Page 21 of His to Love
Chapter Ten
Alexa
Sitting down on the sofa in our honeymoon suite at a ritzy Vegas hotel, I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I didn’t know how I should act.
Looking at the wedding ring on my finger—the one that matched Patton’s—I began to feel suffocated. The marriage was real now, legal, legitimate in every way. The love wasn’t there though, the passion wasn’t there, and the knowledge that he and I had only gotten married to spare my mother any stress overwhelmed me.
The wedding ceremony had happened less than an hour ago, yet it was a blur to me already. The Elvis impersonator who had officiated our wedding must’ve gotten the right answers out of me, as the one thing I could recall was hearing him say, “You can now kiss the bride, you hunka hunka burnin’ love.”
That’s when Patton took both of my hands, pulled me to him, and then pressed his lips onto mine. The numbness I’d felt all day had ended in an instant as fireworks went off inside my head and my heart nearly beat out of my chest. I’d never experienced anything like it. The kiss left me floating as he swept me off my feet, carrying me out of the little white chapel then up to our suite.
Patton wanted to give me everything I’d have from a real wedding. He’d bought me a gorgeous and expensive wedding dress made bytheVera Wang. Vegas had it all, and anyone with tons of money could get the most fabulous clothes on the planet within hours.
Patton had purchased an entire ensemble of clothing for me for our honeymoon. He said we had to have lots of pictures to make things look real to my parents.
“You look amazing.” He snapped a picture of me sitting on the sofa then began putting the camera on a tripod. “I’ve told you that, right? You really do look the most beautiful I’ve ever seen you.” He chuckled playfully. “Marriage suits you, Mrs. Nash.”
Cocking my head to one side, I had a hard time understanding how he was so cool and confident. “Patton, you know what we just did, right? We just got married—for real. You’re no longer a single man, and I’m no longer a single woman. For now, we’re bound to one another in a way neither of us ever saw coming. It’s a little mind-boggling, right?”
“You can’t think like that. We’ve done what needed to be done.” He straightened his tie then ran his hands over his black suit. He’d gone with a black suit made by Tom Ford and looked like a model wearing it, too. “Time for some pictures.”
He came to me, holding out his hands. “I’ll put you on my lap. It’ll look playful.”
Sitting on his lap was new for me. I couldn’t recall ever doing it—not even when I was a kid. But there were photos to take, so I got up and let him move me the way he wanted to. “Should I maybe put my hands on your cheeks, and we can look into each other’s eyes—or something like that?”
“Sounds nice to me.” He waited for me to get into place. Our eyes met and he clicked the clicker in his hand. “That’s going to be a good one. And now, how about one with us kissing?”
My stomach got tight and my lips tingled. My body remembered how it felt to kiss the man who was now my husband. “K.”
“I’ll let you make the move, Alexa. Move in when you’re ready to.” His blue eyes searched mine. “Are you okay with doing this?”
My heart melted with how sweet he was. “I can honestly say that kissing you has been far more enjoyable than any of the kisses I shared with that jerk.”
His laugh sounded good to me. “That’s good to know.”
Moving in, I closed my eyes because looking into those azure pools of his made it hard to concentrate. Slowly, I came to him until our lips touched. I heard the sound of him taking the picture and then I heard nothing except the popping of fireworks that once again went off inside my head.
I’d thought the crush I’d had on him long ago was over. But the way it felt when we kissed had me rethinking that. It was even a bit overwhelming. When our mouths parted, my breathing was on the ragged side.
I’d wrapped my arms around his neck while we kissed without realizing what I was doing. His hands ran up to take mine then he pulled my arms off him. “I think those pictures will look real.”
Probably because that felt real.
It started to crop up in my head why they called them crushes. Because you end up feeling crushed when you realize it’s one-sided. So, I pulled back a whole lot. “I’m hungry, are you?” I climbed off his lap, needing to put space between us.
“I’ve made reservations for us at Picasso.” He got up and went to the bar, filling a glass with white wine for himself and then pouring me a sparkling water. “You should go change into the pale blue Elie Saab and the Jimmy Choo Viola sandals. The ones with the crystal embellishments.” A sudden grin came over his lips as he added, “I’ve stashed a gift for you in the bag with the shoes. Wear them too.”
“Patton, you’ve bought me too much already. You don’t need to be giving me gifts as well.” It felt wrong for him to keep gifting me with things. The whole thing was fake, after all.
“We have to make it look good, my dear wife.” He sipped his wine before going on, “A man who loves his wife wants to give her things. Now go change so we can get to the restaurant.”
I found the dress in the closet and then the bag with the shoes in the bottom of it. When I pulled out the shoebox, I saw another box had been slipped into the bag.
The large, square shape let me know there was some kind of jewelry inside. Nothing could’ve prepared me for what I found when I took the top off, though. Sparkling diamonds dripped off of a silver chain. Matching earrings were inside with the necklace. I couldn’t breathe, as I knew I held something in my hands that was worth more than my car.
After changing clothes, I put the jewelry on then looked at myself in the full-length mirror. “Who am I?” I ran my hands down the floor-length dress. Moving one foot, I let the sparkling sandal show. “I am Mrs. Patton Nash, that’s who I am.” Giggling, I thought about all the times I’d pretended I was married to Patton when I was in my early teens. Looking into my eyes, I couldn’t believe how things had come about. “This isn’t real, Alexa. You must remember that above everything else. This isnotreal.”
A knock came at the bedroom door. “Are you ready? We don’t want to be late.”
