Enjoying the Chase (Guarded Hearts 2)

As I pulled one out, a small frown lined his forehead. “I don’t think we should bother with that,” he said as, I ripped it open.

I gulped, praying he didn’t mean that he didn’t want to go all the way with me tonight, because if he was saying that, then my body was sure to burst into flames and burn into a pile of cinders.

“What? You don’t want to?”

He smiled and pushed himself up to sitting, holding me on his lap as he took the packet from my hand, his eyes not leaving mine. “Oh, I want to,” he answered, tracing his hand across my back, pulling me closer to him, making us rub together so intimately that a little moan escaped my lips. “I just don’t want to wear a condom. I want you barefoot and pregnant in my kitchen.”

I gasped at his sexist remark, playfully hitting his shoulder, before I realised the words that he’d said. The smile slowly faded from my face. Did Nate want to start trying for a family already? He’d said before that he didn’t want to wait and that he wanted us to get married as soon as possible, but I hadn’t realised he’d want to start a family immediately too.

“Wait, you’re serious?” I checked.

He nodded slowly. “Deadly serious. I want to make a hundred little Rosies and Nates.”

“I’m not sure I could cope with more than one Nate,” I joked. He chuckled, his eyes sparkling with affection as he waited for me to answer properly. An involuntary smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, in all honesty, I’d actually love a hundred Nates too. “Okay, let’s make a baby,” I agreed. “But…” I added before he got too excited, “after we’re married. I don’t want to be all fat and ugly on our wedding day. Let me steal your last name first, and we’ll try for a baby on our honeymoon, deal?”

If he really didn’t like the idea then I was up for making babies now, of course, but I would really rather prefer we do everything right. A girl only ever wanted one wedding day in her life; I didn’t want to be too hormonal and bloated to enjoy our special day.

A dazzling grin split his face as he nodded. “Deal. But just so you know, there’s no need for you to steal my name, I want you to have it.”

I sighed happily, pressing my lips to his, tangling one hand in the back of his hair as he laid back, pulling me down on top of him. As I broke the kiss, he grinned up at me, holding out the condom packet to me. “Saddle up then, cowgirl,” he joked, winking at me playfully.

As we made love for the first time, it was just as spectacular as I thought it would be. Every kiss and touch was tender, loving, careful, yet held so much passion that it made my brain fuzzy and my insides melt. He completed me. Making love to Nate made me feel special, appreciated, and most importantly, loved. The way his hands expertly worked my body, whipping me into some sort of frenzy made every single hair on my body stand on end. It was beautiful.

After, he held me against his body while we both caught our breaths, and he whispered how much he loved me and how I was the best thing that had ever happened to him. His sweet words actually made tears spring to my eyes, and he simply kissed them away and smiled that adorable smile at me.

Everything was perfect. I never thought I would be this happy with a man. For all my life, I had never even dared to dream that I would have the perfect guy all wrapped up into one gorgeous, charming, smutty, perverted package. I really was the luckiest girl in the world.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

~ Nate ~

I didn’t feel nervous at all. Not when Seth started talking about never sleeping with another girl again. Not when he was teasing me that half of all marriages end in divorce. Not when he was telling me that once you got married you only had sex on birthdays and anniversaries. I didn’t even get nervous when Ashton started humming the wedding march. But as soon as I stepped into the church, my legs weakened and my throat seemed to close up as my tongue felt like it swelled to twice its normal size.

I was getting married today. I was actually terrified of that thought – not because I didn’t want to marry Rosie, but because every single person from my family was going to watch me stand up the front of the church congregation and say my vows. I’d heard it was normal to get cold feet, but that wasn’t what this was; I was just terrified of screwing it up for Rosie. This was her one and only wedding day, because there was not a chance I was letting her get away from me to marry someone else, so, what if I messed my lines up, or stood on her dress? What if I got hiccups or just plain old fell over because I was still slightly drunk from the ridiculously long bachelor party my friends had subjected me to last night? What if, when he handed me the ring to put on her finger, I dropped it and it rolled into the cracks on the old oak floor? There were so many possibilities for me to ruin her day with.

A hand slapped down on my shoulder. I turned back to see Ashton grinning at me, one eyebrow raised as if he knew what I was thinking. “You won’t screw up your lines,” he assured me.

I swallowed awkwardly. “My hands are sweating, what if I drop the ring?” My voice came out a little squeaky because of the lack of saliva problem I was currently suffering with. I wiped my hands roughly on my pants leg, trying to dry them.

He grinned and put both hands on my shoulders, turning me to look at him. His eyes met mine and his assuredness seemed to calm me down a little. I stood there, waiting for the words of wisdom that would come from my best friend; the words that would make me stop worrying and make my heart rate slow down. This was Ashton, my best friend for the last nine years, my surrogate brother even, he would help me. He would know exactly what to say to stop my freak out.

He squeezed my shoulders supportively as he spoke. “Peters, you’re behaving like a girl. Stop this shit before I have to run to the store and buy you a box of tampons and ten candy bars so you can really complete the transformation,” he stated, his mouth pulling into a smirk.

I shrugged him off. “Wow, you know, you could totally moonlight as a motivational speaker,” I grumbled.

“I do that at weekends,” he joked, getting me in a headlock and moving his hand up to mess up my hair.

“Dude! Not the hair!” I cried, panicked because it had taken me ages to get it looking perfect for today. He laughed and let me go, so I breathed a sigh of relief and straightened my suit jacket.

I could do this. I could make it through one ceremony without cocking it up and saying something slutty, couldn’t I? Sure I could, I was Nate Peters. A little wedding ceremony was nothing compared to some of the things I’d seen. In just under an hour I would have myself a little wife that I loved to pieces and a son that I adored. I kept them in mind as I made my way to the front of the church, greeting guests that were already there. When my mom started bawling her eyes out, telling me that she never thought she’d see the day that I would get married, I made a quick exit to the room at the back. I was already scared; I didn’t need her telling me that this was the most important day of my life. I sat on the bench with my head in my hands, running through the lines I was supposed to say so that I didn’t forget them or say the wrong thing when the time came.

Twenty minutes later, the vicar called us out saying it was time. Ashton patted me on the back as we walked out, and I actually looked in the church for the first time. When we’d arrived earlier, I had been too panic-stricken to actually look around, but now that I took the time to do that, I realised that it looked incredible. It looked exactly how Rosie had described her dream wedding. She was going to seriously love this. There were flowers at the ends of each row – pink roses tied with white silk and lace. There were these little sash things of the same silk and lace, all looped and tied, following the line of the aisle. A white carpet ran the length of the church where she would walk. And, at the end where I was standing, there was a white wooden arch in front of the steps, it was tied with ribbon and had flowers woven around it. Everything was beautiful.

The vicar stood at the front in his ceremonial robes, talking quietly to Ashton. I just couldn’t take it in, I felt like I was in a dream. Nate Peters, the guy who never wanted to settle down, was standing at the front of the church waiting for a girl to come and marry him. I never thought this would happen in a million years.

The door creaked at the back, and the murmurs died down as people turned in their seats to see if it was her. The music started up, but I couldn’t hear it over the beat of my heart. All I could hear was the steady thumping that was actually way too loud and way too fast for my liking – it wasn’t helping with the hangover that’s for sure.

I watched as the bridesmaids came in one at a time, all of them wearing a pretty pale pink dress that matched the flowers Rosie had chosen. I couldn’t stand still, I kept shifting from one foot to the other trying to stay calm and not pass out through lack of oxygen. DJ came in next. He was grinning from ear to ear as he carried a small satin pillow with the rings tied to it. As he walked up the aisle towards me, he was smiling proudly and waved at my mom enthusiastically as he passed her. He looked adorable in his tux; it fitted him perfectly. When he spotted me, he practically jogged the rest of the way to my side.

“Did you see me? I did it just right, and I didn’t talked or anything!” he boasted.

I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “You did a great job, Kid. You gonna watch Momma come in?” I asked, offering my hand out to him. I knew he should go and stand by the bridesmaids but, for some reason, it felt right having him included and waiting for his mom to walk to the pair of us. We were, after all, a family; today wasn’t just about me and her. He gripped my hand tightly, and we both watched the door for Rosie to step in. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and my heart stopped because, for one god-awful second, I thought she’d changed her mind.

Then she stepped into the room. The minute I saw her, my nerves faded.

She looked simply breathtaking, and I actually had no words to describe the beautiful creature that smiled up at me nervously as she clutched her dad’s arm for support. The dress was elegant but managed to look sexy at the same time. It was strapless; the top was fitted to her body and covered in what looked like lace. There was a pink ribbon, the same pink as the bridesmaids dresses, tied around her waist, drawing attention to her sexy little figure. The skirt was ruffled and had lots of layers of silk and lace on it, without being too over the top. Her hair was pulled up at the back with little curls escaping around her face. She looked stunning, and I really felt like I had died and gone to heaven because visions like that just didn’t walk around on earth.

I couldn’t look away from her as she walked up the aisle; I squeezed DJ’s hand lightly, just wondering how on earth I had got so lucky. Time seemed to stand still as she walked. I smiled at her proudly. I’d never really considered marriage but now the thought of calling this incomparable woman Mrs Rosie Peters; well, the sound of that made a shiver run down my spine. I could barely wait to get my ring on her finger and finally claim her as mine.

Finally, she stopped at my side and kissed her dad on the cheek. He had tears in his eyes as he smiled down at her proudly, then he turned to me and sighed before nodding just once, giving me his blessing all over again – even though he’d drunkenly done it over and over last night at my bachelor party. Rosie didn’t look at me as she bent down and kissed DJ, making him squirm on the spot because he was getting to that age where he didn’t like being kissed in public by his mom.

“Thanks for doing a great job, Baby. Go stand with Grandad now, okay?” she instructed, motioning towards her dad. DJ nodded and skipped off after practically throwing the pillow with the rings on to Ashton.

When Rosie looked up at me, I was dazzled by the emotion in her eyes. She looked so happy, her whole face just seemed to radiate with it. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but I knew that would be because she didn’t like to be centre of attention and people were staring at her. She chewed on her lip and looked at me through her eyelashes; I could almost feel the sexual tension crackling in the air. Rosie always did think I looked hot in a tux; I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that she was thinking about taking me out of it, the same as I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful that dress would look if it were thrown randomly over a bedside lamp or something.

I had no idea what to say. I wasn’t even sure if I could remember how to speak. “Fuck me, you look hot,” I whispered in her ear.

She gave a tinkering laugh that made my hand itch to stroke the side of her face. I could tell just by her expression that she knew the power she had over me. “Nice choice of words.”

Oops, yeah, not too romantic! “Sorry, I meant, wow, you look beautiful,” I corrected sheepishly.

She grinned. “I preferred the first one.”

I stepped closer to her and ran my hand down her back, feeling the silky material of her dress under my fingertips. Just as I was about to slip my hand down onto her ass, someone cleared their throat, and I suddenly remembered where we were. We were in a church, people were standing there watching, and I was just about to grope my soon-to-be wife.

I was going to hell.

I looked back up to the vicar at the front. “Are we ready to start?” he asked, his voice not sounding very amused.

I nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. Sorry, my soon-to-be wife just can’t keep her mouth in check,” I joked, which earned me an elbow to the side from Rosie as she blushed. I turned back to her and smiled. “You sure you want to marry me?” I asked, giving her one last chance to go and find someone that was more worthy of her.

She ran her hand down my arm until she got to my hand, interlacing our fingers. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” she replied.