Page 17 of Love Bites (Timber Creek #2)
CHAPTER 17
MAX
Car horns mixed with the deep bass music from several nearby clubs, and coins clinked on the penny slots to the delight of patrons hovering over them. I held the shadows around us a little longer, savoring Summer’s arms wrapped tightly around my waist.
As confident as she was about getting married, I was having a hard time swallowing the idea.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever met anyone as selfless as Summer Larkin, and her ready acceptance of this task made me want to hand her the world on a platter.
But that was what this was — a task. A job. She was a tool in my arsenal, like choosing the right ammunition for the hunt, and I needed to remember that.
She wasn’t choosing me because she loved me and wanted to spend forever at my side. She wanted adventure, she wanted to feel useful and important, she wanted to shove it in her family’s faces.
Now that was something I had experience with.
I leaned down, my arms still inexplicably wrapped around her. “We doing this or what, sunshine?”
“Yep.” She breathed deep, then stepped back, looking around the darkened alley, then to the arched LED ceiling dancing with bright colors over a wide atrium just beyond our shadows. “Where are we?”
“Fremont Street. More places to hide in the shadows than on the Strip.”
Summer’s head tilted up as she stared at the ceiling, stepping just outside my shadow barrier as she approached the crowds around us. Luckily, this was Vegas. No one batted an eye at two people appearing from the shadows here.
The images on the roof changed from psychedelic rainbow patterns to a galaxy of color, and Summer’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Look!” she said, reaching back to take my hand as she pointed.
No matter what the ceiling was doing, I couldn’t look away from the awe written across Summer’s face over such a simple sight. Was it impressive? Sure. But so was the way light danced across her sun-kissed skin, the way her ponytail hung down almost to her waist, curling just at the end. We’d left her jacket back in Timber Creek, so I was left with little to distract me from those tiny yellow bows on her shoulders, not to mention my mark on her skin.
“We need rings.” The sound of my own voice seemed to shock both of us, and she looked back at me, her smile growing.
“I happen to love shiny things.” She wiggled her fingers to free my hand, but I held tight, navigating us through the crowd towards a jeweler inside one of the casinos.
Her eyes lit up just like they had at the ceiling on Fremont Street, flicking this way and that as she appraised all of the jewels. “Let’s trade. Be traditional. I pick yours, and you pick mine.”
I frowned, looking around the store full of more options than I knew what to do with, feeling the inevitable analysis paralysis setting in. “No way, you’ll make me wear a rainbow ring pop or something ridiculous.” That was easier than admitting I’m scared shitless to pick something you won’t like.
“Oh, damn, you got me.” Summer winked, then patted my chest. “Fine, fine. But, just to clarify, is your problem with the rainbow or the ring pop?”
I shot her an unamused glare, and she put up her hands. “Okay, no rainbows or candy rings. Plain, boring metal it is.” Summer shrugged, then took off towards the display cases of men’s jewelry, leaving me standing alone in the store.
“Special occasion?” the saleswoman asked as she approached, and my jaw tensed. She was very much human, and even the single gesture from me was enough to make her scurry back behind the counter, putting space between us. “You let me know how I can help.”
With a quick glance behind me to check on Summer, busy pointing excitedly at several things, I approached the cabinets. Light sparkled off the many diamonds below.
Knowing Summer, she’d expect me to pick something simple. A solid gold band, not investing much into this temporary arrangement. But Summer was anything but simple.
The more I got to know her, the more I realized how much she hid from the world, how much she held back to keep from outshining everyone around her.
But Summer was the sun, a living embodiment of her name. Every moment I spent with her pulled me more into her orbit, until I felt like I too couldn’t survive without her warmth.
My eyes caught on a large yellow solitaire diamond, different than all of the simpler ones around it. “That one.” Like Summer, it stood out in a crowd, and confidence filled me as I looked down the rows of jewelry. Laying on a display further down was a smaller band of diamonds arranged into tiny flowers, like a crown. “And that one.”
“Would you like to see them closer?” the saleswoman asked, but whatever expression was on my face, she nodded. “Should I find her ring size for you, sir?”
I nodded, and she scurried off.
Tightness bit at my chest as I leaned back against the display, crossing my arms. Across the store, Summer clapped excitedly and nodded. When the saleswoman approached her, she beamed, holding out her left hand to be measured.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked over at me, her grin spreading further, and damn, I wanted to kiss her. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this to be real, but I certainly wasn’t mad at the prospect of no one else getting to touch her.
“That was quick,” Summer said as she sidled over next to me, as if this moment wasn’t monumental for both of us.
“Just the words every man wants to hear on his wedding day.”
Summer tipped her head back and laughed, exposing the long column of her neck I desperately wanted to taste again.
“All ready, sir,” Summer’s salesman said, handing over a small bag with two boxes inside. With quick efficiency, I paid him, waving Summer off when she tried to pay for mine.
Rising on her tiptoes, she laced her hands around my neck then leaned up and kissed my cheek. “Ready for the ol’ ball and chain?”
With a brisk nod, I pulled her hands free, then intertwined our fingers, tugging her out of the store.
Vegas made it exceptionally easy to get married. Just down the street from the jeweler was the marriage license department, and right next to it? A tiny but ominous Gothic black chapel, complete with a classic, red-and-black Cadillac parked out front.
“I thought it would be bigger,” Summer said, staring up at the building, her shoulders tensing then relaxing when she laughed at herself. “That’s what she said.”
My fingers tightened on hers. “We don’t?—”
She spun, putting her hand over my mouth. “Nope. Don’t even say it. Mentally, I’m already crossing Get Married off my list, and if you make my brain have to erase that strikethrough, I’ll riot.”
I gave her a brisk nod, and she dropped my hand, walking confidently into the chapel. A whole range of emotions ran through me — indecision, guilt, regret, and maybe even a hint of desire I didn’t want to acknowledge — but I followed her inside.
We had a bucket list item to check off.
Tinny organ music sounded from behind the closed doors in front of us, the only indication this was a wedding chapel and not an emo doctor’s office. That, and the lingering scent of cigarette smoke. Everything was painted black, and the only lighting apart from the stained glass windows were flickering fake candelabras hanging from the ceiling. A deathly pale woman with dyed jet-black hair and bright red lipstick sat behind a glass window, smacking her gum as she twirled a pen between her fingers. Two other couples sat in red velvet chairs along one wall, both looking equal parts excited and nervous, whispering quietly.
“Lestat’s Quickie Weddings, how can we help you have the wedding of your nightmares?” the woman sighed in a monotone as we approached the glass, then slid a clipboard under the partition without so much as glancing at us. “Fill out the forms and bring them back up with your valid Nevada wedding license.”
Summer took the clipboard, and we quickly filled out the forms, passing it back and forth. Several of the questions, like my birthday, were fabricated to meet human requirements, but it matched the driver’s license I carried and the government’s records of me, so we were good to go.
Summer chattered endlessly with the woman next to us while we waited, her foot bouncing nonstop — a tell she was as nervous as I was. Without conscious thought, my hand went gently to her knee, and the bouncing stilled.
I didn’t see a way around this, but the closer our time slot came, the more regret seeped into my bones.
This was a mistake.
I was using Summer, taking this opportunity from her. This was her first wedding, but I wasn’t naive enough to believe I’d be the only one lining up to marry her. As much as I needed her help, it felt wrong to take this experience from her.
She shouldn’t be doing this just to mark something off her list. It should mean something, not just be an item to check off like any other chore.
Images of her family flashed in my mind — of Heath welcoming me so easily, but her brothers and sister too — as I realized with a sickening feeling that this would affect them as well.
Could I survive against a pack of wolves? Or even the one mountain lion?
I swallowed heavily. “Summer.”
She turned to me with a bright smile, and our number was called.
“Wait.” I grabbed her hand when she went to stand, holding her in place.
“Do you still need my help?” she asked, her brows rising high on her face. “Can you think of a better way for us to do this and come out alive, because I can’t.”
“I know, it’s just —”
“Are you in love with someone else?”
I reared back, meeting her hazel eyes, having a hard time recalling what a single other woman I’d ever met looked like as I stared at her. “What? No.”
She shrugged. “Then I’m still okay with this if you are. The last thing I want is to beg someone to marry me though.”
“That’s not the issue, and you know it.”
“Okay, then let that guilty conscience go. Do you trust me to know my own mind? Because” — she dropped her voice so no one would overhear her next words — “fake husband or real, that’s nonnegotiable for me.”
Fuck, when she put it that way, I felt even worse for questioning her. Slowly, I nodded.
She smiled again, said goodbye to the other couple, and walked towards the doors, stopping just outside. “You coming with me?”
I stood, and my life flashed before my eyes. This marriage may have been purely for convenience, but it was hard to deny her anything.
Music started just beyond the double doors, and we both grabbed a handle, prying them open together. I expected a few rows of pews, some fake flowers, maybe an Elvis impersonator — this was Vegas after all. But that was as far from the scene before me as possible.
Summer chuckled as we walked down the aisle. “Well, this is fitting.” A red carpet laid between rows of benches that looked an awful lot like coffins. Everything was painted black or red, with fake bats and hopefully fake cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.
“Reminds me of my childhood bedroom,” I said, and Summer elbowed me with a snort. “Did you know this was what we were walking into?”
“When I saw the horror package, I couldn’t say no. This is Lestat’s , after all. Curiosity killed the cat. It also chose our wedding theme. Plus, you know” — she gestured vaguely at me — “seemed fitting.”
The generic piano music switched to an organ, slamming out the Phantom of the Opera as we walked towards the front of the room. I could hear the heartbeat of a human somewhere in the room with us, but no one was visible yet.
I opened my mouth to ask Summer one more time if she wanted to run, but closed it. I did trust Summer, which was an odd thing for me to acknowledge. Aside from my father, I wasn’t sure I trusted anyone, and even he was not a guarantee. Malachi had a reason for everything he did, even if he didn’t always share that reasoning, though he never outright lied to me either.
We stopped at the front, the human heartbeat louder now. The room was dark, lit only by flickering sconces on the wall and several battery-operated candles on a table behind a coffin laid in front of us with the lid open. I raised my chin to peek inside when an elderly man popped up, Jack-in-the-Box style, arms crossed over his chest in his best Dracula impression. Complete with plastic fangs and the exaggerated lapels of his cloak sticking straight out. Summer jumped, then burst out laughing, gripping my hand tightly.
“Dearly beloveth, we are gathered here today to thelebrate the union of” — he uncrossed his arms to put on a pair of reading glasses, then squinted at a piece of paper he lifted from his lap inside the coffin, nodded, took the glasses off, then re-crossed his arms — “Thummer Larkin and Max Rutho.”
He climbed out of the coffin, coming to stand before us. Whatever I’d expected for my wedding day — which was nothing, if I was honest — it was not the balding white man with a potbelly wearing an old tuxedo and cloak, dressed as the fictional version of a 19th century vampire. “Thorry, these fangth give me a lithp.” He spit them out into his hand, and put them in his pocket, wiping the spit on his hand, then extending it out to me. “Hi friends. I’m Jimmy. Ready to get married?”
I stared down at his hand, then back up at his face, until he put his hand back down.
“Right, right. Sorry about that. Should we get started?”
“Yes.” Summer nodded vigorously. “Should we face each other?”
“Sounds good to me!” Jimmy said, adjusting his cloak as he put on his reading glasses again, then pulled out a small book and put it on the black podium in front of him.
In a quick succession, we repeated words oddly centered around death to each other, promising things I never thought I’d promise anyone.
“Rings?” Jimmy asked, and I pulled the two small boxes out of my pocket.
Summer opened the one in her hand first, pulling out an all-black tungsten ring with a tiny band of silver running through it, sliding it onto my left hand. “It reminded me of your” — she stopped herself, staring at my shoulder blades where my wings would be, then my eyes — “your eyes.”
My chest warmed. And I had to admit, if I’d ever wanted to pick a ring for myself, I couldn’t have found something better than this.
“Do you, Summer Larkin, take Max Russo to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
Her smile was bright, a hint of tears lingering along her eyes as she nodded. “I do.”
I opened my own box, the yellow glinting absurdly bright in this dark setting, but then again, so did Summer. She was my antithesis in everything, even here.
Her eyes blew wide, mouth falling open as I pulled out the set of rings. With slightly shaking hands, I slid first the yellow solitaire diamond then the ring of daisies onto her finger, closing my hand around hers.
“Do you, Max Russo, take Summer Larkin to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
Lawfully. Wedded. Wife.
I didn’t expect those words to do something to me, but they hit like a gut punch. Something possessive and feral took root in my chest, and I couldn’t stop my fangs from descending. I kept my lips curled over them, my eyes intent on Summer, as I made her mine. “I do.”
“Excellent!” Jimmy clapped. “Then with the power vested in me by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may bite the bride.” My head jerked up at his words, staring directly at Summer. Her heart thundered as her pulse ratcheted up, and the memory of the taste of her blood burst on my tongue as if I’d bitten her yesterday, not days ago.
“Or kiss.” Jimmy shrugged when we did nothing. “All part of the package.”
Summer stepped closer, her bright hazel eyes locked on mine as she tilted up her chin. I framed her face in my hands, and dropped my lips down on hers.
She shouldn’t have tasted this good, this tempting, but the moment her hands closed on the fabric of my shirt, holding me as if I was the only thing keeping her upright, I was feral.
It should have been a chaste kiss, a quick peck to seal the deal, but the knowledge that Summer was mine overtook me, and my tongue traced the edge of her lips, seeking entrance.
Immediately, she opened to me, her tongue dancing with mine as the softest moan floated out from her mouth. Her tongue caught on my fang, pricking the tiniest drop of blood and dropping it into my mouth, and I growled low.
She jerked back, pupils wide as she heaved in deep breaths, pressing a shaking finger to her lips.
Jimmy cleared his throat loudly. “I should mention we offer discounted room rates at the motel next door,” he chuckled with a flick of his eyebrows, then pulled his plastic fangs back out of his pocket and popped them back in his mouth.
My hands were still cupping Summer’s jaw as I tried to regain control over my body, but she nodded, her hands coming up to grab mine. A clock chimed on the back wall, alerting us our time slot was over.
“Thank you for coming to Lethtat’s Wedding Chapel here in Lath Vegath,” Jimmy said as he climbed back inside the coffin in front of us, then laid back. “May you both live out your scarietht happily ever after.”