The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,323

I need my wedding dress. I can’t get married in black. It’s bad luck.”

“The girl needs her dress,” the older woman tsked.

“Lib, it’s ten-thirty. We’ll have to hurry if we’re going to make it by midnight. And we still have to get a marriage license.”

“What?” Of course they needed a license. How could she have forgotten that?

“It’s open late. We can still get it, but we have to hurry.”

He pulled her down the hall to the elevator bank to their wing.

She looked up at him, blinking to make him more in focus. “I can’t believe we’re really doing this.”

“Neither can I.”

Chapter Nineteen

Something in the back of Noah’s head told him to slow down and think this through, but the alcohol encouraged him. He loved her. This was what he wanted. Why wait?

When they got to the room, Noah pushed her against the wall and kissed her again.

“Maybe we should get married tomorrow,” she said in a breathy voice, bringing him to his senses.

He took a step back and rubbed the top of his head. “No! We have to do this tonight.” He grabbed the trash bag off the floor and dumped her dress onto the bed. “How do we get this back on you?”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “I’m not putting it on now.”

He shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“You can’t see me in the dress before the wedding. It’s bad luck. I’ll change there.”

“But I’ve already seen you in it!”

“You haven’t seen me in it before I walk down the aisle to you!”

If this was what she wanted, he’d make it happen. “Okay.”

She started stuffing the dress back into the bag. “Come on. Help me.”

They crammed it back into the bag and then ran to the elevators. The doors to a car opened and a group of men stared at them, then at the bag in Noah’s hand.

He lifted it a few inches in greeting. “We’re getting married.”

It must have been the shocked looks on their faces that made Libby giggle as she leaned against him, resting her head on his upper arm. The love and joy in her eyes sucked his breath away.

He couldn’t believe this was actually happening.

A parking attendant greeted them at the entrance of the hotel. “Where to?” Then he looked down at the clear trash bag and his eyebrows lifted in understanding. “Oh. Which chapel?”

“We don’t know, but we need a marriage license,” Noah said. “And we need to be married before midnight.”

“Okay. Here’s what you do,” the man said. “You get your license, then you go to Little Heaven. My aunt Angelica owns the place. I’ll tell her you’re coming so they’ll be ready for you. Sound good?”

Noah looked down at Libby for confirmation. Beaming up at him, she nodded.

He grinned. “Sounds perfect.”

The parking attendant nodded and led them to a cab and opened the back door. He leaned his head into the open front passenger window. “This young couple needs to get a marriage license. Take care of them for me, will you?”

“Sure thing, Ned.”

Noah helped Libby into the backseat and climbed in beside her.

“But stick around and wait for them. They’re on a tight deadline. They need to go to Little Heaven afterward. They have to make it before midnight, capiche?”

“Got it.”

The bag was still outside the car, but when Noah tried pulling it in, he couldn’t fit it through the door. He gave it a tug, then fell backward, his head on Libby’s lap. He looked up into her surprised eyes. “Your wedding dress is kind of a bitch.”

She burst out laughing.

“Here, let me take that,” Ned, the Caesar’s employee, said, unprying the bag from the door.

“We need that!” Libby shouted, shoving Noah off her lap.

He righted himself before he fell to the floorboards.

The man leaned over and grinned. “I’m only putting it onto the front seat, miss. My friend Paul here will make sure nothing happens to it, right, Paul?”

“You got it, miss.”

Ned shut both doors and banged on the roof.

The taxi driver pulled out of the circle drive and headed toward the strip. “Where are you kids from?”

“Seattle.”

“Kansas City,” Libby said, “but I’m moving . . . to Seattle.”

“Aww . . .” he chuckled. “A long-distance relationship. How long you two been together?”

“Five months,” she said. “But I was with another guy until last weekend.”

The driver shrugged. “Hey, this is Vegas. You wouldn’t be the first cheaters to get married.”

“Oh, no,” Libby protested. “I didn’t cheat. We were just friends.” She turned to Noah. “You wouldn’t