“This wasn't the way I wanted this shit to go down, darlin'. It'll have to do. Ain't no time to throw you in lily white and invite all your friends and family. It'll be a small ceremony. We'll make up for it in all the years to come. Do bigger bashes when we renew our vows.”#p#分页标题#e#
“You're...you're out of your mind,” I whispered, trying not to stumble as he led me up the steps.
I was still woozy from the ride in. My brain temporarily shut down, processing the latest trauma.
God. How could he do this to me?
Nothing about this made sense. Well, maybe the part about keeping me safe, but did it really take this to do it? Marriage?
Talk about extreme. Irrational. Ridiculous!
And just when I'd started to like him, too.
Firefly gave the old double doors a hard shove, and we stepped inside. I did a double take when I saw Skin and Meg standing near the altar, alongside an old, wiry looking preacher man with silver hair and owlish spectacles.
“You two knew?” I hissed at Meg as he dragged me down the aisle.
“Just found out. Skin said the ceremony needs witnesses to be official...sorry, Cora. I'm just trying to help.” She lowered her eyes, shooting her lover a sharp look that said it all. Are you sure about this?
Skin embraced his woman, pulled her tight to his chest. Right now, she was the only one being comforted in this freak show.
“It's gonna be okay, babe,” he whispered softly, before he looked up at me. “Gonna be all right for you, too, Cora. Nobody wanted it to get this real, but we've gotta keep you safe. Firefly won't let anything bad happen to you. He promised.”
We stopped next to the altar, and the two men shared a vicious look. Firefly took my hand, held it to his lips, and kissed it. I felt the scar I'd left from the harsh love bite, and tasting his blood in my mouth.
“Everybody ready?” Preacher man asked, his voice as soft and out of place as everything else here. He didn't even flinch when he looked at me, smiled, and saw the sickening look on my face.
Jesus, he looked official, too. I wondered what drove him to do this kind of favor for the club.
“Babe, don't fight it,” Firefly said, pulling me into his warm embrace. “Hold on. This'll all be over before you can...what the fuck?”
I head-butted him. My face sank into his warm, powerful chest, igniting a whole new storm of emotions I couldn't begin to handle.
Nothing in my life was going down like I'd planned it.
But this...this weird, sudden, terrifying joke of a wedding tore away the shielding on my heart. All the pain and humiliation I'd suffered came pouring out. Inhaling his rich, masculine scent made me want to stay there forever. Die there, if I had to.
Even now, it calmed me. Even when I hated him. I should've put up a fight, gone out kicking and screaming and shouting, but what little I'd had left died on the Ruby Heel's bright stage.
He'd decided I was going to be his old lady, his fucking wife, and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it.
“Wait.” The word dropped out of his mouth like a hammer hitting concrete, and everything else stopped, including the crappy organ music flowing through the speakers.
“Brother?” Skin sounded so unsure.
I looked up, and saw Firefly's attention shift from him to me. “You're confused as shit right now, aren't you? Fuck yeah, you are, and you've got every damned right to be. I swore a promise to the club before we got all this in motion. Told the man standing here I'd do whatever the hell it took to keep you safe. I thought you'd be on the same page.”
My eyes were prisoners in his. He leaned in, licked his lips, and whispered words that gutted me.
“I'm sorry, darlin'. I fucked up.”
His beautiful blue eyes softened, mirroring the change in his energy from hot and excited to melancholy. Suddenly, my sympathy swelled for him – so insane and unexpected I wanted to scream.#p#分页标题#e#
“Wedding's off. For today. We'll settle this shit when you're good and ready, Cora,” he said, stopping to put his warm, firm lips on my forehead. “Skin, you let the brothers know it's done, without a hitch. She's still getting my brand and wearing my ring, but we're stopping just short of making this shit legal. I gotta do what's right for everybody here.”
Meg sighed. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, tugging on Skin's hand, a soft smile pulling at her cheeks.
“Good,” Skin growled. “I'd have stopped this shit myself with the way she's acting. You're taking a wife, Firefly, not a slave.”
“What? You think I don't fuckin' know that? Why the hell you think I'm putting a hold on the only shit I ever wanted?”
“For fuck's sake, brother, that's exactly what I'm saying. You don't need a lecture from me. You're a good man.” Skin bowed his head just slightly, a respectful gesture I never would've imagined coming from these rough, hard men in leather.