“Wood?”

“Maggie’s ex. The man who owns the garage I used to work at.”

“Oh,” she whispered.

“We get home, you’ll need to take a look. Your shit’s better than my shit, move your shit in and we’ll move my shit out. It’s not, have your people get rid of it, bank the cash.”

Her shades held his.

“Um… again, how long’s this business gonna last?”

“Again, I don’t know. But what people gotta see is you and me startin’ a life together.”

She hesitated. Then, “Right.”

He stared at her. Then his eyes went to her left hand sitting in her lap. The band embedded with small diamonds sitting tight under the engagement ring served as a reminder that yesterday cut deep into his reserve. He had a marker of fifty K to pay. He had a life to restart. He had business to see to. He had to find a table.

Then he noticed her lips were pressed together, he guessed as to why and reminded her, “Time to bolt is over. You’re wearin’ my rings.”

Her head jerked and she declared firmly, “I’m not going to bolt.”

The tightness in his chest he hadn’t noticed until he heard her words released.

“How did, um… Maggie and Wood take care of your shit?” she asked.

“Rented my place. Paid my bills. Banked the extra. Vacated the tenants a month ago when I asked ‘em to. Stored my shit when I went down, took it outta storage and dumped it at home. Sorted through it to pack the shit I needed, sent it to Shift for him to add what he owed and give it to you.”

“That was nice of them to do.”

“They’re nice.”

Her lips tipped up.

Their food was served.

Unlike with her tuna melt, but absolutely the same as when their room service was delivered last night, she dug in, no bullshit nibbling, pretending she didn’t need food to survive. She’d ordered a Belgian waffle. And she liked what she ordered and didn’t give a f**k if he knew it.

Alexa Walker was a beautiful, classy, sexy, part-goof who liked her food.

And Ty Walker liked all of that.

Too much.

Christ, pu**y had f**ked his life and here he was, two days out of the joint and sitting under a f**king umbrella in the Vegas heat next to pu**y who’d had dick f**k up her life and he wanted in there so f**king badly he could almost convince himself he already tasted her on his tongue.

Jesus, he needed another shower and not because he was eating eggs, bacon, sausage and toast in the Vegas heat but because he needed to take his fist to his c**k or he’d likely do something he seriously regretted and that something would mean she’d bolt and he’d never see her smile again.

Her voice cut into his thoughts. “What’s your place like?”

“Condo,” he answered.

Her laugh made him turn his shades to her. “You’re not much on specifics,” she remarked.

“What’s there to say about a condo?”

She kept her shades on him for several seconds.

Then she murmured, “Point taken,” while smiling at her waffle.

Yep, he had to get the f**k out of there. Soon.

“You start sortin’ your shit, you need me, I’ll leave my new cell number in the room.”

“Okay.”

“That second dress you bought, you’re wearin’ tonight.”

He felt her eyes on him but he shoveled in more food.

“Okay,” she said.

He swallowed and stated, “Soon’s I eat, gotta go. You charge this shit and the tip to our room.”

“Okay,” she repeated.

He focused on eating. She fell silent maybe reading his mood.

The instant he finished, he sucked back the dregs of his coffee, turned to her and in case Bones was watching from somewhere, he nabbed her behind the neck, pulled her to him, pressed his lips to hers hard, let her go, got up and walked away licking his lips.

They tasted like whipped cream, strawberries, waffles and Lexie.

Fuck.

* * * * *

Lexie

I walked out of the bathroom gussied up in what I thought of as my slut dress. Ty’s instructions had been, “Two dresses. One to get married in. One that’ll get attention.”

I’d never dressed to get attention. I liked clothes, buying them and wearing them but I’d never owned a dress like this and I hoped the one I picked would be the ticket.

I walked into the bedroom to see Ty doing the cufflink thing again, this time he was wearing the deep lavender shirt with a pair of dark blue suit trousers. My eyes took in his male beauty then they slid to my nightstand.

I’d woken up to my bouquet in a vase precisely where it now stood. Upon waking, after seeing Ty’s side of the bed was mussed but empty, processing the fact that I slept on top of the covers in my wedding dress, those flowers in that vase were the second thing I saw after I rolled.

And the minute I saw them, I’d frozen, blinking the sleep out of my eyes, convinced I was seeing things.

Unless Vegas had bouquet fairies as well as one hour tailors, there was no one but Ty who could have located a vase and put my bouquet in it while I slept the sleep of the dead. And, when I realized I wasn’t seeing things, I didn’t know what to think about Ty locating a vase and putting my bouquet in it. I didn’t know him all that well but from what I did know, this seemed a very un-Ty-like thing to do. Therefore, I lay in bed and stared at those roses for what had to be five minutes trying to figure out what I thought.

I got out of bed not knowing.

But I also got out of bed with a warm feeling deep in my gut that felt really, really good as well as thinking that this fake marriage business wasn’t going to be that bad.

Sure, he didn’t talk much.

Sure, when he did, most of it was crude but it wasn’t like I wasn’t used to that from Ronnie, Shift and their crew, in fact, Ronnie, Shift and their crew were worse.

Sure, there were important ways he was closed off. Then again, we barely knew each other. Sharing our deepest, darkest secrets within forty-eight hours of meeting was not something to be expected. I had no idea why I poured my heart out to him last night. What I knew was, when I did, although he didn’t exactly handle me with care, he was honest, he shared his opinion and I just happened to like his opinion no matter that the realization it made me come to didn’t feel all that great. Not to mention, he’d shown himself to be wise.

Sure, he seemed to have no sense of humor but he also didn’t get ticked when I laughed when he didn’t find anything funny. And he didn’t have no sense of humor. His lips curled up last night, I saw them.