Free Stand-in Groom by Suzanne Brockmann Page B

can’t believe you just said that to me.”
    To her surprise, he actually looked embarrassed too. “I can’t believe I did either.” He took a deepbreath. “Although, one thing my mother always taught me was, you can’t have what you don’t ask for.”
    “Please don’t ask for more than I can give you,” she said softly. “John, we talked about this when we signed the prenupts. No sex. Of any kind. Just this one last kiss and that’s it, all right?”
    Johnny nodded. “If that’s the way you want it …”
    It wasn’t the way she wanted it. It was the way she
needed
it to be.
    “Giovanni Anziano and Chelsea Spencer?” The justice of the peace was a little, wizened old man wearing a western-cut jacket and an enormous cowboy hat. “Please approach.”
    “I don’t know about you,” Johnny whispered almost silently to her as they moved forward, “but the hat works for me.”
    “Chelsea Jasmine Spencer, do you take Giovanni Vincente Anziano as your lawfully wedded husband?”
    Chelsea took a deep breath. “I do.”
    “And do you, Giovanni Vincente Anziano take Chelsea Jasmine Spencer—”
    “I do.”
    The justice of the peace gazed at Johnny from the narrow band between the top of his half glasses and the wide brim of his hat. “In a hurry there, are you, son?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    He smacked the counter with a gavel. “By the power vested in me by the state of Nevada, I pronounce you man and wife.”
    Johnny looked at Chelsea in surprise. “That’s it?”
    “I asked for the short version. I hope you don’t mind.”
    He looked at the judge. “We’re married?”
    “You truly are. Go ahead, son,” the old man said. “Kiss your bride.”
    Chelsea braced herself, but Johnny didn’t move. He just gazed at her.
    “This time’s for real,” he told her.
    Chelsea nodded. Yes. This time it was real. This time they were really married.
    He moved closer then, drawing her into his arms before he lowered his mouth and then …
    He kissed her.
    This time, it was real. This time, he wrapped her in his arms as if he intended never to let her go.This time, his lips were impossibly gentle, his mouth impossibly sweet.
    And this time, when her heart pounded crazily, she had no excuses handy.
    Still, she let herself kiss him, losing herself in the sweetness of their embrace. Because he was right. Because this could very well be the only time she ever got married too. Because he was quite possibly the most desirable man she’d ever met. Because despite that, from this moment forth, their relationship was going to be pure business.
    She was going to make damn sure of that.

SEVEN
    “Y OU BOUGHT ME a
present
?”
    Johnny smiled at Chelsea’s look of total amazement as she turned to gaze at the neatly wrapped and beribboned package he had put into her hands.
    They were sitting in the first-class section of a jet heading directly to the Caribbean. He was on his way to paradise with the most beautiful, most appealingly complex and attractive woman he’d ever had the pleasure to meet. But just a short time ago she’d given him his final warning. This wasn’t a honeymoon. It was a four-day-three-night-long business meeting.
    In other words, hands off.
    He’d never seduced a woman with his hands tied behind his back before. But there was a first time for everything.
    Oh, not that he’d go and mess up her chances for getting an easy annulment. No, he could wait. But by the day that the annulment was declared, he was determined that Chelsea Spencer would be more than ready to fall into bed with him. And then they would consummate and celebrate their
not
being married to their hearts’ content.
    “What are
you
smiling at?” she asked, but he just shook his head, watching as she unwrapped the gift he’d bought for her. She opened the little cardboard box. “It’s a … What
is
it?”
    “It’s a miniature music box.” He fingered the unfamiliar weight and bulk of the thick gold wedding ring on his left hand.