All of You (80 page)

Danny’s face split into a wide grin as Kat slipped the ring onto his finger.

He took her hand and recited the same words: “I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness. As I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you. I ask you to wear this ring as a reminder of the vows we have spoken today, our wedding day.”

Kat watched as he slowly slid the band on top of her engagement band. They clasped their hands together again and stared into each other’s eyes as the officiant paused dramatically.

“And now, by the power vested in me by the State of Ohio, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.” The officiant turned to Danny. “You may now-”

Danny wrapped his arms around her, once again lifting Kat up and into his arms…but this time, his mouth descending on hers with an intense ferocity that prompted a few more laughs and maybe even a few gasps from the guests. And when Kat threw her arms around him and kissed him back just as hard, Danny growled in the back of his throat and went at her harder – one hand sliding down to cup her butt.

Kat barely heard the officiant huff and say, “Well, I was going to say ‘kiss your bride,’ but clearly this is not a man who waits for permission.”

“He’s a Cleveland cop,” mostly likely one of Danny’s rowdy brothers from the CPD called out. “We
give
permission – we don’t wait for it!”

“Yeah, well, we’re Italian,” one of Kat’s loud, unruly aunts called out from the other side of the aisle. “And we have a saying about our men:
Chi non è impaziente non è inamorato
! ‘He who is not impatient, is not in love!’”

Kat smiled against Danny’s lips as everyone started laughing and clapping. She finally pulled back from their kiss and found him grinning as widely as she was.

The officiant leaned in and asked Danny, “Is it okay with you if I announce you and your wife now?”

“
Hell yeah
!” Danny replied, turning them to both face the guest. “Actually, nah, never mind…I’ll do it myself.” Still holding Kat’s left hand in his right, Danny pulled her into his side and wrapped his arm snugly around her waist. He glanced down at Kat, that wide, shit-eating grin still on his face, and then turned back to the room. “Hey, look, everyone, it’s Mr. and Mrs. Daniel MacDonough!” Danny glanced back at Kat, smile fading a little as he stared at her in pure awe, adoration, and joy. “And it’s about fucking time,” he added quietly.

The room erupted in more cheers, laughing, and clapping as Danny, very unceremoniously and with very little regard for her delicate dress and veil, threw Kat over his shoulder as the first chords of their recessional song played.

Half-mortified beyond belief and half-laughing at his ridiculousness, Kat pressed her elbows into his shoulder blades and held on for dear life as Danny carried her back down the aisle, laughing and high-fiving people as he went by.

“
Oh, my God…
” Kat breathed out as she bounced against his shoulder, face flushing with embarrassment – and utter happiness. “I am going to
kill
you, Danny!”

He laughed out loud. “You just promised – in front of all your family and our friends – to love me no matter what, sweetheart! And no take backs this time!”

Kat shook her head as he continued high-fiving all his buddies from the station, her nutty relatives, and even some of the older, more sedate ones who were looking at Danny like he was more than a little
pazzo
.

Which he, of course, was.

And Kat loved him desperately for it.

Just the Beginning…

Hi, readers!

The following 40+ pages were originally written as a bonus section I was planning to post on my blog about a month after All of You was released. Instead, I’ve decided to include it in the book…hope you don’t mind! This way you can read it now, if you’d like, or read it later. Or both! ;)

It picks up right after the wedding ceremony ends and gives us our first glimpses into Danny and Kat’s married life together.

Thank you for reading!

Gina

‡

T
he reception was
much less horrific than Kat had anticipated, mostly because Danny hadn’t left her side all night.
He’d
shaken the hands and
he’d
made the small talk, all the while holding a quiet, clingy – but blissfully happy – Kat to his side.

Out of consideration for Kat’s extreme discomfort with being the center of attention, Danny and her sisters had made sure the bridal party table was situated among the rest of the tables, instead of being set apart at the front of the room. Every time someone clanged their silverware against a glass – signaling their desire to see Danny and Kat kiss – he held her and twisted their bodies in such a way that her face was shielded. And Danny had lovingly cradled the back of her head, her face buried in his chest and his arms sheltering her, during their very public first dance. He’d also made sure to crack a lot of jokes and keep the atmosphere very light during the gads of uncomfortable pictures they’d all had to pose for.

This was not to say the night had been without its share of mortification. Kat had been forced to handle the whole bouquet toss on her own, which she’d managed to race through in record time. Despite his overall good boy behavior, Danny hadn’t been able to stop myself from dropping to his knees and burrowing beneath Kat’s dress to retrieve and remove – with his damn teeth – the garter from her thigh.

Danny being Danny, he had also taken the opportunity to quickly nip at, lick, and kiss her inner thigh before actually getting his teeth around the garter. With him buried under there, no one had been able to see it, but Kat’s soft gasp, furious blush, and suddenly stiffened spine had probably said it all, anyway – as had Danny emerging from beneath her dress, her lacy garter between his teeth and a huge shit-eating grin on his face. Danny had hauled her along with him as he’d tossed the garter to a bunch of drunken police officers suddenly clamoring to catch it so they could slip it onto the shapely thigh of Kat’s gorgeous cousin, Viviana, who’d caught the bouquet.

Unfortunately for all involved, Ben (who had been pushed out there by a very insistent Stella) had somehow managed to wind up with the damn thing in his hands. Viviana had giggled and tried flirting, Ben had stammered and blushed, and he’d pushed it up her thigh at the speed of light.

Kat’s heart had broken watching Ben, with some degree of difficulty, bend down and get back up during the process. She’d actually stepped forward to suggest they find someone else, desperate to save poor, introverted Ben from any further embarrassment, but Nathan had rightfully suggested that would only embarrass him more and so Kat had stood down. Ben got through it, the dance floor opened up, and the DJ had been keeping the masses entertained with jam after jam ever since.

Danny politely excused them from the horribly boring conversation about tactical firearms they’d been in with his police sergeant, and pulled Kat off to the side.

“Hey.” Danny pulled her closer, wrapped his arms around her, and lowered his lips to Kat’s ear. “I’ve gotta go take care of something…you’ll be okay for a second?”

Kat hugged him back. “What do you have to take care of, Mr. MacDonough?”

“It’s a surprise, Mrs. MacDonough.” When Kat groaned, he laughed and tugged her closer, tightening his arms. “No, nothing bad. You won’t mind it all, sweetheart, I promise.”

She eyed him suspiciously before sighing. “Well, I haven’t had a chance to talk to my co-workers yet, anyway.” Kat cast a quick look at her gaggle of her socially-awkward lab buddies (who were nerding out over something on Stellan’s phone) before turning back to Danny. “I’ll go say ‘hi’ to them while you’re taking care of whatever top secret nonsense you’re up to.” Kat pinched his side. “Which better not involve you climbing back up my dress and wreaking havoc, mister. I’ll let that one time go, but next time I’m not going to be such a good sport.”

Danny grinned wide. “What can I say…” he breathed against her ear, causing ripples of goose bumps to spread over her body. “My mouth gets anywhere near your body and it gets a mind of its own.” His hands slid dangerously close to her butt. “Just like my hands.” Danny cupped her butt, Kat gasped, and he laughed huskily in her ear. “See? I didn’t mean to grab your smokin’ hot ass, but my hands had their own ideas.” He squeezed gently. “Especially when you’re
my
bride and you’re wearing the sexiest damn wedding dress I’ve ever seen.”

“Let’s leave right now,” Kat whispered, pulling back enough to meet his eyes. “We’ve done everything we have to do…they don’t need us anymore.” She stepped out of his embrace, grabbed his hands, and started tugging him toward the door. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Danny laughed again, gently pulling her back into his arms. He stared down at her intently, grin fading to a thoughtful half-smile as he searched her face. “My impatient little wife. Just a few minutes longer,” he said as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Danny ran the backs of his fingers across her jaw line. “Have I told you how beautiful you look?”

Kat huffed. “Yes. Two hundred times. Now let’s go up to our room so you can tell me how beautiful I look…
naked
.”

Danny paused, as easily swayed by her argument as Kat knew he would be. And then she went in for the kill.

She licked at her bottom lip and bit at it before adding, “And as hot as you look in this tux, I cannot
wait
to rip it off of you.”

Danny’s Adam’s apple worked his throat, eyes glued to her mouth. “
Oh, yeah
?”

“You shouldn’t have taken that jacket off and rolled up those sleeves, Danny…because you have the sexiest forearms I have ever seen and they have been driving me crazy all night.” Kat lifted her eyes and quirked a brow. “Not to mention your incredible bulge in those pants. I’ve been dying to yank them off of you since I stepped into that room and saw you in them.”

Danny’s brow shot up. “My
bulge
?” He let out a strangled sound that was half-groan, half-moan. Suddenly, he grabbed her hand and started dragging her toward the door. “Okay. Come on. Let’s go.”

Kat laughed. “What about your surprise?”

He stopped short. “
Shit
.” Danny rubbed at his chin thoughtfully before exhaling a hard sigh. “Yeah, I gotta take care of something.” He turned and gently gripped Kat’s shoulders. “Okay, you go say ‘hi’ to your co-workers, I’ll take care of my shit, and then we’ll bolt…sound good?”

Kat nodded. “Sounds good. Just come get me. I’ll be hiding with my nerds until you’re ready.”

Danny nodded, too, distractedly. “Yeah, good. Okay.” He released Kat and took a few steps back, but his hot gaze was still skimming her body. Danny cleared his throat and reached down to very indiscreetly adjust his erection, which made Kat want to laugh. “Okay, sweetheart, see you in a minute.”

“See you in a minute,” she said before turning and walking toward the Dork Brigade.

Kat could still feel his lusty, loving gaze on her and it made her smile. And feel like the luckiest, most loved, most desired woman who had ever lived.

And extra thankful she’d chosen the revealing backless dress she’d just known Danny would lose his mind over.

Danny finished up
his brief conversation with Stella, then the DJ, and went in search of Kat. He didn’t see her at the table filled with her co-workers, so he scanned the crowded room until he finally spotted her…

Sitting at a table alone with Ben.

Apparently, marrying Kat hadn’t been an immediate cure-all to his debilitating insecurity and stupid-ass jealousy, because the sight of Kat sitting there – smiling and chatting with Ben – set off all sorts of ridiculous, but horribly painful, alarm bells in his head.

As he stood there watching them – sweaty hands balled into fists and his heart pounding in his chest – awful, powerfully familiar fears raced through his head…

Of him not being good enough for Kat. Of her eventually getting sick of his craziness and leaving him. Of her changing her mind – maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Of how that would destroy him completely…

Without any conscious thought, Danny’s brain immediately slipped into its highly embedded, obsessive routine of trying to figure out ways it might happen and how exactly he would cope with the loss of Kat…what she might say, how she might say it, and what – if anything – he could do to convince her to stay, to love him and be with him despite all his bullshit…what options – if any – were available to him when she refused to stay…

Danny inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly, and fought back the toxic thoughts with everything he had.

Get a fucking grip on yourself man. The woman loves
you
, just married
you
…in front of him – and every other person you both know. Kat said he never had romantic interest in her and you know for a fact she had no interest in him.

But Danny knew it wasn’t really about Ben at all and it never had been. It had always been about what Ben represented – what perfect guys like him would always represent: everything Danny never was and never would be, no matter how hard he tried.