The jealous look was back.
And damn if it didn’t turn her on.
There was no way they were making it to dessert.
He stood, reaching for her hand to pull her up too.
“Is it later?” she asked.
“Almost.”
Charley noticed he swayed slightly, her first indication that he wasn’t unaffected by the tequila either.
Of course, standing only drove home how wasted she was too.
“I don’t wanna fuck dance anymore,” she said. “I just wanna fuck.”
Alex chuckled. “That’s exactly what we’re gonna do. Later.”
Again with the later.
She had no idea what the hell he was planning and he didn’t bother to explain.
Instead, he kept hold of her hand, dragging her out of the ballroom. They didn’t make it to the cake cutting, but she didn’t care.
It was almost time for the fun stuff.
Or at least she thought…
Alex bypassed the elevators, heading for the front entrance of the hotel.
“Hey,” she protested, trying to pull him back the other way.
Alex paused just briefly, just long enough to face her, leaning down until his nose nearly touched hers. “Walk out of here with me on your own, sweetheart, or I’ll toss you over my shoulder and carry you out.”
Charley blinked a few times, trying to make sense of his words.
Unfortunately, he was using that caveman tone again that sent her mind straight to the gutter. “But my room is upstairs.”
He smiled and gave her a quick kiss. “And we’re going to get there, believe me. But we need to do something else first.”
“What?”
“Get married.”
Chapter Seven
The stunned look on Charley’s face cracked Alex up. The entire night had been…well…fun.
Every single second of it.
Until the other guys began hovering around them.
Then he started to see red.
He’d come to the wedding, expecting to drown his sorrows, nurse his wounded pride.
Not laughing his ass off.
Not fingering his kid sister’s best friend in a bathroom until she came.
Not dragging Charley Matthews to the altar because he couldn’t stand the way Marcus and Ben were looking at her.
“But you don’t want to get married,” she said.
“If we talk about it, it stops being impulsive and crazy.”
As far as reasons went, that one was pretty lame.
But Charley accepted it lock, stock, and barrel.
For about two seconds.
She resisted again, trying to pull her hand from his. “Alex.”
He’d never considered marriage a part of his future, but he could see now that his world had never presented any appealing options.
Most of the women he met fell in the barracuda range, not the…he stumbled for a moment, but the only other range he could think of was the Charley range.
You fucked barracudas.
You married, then fucked Charleys.
The fact that made total sense seemed to justify his reasons for dragging her to the chapel even more.
Jesus.
He’d had way too much tequila.
“Alex. Be sensible.”
“No.”
Alex pulled her to the curb. One of the valets came over to them.
“Need a cab,” Alex explained.
Charley was still shaking her head, but he couldn’t tell if that was a refusal or her attempt to shake some sense into her tequila-soaked brain.
Either way, he managed to get her into a taxi before she could continue resisting.
“Nearest wedding chapel,” Alex said to the driver, who grinned in the rearview mirror.
“Nice,” the guy said.
“Alex. You can’t be serious about this.”
“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”
And he hadn’t.
The second he’d heard Charley talk about her dream wedding, he had this inexplicable feeling, this urge to be the one to give it to her.
Of course, he hadn’t intended to act on it until she’d looked in Ben’s direction and Alex realized she was actually thinking about the fucker fondly.
He didn’t like that look.
Didn’t want her backsliding to the dick.
Didn’t want her with anybody…but him.
Alex wasn’t used to feeling jealous or possessive, but there was no way he could deny that was a big part of what prompted this trip through the city.
After all, Charley had just wasted three years of her life with the wrong guy. Least he could do—as a friend—was give her the wedding of her dreams, give her a chance to live out the fantasy for one night.
“So…what…this is just like a dare or something?”
While Alex was feeling no pain, thanks to the liquor, Charley was even farther gone. She was really struggling to wrap her head around what they were doing.
Which only played into the Vegas eloping cliché even more.
Just when he thought the night couldn’t get any more perfect.
He grinned. “We’re in Vegas, Charley. It’s an adventure. I’m giving you your dream wedding.”
She rolled her eyes, swaying slightly in the seat as she did so. “It’s not just the damn wedding, Alex. You’re forgetting the important parts—the vows, the future, the forever.”
She rattled off three of the most terrifying words in the history of language.
And for the first time in his life, not one of them felt scary.
He blew out a long breath as he tried to figure out what that meant.
“Alex,” she prompted.
“I’m not forgetting anything, Charley.”
She frowned, chewing on that in silence until the cab slid to a halt in front of a small chapel.
He was kind of chewing on it too. He’d really only thought this plan through until they wrapped up the honeymoon sex…hopefully in a week or three.
After that…
“Here we are. This one look okay?” the taxi driver asked.
Alex glanced out at the small, quaint, rustic-looking chapel. “What do you think?” he asked Charley, who’d mentioned cheesy. This place didn’t seem to fit that bill. “Want Elvis instead?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No. This is sort of perfect.”
Alex paid the guy, then took Charley’s hand and led her inside.
She’d become surprisingly complacent, but he wasn’t sure if that was because of the tequila or if he’d convinced her to treat the night like a fun adventure.
Or…
Those three words drifted through his mind again.
Vows. Future. Forever.
He brushed them aside for three more appropriate words.
Adventure, lark, honeymoon sex.
Wait.
That was four.
“Hello.” A perky, balding man in a cheap suit greeted them as they entered. “Welcome to the Chapel of…hey, you’re Alex Stone!”
Alex smiled, used to being recognized. “You must be a hockey fan. My favorite kind of people.”
“Well, I have to admit,” the man said, “I gotta remain true to my Knights, but you were unbelievable in that last…”
Yep.
That was about as far as most people got before they remembered he’d fucked up and lost his team the game.