Tapping The Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaires #1) (48 page)

The wedding party was small, but it was perfect for them. Wes, Thatch, and Will were Kline’s groomsmen, while Dean and I were Georgia’s bridesmaids.

I walked down the aisle with Dean and took my place on the opposite side of the groomsmen. I couldn’t help but notice the intrigued yet slightly salacious smile I received from Thatch. I assumed it was my tits’ doing because my cleavage looked pretty damn fantastic in the little black dress Georgia had chosen for me.

And I didn’t miss how delicious Thatch looked in his tux. I eye-fucked that Jolly Green Giant for a moment, moving from his brown eyes, to the broad shoulders filling out his jacket
like they fucking owned the joint
, to the noticeable bulge—not,
I’m the weirdo with a boner at a wedding
bulge, but
I’m packing
bulge—in his pants, and then back to his mouth.

Man oh man, those lips looked like they could do
things
(to my puss-ay).

Hey, cool your jets. It doesn’t count as wedding inappropriate if it’s in parentheses.

Seriously, I’d Thatch that.

The quartet of violins and harps Georgia hired for the ceremony music abruptly stopped. I glanced around, not sure what was happening. This definitely wasn’t on her schedule.

Kline looked toward the side of the room and nodded at a woman with a guitar. She smiled, adjusted the microphone near her mouth, and started to strum a song that wasn’t the planned “Bridal Chorus.”

The crowd stood, turning toward the back doors.

And when they opened, there stood my beautiful best friend, her arm tucked into her father’s, her mouth morphed into the biggest smile I’d ever seen.

Every wedding I had ever been to, while everyone was watching the bride, I always snuck a glance at the groom. When my eyes found Kline’s face, my heart damn near skipped a beat. Though a sight far more masculine, his smile mimicked Georgia’s in all the ways that counted. He looked like a man who had just received everything he’d ever wanted. And it was obvious that everything was Georgia, walking straight toward him without looking back.

I had never seen a man look so in love.

The woman started to sing, softly playing her guitar, and that’s when I put the pieces together. It was a slowed down, acoustic version of “Some Kind of Wonderful.”

Their song. The song Georgia would always associate with Kline. And he’d done it, knowing how much that song meant to her, to them. Somehow, that sneaky bastard had arranged it on the sly.

It took every ounce of strength for me not to start crying. I was overwhelmed by them. My best friend and the man who’d swept her off her feet. They were happy. They were in love. And God, they were so perfect for each other. The world wouldn’t be right if they weren’t together.

As Georgia got closer, she was mouthing the words to the song, gazing at Kline.

And when she reached him, Dick hugged them both, and Kline pulled her into his arms. She whispered something into his ear and he nodded, his face pressed against her neck. And then he leaned back, staring down at his bride, and said, “You’re so beautiful.”

I’m pretty sure every woman in attendance swooned. I sure as hell did.

They stood before the minister, hand in hand, ready to profess their love and the rest of their lives to one another.

The minister greeted the attendants and proceeded to say nice, beautiful things about the happy couple. He was actually one of Dick’s closest friends, which was probably a good thing, considering most of the people at this wedding tended to toss out the F-word more often than not.

And when the minister announced it was time for the vows, Dick cheered, “Hell yeah! Let’s do this!”

See what I mean? Good thing he knew the kind of room full of morons he was walking into.

Kline pulled a neatly folded piece of white paper from his inside jacket pocket while Georgia slid the balled up paper towel out of her cleavage.

They handed each other their vows.

He glanced down at his tattered version and started laughing. “You finished these about two minutes before you walked down the aisle, didn’t you, Benny?”

“I’ll never tell,” she said through a giggle.

He chuckled again. “God, I love you.”

“It’s not time for that!” Thatch yelled behind him. “Vows first!”

The crowd laughed.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go first,” Kline announced, unwrinkling the paper towel.

“Georgia Rose, I promise to trust you even when you deviate from our grocery list and convince me to buy six boxes of Dunkaroos and three bottles of wine I know you’ll never drink.

“I promise to give you all of the love and support that I don’t give Walter. Also, I promise to be nicer to Walter.” He paused, glancing up at her and shaking his head with a giant grin.

“I’m not saying that.”

She tapped the towel. “You have to. They’re
your
vows, remember?”

He turned toward the attendants, letting everyone else in on the secret. “We wrote each other’s vows, if you couldn’t already tell.”

“I warned you, Kline!” Dick shouted toward him. “Ballbuster.”

“Daddy!” Georgia scolded. “There will be no talk of balls during my wedding ceremony.”

The room filled with more laughter.

Once everyone settled down, Kline cleared his throat and continued, “He’s a really good cat. The best cat. Man, I sure love Walter.” He rolled his eyes, but said it nonetheless.

“I promise I’ll never keep anything from you because there are no secrets between us. I vow to love you through the difficult and the easy. I promise to never put you or myself in danger. This includes me never drinking lime juice with my scotch ever again.” He winked at her.

“I vow to never change from the amazing man that I already am. I promise to never lose my huge, strong, kind, and determined heart. I will never stop teasing you, making you laugh, or flashing smoldering blue eyes your way. I will always greet you with the smile that’s only yours. And when it’s just the two of us at home, I vow to only wear boxer briefs around the house. No matter what I’m doing, I’ll either be naked or just wearing boxers.” His blue eyes found hers, his brows waggling in agreement as a few women in the crowd hooted some catcalls.

“And I vow to listen, for as long as it takes for you to feel heard. I vow to be your unrelenting cheer squad on the days it feels too much. I vow to pick the important fights with you, especially when I know you’re selling yourself short or not being treated with respect.

“I vow to spend the rest of our lives laughing, smiling, going on crazy adventures, and most importantly, loving each other through the good times and the bad. And if there are bad times, I promise the kind of makeup sex that has your blouse buttons hitting the floor.”

And on the last sentence, he stared deep into her eyes. “I vow that I will love you, Georgia, every day, for the rest of forever.”

Georgia sniffled a few times, and I handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes.

“Don’t cry, TAPRoseNEXT,” Kline whispered, brushing away a few tears. “You may have written those vows, but I’ll stand by every last word.”

She giggled at his sincerity, but I wasn’t used to it, and therefore, found myself completely ill prepared. I dabbed at fresh tears with the back of my hand as she unfolded the paper in her hands.

“Kline Matthew, I stand before you today to become your wife.” She paused for a second, looked up at him and then back at the paper. “I think everyone here knows that already, but I’ve got this feeling that you really wanted to hear me say it.”

She turned to the crowd and remarked, “I’m not improvising.” She turned the paper toward them. “It really says that.”

Everyone laughed and he nodded. “Keep going, Benny.”

She looked back to the scrawl of his words.

“From this day forward, I am yours and you are mine. I promise to remind myself of this most important fact every day and smile when you do it for me. I promise not to give up or run away when you make the kinds of mistakes that every man makes, and I promise to use my heart, rather than my ears, to really hear you.”

Sweet cookies and dildos, this guy had a knack for saying the right thing.

“I promise to rap my way through our days and beatbox for you each night because it’s times like those when I’m so…” She paused and glanced to the crowd. “I’m so…effing…adorable you can’t even stand it.”

Her amused eyes met his again. “You really wrote the F-word in my vows?”

He shrugged. “Adorable wasn’t enough.”

She shook her head, smiling, and continued, “I promise to keep you on your toes with my hair and my words and always stand up for myself with the backbone you love and expect.”

“And, I promise to be late as often as I want because you’ll always be waiting. But when it comes to lovin’—” Georgia stopped midsentence, giggling at her groom. “Kline, I’m not saying that in front of the minister.”

“Baby, you have to. They’re
your
vows, remember?”

She leaned forward, whispering something into his ear. His mouth twisted into a devilish grin and he whispered back.

Georgia turned toward the attendants. “Please feel free to cover your ears during this part.”

She cleared her throat, cheeks pink, and said, “I’ll come early and I’ll come often because the power of Big-dicked Brooks compels me.”

“I knew it!” I shouted. “I told you!”

Pfffft. I knew my cockdar wasn’t on the fritz.

Everyone in the crowd was a mixture of laughing, clapping, and wolf whistling.

Once we settled down, Georgia gazed at Kline like she would happily crawl inside him and stay there and said the rest of her vows.

“But most of all, I vow to love you with everything that I am, no matter the circumstances, because I know, from the very depths of my tiny, perfect being, that you will be there, doing your best to love me more.”

And when the minister told Kline to kiss his bride.

He motherfucking kissed his bride so good it made
my
toes curl.

“Congratulate me, boys,” Kline toasted with a glass of scotch in the air, the happiest I’d seen the fucking sap in ages.

His body was here with us, but his mind and his eyes were on his boogeying bride on the other side of the dance floor. The space was fairly small. At least, this room known as The Greenhouse was. They’d rented out the entirety of The Foundry out of nothing more than necessity. Kline liked to think his life was boring and normal and that no one cared at all, but the truth was they did. They cared
a lot
. And keeping such an important event completely private was the only way to maintain his happy little bubble of make-believe.

“That,” he said with a slightly tipsy gesture, “is
my
wife.”

I laughed and slapped him on the shoulder, exchanging smiles with Wes behind his back. I raised my eyebrows in question, and Wes gave me a pursed-lip nod of agreement.

“Go get her,” I urged simply, knowing he wanted to be with her a million times more than he wanted to stand here and shoot the shit with us.

And, regardless of what people might have thought they knew about me, that was fine by me. My oldest, closest friend had found it. Found
her
.

Always loyal and loving, I couldn’t think of anyone who deserved it more than he did.

“Benny!” he yelled, pulling her attention from the crowd of women around her to him. “Make room on the floor. I’m coming for my dance!” The wattage of her smile was blinding.

I stood next to Wes and watched as Kline danced his way over to her, pulling her into his arms and handing off his drink to the first, unsuspecting free hand he came to so he could hold on to her with both hands. Hands to her jaw and lips to hers, he kissed her in a way that I felt all the way in my stomach.

“Good God, he’s a goner,” Wes remarked, sinking into the wall and tipping his drink to his lips.

“Yep,” I agreed, thinking about the vows they’d exchanged during the ceremony.

“It’s nice,” I added without thought—because it was.

Wes laughed way harder than I thought was appropriate. “Jesus. Who are you and what have you done with Thatcher Kelly?” He morphed his face into what he thought was a good impression of me and mocked, “It’s nice!” with a wobble of his head.