The guests chuckled as I shook my head slightly at him, a small smile playing on my lips.
“I knew then,” Braden spoke loudly to the guests, but his eyes remained on my face, “my life had changed. I just wouldn’t know until you walked out of Ellie’s bathroom without a towel on how happy I was with that coming change.”
I rolled my eyes, feeling my cheeks burn as everyone laughed.
“I’m not joking.” Braden turned back to them. “The second time we met, Jocelyn was starkers. Up to that point it was the best day of my life.
“Even after being caught in the buff she gave me attitude.” He grinned down at me again, and I felt the warmth inside my chest turn into a burn of overwhelming emotion. “You’ve challenged me since the day I met you. No woman has ever challenged me more. Nor made me laugh harder. There is not a moment that passes where you don’t make me feel more alive than I ever thought I could, and today you gave me something I thought was lost a long time ago for the both of us. You’ve given me peace, babe. You’ve given me everything.” The timber of his voice had deepened with emotion and I swear to God I was close to bawling my eyes out as he lifted a glass of champagne from the table and raised it in the air. “To my wife, Mrs. Jocelyn Carmichael.”
The guests repeated his words as he bent down to me, his eyes warming at the sight of my unshed tears. “To my wife,” he murmured again, cupping a hand behind my nape to bring my lips to his.
***
While making the rounds of the reception, attempting to stop to chat with all our guests, the unsettled fluttering in my stomach had called a cease-fire and I was feeling a lot more relaxed. The champagne was helping.
I stood by Braden’s side while he introduced me to distant cousins, relatives of Elodie and Clark, friends and business associates. We’d nearly made our way through the entire guest list when we came upon Jenna and Ed. Jenna was one of Ellie’s friends and Ed was her husband. When I’d first met Ellie, Jenna and Ed had been a close part of their group, but after their wedding Jenna fell pregnant and for some reason they stopped hanging out with a lot of their friends. Ellie had been a little put out at first but Jenna seemed more content to spend time with married friends who had children and I reassured Ellie that she hadn’t done anything wrong. Some people were just like that. Still, it was nice to see them.
“Joss, you look beautiful,” Jenna said, giving me a tight hug.
“Who’s looking after Andrew?” Braden asked, referring to their baby boy.
Ed grinned. “I talked my parents into babysitting tonight. We haven’t had a real night off in God knows how long. I actually had to talk Jenna into coming here, into leaving him.”
Jenna frowned at her husband. “I don’t like leaving him. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Hearing the bite in her tone, I shot Braden a look that suggested we should move along.
He nodded at me and turned to speak but Jenna cut him off by jerking me toward her.
“So, when are you thinking about having a baby, Joss?”
The Jenna I knew was chilled out, down-to-earth, uninquisitive. Whoever this was, I wanted to kill her. “Uh . . .” I glanced around the room, looking for help.
“We haven’t had a proper talk about it,” Braden offered, his hand resting on my lower back in a way that suggested he knew I was about to run away. “But kids are definitely in the plans.”
My shoulders tensed, my stomach cramped, and the champagne sloshed unpleasantly in my stomach.
This morning I’d been optimistic as I’d looked at myself in the mirror. I’d thought about my mini meltdown I’d had a few weeks ago when Braden first mentioned having kids. I’d thought that it was something I’d get over.
But once again, the thought of children paralyzed me.
Worse, the thought that Braden believed they were in our immediate future paralyzed me.
I couldn’t have kids yet. I wasn’t emotionally ready for that. No. I definitely wasn’t. “There’s Alistair and his girlfriend.” I pointed over Ed’s shoulder. “I better go say hello.” I pulled away from Braden’s touch and almost sprinted from them, two steps from Alistair when a strong arm wrapped itself around my waist and hauled me about.
I crashed against Braden’s hard chest, blinking up at him in surprise. “Was that necessary?”
My husband frowned at me. “Something’s wrong.”
“No.” I shook my head in denial. “I just . . . Jenna bothers me a little now. I just wanted to get away.”
As Braden searched my face, I wondered if he believed me. In the end I didn’t know if he did or not. But he let it go, bending down to press a soft kiss to my mouth. It was our wedding.
No fighting allowed.
Chapter 4
The Honeymoon—Part 1
“Does that say what I think it says?” I asked, leaning my cheek against Braden’s upper arm. With his hand clasped in mine, I stood next to him before the departures board in Edinburgh Airport quietly excited about our honeymoon to Hawaii, and trying not to be deflated by the information on the board.
Braden gave my hand a squeeze. “Yeah. Delayed.”
Our flight was delayed by a few hours, which meant being stuck in the airport. Luckily Edinburgh wasn’t grimy. In fact it was kind of shiny. We were surrounded by designer shops, restaurants, and an old-fashioned oval bar at one end of the international departure lounge. Still. It was an airport. As human beings we were genetically predisposed to hate them.
My husband let go of my hand to curl me into his side, his hand resting low on my opposite hip. “Do you want to wait in the first-class lounge, get a drink there, or do you want to get a drink at the bar we just passed?” he asked, absentmindedly pressing a kiss to my temple.
This was one of the things I loved about him. After having starved myself of affection for years it had taken me a while to get used to Braden’s tactility but now I wouldn’t know what to do without it. His affection for me came so easily he touched and kissed me all the time, even when he was half-distracted. I’d gone from being uncomfortable with it, to expecting and coveting it.
“Here.” I nodded, taking a reluctant step back. “I need to go to the restroom. I’ll meet you at the bar.”
After I peed, I stood in front of the washstand, searching my face in the mirror. After the wedding Ellie had said I looked different. I hadn’t known what she meant at the time but gazing at my reflection I had to wonder if it was something different about my eyes. They were gunmetal gray and tip tilted. They weren’t warm, friendly eyes. I knew from photographs of myself that my eyes tended to come off intense, sometimes kind of bedroomy, even though most of the time it was unintended. The warmth only entered them in photographs that caught me laughing. However, staring into my eyes I could see a shift in them. The intensity hadn’t totally left them, but there was definitely something new reflected there. Something good. Something warm.
I ducked my head, smiling as I dried my hands.
My eyes dropped to my legs. They were bare in the sundress I’d chosen to wear in anticipation of the hot weather in Hawaii. My olive skin was ready to deepen to a tan as I lazed by the pool for the next fourteen days. Vacations weren’t something I ever bothered about because I’d lost all that stuff when I lost my family. However, I’d never been somewhere like Hawaii before. And I’d be there with my hot husband.
Braden and I had busy lives. This was the first time we’d spend a solid fourteen nights just enjoying each other’s company with no interference from work or friends or family. Days by the pool or on the beach, and nights of hot, energetic sex.
My smile turned smug.
Strolling out into the departure lounge I wandered slowly toward the bar, glad at least not to be rushing around in a sweaty, flustered mess as some late passengers were. Eyes drifting over the quiet bar, I found Braden’s back facing me as he sat on a stool. The female bartender kept throwing him surreptitious looks as she pretended to be busy.
Braden wasn’t a classically handsome guy, but he was rugged, sexy, very tall, well built, and he wore his suits better than an Armani model. Since the moment I’d met him I’d been struck by his natural confidence. It was hot. Even when it veered into arrogance, annoying the hell out of me, I still found it hot.
So it didn’t surprise me that a lot of people found my husband attractive too.
When we first started our no-strings-attached relationship I’d pretended not to care when I saw other women flirting with Braden. Afterwards, once I stopped putting him through the wringer and admitted that I loved him as much as he loved me, I’d found it hard not to chase the obnoxious flirts away from him. In fact, sometimes I lost my cool and wasn’t very diplomatic about telling those women that Braden was mine. Of course, he found this amusing and a total turn-on.
Not so much when the shoe was on the other foot.
Still, as our relationship had grown, so had my confidence in us, as had Braden’s, and together we’d mellowed somewhat. Not completely, but enough that right at that moment I didn’t want to stride up to Braden in front of the bartender and stake my claim.
I was going on my honeymoon. I’d taken a huge leap toward putting my issues behind me by even getting married. I was in a damn good mood.
I wanted to play.
Hiding my mischievous grin, I smoothed my features until they were perfectly blank and sauntered toward the bar. However, I didn’t take the stool next to Braden. My heels clicked on the hard, shiny floor as I sashayed onto a stool that gave me a good view of Braden . . . on the opposite side of the bar.
“What can I get you to drink?” the female bartender asked politely.
“A glass of red wine, please.”
I felt Braden’s eyes on me as the bartender turned to get me my drink. Flicking my gaze his way I saw his eyes dancing at my mischief.
He knew exactly what I was up to.
The bartender slid the glass of wine toward me as I attempted not to laugh.
“Hi,” I greeted casually down the bar. “I’m Jocelyn.”
He eyed me for a moment with those intimidating, gorgeous pale blue eyes of his. And then he obviously decided to just go with it when he slipped out of his stool and made his way over to the one next to mine. He gave me a smirk as he reached out to take my hand in his. I felt his thumb rub over my wedding rings. “Braden.”
I gave him a small, flirty smile. “Can I get you a drink?”
“I really should say no.” He held up his ring finger with his wedding band on it. “I’m married.”
“Oh?” I hid my smile, feeling a rush of excitement go through me at our little game. “I didn’t realize. I take it your wife isn’t with you this evening?”
“Apparently not,” Braden answered, his mouth twitching with definite amusement now as our eyes met.
Pretending we weren’t at a bar in an airport but at home, my gaze turned heated in a way Braden understood. “That’s good news.”
“It is?” he glanced down at my left hand.