Untwisted (19 page)

Father Freeley continued through the ceremony, and Gray found his attention wandering to the warmth of her pressed up against his side. To her fingers securely nestled in his. To the way her lips twitched before she recited her vows to him and how her eyes filled up when he said his to her. He accidentally forgot a whole line and she just stared blankly when the priest first asked her if she said “I do,” thereby nearly giving Gray a heart attack, but aside from those few stumbles, the ceremony went off without a hitch.

Until Father pronounced them man and wife.

Jazz tapped him hesitantly on the arm. “Sorry, Father, but can you say husband and wife instead? If he’s still a man, I’m still a woman.”

Simon swallowed a laugh but Gray only grinned. That was his woman, all right.

“As you wish, Miss Jasmine,” the priest said, smiling. “You are now husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Gray had his hands in her hair and his mouth on hers before Father had even finished speaking.

She laughed against his lips and clutched his lapels, crushing the flowers between them as she kissed him back to the sounds of hooting and hollering in the background. “This is real,” she whispered between kisses. One might’ve been traditional, but it definitely didn’t seem like enough.

“Oh yeah, this is fucking real,” Gray said, kissing her again before she could admonish him for cursing.

They were married. Finally.

***

Not quite twenty-four hours into married life, Jazz had to say it rocked.

Every day wouldn’t start like today had, obviously. She wouldn’t wake up in the penthouse suite next to her naked new husband—okay, so technically, she hadn’t awakened
next
to him, because he’d been between her legs, mouth working hard. But close enough.

She wouldn’t get to make love every day while sunshine glittered on the bay just outside her window and Gray licked her from top to bottom then started all over again. A hot breakfast of bacon, eggs and wheat toast wouldn’t be waiting for her every morning. Nor would she probably ever find a silver bullet vibrator beside her plate instead of a rose again.

That had been a nice touch, she had to admit.

But right now, married life meant four orgasms before getting dressed. And that seemed like an auspicious beginning indeed.

“I’m hungry. Can we stop soon?”

“Jesus, woman, I don’t want to get off the freeway yet. We’re making good time.”

“We’re making good time because you’re trying to starve us to death.” Jazz glanced back between the seats and looked to Molly for confirmation. Her sister looked more than a little uncomfortable wedged in the back of their small sedan with her guitar and the giant cream-colored bear Jazz had named Bret Michaels, much to Gray’s displeasure. But the bear and Bret had exactly the same mouth. “Tell him you’re hungry.”

“I’m hungry,” Molly said dutifully without looking up from her phone.

“See?” Jazz said to Gray, slumping back into her seat. “You’re outvoted.”

“Once Dylan’s born, you won’t be able to outnumber me anymore,” he said, signaling for the exit.

“Oh, about that.” Jazz cleared her throat. “It’s probably good that you’re pulling into a rest area now, because you’re going to have to reprogram the GPS.”

Gray shot her a suspicious glance. He’d forgotten his shaving kit so he was sporting some sexy scruff that would’ve earned him a roadside quickie had they not had company. “Why?”

Jazz waited until he’d parked at the rest stop before shifting toward him with a bright smile. “Turns out Molly isn’t going back to San Jose. She’s coming to live with us. Isn’t that fabulous?”

He stared at her for so long that she began to wonder if he’d gone into a catatonic state. “Yo, Duffy.” She waved a hand in front of his face, but he didn’t even blink. “You in there?”

“What do you mean, coming to live with us? We don’t have our own place. We share a bedroom with a guinea pig and a kitten and if we don’t find a house, we’ll be sharing it with a baby.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Where are we supposed to stick
her
?”

“I don’t take up much room,” Molly offered helpfully. “I can totally sleep in a queen bed if that helps.”

“Oh, can you? That would be such a sacrifice on your part. Especially considering that Jazz and I are only in a queen ourselves due to space.” Gray glanced back at Jazz. “Look, I know it’s probably most men’s wet dream to share a bed with two sisters, but it’s not mine. If that’s what’s going down, you two take the bed and I’ll sleep in the living room.”

“He didn’t say no,” Jazz said to Molly, giving her a thumbs up.

“He absolutely did not. Thank you,” Molly squealed, rocketing forward to wrap her arms around Gray and the driver’s seat. “You’re the best.”

“What part of that sounded like an agreement to you? Either of you,” he said, glancing between them. “I just said I’d be forced onto the sofa and for fuck’s sake, I just got married. Can we wait to boot me out into the living room for at least a month?”

“There, there, sweetie.” Jazz patted his arm. “No one’s booting you anywhere.”

“Yet,” Molly added darkly from the backseat, causing Jazz to laugh.

“Am I supposed to find this funny? Any of this? How can you just spring this on me without taking my opinion into account?”

“Hmm. That’s a good question.” Jazz tapped her nails against her lips. “It would take brass balls to cut your partner out of the decision-making process of a major decision. I can’t imagine who would do that.” She looked to Molly. “Can you?”

Molly shook her head solemnly. “No. I really can’t.”

“I knew it. This is payback, isn’t it?” He dropped his head back against the seat. “You’re teaching me a lesson.”

“No, not really, but if thinking that gets you to say
yes
faster, then yes, yes, I am.”

“Is it too late to file for divorce?” he asked tiredly.

A couple of months ago, a question like that—even a teasing one—would’ve made her stomach sink to her feet. Now she only smiled sunnily. “Afraid so.” She lifted her hand and tapped her wedding ring. “This here says you’re stuck with me and Bret Michaels for the duration.”

“And your sister. Don’t forget your sister.”

“It’s just for a little while, I promise. I’ll just crash at your place until I find somewhere to stay on my own.”

“What, with some lowlife loser?”

“Gray,” Jazz said, rubbing his thigh. He was tense enough to snap the wheel in half. “She’s not looking to hook up with any guys. Tell him, Mol.”

“No.” Molly lifted her chin proudly. “I’m practicing abstinence now.”

“Oh Christ Jesus.”

Jazz frowned and flicked his knee. “Seriously? Language.”

“Right. Tell me to watch my language, and you’re bringing a pot-smoking, underage-drinking trash talker into our bedroom. With. Our. Child,” he enunciated.

“Uh, your child isn’t born yet.”

“Close enough,” he snapped. “Close e-damn-nough.”

Jazz sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. To go along with her rumbling stomach, now she had to use the restroom. Desperately. Not that she dared leave these two snarling dogs on their own without a referee. “I already talked to the guys. Deak and Harper will be moving out anytime now. Once they do, Mol can have their bedroom. She’ll pay rent,” she added when Gray started to object. Strenuously. “She’ll sleep on the living room couch until Harp and Deak are gone, then she’ll be so quiet in her own space you won’t even realize she’s living there.”

“As a mouse,” Molly said.

“A mouse that pays her share of the rent, as well as buys groceries and pays part of the utilities.”

“Ok—”

“And goes to school,” he said, banging the steering wheel. “If you’re under my roof, you’re going to get an education. I got my Bachelor’s degree before I joined Oblivion, so don’t give me that ‘I’m in a band’ BS.”

Jazz gazed at him with a mixture of admiration and annoyance. He was going to make one hell of a father. She almost felt a little sorry for Dylan, because when it came to his daddy, that kid would be getting away with
nothing
.

“I have to get my GED first. I don’t have my diploma yet.”

“So then you take care of that first and then you enroll in college. No excuses. If you don’t believe in education, then you find somewhere else to live.”

“I don’t have a Bachelor’s degree, in case you’ve forgotten,” Jazz put in.

“Jasmine, now is not the time.”

She tried to hide her smile behind her hand as she looked out the window. He was so freaking adorable when he got like this.

“I’ll go to school,” Molly said in a small voice. “I promise.”

“And you’ll do well too.”

“I’m not stupid,” she said hotly. “I used to get all Bs and Cs.”

“Try As and Bs this time. There’s no free lunch. And you’ll babysit—” Even before he got the words out, he shook his head. “No. Scratch that. You will never babysit my child.”

“Our child,” Jazz reminded him. “And you don’t get to say that definitively.”

The way his mouth curled in horror might’ve been amusing under other circumstances. “You want Dylan to be smoking pot and drinking before kindergarten?”

“Really?” Jazz asked softly. “You’re really going to judge her about that stuff?”

Tightening his hands around the wheel, he stared out the windshield.

“I’m not a bad person. You just got the total wrong impression of me. I can do better.” Molly leaned forward, nearly knocking Bret Michaels sideways. “You’ll see.”

“You can and you will.” Gray looked up and met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “Or you’re out. No second chances.”

“Okay. Whatever you say.”

Jazz cleared her throat as an awkward silence descended. “Mol, would you go inside and grab us a table at that chicken place? We’ll be right in.”

“All right.” Molly didn’t hesitate to scramble out of the car. She was probably eager to get away from Gray’s laundry list of rules.

And they hadn’t even made it home yet.

“Don’t say it,” he said the instant Molly went into the rest area. “I don’t want to hear about how you think I’m a jerk. I have every right to—”

“It makes me so hot when you get all commanding.” She undid her seatbelt and slid across the seat to press her mouth against his neck. “I wish we were alone so I could cap off this trip the same way I did our trip to Molly’s,” she said, punctuating her words with a long lick up his throat.

He groaned and grabbed her shoulders, edging her back. “What is this? What are you doing to me?”

“Nothing yet.” His suspicion nearly made her giggle. She slid her arm under his and gripped his cock, giving it a long, slow rub. “But I wish I was. And I will for sure as soon as we’re home.” She turned her head and kissed his forearm above his thick gold watch. “Then when I’m done with you, I’ll need you to do the same. Trying to be quiet when you’re going down on me always makes me even more excited.”

“Okay, hold it. I may be a man, and thereby easily controlled with the promise of oral sex—either giving or receiving—but I’m not completely insane. After the conversation we just had, you shouldn’t be propositioning me.”

“Second trimester.” She nipped the underside of his arm. “
Second trimester
.”

“So this is some kind of hormonal thing?” he asked, shifting closer.

She hated to dim the hope in his eyes, but she was now his wife, so she was pretty sure she was legally obligated to.

“Yes. My body is primed to respond to you as a good provider for the child I’m carrying. When I return to my non-hormonally driven state, I may smack you in the head for acting like an ass when my sister’s just trying to turn her life around. I’ll probably remind you that you too had some difficulties, but you had people who loved and supported you and that helped you get back on track. I might also say that I’ve wanted to get my sister back for the entire time I’ve known you, and having a chance with her again makes me so happy.” She licked the spot she’d just nibbled. “You know, maybe.”

He slid his hand up into her hair and pulled her face close to his. Once they were nose to nose, he bit her lower lip. “You don’t play fair.”

“Which part wasn’t fair? Offering you a thirty-minute blowjob and possibly some motorboating—” she chuckled as his eyes widened “—or the part where I said that you’d be making me really, really happy by letting my sister live with us?” She undid the top button of his shirt and caressed his collarbone. “Please specify so I don’t make the same mistake again. I’m a new wife and all, so I’m just learning how this all works.”

“Evil.” Slowly, he dragged her lower lip through his teeth. “So frigging evil.”

“Me?” She batted her lashes and laughed when he reached around to swat her ass.

“You. You’re evil and crafty.” He dropped his forehead to hers. “And right.”

“Hey, we’re all making sacrifices. I’m going baby shopping with your mother. Voluntarily.” She tried not to shudder. As much as she was hoping their upcoming bonding trip would begin to heal the rift between her and Gray’s parents, she realized it was unlikely that could be accomplished in one afternoon. Heck, it probably couldn’t be accomplished in a
year
of afternoons, but it was a start. “No handcuffs involved.”

“The only handcuffs going on these wrists,” he lifted Jazz’s arm and kissed the base of her palm, “are fuzzy ones I may or may have bought while we were staying in our hotel room.”

Now she was shivering for a whole new reason.
Damn
.

She bit her lip and forced herself to focus on the matter at hand. “So you’ll give her a chance then?”

“Yeah. I’ll give her a chance.” He kissed her softly. “For you, I’d do anything.”

“Ditto.” She reached up to stroke his eyebrow ring. The silver somehow made his eyes seemed even more steely gray. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s your home too. As will be our house when we get it. Which we have to do, soon.”

“We’ll start looking this week. I’ll check some things out online.”

He tucked her hair behind her ears, avoiding her eyes. “You’re going to have to get the ball rolling on your own. I’m sorry, honey, but I—”

“You’re going to be busy with work because you spent Dylan’s college fund on bears and sex toys.” She nodded. “I know. It’s okay. And maybe we can do some collaborations on the songwriting end of things again like old times. See if maybe
our
songs are a hit like yours have been.”