The Prince's Bride (Part 1) - J.J. McAvoy Page 0,97

to take selfies, but since you asked for my good side—”

“I did not ask!” I said as he hugged me to him.

“I will make an exception,” he continued on as if I didn’t have his face beside my face.

It was worse looking at myself in the camera, seeing how—how happy I was, grinning like a fool. What happened to me rejecting him? What happened to me wanting him to go back home? What happened to me?

“Three...two...one...” I smiled, and he turned his head, kissing my cheek as he took the picture. “Happy birthday, Odette,” he whispered in my ear, making me shiver.

“You’re really making it hard not to start falling for you,” I whispered back, trying not to look at him. Instead, I reached for my phone.

“So are you.”

I looked at him, and he was staring back at me.

I think we would have just stared at each other if not for the drop of water that fell from the sky and hit his cheek—then another that hit my nose.

“No.” He gasped, looking at the sky. “They said it was supposed to be clear today!”

“Welcome to Seattle!” I laughed as the skies opened up, and all the water in heaven began to fall on top of us both.

He rushed to the steering wheel.

“What should I do?”

“Make it stop raining!” he called out, and even though I knew he was kidding, I felt too good, so I started to dance. “What in the world are you doing!”

“You said to make it stop raining. Here is a rain dance!”

“Isn’t that what you do to make it rain?”

I paused.

And he broke into hysterical laughter, his head going back before yelling at the top of his lungs against the rain. “Odette Rochelle Wyntor!”

“What!” I yelled back.

“I’m going to marry you!”

I froze, and then my heart started to dance, and soon, I could not stop myself from yelling out, “Galahad Fitzhugh Cornelius Edgar!”

“What?”

“Marry me!”

He nearly slipped and fell. He was shocked, so I reached out to grab on to him, and he grabbed on to me.

“Are you okay?”

“Did you hear what you just said?” he asked, completely unbothered by nearly falling overboard.

I nodded.

“Say it again.”

“Marry me.”

He gaped at me. “Are sure you?”

“Let’s get married,” I repeated, my heart twisting, but I wasn’t sure if it was panic or excitement.

“Odette, I am going to ask you one more—”

I closed the distance between our lips to shut him up and then backed away. “Let’s get married, Gale.”

He nodded, grinning. “Yes. Let’s.”

“Right now.”

“What?”

I nodded. “If we wait, I’m going to get scared and chicken out.”

“Odette!”

“Are you saying no?”

His mouth dropped open. He ran his hand through his hair, once, then twice, and just sighed. “You are going to drive me crazy, do you know that?”

“At least you know that now!”

He held my face before pulling me close and kissing me hard. Because of the rain, the clothes between our bodies felt thinner. I could feel him, all of him, holding on to me.

When he broke away, he rested his forehead on mine.

“We’re going to have to stop at home to get the ring,” he said.

He kissed me one more time and ran back to the sail. I just stood there, shaking. This was crazy. I was marrying him so I could keep dating him.

I was marrying him because everything felt good.

I was marrying him because I liked him...a lot.

Chapter 24

For a royal to get married in Ersovia, you needed the blessing of the sovereign. Once given, the press would be told a month after the proposal, and the wedding would then take place seven months after that. The sons of the reigning monarch needed to be married in Brauenburg Abbey by the Archbishop, and the day would be a public holiday so everyone could watch the bride come down the abbey road in a red and gold carriage, surrounded by six royal guards on horseback. The bride of the Adelaar had a train fifteen feet long, and she wore a golden crown. The wife of every other prince could have a train of no more than eight feet, and her crown would be made of white and silver diamonds. There were no surprises. There were no spur-of-the-moment decisions. Everything about that day would be planned to the last detail.

It would be the exact opposite of today.

Sitting at a round table in an empty courthouse because we were late, there was a licensed notary still there who offered to help us. All we needed was the sixty-seven-dollar fee for the