Six
“T here’s a car waiting for you outside. The driver will take you to Judge Hernandez.”
Travis nodded. His cousin Rico King stood out in the glossy, airy lobby of his hotel like Death come to a wedding. In the middle of pale pastels and bright tropical colors, Rico wore his preferred black. Black long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, black boots. His black hair hung over his collar and his dark eyes were, at the moment, amused.
“Something funny?” Travis asked.
“To see you with a bride—” Rico said, shrugging “—entertains me.”
“Happy to help,” Travis muttered and slanted a look at the glass-fronted gift store where Julie was buying a pack of gum before their trip to the judge’s office. He hadn’t been able to change her mind and she’d been so fast at showering and getting ready, he hadn’t been able to leave before her, either. Besides, knowing Julie, she simply would have followed after him if he’d tried.
She was wearing a soft yellow dress with spaghetti straps and a slightly flared skirt. Her long legs were bare and golden and looked great thanks to the towering beige high heels she wore. In a second, his mind shot back to the night before, when those long legs of hers had been locked around his h*ps and just like that, Travis’s body was hot and needy again.
“Your bride is a beauty,” Rico said.
Travis frowned. “Yeah. I guess so.”
“You guess?” Rico slapped his back. “Let me assure you that if you’re regretting your hasty marriage, I’d be happy to console your grieving spouse.”
The thought of Rico anywhere near Julie made temper spike inside him. “Leave her alone.”
His cousin chuckled. “Do I sense a territorial streak?”
“You sense my wife. Now cut it out.”
“Of course.” Rico held both hands up in surrender. “My mistake.”
Travis sucked in air and blew it out in a rush. As Julie walked toward them smiling, he told himself he wasn’t being territorial. Though he did notice the eyes of several of the men in the lobby following Julie’s progress across the shining floor. He was only playing his role as devoted husband.
That was all.
She didn’t speak Spanish, Travis thought. The one saving grace in all of this.
Julie might have insisted on accompanying him, but at least she was forced to stay out of the conversation he had with a local judge. Though the man probably spoke English, Travis immediately insisted on Spanish. Not that he wasn’t interested in Julie’s suggestions. Actually, he wasn’t. He wanted to take care of this on his own.
Rico had assured Travis that with a few donations in the right quarters, his problems could be solved very quickly and discretely. Travis could appreciate that. Hell, all over the world, money solved problems faster than anything else.
By the time he had Judge Hernandez’s promise of a swift resolution to their problem, Julie was shifting impatiently in her chair and peppering him with questions.
“What was that?” She tugged at his jacket sleeve to get his attention, as if he couldn’t hear her. “What did he say? Does he think he can arrange the divorce? Will he marry us? Why doesn’t he speak English? People in California speak Spanish.”
“You don’t,” Travis reminded her, with a smile for the judge.
“I could have,” she muttered. “I just didn’t pay attention in high school.”
“Unfortunate for you.”
“¿Qué?” The judge interrupted, a question in his eyes.
Travis took Julie’s arm, drew her to her feet and in Spanish, assured the judge that all was well and that they would be at Castello de King waiting to hear from him.
They took the elevator to the street level lobby and stepped out onto a crowded thoroughfare. Sunlight stabbed down from a cloudless blue sky, glanced off the asphalt and simmered in the air.
Tourists and locals alike jammed the sidewalks and streets. Cars were practically at a standstill as people wandered in and out of shops, back and forth across the road and stopped at carts to buy everything from hats and scarves to tacos and churros, Mexican pastries rolled in cinnamon and sugar. The sounds and scents of the resort town were overwhelming.
But not to Julie.
“Tell me everything he said,” she demanded.
The woman was single-minded if nothing else.
“Judge Hernandez is on it,” Travis told her, gripping her elbow to steer her through the crowds. “Money talks here as well as it does at home.”
“So you bribed him?” Shock colored her tone.
“No.” He shot her a frown and shook his head. “I’m not bribing anyone. It’s just that if you’ve got enough money to back you up, you can make the wheels turn a little faster.”
“Okay. So did he say how long it would take?”
“No.” Travis scowled again and stepped around a man wearing at least fifteen wide-brimmed hats on his head while he did some fast sales pitch to the people streaming past him. “But Rico figures two weeks.”
“Two weeks?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No,” she said, hurrying her steps to keep up with his much longer strides. “I just didn’t know we’d be gone so long. Don’t you have to work on that distribution deal with Thomas Henry?”
“Yes.” And he didn’t like the thought of putting it off. But better to have this marriage-divorce-remarriage thing taken care of before dealing with Henry. “He expects us to have a honeymoon, though.”
“Honeymoon.” She stumbled on a crack in the sidewalk and Travis tightened his grip on her. “So what are we really going to be doing?”
He stopped and held his ground as pedestrians slammed into him from all sides. Perfect zone for a pickpocket, he knew, so he glanced around before looking into her eyes. When he did, he heard his cousin’s voice echoing in his head.
Your bride is a beauty.
She really was. Funny, but until recently, he’d always seen her as just Julie. Someone he’d known forever. Someone he once climbed trees with. After last night though, he doubted he’d ever see her as a kid again. And with that thought in mind, a slow and sure smile formed on his lips.
“We have a honeymoon.”
“Are you serious?”
“Why not?” He said it with a shrug, then pulled her out of the flow of foot traffic to stand in the shade of a T-shirt shop. “We’re in one of the most romantic places in the world and I think we proved last night that we’re compatible.”