As the officiant spoke, Travis’s eyes poured over me, my face, my hair, my dress—he even looked down at my shoes. Then, he leaned over until his lips were just a few inches from my neck, and inhaled.

The officiant paused.

“I wanna remember everything,” Travis said.

The officiant smiled, nodded, and continued.

A flash went off, startling us. Travis glanced behind him, acknowledged the photographer, and then looked at me. We mirrored each other’s cheesy grins. I didn’t care that we must have looked absolutely ridiculous. It was like we were getting ready to jump off the highest high dive into the deepest river that fed into the most magnificent, terrifying waterfall, right onto the best and most fantastic roller coaster in the universe. Times ten.

“True marriage begins well before the wedding day,” the officiant began. “And the efforts of marriage continue well beyond the ceremony’s end. A brief moment in time and the stroke of the pen are all that is needed to create the legal bond of marriage, but it takes a lifetime of love, commitment, forgiveness, and compromise to make marriage durable and everlasting. I think, Travis and Abby, you’ve just shown us what your love is capable of in a tense moment. Your yesterdays were the path that led you to this chapel, and your journey to a future of togetherness becomes a little clearer with each new day.”

Travis leaned his cheek to my temple. I was grateful he wanted to touch me where and whenever he could. If I could have hugged him to me and not disrupted the ceremony, I would have. The officiant’s words began to blur together. A few times, Travis spoke, and I did, too. I slipped Travis’s black ring onto his finger, and he beamed.

“With this ring, I thee wed,” I said, repeating after the officiant.

“Nice choice,” Travis said, admiring his ring.

When it was Travis’s turn, he seemed to have trouble, and then slid two rings onto my finger: my engagement ring, and a simple, gold band.

I wanted to take a moment to appreciate that he’d gotten me an official wedding band, maybe even say so, but I was having an out-of-body experience. The harder I tried to be present, the faster everything seemed to happen.

I thought maybe I should actually listen to the list of things I was promising, but the only voice that made sense was Travis’s. “I damn sure do,” he said with a smile. “And I promise to never enter another fight, drink in excess, gamble, or throw a punch in anger . . . and I’ll never, ever make you cry sad tears again.”

When it was my turn again, I paused. “I just want you to know, before I make my promises, that I’m super stubborn. You already know I’m hard to live with, and you’ve made it clear on dozens of occasions that I drive you crazy. And I’m sure I’ve driven anyone who’s watched these last few months crazy with my indecision and uncertainty. But I want you to know that whatever love is, this has got to be it. We were best friends first, and we tried not to fall in love, and we did anyway. If you’re not with me, it’s not where I want to be. I’m in this. I’m with you. We might be impulsive, and absolutely insane to be standing here at our age, six months after we met.

This whole thing might play out to be a completely wonderful, beautiful disaster, but I want that if it’s with you.”

“Like Johnny and June,” Travis said, his eyes a bit glossed over. “It’s all uphill from here, and I’m going to love every minute of it.”

“Do you—” the officiant began.

“I do,” I said.

“Okay,” he said with a chuckle, “but I have to say it.”

“I’ve heard it once. I don’t need to hear it again,” I said, smiling, never taking my eyes from Travis. He squeezed my hands. We repeated more promises, and then the officiant paused.

“That’s it?” Travis asked.

The officiant smiled. “That’s it. You’re married.”

“Really?” he asked, his eyebrows raised. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

“You may now kiss your—”

Travis took me in both arms and wrapped me tightly, kissing me, excitedly and passionate at first, and then his lips slowed, moving against mine more tenderly.

Chantilly clapped with her petite, chubby hands. “That was a good one! The best one I’ve seen all week! I love it when they don’t go as planned.”

The officiant said, “I present to you, Ms. Chantilly and Mr. King, Mr. and Mrs. Travis Maddox.”

Elvis clapped, too, and Travis lifted me in his arms. I took each side of his face into my hands and leaned over to kiss him.

“I’m just trying not to have a Tom Cruise moment,” Travis said, beaming at everyone in the room. “I now understand the whole jumping on the couch and punching the floor thing. I don’t know how to express how I feel! Where’s Oprah?”

I let out an uncharacteristic cackle. He was grinning ear to ear, and I’m sure I looked just as annoyingly happy. Travis set me down, and then glanced around at everyone in the room.

He seemed a little shocked. “Woo!” he yelled, his fists shaking in front of him. He was having a very Tom Cruise moment. He laughed, and then he kissed me again. “We did it!”

I laughed with him. He took me into his arms, and I noticed that his eyes were a little glossy.

“She married me!” he said to Elvis. “I fucking love you, baby!” he yelled again, hugging and kissing me.

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but this definitely wasn’t it. Chantilly, the officiant, and even Elvis were laughing, half in amusement, half in awe. The photographer’s flash was going off like we were surrounded by paparazzi.

“Just a few papers to sign, a few pictures, and then you can start your happily-ever-after,” Chantilly said. She turned and then faced us again with a wide, toothy grin, holding up a piece of paper and a pen.

“Oh!” Chantilly said. “Your bouquet. We’re going to need that in the pictures.”

She handed me the flowers, and Travis and I posed. We stood together. We showed off our rings. Side by side, face-to-face, jumping in the air, hugging, kissing—at one point Travis held me up in his arms. After a quick signing of the marriage certificate, Travis led me by the hand to the limo waiting for us outside.

“Did that really just happen?” I asked.

“It sure as hell did!”

“Did I see some misty eyes back there?”

“Pigeon, you are now Mrs. Travis Maddox. I’ve never been this happy in my life!”

A smile burst across my face, and I laughed and shook my head. I’d never seen a crazy person be so endearing. I lunged at him, pressing his lips against mine. Since his tongue had been in my mouth in the chapel, all I could think about was getting it back there.

Travis knotted his fingers in my hair as I climbed on top of him, and I dug my knees into the leather seat on each side of his hips. My fingers fumbled with his belt while he leaned over to press the button to lift the privacy window.

I cussed his shirt buttons for taking so long to undo, and then began working impatiently on his zipper. Travis’s mouth was everywhere; kissing the tender parts of skin just behind my ear, running his tongue down the line of my neck, and nibbling my collarbone. With one motion, he turned me onto my back, immediately sliding his hand up my thigh and hooking my panties with his finger. Within moments, they were hanging off one of my ankles, and Travis’s hand was moving up the inside of my leg until he paused at the tender skin between my thighs.

“Baby,” I whispered before he silenced me with his mouth. He was breathing hard through his nose, holding me against him like it was the first and the last time.

Travis pulled back onto his knees, his ripped abs and chest, and his tattoos on full display. My thighs instinctively tensed, but he took my right leg in both of his hands, gently moving them apart. I watched as his mouth hungrily worked from my toes, to my heel, my calf, my knee, and then to my inner thigh. I lifted my hips to his mouth, but he lingered on my upper legs for several moments, far more patient than I was.

Once his tongue touched the most sensitive parts of me, his fingers slid between my dress and the seat, gripping my ass, lightly tugging me toward him. Every nerve melted and tensed at the same time. Travis had been in that position before, but he had clearly been holding back; saving his best work for our wedding night. My knees bent, shook, and I grabbed at his ears.

He paused once, only to whisper my name against my wet skin, and I faltered, closing my eyes and feeling as if they were rolling to the back of my head in pure ecstasy. I moaned, making his kisses more eager, and then he tensed, lifting my body closer to his mouth.

Every passing second became more intense, a brick wall between wanting to let go and needing to stay in that moment. Finally, when I couldn’t wait any longer, I reached up and buried Travis’s face into me. I cried out, feeling him smiling, overcome by the intense jolts of electricity bolting throughout my body.

With all of Travis’s distractions, I didn’t realize we were at the Bellagio until I heard the driver’s voice over the speaker. “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Maddox, but we’ve arrived at your hotel. Would you like me to take another drive down the Strip?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Finally

Travis

“No, just give us a minute,” I said.

Abby was half-lying, half sitting on the black leather seat of the limo, her cheeks flushed, breathing hard. I kissed her ankle, and then pulled her panties off the toe of her high heel, handing them to her.

God damn, she was a beautiful sight. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her while I buttoned up my shirt. Abby flashed me a huge grin while she shimmied her panties back over her hips. The limo driver knocked on the door. Abby nodded and I gave him the green light to open it. I handed him a large bill, and then lifted my wife into my arms. We made it through the lobby and then the casino in just a few minutes. You might say I was a little motivated to get back to the room—luckily having Abby in my arms provided cover for my bulging dick.