Making Me Believe (5 page)

He grinned. “I’ve known for a while that if I met the right girl, I’d be willing
to get married. That’s why you saying you wouldn’t have sex before marriage didn’t bother me. I figured that if we got along, we’d just get married,” he said.

“Okay, I can agree with that, but this weekend? That’s what’s freaking me
out here. Are you sure you don’t want to get to know one another a little better first? I mean, what if I have some deep dark secret that I’m hiding from you?”

“You’re too honest and blunt for that. I don’t have any either, so what’s
your next objection?” he asked.

“Well, how do you know we’ll get along? I mean, we can obviously be
friends, but how do we know that more than that will work for us? We’ve only kissed once!”

He took the hand he still held in his and pulled her toward him. Leaning
down he pressed his lips to hers passionately. He molded her body to his, his hands roaming over her back.

Her hands wrapped around his neck and she returned his kiss for all she
was worth. The tingling sensation returned immediately. She felt her heart beat speed up.

Abruptly he lifted his head. “I know. Every time I touch you, I know that
you’re perfect for me. Marry me.”

She looked at him with a confused expression. Fighting to control her
breathing, she said, “Can we at least wait a week or two? To make sure we still feel the same way?”

“You’re killing me here, Rose. I need you. I don’t want to wait that long. I
honestly don’t want to wait until morning, but I will wait until Friday night. We can fly out and get married that same night.” His eyes pleaded with her to say yes.

“You really want to marry me just to have sex with me?” she asked. Was
that a good basis for a marriage?

“Right this second, I’d be willing to do anything to have sex with you, but it’s
more than that. I really think that we’re well suited. I don’t see any reason to wait,” he said. “I haven’t had as much fun with a woman in my entire life as I’ve had with you.”

She sat looking at him. She was already half in love with him. Alicia had
asked if she was willing to compromise her morals for him, and she wasn’t, but was she willing to marry a man she’d known for less than a week?

She pulled his head down for another kiss. She had to be sure that the
feelings were as strong as she thought they were. He tasted just as good as she remembered. Touching him made the rest of the world disappear. It was all she could do not to pull him down on top of her right then. She tore her mouth away.

“Where will we live?” she asked. She had to be practical. She had to think.
She couldn’t let how she felt for him right this second make a decision that would affect every moment of the rest of her life.

“Is that a yes?” His brown eyes stared into hers almost mesmerizing her
with the intensity of his gaze.

“I think it is,” she answered shyly. She had to take this chance. Maybe it
was crazy, but he was offering her a lifetime with the man she loved.

He gave her another hard kiss. “I’ll make travel arrangements. What time
do you get off work on Friday?”

“I’ll cancel my overtime,” she said. “I can be home by four thirty.”

“We’ll plan on flying out at six thirty or later. The wedding chapels are open until midnight, and there’s an hour time difference. I think the flight is around two hours. Do you want Elvis to marry us?” he asked.

She laughed. “Absolutely not. If Elvis is there, I’m not getting married!”

“I’ll come by tomorrow evening with the specifics of the arrangements,” he said, heading for the door. “I’ll let you get to bed. I know you have to get up early for work.”

She followed him to the door, closing and locking it behind him. She
leaned against the door and sighed heavily. What had she just agreed to?

*****

When Rose got to work the next day, she canceled her overtime for the remainder of the week. She wanted to have some time to do some shopping in preparation for her wedding. She wasn’t going to wear a long dress with a train, but she did want to have a nice white dress to wear, even if it was simple. She also wanted to pick up some lingerie. For lingerie, she needed a partner in crime.

Alicia was thrilled to go with her after work to shop. The two women
headed to the local mall, and Alicia helped her pick out some pretty lingerie.

“I can’t believe you’re marrying a guy you met last week! It’s so unlike
you,” she told Rose.

Rose grinned. “You haven’t seen the guy! Besides, this is the new
improved me.”

Alicia laughed, holding up a pink night gown. It was a simple cut gown with
spaghetti straps that stopped at mid-thigh. It wasn’t sexy in a blatant way, but once it was on, it would be fabulous. “This would look so good on you. You’ve got to get it!”

They had a quick dinner out, and Rose hugged her friend. “Thanks for your
help. I’m not much of a shopper, and I’ve never bought anything that was actually meant to be sexy before.”

“No problem. You just have fun Friday night. I want details on Monday,”
she told her with a grin.

“I promise to have fun. I make no promises about details.” She knew she
wouldn’t be sharing the kind of details that Alicia wanted. Some things were meant to be between husband and wife and no one else.

*****

By the time she got home from work on Friday afternoon, Rose was a bundle of nerves. Alex had said that everything was set for the ceremony. They would take a taxi from the airport to the courthouse and then to the hotel. A limo would pick them up from their hotel to take them to the chapel. After the short ceremony, the limo would take them back to their hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

She had her carryon packed and her dress in a garment bag. They
planned to return Sunday afternoon. They’d both taken Monday off work, so they’d have a day to get everything set up like they wanted it. Rose had another month left on her lease, and Alex’s lease was up. They decided to combine apartments and would start looking for a home.

When Alex arrived, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, grabbed her
bags and carried them out to a minivan. He’d arranged for his brother-in-law to drive them to the airport and pick them up on Sunday.

As she slid into the van, she noticed the toddler sitting in a car seat in the
very back seat. She took the middle seat with Alex. Alex made quick introductions. “This is my kid sister, Sarah the brat, and my brother in law, Clark, and my nephew, Justin.” He paused for a moment. “And this is Rose.”

Sarah turned around in her seat to get a better look at Rose. “I’m so
excited to meet you! I can’t believe that you and Alex are getting married. How long have you been seeing each other?” Rose started to respond, but Sarah kept talking without pausing for breath. “Mom is going to hate it that she didn’t get to meet you before the wedding, but I’m glad I get to. I’m supposed to call her as soon as I get home and tell her all about you. Where are you guys staying? On the strip? Or in downtown? Do you plan on finding a house in Arlington, or are you looking to move away from here? I’m so glad that I’ll finally have a sister. Alex is a big pain, but he’s a good brother, so I guess I can put up with him. You need to have a baby right away because Justin needs cousins. It’s so fun to have a lot of cousins, don’t you think?”

By this time Rose’s head was starting to spin. She waited for a moment to
see if Sarah was expecting a response. When she didn’t say anything else, she said, “A week, the strip, I’m not sure, and yes.”

Alex and Clark burst out laughing at the same time. Sarah grinned at
Rose. “You kept up with me! I can see we’re going to be great friends as well as sisters!”

Sarah was a petite brunette, who looked to be in the advanced stages of
pregnancy. “Alex didn’t mention you were having a baby!” She glared over at Alex. Why wouldn’t he tell her that?

Sarah shook her head and sighed. “Alex is a man. It’s not his fault, and
we just have to forgive him for his inadequacies.”

Rose looked over at Alex and grinned. “So far he seems pretty great to
me. Of course, my mother told me at least a hundred times on the phone this week that you never know a man until you’ve lived with him. She said he’s going to leave globs of toothpaste in the bathroom sink, and it will drive me insane. Or he’ll be incapable of remembering to take the trash out without being told fifty times.”

Sarah laughed. “They’re both true in Alex’s case! But he’s pretty cool
anyway. For a brother.” She gave Alex a teasing smile.

The van slowed as Clark leaned out the window to get his parking ticket to
pay as they left the airport.

“Ignore Sarah. She’s just jealous because I got all the brains in the family
and she was stuck with the big mouth,” Alex said under his breath.

“I heard that! Just for that, I’m not getting you a wedding present,” Sarah
said.

Clark sighed. “Yes, she is. Don’t be difficult, Sarah. We want Rose to
think the family is normal. She still has time to back out. Wait to be crazy until after they get back.”

Rose laughed at all of them. “I think I’m going to fit in just fine.”

Clark pulled up in front of the passenger drop-off, and Alex and Rose got out. Alex went to get their bags. Sarah jumped out of the car as well and hugged Rose. “Best wishes! I’m so glad I have a sister now.”

“I’ve always wanted a sister, too!” Rose hugged her back before walking
with Alex into the airport.

After they checked in, and went through security, they only had a few
minutes to wait before their flight. “We were cutting it pretty close,” Rose commented.

“I know, but the chapel that we’re using closes at ten, so we have to hurry,”
he told her.

“I’m not upset about it. I was just commenting,” Rose was extremely
nervous around him today. She hadn’t been before, but she knew it was the fact that she’d be sleeping with a man she’d only known for a week in a few hours.

Alex could see her nervousness on her face. “I’m glad we’re getting
married tonight,” he told her.

She nodded solemnly. “I am too. I’m just really nervous.”

“Are you nervous about the ceremony or about making love for the first time?” he asked her.

“Making love,” she responded. “I love being in front of people. I don’t know
if I’m going to love sex.”

“I understand. Don’t worry about the sex part, though. It’s my job to make
sure you love it.”

Chapter 5

The two hour flight seemed to fly by. She’d put a book in her purse, just in case, but found that she didn’t need it. She and Alex spoke softly as they talked about what they were each looking for in the house that they would soon start looking for.

Rose brought up the possibility of Alex designing their home, and he
hesitated. “I’d love to do it, but it would mean a much longer process. We would need to keep renting for another year or two,” he said.

“I wouldn’t mind that. We could move to a bigger apartment, since we’re
planning on moving anyway, and then move again when our house was ready. Is that something that you’d really like to do?” she asked.

“I’ve always wanted to custom design my own home. I really thought that
you’d want to be in a home faster than I could put us there by designing it myself, though. And it always felt weird trying to put something together when I knew that someday I’d end up married, and my wife may not have the same taste as I do.”

She nodded considering. “I really think that I’d rather live in something that
you created just for us, if you don’t mind waiting. I’d love to raise our children in a house that I knew you had designed just for our family.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Children? How many are you planning on
having? We haven’t discussed that.”

She shrugged. “I hated being an only child. I don’t want any kid to have to
feel alone like that. So I’m thinking twenty or thirty would do it,” she said.

He coughed. “That may be a few too many for me. How about one?”

She recognized his need for negotiation and got down to it. “How about 20?”

He grinned. “Two.”

“Fifteen?”

“Three.”

“Ten?”

“Four. And I’m not going any higher than four,” he said.

She glared. “Six! That’s my final offer!”

“Five, then.” He sighed. “What am I going to do with five kids?” Secretly he
loved the idea of a big family. A houseful would thrill him.

“Love them,” she responded quickly. “And I’ll pray the last one is
sextuplets and then I get my ten!”