Page 86 of Wolf Bane
“I was there, I know,” I teased, leaning into him.His heart thumped solidly beneath my cheek, the heat of his body seeping through the slight chill in the air.“Holy shit, right?”
Ethan chuckled.“Maybe I should get that engraved on our rings.”
We both eyed our silver bands, purchased from a shop in Dallas just two days before when Ethan suddenly remembered we should have rings.
“I want everyone to know,” he’d whispered sleepily in the predawn hours, snuffling my hair as he pulled me to his chest.He’d gone to Dallas to get rings a few hours later, leaving me to call our friends and let them know we were getting married in just a week or so, save a date and we’d figure it out.
Now here we were.
Married.
Married on the steps of the county justice building, the certificate clutched in my left hand, Ethan’s hand in my right.Mariska zoomed and danced around the steps while Mal did his level best not to chase her, to let her just be a kid without a helicopter dad.Waltrip was helping, keeping one hand firmly on Mal’s back, his cheeks a little pink as he did his level best not to let on that he knew we knew.
The click of Reba’s heels on the steps turned my head in her direction.Dapping at her red eyes, she offered me a watery smile.“I am so happy for you two,” she wobbled.“Oh, this was such a beautiful wedding!”
Ethan smiled, bemused, and let Reba envelop him in a crushing embrace.
Seriously, the woman was way stronger than she looked.I’m pretty sure she could arm wrestle Waltrip into submission if she had to.When it was my turn for a hug, I knew to brace myself.“Landry,” she sniffed, “this was so lovely.Thank you for inviting me.I’m so honored!”
“Of course,” I gasped, sucking in a gulp of air when she let me breathe.“I wouldn’t have gotten married without you, Reba.You’re one of my best friends.”
“Oh!”She broke into a fresh round of sobs at that, flinging her arms around my neck.
“Um…”
Ethan, smirking fondly, clapped his hands.“Barbecue at our place.Go home, change clothes, meet back at ours in an hour or two!”
Everyone slowly spread out to their cars in the tiny parking lot, Cullen hanging back with a slightly uncomfortable, pinched expression.“You look like you love weddings,” I noted as we closed the distance between us.“I’ve never seen you more ecstatic.”
“Your joy brings me joy,” he drawled, shifting his attention to Ethan.“I’m sure you’ll choose not to believe how loath I am to do this, but Ethan, your presence is requested in Chicago in two days’ time.”He sniffed.“They wanted you up this evening, but I pushed back.Congratulations on your nuptials.”
“Cullen, wait!”I called before he could get too far.“Come over to the house.Seriously.We’d love to have you.”
Ethan nodded.“Mal and Mariska would love it, too.”
Cullen didn’t soften, not really, but the mention of two of his favorite people had him a little less stiff-backed.He tilted his head as if in thought, then sighed.“I have a bit of time before my flight.”
Ethan pulled me to his side as Cullen trotted down the steps and, without a backwards glance, strode to the sleek, black, rental sedan parked in the furthest spot possible from the center while still remaining in the lot.“Do you think he wanted people to see him going to the fancy car, or is he afraid someone’s going to ding the door?”
“Both.”Ethan chuckled.“He’s pragmatic like that.Now… do you want to try and race everyone back to the house so we have some time on our own, or make out in the truck like we did in high school and pretend no one knows why we’re late to our own party?”
Heat spread from my chest to my ears then back down again.I was unable to stop my grin as I draped my arms over Ethan’s shoulders and stretched up onto my toes for a kiss.“Why not both?Make out in the car in our driveway?”
He hummed thoughtfully.“Not a bad idea.And less likely to get us arrested for public indecency.”
“Hell of a way to spend our honeymoon,” I agreed, dropping back to my heels and stepping away, letting Ethan lead us to his truck.
Spoiler alert: We didn’t make it back to the house.About halfway down Creek Run Road, named for the… Well.Creek.The one that ran beside the road.Halfway down the road, Ethan pulled off onto an old dirt track that had once led to a farmhouse, long fallen into disrepair and home only to ghosts and mice.He parked the truck just past the thick, overgrown water oak, shielding us from the few cars that would likely pass while we were there.
“This okay?”he asked quietly, shutting the engine off.
Despite the cooler fall weather outside, sweat prickled my chest, my skin warming under Ethan’s eager gaze.
Nodding, I admitted, “I knew what you were up to the second you turned down Creek Run.No one comes down here unless they’re heading to the McElroy place or they want to make out.”
I didn’t give Ethan time to say anything else, moving to straddle his lap with the steering wheel digging into my lower back in a way that’d be annoying sooner rather than later.But at that very moment I didn’t give a good damn.
Ethan uttered a muffled, pleased sort of sound against my mouth, his fingers curling to squeeze my ass as I settled against him.
