Alistair (Golden Streak Series) (12 page)

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” He
shook his head at her question. “I guess it’s sort of stupid to think that
after sleeping together all this time that one night would make much of a
difference.”

“It will and it does. I love you very
much, and even though we’re not going to have this grand wedding, there isn’t
any reason why we can’t have a spectacular wedding night.” He showed her the
case. “I had already planned to sleep alone, thinking about all the things I
plan to do to you as soon as you’re my wife.”

“I don’t want a large wedding. I want
what we’re having. I don’t…the first wedding was a major disaster, and I don’t
need a reminder of what a fool I’d been.” She turned back in the tub and
started on the other leg. “And being your wife will give me more than I’ve ever
wanted. Plus, I’ll have your name and not his. After tomorrow, everything about
him will be erased from my memory.”

Alistair left her to her bath and moved
down the hall. He hoped that tomorrow would give her more and better memories
because he knew that until he was out of their life completely Lance Isaac was
going to be nothing they’d be able to forget.

Knowing he wasn’t going to be able to
sleep he pulled the file on the hearing for the next day. After reading over
the same page three times, he tossed it on the desk. He got up and opened the
door to the balcony and stepped out onto the small deck there.

The night was quiet, and it took him
several seconds of listening to it to realize that it was too quiet. He was
reaching for Brock to see if he had someone on the property when he saw a wolf
run across the yard. The stupid thing was chasing something. And he thought it
was a deer, maybe. If he brought it down and Ally found out about it she’d
probably have him murdered.

Then the deer came running back the
other way. He laughed when the wolf took off in the opposite direction. Stupid
mutts didn’t have a clue how to hunt and to be quiet when they did. Alistair
closed the doors and slipped off his clothes.

Tomorrow he was going to be married. He
had heard that some tigers, even other species sometimes married for the companionship,
and he wondered what they did with their wives if their mate showed up later. He
had already decided that he’d wait for his mate even if it took nearly all his
life to find her. He’d been a little jealous of Ryland when he’d found his mate,
and now he knew just how his brother had felt.

Rolling to his back, he smiled. She was
going to have a brick when she found out what he’d done about their honeymoon. In
two weeks, they were going to Paris and a few other countries for an entire
month. And when they returned, he was going to take her away for another month
just for the hell of it. Alistair closes his eyes. He was going to be married
in the morning and he couldn’t have been any happier.

Chapter 12

She waited in the bathroom, hoping that
she didn’t have to throw up again. Ally glanced over at Bronwyn and grinned.
The woman looked ready to pop, and she still had seven weeks to go. When Bronwyn
noticed she was looking at her, she glared.

“I could so make you slip and fall on your
ass if you laugh at me.” She would, too, and Ally knew it. “I’m so fucking
miserable that I can’t move without wanting to take a nap. It’s this weather. Why
is it so hot in April?”

It was hot. It had been nearly ninety
yesterday and was supposed to top that today. She handed her the bottle of
water that Brock had given her when she’d rushed past him.

“Just a few days ago it was in the
forties, and now it’s in the hundreds. Do you think it would have been more
tolerable had it built up slowly and not frozen us one day and boiled us the
next?” Bronwyn nodded and rubbed the bottle on her head. “I suppose it’d be too
much to ask to turn on the air.”

Bronwyn looked at her and smiled. She
wasn’t sure she’d ever seen that smile before and hoped whatever she was
thinking wasn’t directed at her. She closed her eyes for a second and then
looked at her and stood up.

“It’ll be cool in here soon. I should
have thought of that earlier.” She didn’t ask her what she’d done. Not knowing,
she thought would keep her innocent. She walked by one of the maintenance men
who were standing in front of a thermostat. Ally had a feeling people were
going to need coats in about an hour.

The judge’s office where the wedding was
going to take place was closed. Ally glanced at her watch and realized she
still had ten minutes to go. She looked up at Ryland when he came out of the
office and closed the door behind him.

“You about ready?” She nodded at him. He’d
told her yesterday when she’d ask him to give her away, a formality that wasn’t
really necessary in a court house that he’d be honored. He told her he’d even
put on a tie. Bronwyn told her that was a big deal he’d not even wanted to wear
one at his own wedding. He handed her a spray of white and yellow roses and
told her they were from Alistair.

She felt the tears fill her eyes and
looked at Bronwyn. These people had come to mean so much to her that she didn’t
know what she’d do if anything happened to them. When Bronwyn hugged her, she
felt like she finally had a family. More so than she’d had with even her own
mother. The others came running down the hall just as she was about to go in.

“Wait. I have something for you.” Keith
handed her another spray of roses; these were pink. “We wanted you to have a
shit ton of flowers.”

Jules handed her bright red ones, and
Neal handed her the most delicate shade of blue she’d ever seen. Brock was
inside with his brother, but Ryland handed a beautiful single rose that had
been dyed a light green. He told her it was from Brock.

“And so you know, I bought you a rose
bush.” She laughed. “I wanted you to remember me every time it bloomed.”

She laughed when Keith called his
brother a sap. And when someone knocked on the other side of the judge’s door
she looked at them all. “I’ve never been so…I love you all very much. I can’t
tell you what it means to me to have you all here.”

None of them spoke as Brock opened the
door and told them they were ready. When she walked into the chambers, her
breath caught. There stood Alistair in his suit, his brother Brock to his left,
and his mom standing right beside them. And the room was filled with every kind
of flower known to man.

“Oh my.” She reached out and put her
hand on Ryland’s arm, suddenly overwhelmed with it all, with them all. When
Alistair came forward and took her hands she looked up at him and smiled.

“I love you.” She nodded sure that if
she tried to speak she’d blubber and sob. “You’re going to be my wife for all time,
and I plan to make you look like you do now, happy and in love for the rest of
my life.”

He pulled her forward with Ryland on her
other side. As soon as they were standing before the judge, the music started
playing softly. Judge Sanders smiled at her.

“You are a very lovely woman. All Alistair’s
been talking about all morning is how he had the most beautiful wife in the
world.” She flushed and looked at Alistair.

The ceremony went off without nearly
anything going wrong. The only thing that happened was when Brock’s cell phone
went off and everyone glared at him. He flushed a bright red and turned it off.

Alistair slipped the ring on her finger
with a shaky breath. He told her he loved her and then kissed her when he’d
done it. The judge cleared his throat.

“We’ve not gotten to that part yet, boy.
Hold your horses.” Everyone laughed. “Okay, then. We’ll start over if you make
me lose my place again.”

The rest went smoothly. And before
Alistair kissed her at the right time, he tuned to the judge and asked. The man
blushed and told him to behave.

There was a light brunch served in a
closed office that Jed had prepared for them. The wedding cake that she’d made
was sitting in the middle of it all. She and Alistair cut it, and with lots of
cell phone cameras going off, he smashed in it her face, and she did the same
to him. Only she didn’t get to rub it in his hair like she’d wanted to because
he had to go to court. A lot of people came by to wish them well. Then, all too
soon, Alistair told her he had to leave.

“I’m hoping to be finished in a couple
of hours. That is if I can’t get a continuance. But seeing how the judge for
that appearance knew we just got married I’m hoping he’ll let it go until
tomorrow. I want to take you to the nearest empty office I can find and take
you hard against the wall.” She shivered at the thought of him doing just that.
His low growl made her cat race along her skin.

“Stop that.” She looked up at him and
saw that his cat was there, as well. “We’re going to make a scene if we keep
this up.”

“Christ, I hope so.” He pulled her into
his arms and kissed her. She could feel his cock harden against her and she
moaned. When he pulled away she wasn’t sure if she could stand by herself.

“You’d better be naked and in bed when I
get there. I swear to you if you’re not then you’re going to have to replace
whatever you had on because it won’t survive me.” She shivered again and felt
her pussy heat. “I can smell you. Christ.”

He took a step back and then another.
She grinned at him when he tugged his jacket down over his erection. When he
glared, she laughed out loud. With a quick kiss to her nose, he left her
standing in the empty hall. She went back to the chambers and told Jed she as
ready any time he was.

They were going to go and pick up a few
things then they were going to hit the kitchen store. She hadn’t been in one
since before she married Lance, and was as excited as Jed appeared to be. It
was within walking distance of the courthouse but they had decided that if they
purchased anything that they’d have to lug it back, and this would be easier.
Besides, she had plans to purchase a great deal.

The kitchen at their house was beautiful,
but it was outdated in the way of appliances. There was a toaster that had to
be talked sweetly to before it would work, a tea maker that had a crack in the
pitcher, as well, as it leaked out the back. Also there was no stand mixer and
nothing in the way of a food processor. All the things that she and Jed could
use on a daily basis. She thought about the herbs that he and she had started
just last week that were just starting to sprout.

“I think we should look at these as
well.” She moved over to where he was standing in front of all sorts of
gadgets. Before she could say anything he spoke low to her. “Someone is
following us.”

She stilled, and when he handed her a
shiny spatula, she used it to look behind her. She didn’t know the man. She
handed it back to Jed and then started to turn but “accidently” knocked a box
off the shelf beside her and looked at the man as she bent over.

“I don’t know him.” Jed nodded and told
her to continue shopping. Jed handed her several more things and told her to
put them in her basket. She had no idea what he was giving her, because she was
worried about the man behind him. When Jed relaxed, she did as well.

“He left. Maybe I was just being
paranoid.” She nodded but didn’t think so, and she didn’t think he did, either.
“Come on. Let’s get that coffee maker over there, and I want to see about
getting a waffle maker. The one we have now is about three hundred years old
and sticks really bad.”

They took another hour to get all they
wanted, and the owner of the shop helped them carry it out to their car. She
was glad now that Jed had brought the large SUV, because she was sure that the
little car he owned wouldn’t have cut it. Her phone was ringing while Jed
closed the back of the car up. She was happy to see it was from Alistair.

“I’m going to be here most of the day. I’m
sorry. The man was bitching about his lack of accommodations in his cell of all
things, and now he wants things finished today. Since everything is pretty much
settled except for what he owes, we’re going to finish this. The good news is I
have the next three days off, then the weekend.” She leaned against the car,
disappointed.

“I’m sorry, too. But you might want to
stay working. I just spent a small national debt for the kitchen, and we’ve not
even looked at refrigerators or stoves yet.” He laughed. “I wish you could be
with us.”

“You and Jed do most of the cooking, and
I’d be out of place. And I can be surprised when you bring it all home for us.”
He spoke to someone, and she waited. “I have to go, love. I can’t wait to get
home to you. I’m going to taste every part of you, then do it again before I
come deep inside of you.”

Hanging up, she stayed leaning against the
car for several seconds until Jed stepped in front of her. He was grinning, and
she thought he could tell what she and Alistair had been talking about.

“Are all men like him?” He shrugged. “I
love him dearly, but I tell you, sometimes I just want to smack him silly.”

“I’m sure he knows that, too.” He opened
the door for her. “Did you tell him that we’ve spent all his money?”

“Yes, and he didn’t care. I think I’m
going to buy the most expensive refrigerator they have just for spite.” Jed
laughed at her and went around to his side of the car. She wasn’t sure, but she
thought he said Alistair wouldn’t care. She thought he was right. Damned man.

The appliance store was a dream come
true. She and Jed spent an hour in the stove area alone. They ended up with a
range with a convection oven as well as a regular oven and bought a microwave
as well to match the stainless steel. The refrigerators were just as nice, but
other than the ice maker on the front, she’d not had much to contribute with
that. Jed, however, seemed to know just what he wanted, and the man helping
them was making his money from him. She smiled when he finally got what he
needed.

“We’ll have it delivered tomorrow
morning and have the others taken away at no charge, if you’d like.” She nodded,
not knowing what, if anything, Alistair would want to do with them. And, as
they were walking back out to the parking garage with their few purchases, she
realized she’d forgotten her sunglasses.

“I’ll go and get them and you can meet
me here with the car.” Jed looked around like he wasn’t sure, and she told him
she’d be fine. “I swear I know where they are. I’ll just go get them and come
right back out. Five minutes.”

“All right, but if you’re one second
longer, I’m coming for you. And I won’t be happy.” She nodded and hurried back
inside. They were just where she’d left them. She turned and left immediately
after grabbing them. When the doors to the elevator opened, she expected to see
Jed and the car right in front of her. She didn’t see anything.

She started toward where the car had
been parked and was just walking by a pylon when someone stepped out in front
of her. She felt fear race along her skin when she recognized the man from the
kitchen shop.

“You’re not an easy woman to find.” She
started to take as step back and hit something hard. A gun suddenly appeared in
his hand. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I’m going to kill you, but I’d
rather do it where we’re less likely to be heard. You’re buddy made enough noise.”

She looked back where the car was. “Did
you kill him? Please, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but don’t hurt Jed. He’s
just a good man.”

He stared at her for several seconds,
and she had a feeling that he was shocked about something. “You really don’t
know, do you? You have no idea why she wants you dead.”

“I don’t…I know that my ex-husband wants
me to come back with him, but not a woman. Does this have anything to do with
the mall shooting? Is it the same woman?”

He hit her. She felt blood erupt from
her mouth and nose immediately. She cringed when he stepped closer to her.

“That wasn’t my fault. I told him to be
careful and not to kill anyone but you, but he had to make a name for himself.”
He hit her again, this time making her dizzy. “You’ll not say another word
about that or so help me I’ll make you suffer in ways you’ve never had with
that fucking bitch of a mother-in-law had.”