She kisses me softly and whispers, “I’m sorry, Marius. You deserved better than that from her and your brother. Between you and me and the rest of Las Vegas, I always thought Theo was a dick. He took advantage of Ava’s good heart. She wouldn’t even hear a bad word against him, and trust me, I had some to say.”
Her defense of me makes me smile. “Well, that’s another thing we have in common. That means we definitely should get married.”
With a smile, Eden giggles. “I guess we should. I just want you to know I would never do that to you.”
“Well, I don’t have any more single brothers, so I don’t think you can.”
She rolls her eyes at my attempt to be funny. “Even if you did have some single brothers, I still wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I knew I loved you for a good reason. Beautiful, smart, sexy, and kind. You’ve got it all, Duck.”
She smiles and takes a deep breath in, letting it out slowly before she says, “I guess we better go in. We’ve got some I do’s to say.”
I take her hand in mine and walk up the sidewalk to the front door of The Little Wedding Chapel of Las Vegas. We step inside, and I swear I’ve never seen so much white in my life. White walls. White church pews. White carpeting. Hanging from the ceiling, which is also painted white, are two crystal chandeliers. At the altar, white flowers complete the all-white look with just a little greenery.
Leaning over toward Eden, I whisper, “I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting this to be so white.”
She giggles and whispers back to me, “Especially since this is Las Vegas, Sin City. I’m surprised it’s not a lot more red.”
The couple ahead of us says their I do’s and kiss, so now it’s our turn. I squeeze Eden’s hand and take a deep breath because my heart is racing a mile a minute. If ever I wanted to back out, now’s the time.
But as I look at her in that white dress with pink flowers, all I can think is I’m the luckiest man in the world to have the chance to marry this woman.
“Ready?”
My Duck smiles and nods. “I am. Let’s do this.”
Fifteen minutes later, she and I walked out of The Little Wedding Chapel of Las Vegas as Mr. and Mrs. Marius King, and although it may seem otherwise, I’ve been happier than I ever thought possible being her husband.
Now to show Eden how much I want to make her happy.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Eden
Alone now thatAva has gone back home to her husband and babies, I wander around the penthouse wondering what to do with myself. I don’t understand why Marius left like he did, but then again, Ava was still here and she did slap his face. She didn’t mean anything by that, though. She was just upset and worried about me. If he heard her talking about him earlier, he’d know she’s still one of his biggest fans.
I want to believe he’ll be coming back here tonight, but something in the way he was acting makes me think this will be another night of me sleeping alone. That might be for the best, though, since I never have the kind of strength to oppose him when it comes to sex, and he knows it. The problem is, though, that great sex will only confuse the entire situation between us.
The phone connected to the lobby desk downstairs rings, so I pick it up. It’s not Marius wanting to come up. He wouldn’t need Conrad to ask permission.
“Mrs. King, there’s a young woman down here who’s asking to come up. She says her name is Samantha McCann. May I send her up?” he asks in his very stuffy yet kind way.
I could ask him what she looks like, but even though I don’t know Sam’s last name, I’m sure it’s her since I remember Marius mentioning her name in passing a few times. I don’t know what she wants, but she’s likely to be disappointed when she finds it’s just me here.
“Thank you, Conrad. Please send her up.”
Sam and I have never actually spoken. I’ve heard about her working with Marius, but we’ve spent exactly zero minutes together in the two years I’ve been married to him.
Nothing like two perfect strangers having a first meeting on what’s been the worst day of one of their lives.
The elevator doors open, and I watch her step out, her blond head swiveling back and forth as she takes in the impressive penthouse he bought me. Dressed in a cute pair of black Bermuda shorts, a pale green t-shirt, and adorable black sandals, she looks cute.
As much as I may not be in the mood to play hostess, I guess I have to. “Hello, Sam. I’m Eden.”
I could have tacked on the fact that I’m her boss’s wife, but that seems unnecessary. She must know who I am by now.
She turns to look at me, and I see instant recognition in her eyes. “Oh, hi. I’m Sam, Marius’s assistant. Well, I guess you know that since you called me by my name. Is he here?”
