friend was the very last person she could talk to about this.

“Holy shit!” Charlie exclaimed, thumbing through one of the magazines. “This place claims to be an affordable venue, but their lowest quoted price is over ten thousand dollars. And that’s just for the rental fee.”

Yikes! “Um, we were kind of thinking of something a bit more intimate. Smaller. Just a few of our closest friends and family.”

“That’s the way I’d go, too. Who needs a big, wild party that’s gonna put you in debt? I mean, shouldn’t it be the marriage that’s important and not how fancy the party is?”

“Totally agree.” Plus, this wasn’t her real marriage. They had to make it look real, but when she walked down that aisle she wouldn’t be saying ‘I do’ to her soulmate or anything.

Something uncomfortable lodged itself in her chest. As a young girl, she’d always fantasized about her own marriage and family. She’d thought when she finally found her true love they’d settle down, raise a family, and live happily ever after. Once she’d grown up, she realized that people rarely got fairytale endings in this world, but in the very deepest part of her heart, she still believed in them.

“Small venue. Got it,” Charlie said, bringing Cassie out of her deep thoughts. “Close friends and family only. Does that mean your cousin Mandy is coming?” She paused, looking up from the magazine with a look of horror on her face. “She’s not a bridesmaid, is she?”

The very thought made laughter spill from Cassie’s lips. “Oh, God, no. I mean, yes, I’ll probably have to invite her, and hopefully she won’t come, but no way in hell would I trust her to stand with me on my big day. She’d probably scream ‘I object’ at the top of her lungs.”

Her friend snorted. “Oh man, how pissed is she at you right now? Like on a scale of one to ten?”

“Well, she’s called me about a dozen times in the past week. I have over twenty angry texts and ten very colorful emails calling me various names, a few that I’m sure she invented, so I’d say an eleven.”

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