Needing Happily Ever After - Elena Aitken Page 0,31

see it. It’s bad luck.” She realized what she’d said the moment it came out of her mouth. It wasn’t a real wedding, so there was no need to worry about things like luck. She turned away. “I mean…if we were worried about that type of thing. Which we’re—”

“Stop.” Damon put a hand on her arm and turned her back to face him. There was a question in his eyes, and more than anything, Katie wanted him to ask it. But he turned and hung the bag on the back of the bedroom door. He stared at it for a long minute before turning around again. “I’m really sorry, Katie.”

“For what?” She picked up the wine and took a sip.

“For all of this. For the wedding that’s not everything it should be.”

“What are you talking about?” She crossed the room. “This is exactly what it’s supposed to be,” she said. “It’s a wedding and we’re going to pull it off so you can have ElkView and—”

“It’s just that your first wedding should be—”

“My first wedding?” She couldn’t help it; Katie burst out laughing. “You make it sound like I was always destined to have more than one wedding.”

Damon wasn’t laughing and Katie’s laughter died quickly when he reached out and touched her cheek. “That’s not what I meant.” His finger traced her jawline and finally came to rest, cupping her face. “I just meant that I’m sorry if this isn’t what you’d always dreamed about when you thought of your wedding.”

“Honestly?”

“Of course.”

“It isn’t really what I was picturing.” She shrugged. “I mean, even if it were real.”

“Of course.”

“But I guess I thought all of our family and friends would be there. I mean, my family and friends.”

He winked at her and she laughed before continuing.

“And there’d be a big dance and we’d all eat.” She mulled it over. It was the most honest thing she could have said, despite the confusion of feelings flooding her head and her heart. Katie’s gaze flicked over his shoulder to the dress hanging in the garment bag behind him. That dress was everything. Her eyes once again focused on Damon, on her best friend. The best man she knew. “But all of that being said, this wedding will be everything.”

For a moment, Damon didn’t respond. But then he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers in a warm, deep kiss that both froze her to the spot and at the same time caused every sensation within her to come alive. This was different. No one was watching. This wasn’t for show. This was…real?

It sure as hell felt real.

Katie leaned into the kiss and deepened it. His arms came around her and held her tight as she melted into him and gave herself over to the moment. Whatever questions she had about what was going on could wait until later.

Much later.

“I really am proud of you, you know?” Damon broke the kiss, but kept his arms around her. “I think it’s amazing that you went to school all on your own and now…well, it’s pretty impressive.”

There were so many other things he wanted to tell her, but if his brain couldn’t even begin to make sense of anything, how was he going to actually verbalize it? “And I do think we should celebrate.”

“Celebrate?” Her eyebrow lifted and she tilted her head in question. “Is that what we were just doing?”

“No.” He shook his head. “That was just me, showing my fiancée how proud I am of her.”

She grinned, but he didn’t miss the flash of disappointment in her eyes as well. “Well, then…that was—” She moved to turn from his arms, but Damon spun her back and kissed her again.

This time, the kiss was deeper and more intense.

She responded with a small groan that made Damon’s dick instantly hard. Since when did Katie provoke these kinds of feelings in him? The answer didn’t matter, because the only thing that mattered was how he was feeling, right then. And judging by the way she kissed him back, she felt it too.

But then it was over.

Her lips were gone from his and she stood on the other side of the room so quickly that Damon didn’t even realize what had happened for a few seconds. He blinked hard and shook his head. “What…did we…did you...what…”

Nothing coming out of his mouth made sense, but she still seemed to understand what he was trying to say.

“Maybe we should just slow down?”

“Slow down?”

She nodded. “Just…well…everything is changing so fast