Free Gambling on Love (Stories of Serendipity #6) by Anne Conley Page B

pulled Kathy close, and as always, her heart pounded at the feel of his hard body against hers. “I. Want. To. Marry. You. Please, can we just do this? Then I’ll make love to you, until my dick stops throbbing. I’ll plant my baby inside you. And then we’ll talk. I promise. Okay? Stop thinking so much.”
    His words took her breath away and sent moist warmth pooling in her nether regions. Speechless, she nodded.
    “You take my breath away. Every time I look at you. Every time you speak, you say what I’m thinking. Every little noise you make, makes me want you more. When you look at me, I see my future, Kathy.” His hand clasped hers and he brought it to his lips and kissed the knuckles, his lips soft and warm. “My future is you, hon. I want that future.” Still holding her hand in his, he led her back into the small chapel to the front, where the preacher was waiting.
    As the preacher delivered his non-denominational message about sharing hopes and dreams with God’s will in mind, Kathy’s eyes wandered from Luke, to Marilyn, to Elvis. It was her dream wedding.
    Marilyn winked at Kathy, and flashed dazzling smiles every time their eyes met, and Elvis had a habit of swinging his hips around when he caught her looking at him. They were both subtle, not the over-the-top impersonators she’d glimpsed briefly on the strip. She smiled inwardly at the moment being captured in her mind, and wished her friends could be here with her.
    When her gaze landed back on Luke, he was smiling at her fondly, his eyes twinkling. A warmth filled Kathy’s bones. She knew this was right, yet she couldn’t wait for it to end. To be Mrs. Luke Wright.
    “You may kiss the bride.”
    Her mind had been in a happy fog throughout the entire ceremony, going through the motions of putting rings on fingers, mechanically. The preacher’s words, though, broke through the fog, and as Luke’s hands warmed the sides of her face, his lips dipped towards hers, and they kissed for the first time as husband and wife.
    She didn’t want it to end. She encircled her hands around his waist and clung to him as she deepened the kiss. Elvis let out a “Uh-huh” and Marilyn whooped gaily, as they clung to each other in an attempt to show each other they would never let go again.

    They spent the rest of the week in bed, with few exceptions, one of them being Luke’s journey to retrieve Kathy’s money. She wasn’t sure how he did it, and he didn’t immediately tell her. She had to pull out every trick she’d ever learned, and she wasn’t sure he ever told her the entire story. Kathy was happy to see her savings back in her hands though, and was even gladder to have Luke back by her side.
    After their initial frantic make-up sex, Kathy had told Luke her whole sordid story about trying to find a baby daddy. To his credit, he only appeared angry once, when she told him about Darrin and how he had tricked her. The rest of it, he listened to with a look of disbelief on his face, mingled with a few chuckles at her expense, shaking his head absent-mindedly.
    When Luke told her that the entire break-up had been a poorly calculated gamble he’d been taking, she felt like hitting him all over again.
    “So, we didn’t have to do any of this? You were going to propose on Valentine’s Day anyway?” She remembered Jessie telling her that, but thought it was a last ditch effort on Luke’s part.
    “I told you neither of us were blameless.” He cradled her in his arms. “I bought some of Jessie’s land at Thanksgiving and was trying to get everything ready, the business, our house, all of it, before I proposed. But you were so damned insistent that I shit or get off the pot, and when you gave me that ultimatum, I told you to go, hoping I could still get it all together before you found someone else.” He squeezed her between his arms, hard. “But I didn’t count on that red-headed temper of yours. I didn’t realize I’d piss you off so