Page 19 of A Happy Endings Wedding
Chapter Six
There were a lot of hitches on the way to getting hitched. It was now late Friday afternoon, approximately twenty-four hours before the wedding, and Josh hated to admit it, but his pregnant bride was falling apart right along with the wedding. He was partially responsible since he’d impregnated her and the hormones were surely messing with her head. Jake had said Claire had been snappish and a wee bit aggressive during her pregnancy. Hailey went the opposite route. She was currently in the bathtub, bawling her eyes out.
He paced their suite. Snappish and aggressive would’ve been so much easier to handle, but no. He got tears, which got him all riled up because they were much harder to fix, and her pain was his pain. So yeah. He was up to bat. He got it, he really did. She’d put so much work into the wedding and it had been one thing after another. When they’d arrived at the dock this morning to make sure the flowers arrived, it had been a raging disappointment to find not tulips, but mismatched wilting whatever they were. It looked like the flower shop had delivered every single bouquet they hadn’t been able to sell and pawned it off on them.
He did an about-face and paced in the other direction. Max and Rose were curled up on the bed, ears perked toward the closed bathroom door.
“I know,” he told them. “I’m trying. You two weren’t much help.”
On the walk back from the dock, the dogs had finally given up the rings. And while Hailey was happy the dogs wouldn’t require surgery, she couldn’t stomach actually using those rings. Kind of a shame, too, because he’d had them engraved. Hers said Warrior Princess, and his said Warrior Beast. That was what she liked to call him. In any case, Mad had taken the ferry back to France with her husband, Parker, this morning to buy two new gold bands. Not engraved. Whatever. Hailey would never know she’d missed out on that. He’d figured problem solved, but Hailey didn’t bounce back like he’d hoped.
She’d taken her sour mood and tried to work through it by supervising everything being set up correctly for tomorrow. Bonnie wasn’t appreciative of Hailey’s interference with her job and let her know it. That didn’t stop Hailey, and why should it? So far Bonnie had made a mess of things. Hailey insisted on helping while Bonnie just seemed to bumble everything, screwing up the most basic requests. Hailey had given him an earful back in the room, beside herself over the gross incompetence.
He’d backed her up, agreeing with everything she said in regard to Bonnie being an idiot. Hailey soldiered on through a welcome reception in the palace gardens, which included the locals. The furries showed up, too, helping themselves to the offered drinks and snacks. Josh couldn’t even kick them out since the welcome reception was open to the public. Next Hailey went through a full photo shoot in her gown. No one cared about his tux and he was glad. There’d be plenty of pictures of them as a married couple, which was the important part.
She’d returned from the photo shoot and took to the tub in their private suite without a word, which was worrisome. She always had something to say. Then he’d heard the sobs.
He opened the bathroom door and poked his head in for the third time. “You okay?”
“Go away. I’m wallowing.”
He shut the door behind him and went over to the huge soaking tub on a center platform with a surrounding ledge that doubled as a bench seat. He took a seat and tested the water, lukewarm. She’d started it only warm, not hot, mindful of her pregnancy, which she’d announced to the baby the moment she’d turned on the faucet. She was a planner and had already read a lot about pregnancy. Still, he needed to get her out soon before she went in the opposite direction and got a chill. “You’ve been in here a long time.”
She flicked water at him. “I’m not up to talking. Everything is shit. Even the rings are shit. This is beyond awful. It’s hideous. It’s horrible. It’s cursed!” More tears leaked out.
“Hailey.”
“Go away.”
He kicked off his shoes and slid into the tub with her, fully dressed, the water sloshing over the side of the tub.
She stopped crying and gaped at him. “Josh! Are you crazy?”
He grinned and maneuvered himself behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “You left me no choice. I can’t just leave you in the tub all day.”
“It hasn’t been that long.” She leaned her head back on his shoulder and sighed. “Woe is us.”
He sank his teeth into the side of her neck and heard her sharp intake of breath. “You taste even more delicious now that you’re pregnant.” He kissed his way up her neck, gentler now. Sometimes she needed a little edge to get out of her head; sometimes a tender nuzzle to soften her up.
She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Are you trying to sex me out of my mood?”
He held her by the jaw and nipped her lower lip. “Would it work?”
“No.”
He spoke against her lips. “Well, let’s see.” She smiled.Yes.She turned in his arms and kissed him. He fisted his hand in her hair, claiming her mouth in a fierce possession, needing her soft and pliant, letting go of her worries. Her nails dug into his shoulders and she straddled him, pressing herself against him.
She tore her mouth away, tugging at his wet T-shirt. He helped her take it off him and set it dripping wet on the ledge of the tub. She leaned over the side and turned back to him. “There’s a huge puddle.”
“Later,” he muttered, kissing her again.
She moaned in the back of her throat, her fingers sliding down his bare chest to the button on his jeans. It would take too much effort to peel off the soaking wet jeans. Besides, she needed this way more than him.
He broke the kiss, cupping the back of her neck, and whispered in her ear, “Leave it.”
She struggled with the button. “No. I want you.” He stilled her hand, and she looked up at him in clear frustration. “It’s weird how much I want you since I’m pregnant. You’d think biology would’ve shut it down. Mission accomplished.”
He smiled, loving when she picked up on some of his vocab. He often spoke of the mission. “Guess I’m irresistible. Let’s get out of the tub.”
