Suddenly Together

by JA Low

  Christian bursts out laughing as if I have gone mad. I shove the massive diamond ring in his face and that makes him stop laughing.

  “Shit!” Then he notices his wedding band. “Fuck, Ness, we got married last night.”

  “No, shit, like how the fuck did this happen?” I question him as if he is the gatekeeper of all things matrimony and wasn’t as plastered as I was last night.

  “Fuck, this was not how I envisioned our wedding.” He rakes his fingers through his hair, his whiskey colored eyes looking at me with a hint of sadness.

  “Huh, what are you talking about, wedding?” I question him.

  “Ness.” He tuts at me. “You and I both know we were always going to get married, but you deserved the wedding of your dreams not some Vegas ceremony,” he coos, taking my hands in his. “I want to give you the world.” He smiles now looking down at our hands, the ones currently joined with two symbols of a lifetime commitment. “At least in our drunken state, I got you a nice ring. Do you like it?” He sounds concerned.

  My ring is the least of our concerns. I look down and really take it in, turning it around in the light. Fuck, it is so pretty and the diamond band beside it fits so well. It would have been the ring I picked out if money was no object and if I didn’t care what others thought of the ostentatiousness of such a huge diamond.

  “Of course I do, look at it, it’s beautiful, but I can’t keep it.”

  Christian’s face falls. “And why not?” His tone sounds hurt.

  “Because I don’t remember any of it happening.” That’s the truth. I never thought I was a traditional person until now. I am sitting here with the love of my life, who I can’t remember marrying. “It doesn’t feel real or right.”

  “But the thought of being married to me isn’t the reason, is it?” Christian asks with such vulnerability that it hurts my soul.

  I grab his face and kiss him passionately. “It would be an honor to be your wife.”

  Christian suddenly jumps up out of bed, he is dressed in only a pair of black boxer briefs as he gets down on one knee. “I have loved you the moment you fell into my arms all those years ago, you bewitched me. It may have taken us a long time to finally get our shit sorted, to finally be together. I know what it’s like to not have you in my life. I know what it’s like to fear losing you and I never want to experience that loss ever again. You make me the happiest man in the world, I want to grow old with you, Vanessa, I want to have babies with you, I want to spend the rest of my life on an adventure with you, because you make my life better. Will you marry me again?”

  Tears are running down my face. “Yes, yes, of course I will marry you.” I jump into his arms, kissing the ever loving shit out of him.

  “Maybe that should have been, yes, I want to stay married to you, seeing as we might already be married.” We both burst out laughing at the craziness of what we have done, but it doesn’t matter because I love this man so fucking much. Christian’s phone rings and it’s his mom again.

  “You better get that, must be important if she’s calling.” I snuggle into his side.

  He picks up the phone off the floor. “Hey, Momma.”

  I hear yelling down the phone, shit she is pissed.

  “Mom, I’m sorry you had to find out via TMZ but honestly Ness and I don’t remember getting married.”

  This makes me sit up, shit, how the fuck does TMZ know about this before we fucking do, the people who supposedly got married. I listen to Christian try and placate his mom on the phone. I look down at my own and see a million missed calls, messages and emails. Oh shit! All of a sudden the knocking starts at the hotel door.

  “Open the fuck up,” Axel screams.

  I jump up out of bed, and quickly rush to the door. I see a fuming Axel standing in front of me and a bemused Evan, Sienna and Derrick.

  “Is Christian decent?” Axel seethes.

  “He’s on the phone to your mom.”

  Axel pushes past me and heads toward the room where his brother is located, trying to calm down his mother.

  “I might just check on Axe.” Evan slinks past me, following the furious steps of Axel.

  “You dirty bitch, sneaking off and getting married, not inviting us, you’ve broken my heart,” Derrick mocks.

  “Well if it makes you feel better I don’t remember inviting myself either.” I try to laugh but it sort of comes out on a hiccupped cry.

  “Hey, hey, hey.” Sienna wraps her arms around my sagging shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. You’re not the first couple to get married in Vegas and I’m sure you won’t be the last either.” She tries to sooth me, while rubbing my back, the tears fall freely now.

  “Fuck, I have totally fucked up, this is going to be a PR nightmare for the band, the label.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” Sienna starts to get into me, but then we hear shouting from behind us. Across the room Axel has Christian by the neck and is screaming in his face. I run toward them. Evan is trying to pull Axel off of Christian.

  “How could you fucking do that to Mom?” he screams at Christian. “I had her in tears on the phone this morning? Do you even care that she had to watch you drunkenly get married by some Elvis impersonator on TMZ?”

  “I know, bro, I know I fucked up, okay!” Christian pushes Axel off him. I run to his side. It’s as much his fault as it is mine, they should be pissed at me as well. Axel is glaring at both us.

  “Axel,” I call, grabbing his arm. “We’re sorry, okay. But honestly we don’t remember last night. Do you know how that feels to not remember your wedding?”

  His whiskey colored eyes look down at me, the tension subsides a little. “What the fuck were you two thinking?”

  Christian tries to interject but I shush him.

  “Honestly I don’t know, Axe, but I can tell you this. Your brother proposed to me this morning, properly.” The room falls silent and Axel’s eyes widen. “I said yes because I love him. I love him with all my heart. After everything we have been through over the years, there was never anyone else that could compare to him.”

  Axel’s face softens, a smile slowly forming. “You want to be married to this fool?”

  I start nodding. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with that man.” Those damn tears start running down my cheeks again.

  “Fuck, Ness, come ʼere.” Axel opens his arms for me. “Welcome to the family.” He hugs me tight. I feel another large body wrapping their arms around me, and I smell Christian’s musky scent.

  “Don’t worry we are going to get married again and we are going to do it right.”

  “Oh my God, another fucking wedding,” Derrick squeals as he joins the Taylor family hug.

  “Derrick, man, you better not get a boner,” Axel states.

  “You’re no fun, Axe,” Derrick chuckles.

  Finally parting from the man sandwich, Sienna rushes over toward me.

  “You’re getting married, you’re fucking getting married,” she screams.

  “Wait, does that mean you’re going to have kids as well?” Derrick questions me.

  I nod giving them a sly grin.

  “Oh shit, you two have already started, haven’t you?” Sienna guesses correctly.

  My eyes bug out, how the fuck did she guess that?

  “Damn right we have,” Christian announces to the room.

  I give him a piercing look but the bastard ignores me. “But we wanted to get married first, you know make an honest woman out of her.” He jokes, forgetting that Sienna and Evan were not married when they were pregnant with Ryder. “Oh shit, Si, I mean…” His words trail off in awkwardness.

  “Please, Evan and I hardly knew each other, you two on the other hand, it’s taken you bloody long enough to get your shit together, we don’t have time to wait anymore,” she says smiling.

  “I’m sorry we have created a PR nightmare. I promise I will sort it all out.” I remember the million calls on my phone.

  “Fuck that shit, it
’s your wedding day, no post wedding day. We need to celebrate. Tonight you will have the wedding reception you missed out on. I’m sure Derrick can whip up a wedding in a couple of hours,” Axel muses.

  “We need to get you a dress to wear tonight, your hair done, we need new clothes. There is so much we need to do.” Derrick’s tone sounds panicked.

  “If you don’t mind, D, I would like to have some alone time with my wife, before you whisk her away.” Christian wiggles his eyebrows at him.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, fine go fuck your bride, we will be meeting downstairs in three hours, okay?” Derrick points his finger at me.

  I nod because Derrick looks serious. Our friends finally shuffle out of our room, and Christian and I both fall into bed together.

  “Let’s check out our wedding video, see if we can remember any of it.”

  We settle in on the bed and play around with the TV until we find TMZ. And there it is in all its glory, our wedding video, and what the fuck? It already has two million views. Christian presses play and the graining footage starts. There is Christian and I dressed in our clothes from last night, we look like we stumble a little and giggle as we walk down the aisle toward Elvis. The sound is poor someone has filmed us from behind a curtain, no one looks aware of what is going on. What a low life scumbag. Elvis pronounces us husband and wife and then we kiss. Wow, that kiss was kind of borderline porno, groping hands and stuff, we sign some papers and skip out of the chapel happily.

  “What a beautiful wedding,” Christian fake cries. I punch him in the arm.

  Christian and bride shop for rings.

  That is the name of the next video, we both look at each other confused, there again is someone secretly filming us as we waltz into a twenty-four hour jewelry store. We are all over each other, you can see me visually trying on rings. Looking down at my ring, shit I picked well even completely plastered. Then the video cuts out.

  “Oh the memories,” Christian laughs.

  “I can’t believe we did that and don’t remember.”

  “At least we looked happy though. In our drunk subconscious state, we thought it was a good idea,” Christian smiles. This was very true.

  “Now, wife,” Christian growls in my ear. Hearing him call me his wife sounds kind of hot. “Come service your husband.”

  THE END

  First and foremost is to you the reader, thank you for reading my books and for coming on this journey with me, because without you I wouldn’t be able to do this.

  My boys T-man who tells me when he gets out of the car every day at school to “Have a good day writing” then asks me upon pick up “If I had a good writing day.” I love that he is now old enough to understand it. For little O-dogg when asked what does Mummy for work tells people I read books.

  My husband who is my biggest cheerleader, motivator, sounding board, sexy scene tester and all round love of my life. Your support is what helps me get through the days when I think I’m not good enough, I wouldn’t be living my dream if it wasn’t for you.

  Trish no words can describe how amazing your friendship is to me. My sister from another mister. Not only are you a kick ass editor you are an amazing friend, I am so lucky to have found you!

  PS: Trish calls dibs on Christian and Derrick. (I’m pretty sure that Derrick called dibs first on Christian but semantics.)

  Jemina What can I say you are awesome sauce. One of the most talented cover designers out there, you understand my vision. I know it’s hard wading through the millions of half-naked men stock photos looking for just the right six pack, but you do it, that is how dedicated you are to your clients, helping me make the best cover possible. #nipples

  My brilliant beta group Ladies you helped make this book the best it could be. I love that you are not afraid to tell me what you really think of my ideas. Your comments help me think outside the box and take the story in a better direction.

  Shara for the amazing proofreading you do, catching the littlest things that I have missed, I appreciate all the time you give to me. I can’t wait till your book comes out – NOW HURRY UP!!!!!

  Robyn and Dawn for your tireless pimping of my books, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Anne Mercier for taking a chance on an unknown rock star series and introducing the Dirty Texas guys to your loyal fans.

  Thank you to all the bloggers for your tireless work of sharing, reviewing and pimping us authors, it never goes unnoticed.

  Blockies Thank you all for your love and support. I think you are all a great bunch of ladies and I can’t wait to meet you all whenever I can.

  PS: F#ck Cancer

  Most people might not know but I am a cancer survivor. A couple of years ago by accident they found a tumor on my kidney. Statistically I at the time, a woman in her 30’s would never have been a candidate for Kidney Cancer. I was the youngest woman the surgeon had operated on with this cancer, which usually targets Men ages 50-80, smokers & drinkers. Not pregnant women in their 30’s. The Doctor told me that if they hadn’t have found this tumor (It was so tiny when they found it, they normally don’t see them that size.) my life expectancy would have been five years max. So I waited till my youngest was four months old and had the surgery, they took my kidney out, no chemo, no spreading. I was lucky! What they discovered was my cancer was not one of the 9 kidney cancers they normally find. Apparently my body is so awesome it created a new cancer, which they are now researching, I just ask they name it after me – LOL.

  It’s been 2 years and still cancer free.

  Why, am I telling you my story?

  I just want people to realize that cancer can happen to anyone, at any time. I am lucky because every year I have blood tests and ultrasounds to make sure I am still cancer free, so I am hopeful that if they find anything I will catch it early enough. We live in a technologically advanced world, we shouldn’t wait till we are old to get ourselves checked, it could be too late.

  If you can grab a free mammogram do it, or just book one in. I know that might cost money but it could save your life. Go to the skin cancer clinic’s (Especially us Aussies), don’t forget Pap smears every 2 years, I know they are uncomfortable but for a minute it’s nothing. If you have cancer in your family talk to your Doctor and ask if you can have a BRCA test, or even a genetic test. (I now have to have one of these.) Again I know all this costs money but see what your health funds can do or save up for it because you never know, it could save your life. Mine was found by pure accident, I was putting off going to the Doctor’s for something else but my husband pushed me to go, someone was looking out for me that day.

  Once again thank you for all your support!

  JA Low lives on a faraway beach in Australia. When she’s not writing steamy scenes and admiring hot surfers, she’s tending to her husband and two sons, and dreaming up the next epic romance.

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  Website: www.jalowbooks.com

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  BOOK 1 IN THE DIRTY TEXAS SERIES

  “Who the fuck are you?” I scream, scrambling out of the bed. My hands tremble as I point the brass lamp towards the dark figure hoping it will protect me. Who the hell was in my bed? Suffering from a wicked case of jet lag after arriving in Los Angeles from Sydney yesterday, I made sure I didn’t drink too much last night. Did I forget that I brought someone home? Last I remember, we were eating sushi and knocking back sake shots in West Hollywood. We finished the night dancing in a gay bar with a rowdy bunch of drag queens, singing the classic Aussie hit “Land Down Under” by Men at Work. Shit, maybe someone spiked my drink; could that be how I ended up with a stranger in my bed?

  “Who the fuck are you?” The deep-voiced stranger questions me as if I’m the one in the wrong.

>   We stand on the opposite sides of the bed in silence staring at each other through the darkness.

  He takes a step around the bed towards me.

  Oh no, you don’t mister. I shake the lamp at him again as if I’m brandishing a fearsome weapon.

  “What the hell are you doing?” He asks, sounding like a dirty, rough cowboy; someone that’s probably used to wrangling cattle or something equally as hot. Maybe he likes to wear chaps. Hmm…chaps. Now that sounds hot.

  Shit! Why the hell am I focusing on his sexy accent instead of the dire predicament I find myself in? For all I know he could be a wanted Hollywood Hills rapist, and here I am thinking about his sexy voice. Stupid, so bloody stupid, Sienna! “Don’t fucking come near me. I have a weapon!” I scream at him again, making sure he knows I’m serious.

  The stranger takes two steps into the early morning light streaming through the glass patio doors. Oh, my God! The lamp falls to the floor with a thud, my hands cover my mouth in shock. I haven’t seen a naked man in the flesh, besides my ex-husband, in almost a decade. This one looks a lot like Evan Wyld, one of the world’s hottest rock stars.

  “Like what you see sweetheart?” He cocks his head to the side, smirking. “Most women do.”

  Tearing my eyes from his length, following the hard ridges of where his V meets his hips, my tongue darts out wetting my lips as my eyes trail further up an impressive six pack, toward arms full of colorful tattoos. Okay, this can’t be real; my celebrity crush is standing in front of me, naked! I pinch myself, because so many of my dreams have started off just like this.

  “You’re not dreaming, sweetheart,” he confirms, his hardening cock bobbing with each step he takes towards me. It’s mesmerizing.

  Focus Sienna. “You’re naked,” I blurt out of nowhere. Maybe I should focus on anything but that.

  “Looks like I am,” he smirks, flashing those killer dimples. I swear my panties disintegrate.

  “What are you doing in my room?” I ask, my question stopping him for a moment.