FULL NOVELXO That Wedding: Chapter 1
Phillip’s holding my hand, leading me toward the hotel elevator. We just left our engagement party. I still can’t believe I’m engaged to Phillip Mackenzie, the boy I’ve known forever.
As we step into an empty elevator, Phillip inserts a key and presses the number for the top floor. I’m about to say something, but before I can, he has me pinned into the corner.
He sings about love in an elevator.
I start to laugh, but my laugh is smothered when he kisses me deeply.
I forget what I was about to say. It’s hard to concentrate when his hands are running up my dress. The elevator dings, and the doors open, but Phillip doesn’t stop kissing me.
“Um, Phillip, where are we going?”
“Maybe I have a few more surprises,” he says slyly.
“I think I’ve had enough surprises for one day,” I tease.
He scoops me up and carries me out of the elevator.
“Phillip, put me down. You’re not supposed to carry me over the threshold until our wedding night. You’ll jinx us!”
He doesn’t put me down, but he stops and looks at me seriously. “Are you really gonna marry me?”
“Yeah, I think so. I said yes. Twice.” I wrap my arms around his neck. I really don’t want him to put me down.
He wrinkles his nose at me. “You also said no at least four times.”
I stick out my tongue at him. “What did you expect? You asked me to marry you on our first date. I’m sorry, but that was a bit of a shock. Are you going to put me down?”
“Nope.”
“Phillip …”
He leans his face in close to mine. “I’m carrying you into the bedroom, not over the threshold.”
The simple mention of Phillip and me in a bedroom sends flames blazing through my body.
“The bedroom is good,” I whisper.
He slides in the key card, opens the door to the suite, kicks the door shut with his foot, and carries me past the gorgeous living room and straight into the bedroom.
I eye the king-size bed. The fluffy comforter is turned down. There are chocolates on the pillows. I can’t wait to dive in.
Phillip carries me past the bed.
“Hey, you skipped the bed.”
“I told you, I might have another surprise.”
“And I told you, I can’t take any more surprises. If there’s a pastor and a wedding party in there, I swear, I’m running the other direction. I’m not marrying you tonight.”
He chuckles. “I should’ve thought of that. We could be on our honeymoon right now.”
“No way I would’ve agreed to that. It’s bad enough we got engaged on our first date.”
He sets me down in front of another set of double doors and tilts his head at me. “It’s bad?”
“You know what I mean—not bad, just really weird.”
He loops his arm around my shoulders. “Open the doors. Trust me.”
Of course I trust Phillip. He’s been my best friend my whole entire life. Plus, based on the room’s layout, this has got to be the door to the bathroom. I sling open the double doors and step into a marble room ablaze with varying sizes of flickering candles. There’s a huge roman tub in the corner, full of water with rose petals floating across the surface.
I turn around and grin at him. “This might be my favorite part of the whole night.”
“I thought it might be. I figured, if you said yes, we’d need a little time to relax after the party.”
“And if I had said no?”
“I could’ve just come up here and drowned myself,” he says with a laugh.
He grabs me and has me dangling above the tub before I can scream, “Don’t you dare!”
Phillip’s been picking me up and throwing me into pools and lakes ever since he got strong enough to do it.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he says as he pretends to drop me.
I’m pretending to be horrified, but really, all I keep thinking about is how strong Phillip is. How I love the way he makes me feel.
But I have to tease him. “We know what would happen if you dropped me in. I’d get out and take you down. Show you that you’re not as tough as you think you are.”
“Why do you think I always threw you in? You’d get out of the pool, chase me down, and jump on top of me. It was kinda hot.”
I laugh at him. “You’re being bad, Phillip, but I kinda like it.”
Phillip is so damn cute. He was always a cute boy, but the older he’s gotten, the sexier he’s gotten. His short brown hair, that smile, the deep brown eyes with their golden flecks, and that sexy voice. I don’t think there’s anything I don’t love about Phillip.
I wrap my arm around his neck and pull him into a long, delicious kiss. “Plus, you’d ruin the dress.”
“That’d be a shame. You look amazing in this dress, but I bet it’d look even better off.” He sets me down and slowly unzips the back of my dress. “I really thought you were gonna say no at the party even though you said yes earlier.”
“I was gonna say no.”
Phillip’s hands glide up my back. He slides the dress off my shoulders, which makes it hard for me to remember why I said no. I’m pretty sure whatever question he asked me right now, the answer would be yes.
“I’m really glad you said yes,” he says as his lips graze my shoulder.
God, he’s adorable.
“I’m glad I said yes, too. Can you believe we’re gonna get married? Can you believe Pastor John told me we need couples counseling?”
He turns me around to face him, kisses my neck, and unhooks my strapless bra. It drops to the floor. He cups my face in his hands. “He’s probably right. You do need counseling, and the first thing we’re going to counsel you on is, how you should always say yes to me. Do you have any idea how crushed I was when you slammed the ring into my hand and marched away?”
I instantly feel bad. Bad that I could make Phillip even a teeny bit sad. “You know, even if I had said no, it wouldn’t have been because I didn’t wanna marry you. I just thought maybe it was too soon to get engaged.” I grab both of his hands, hold them tight, and look into his eyes. “Phillip, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For Cancun. For tonight. I love you. I’d never do anything to hurt you on purpose. I just …”
“It’s okay. I got so excited and caught up in planning it that I didn’t stop to think about how crazy it sounded.”
“Are you changing your mind? Do you wish you hadn’t?”
“No, this is exactly where I wanna be.”
“In a bathroom with me practically naked?” I ask with a laugh.
He leans down and strips off my thong.
“Make that completely naked.”
He wraps his strong arms around me. “With you. Naked is just a bonus. Get in.” He holds my hand to help me into the warm, fragrant water.
I lean my back against the tub to relax, but then I notice Phillip’s taking off his shirt. I watch raptly. I’ve seen Phillip’s chest a million times—he and Danny were always running around with no shirts on—but it still takes my breath away. Especially now that I know exactly what it feels like. Now that I’ve run my hands across his abs, felt his weight on top of me, and massaged every square inch of it. I used to rub his back when we were just friends. Even then, I loved feeling every muscle, every curve, but now, all I can think is how hot he looks and how lucky I am. All of a sudden, the bath feels ten times warmer, my face feels flushed, and other parts of me seem to heat up as well.
“I thought you were gonna say no. What changed your mind?”
“I was gonna say no. I was really mad at you. I couldn’t believe you sprang that on me. We’d just agreed to kinda keep it a secret. Then, boom! You tell me we’re at our surprise engagement party, and everyone knows!”
He chuckles. “You were really pissed. You even cut my hand with the ring.”
My eyes get big. “I did?”
He walks over and holds his hand up. Shows me a teeny little scratch. “My war wound,” he says in a very fake pathetic voice.
I grab his hand and kiss the scratch.
“So, what made you change your mind?” he asks.
I am about to answer, but then he unbuckles his belt. I watch his slacks fall to the ground and then his boxers. All I can do is stare at his beautiful body.
“You’re totally checking me out, aren’t you?” he says, busting me.
“Maybe.”
He does a few silly bodybuilder poses. His muscles ripple across his broad chest. He’s being goofy, but he’s naked.
Which makes me feel very serious.
He slides into the tub with me. I lean back against him as he absentmindedly cups water in his hand and pours it down my chest.
I sigh. Close my eyes. This must be what heaven feels like.
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“What question?”
Did he ask me a question?
“I asked what made you change your mind. You haven’t told me yet.”
“You distracted me with nakedness.”
“I’ll have to remember that. Seriously, tell me.”
“When I was looking out into the crowd, telling them I said no, I saw you standing there. You looked sad. You weren’t even looking at me. You were staring down at my ring.”
“Go on,” he says.
He runs his hands down both my arms. I close my eyes again.
“Then, I wondered what you would do after I said no. Like, would you still date me? Would you give up on us forever? And, just as I was about to say no again, I spotted Danny and Lori. My mind flashed back to when we were walking home after their big engagement. Do you remember how you asked me if I’d ever want to be surprised like that in front of a bunch of people?”
“I do remember. Why do you think I did it? You said you thought it would be amazing to know a guy had planned all of that just for you.”
“I realized that. That’s when I knew I had to say yes. I realized you had done it all for me. The three-dozen roses, sending me to the spa with your sister, the gorgeous dress, all the charms, the limo, the scavenger hunt, the ring, the party—all of it. I still can’t believe you did all that. Planned it all out.”
“I was trying to impress you. Did it work? Do you like the ring?”
I pull my hand out of the warm water and hold it in front of us. The diamonds sparkle. It looks the way I feel—sparkly, glittery, full of promise. “The ring was a slam dunk.”
“You seemed shocked that I’d kept the drawing of your dream ring.”
“I was shocked. What made you keep it?”
“When you looked at the other jewelry, Danny ripped the drawing off the pad, threw it at me, and said, ‘You’d better save this; you’ll need it someday.’”
“Did you laugh at him?”
“Not really. I hoped he was right. We’d had a conversation about you a couple of months before that. You asked me to your winter formal.”
“I remember wishing you were my real date, not just my friend.”
“I felt the same way. Then, you came to my spring formal with me, remember?”
“Yeah, but we went as friends. Again.”
“Danny chewed me out about that. Said I was a chicken for not asking you for real. Got me to admit I was in love with you.”
“So, you kept the drawing and had the ring made. It is my dream ring, but it was just that, Phillip. A dream. You spent way too much on this. On the ring, the party, all of it.”
He lowers his voice and whispers into my neck as he’s kissing it, “I’d spend everything I had on you.” Then, he laughs and runs his hand across his eyebrow. “Actually, I pretty much did. I might have to live with you now.”
“You have been living with me.”
“I’ve been spending the night with you.”
“Are you trying to guilt me into letting you live with me? I know you live at your parents’ for free.”
“Yeah, but it’s not as much fun there as it is at your place. Speaking of that, I think we should go see if that bed’s as comfortable as it looks.”
We get out of the tub and quickly dry off. When he picks me up and carries me into the bedroom, I’m pretty sure I know exactly what kind of fun he’s referring to.