Wicked Game (24 page)

“Jaime, no…”

“Marry me. I want you to be my wife. I need you to be my wife.”

“Jaime…”

“Or, I’m good just living in sin, just so long as it’s in the same house. Cassandra Pendleton—” He got down on his knee, the camera following him, and that’s when the dam broke.

“Jaime, please don’t…” She could hear own sobbing voice over the television.

“Cassandra Pendleton, I’m coming to get you tomorrow morning, and we’re going to Vegas and getting married.”

“I’ve told you before about telling me what to do. If you want something ask for it, don’t tell.”

“Marry me, Cass? Please, baby. I’m broken and begging. Please, Cassandra Pendleton, will you be my wife?”

She couldn’t do anything for the tears clogging her throat. She heard the sniffled sob and the rush of breath as she tried to stop the flood.

“Only if you call me Pepper.”

“Hey, Pepper, don’t bother packing for Vegas. You aren’t going to need any clothes.”

Then he gave his phone to the cameraman and ran off and showed New York what a tropical storm was all about.

Chapter Twenty-Six

She was waiting for him when he walked in her front door the next morning. She looked frail and fragile with puffy swollen eyes ringed by dark circles. She was a sight for sore eyes and then some.

“Hey ya, Pepper. Are you ready to go?” He felt his heart skip a beat waiting for her to answer. All night he’d second-guessed his actions. Putting her on the spot like that had been a spur of the moment decision. Despite the fact that he was once again the focus of an overly curious media, he would do it again, if it got her to come home.

She fell into his arms, her whole body trembling like a leaf. “What took you so long? I’ve been ready for hours.”

“Well, then, grab your gear and let’s go.”

She grabbed her purse and walked out of the house on his arm to the waiting limo.

He’d hired a private jet to take them to the bright lights of Vegas. The flight had been excruciating. He wanted her, but it wasn’t time yet. She was still fragile, and sex would just complicate things.

He checked his watch at the hotel, setting it for Vegas time. “Hey, Pepper, I’ve been thinking. You might need a dress or something before we head off to the chapel so why don’t I leave you in the boutique to pick something out while I go check on our reservations.”

“Don’t you dare leave me here, Jaime Dalton.” She turned those smoky blue eyes on him, and for the first time in weeks, he felt as if everything was right with his world. “I will never forgive you if you desert me right now.”

She stopped talking when a trio of people walked out of the store, her eyes going wide with surprise. “Have I told you lately how much I hate you?”

“Not in a long, long time. Welcome back, Pepper. Now go let the moms and Shontal do what they have to do to make you look less like a gothic club kid and more like a bride. I’ll see you later. Oh, and Pepper, behave.”

“Bite me.”

“Maybe tonight if you are a really good girl. Of course, I do miss the bad Pepper.”

“Jaime, remind me to kill you later.”

* * * *

The dress wasn’t some off-the-rack cocktail dress but a full-scale lace and satin gown that cinched in her waist and lifted her breasts to unbelievable heights. The lace panel that covered her bosom and wrapped around her neck was the only thing keeping the dress on this side of tasteful.

Shontal tsked and scolded, as he set to work on her hair, clipping, curling, and fussing until she thought he was going to pull her bald. The hotel spa provided the rest of the services, and when she was finished she looked like a fairy princess instead of the half-starved waif she’d been a couple of hours earlier.

Her mother stepped from the fitting room in a beautiful coral dress that befitted the mother of the bride, just as Jaime’s mom stepped out in an aqua number that had both herself and Shontal howling. The moms just gave them a go-to-hell look and didn’t listen to their taunts about team colors and doing it on purpose.

Then, almost as if there was a preset time and as if they’d all been plotting behind her back, Shontal pushed her to a set of doors. “Oh, wait, honey, here. You’re forgetting this.” He shoved a bouquet of coral, aqua, and cream flowers into her hand just as her mom took her arm and all but dragged her through the doors.

She stopped inside, her breath caught at the sight before her. A full-scale chapel, decked out in flowers and silk ribbons, filled with people she knew, lots of people she knew. An entire football team sat on one side, except for Darnel Johnson. He sat on the other side with Mrs. Perkins from next door, who was beaming as if she’d just won the lottery and a date with Sean Connery at the same time.

Her cousins, his cousins, friends from home, friends from Miami. And up at the podium stood Jaime, in black tux and coral tie. He looked scared to death.

The first strains of the wedding march came from a string quartet, and her mom tugged her gently down the aisle and placed her hand in Jaime’s.

When it was all over, she looked at the simple band of diamonds he placed on her finger, choking back a sob. She kissed the groom, and before she could even think of a thing to say, she found herself flying over Jaime’s shoulder. “Put me down, you jerk.”

“Hush, Pepper, you are making a scene.” She heard the laughter in his voice as he laid his hand across her rear end. “Thank you all for coming. Enjoy the reception and don’t lose too much at the slots and go see a show or three. Pepper and I have some unfinished business, and we’ll see all of you. Later, hopefully before you all go home; but if we don’t, then thank you again for sharing our happiness with us, and okay, bye now.”

He moved quickly down the aisle, and she could see shocked faces following their quick escape. Cass starting laughing and couldn’t stop. Before he made it through the doors, she remembered something. “Jaime, stop. The bouquet. We need to throw the bouquet.”

She could hear the frustration in his voice, but he stopped. “Okay, just make it quick, will you, Pepper?”

Cass waited a moment before she reached up and chucked the flowers into the air. Shontal hooted as he held it over his head. “Honey, thank you, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he shouted to hoots of laughter. Then Jaime dropped her to her feet just inside the elevator and punched the penthouse button.

“How do I get you out of this dress?” His lips touched hers consuming her as he fumbled with the neck until he found the hooks. She sighed when his hands cupped her breasts. “Never mind. I figured it out.”

“Jaime, that feels so good. Do it again.” He pinched her nipples between his fingers. Her body became magma. “I missed you.”

“I know you did, baby.”

“I want to come for you. Jaime, make me come, right here in the elevator.”

“There might be cameras.”

“I don’t care.”

She heard him groan as he tugged her dress down her body, skimming her legs with his rough hands. “I love your pink panties, Pepper, but right now, they’ve got to go, baby.”

“Then get rid of them. Please, I need you inside me. Now, Jaime. I’m going to explode if you don’t … oh God, that feels good.” She stepped out of her panties and leaned against the elevator wall as Jaime touched her clit with his tongue.

“Come for me, baby.” He slipped a finger inside her as he rose to his feet, nipping her nipples on the way to capture her lips. “Purr for me, baby. Oh yeah, that’s a good girl.”

Using quick, hard strokes he had her trembling before the doors whooshed open. She cried out his name just as he lifted her out of her dress puddle and set her on her strappy-heeled feet in the middle of a posh room, her body still quaking from orgasm.

“Ready for seconds?” He had her on the floor before the elevator doors swooshed closed with a ding.

“Oh yeah, and thirds.” He filled her in one thrust. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, the material of his jacket soft against her skin. “I love you, Jaime Dalton.”

“Took you long enough to realize it.” He smiled down at her, his eyes going all fiery, his breath all soft. “I love you too, Cassandra Pendleton.”

“Pepper Dalton. My name is Pepper Dalton now.”

“So what’s my new name?”

“Lord and Master Ironman. Oh God, do that again.”

He flexed inside her, taking his time. He smiled down at her as her body started to quiver around him. “I like that. Call me God again, and I’ll make you come, Pepper Dalton.”

“More, God, please more.”

“That’s more like it.” He thrust into her, gliding in fast, hard thrusts until she called him God and every other deity she could think of. When she thought she couldn’t stand another minute, his teeth grazed her neck, and she cried out for more.

The End

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