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The café around us disappeared, and in that instant, it was just the two of us. She mewled against me as I slid my tongue around her mouth, stroking and tasting her. Lillian clutched my shoulder, giving me her tongue too. I sucked on it possessively.
She had no fucking idea what she did to me. She thought I was being a good guy, helping her out, but the truth was, I was doing all of this for purely selfish reasons. I wanted her. I’d known the moment I saw her that I’d never be happy until I had her in my bed, under me, screaming my name. I also knew that once would never be enough. And if I had to go up against The White Claws to make that happen, then so be it.
It was the whispered “Isn’t that the monster who got that model pregnant?” that broke the magic.
“Ooh. I think you’re right. What was his name? Hunter something?”
“Gunnar,” the first woman replied. There was the sound of a purse unzipping.
Lillian stiffened, and made to pull away. But I held her in place, reaching up to cup her face and give her a bit of cover. Then I heard the sound of a phone taking a photo.
I let Lillian go, then turned to glare at the woman who’d just taken the picture and was totally pretending she hadn’t.
“Come on, Kitten. Let’s go,” I said, emphasizing the nickname I’d given her.
As we walked to my vehicle, I couldn’t help but notice Lillian looking around her anxiously, as if she was afraid someone would pop out of the shadows at any time and steal her away. I held her hand, wanting to reassure her. “I won’t let anyone get to you, I promise.”
Once we were safely inside, I said, “We need to plan this thing out.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I have no clue what I’m doing or what I’m up against.”
“I don’t think a simple marriage certificate is enough to stop The White Claws if they really want you. We need to make this believable, and there also have to be consequences for stealing you away.”
She stiffened. “Do you think they would do that?”
I wanted to pull her into my arms, but the Urus’ center console was in the way. This car was great for my big size, but not conducive to intimacy.
“If they believe it’s worth it, yes. They’d have no qualms about putting you on a plane and making you disappear, even if you were married.”
She fidgeted. “Then why go through all this wedding stuff at all? I might as well just give up.”
“Because they’ll only do it if they think they could get away with it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If they think this is a sham marriage and that I wouldn’t come knocking on their door armed and ready for a fight if they took you, they will surely attempt to kidnap you. Same goes for if I were just any random guy on the street.” I grinned. “But I’m not just any random guy on the street. I’m Gunnar Redrock. So we need to convince them that you are in fact my beloved wife, and that I’ll show up with a small army if they try to take you from me.”
I let that sink in, both for her and myself. Pretending to be her husband would be no hardship. I was already getting way too excited about this marriage, even though I knew it was all a lie.
“There are also other consequences to trying to take you,” I continued. “Like publicity. It’s my understanding, seeing what the EA has on them, that The White Claws like to keep a very low profile.”
“Because of their not-so-legal dealings?”
“Exactly. They like to appear clean and proper.”
She nodded. “That makes sense, especially if they are also affiliated with large corporations. They’d want to appear squeaky clean. I guess a public kidnapping wouldn’t look too good on them.” My clever kitten was catching on.
“You got it. If we make this wedding public—not the ceremony itself, but the knowledge of it—and really hype it up, they won’t be able to do anything without it being painfully obvious. We’ll have the media attention on us, but in this case, that’s a good thing. They can’t make you disappear if you’re in the spotlight, right?”
She made a face. “Right. But for the record, I absolutely hate the spotlight. Like, hate it with the passion of a thousand screaming huskies. I don’t even post on social media. My profile picture is a cup of coffee next to a cactus, and I only have an account because it looks weird to potential employers if you don’t have one.”
“It’ll be only for a short while. The media gets bored fast and will move on to the next thing. But if anything should happen to you in the future, you bet they will be on that story like cats on catnip.”
“I guess I could handle abitof attention.” She looked thoughtful. “Let me guess. It’s already started. That’s why you waited long enough for that woman to snap a photo.”
I grinned, glad she’d caught on to that as well. “Yeah. They were the ones that gave me the idea, actually. I learned the hard way the power of social media. This time, I’ll use it to my advantage. I’ll have someone keep an eye out for the image, and when she does post it, we’ll make it go viral. I’ll get Graham to take some photos from the window of us ring shopping in the jewelry store and leak those too.”
“But wouldn’t it be clear that you’re only marrying me to stop them from taking me if they know we’re only getting our rings today?”
