Just Add Heat (24 page)

“Yes! Oh
my god. Yes, let’s get married today.” I jumped up and grabbed his face to pull
down to my level. “You’ve got to tell Cheryl, though.” He widened his eyes but
didn’t protest as I kissed him.

“Deal.
I’ve already called a kennel for the cat. We can drop her by any time after
they open at eight. Cheryl can take Lucy home with her. Go pack.” He swatted my
butt as I turned towards the kitchen for my coffee. I knew Cheryl and Sharon
would be disappointed but I could honestly say I had never been so excited.
Later on today I would be Justine Ross. Yeah Baby!

Chapter Twenty Six

 
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may
kiss the bride.” Elvis had barely gotten the words out before Carter grabbed me
up and crashed his lips to mine. Ahh, I’m married. Holy crap,
I’m married!

I couldn’t
even concentrate on my first married kiss because I was so wrapped up in the
whole “wedding” euphoria.

After Carter and I
decided to fly to Vegas, everything seemed to happen in a flash. I had packed
my clothes under Cheryl’s supervision, but that was after her near meltdown at
our plans. Carter and I were able to placate her after we told her she was
still free to plan a massive party for us. She took it far better than we were
anticipating, but who knows, she may have just put on a brave front for us. I’m
certain poor Paulo would be feeling the brunt of her disillusionment with our
decision. Oh well, he married her, she was his problem.
I
married a reasonable and thoughtful Ross.

We had
kissed Lucy goodbye and Cheryl said she would take care of everything and lock
up the house. She even agreed to catch Monique and take her to the kennel for
us. We took her up on it and stuffed our carry-on bags with everything we
needed for two days in
Las Vegas
.
It was surprisingly less than I was thinking. Carter had called the airline and
managed to get us seats on a flight leaving in three hours so we had to haul
butt to get to the airport and check in.

The next
few hours were a whirlwind, getting a marriage license and driving to the
wedding chapel took less time than renting a car at the airport. We were even
able to get matching wedding bands onsite. We hadn’t even decided which hotel
to stay at yet, we were doing everything on the fly. It was perfect.

“Well Mrs. Ross, what do
you want to do now?” Carter whispered the words to me as he broke our kiss. I’m
Mrs. Ross
. Instead of doing my usual
happy dance in my head, I went ahead and did it for real. I even grabbed Elvis
and did a twirl with him while Carter just watched me and chuckled. I figured
it was safe to act like the spazz I was since he was legally stuck with me now.
I looked down at the thin platinum band snuggled up against my gorgeous
engagement ring and felt like the luckiest woman in the world. I needed to ride
this feeling and make it pay.

“I want to
hit the slots.” Okay, it wasn’t romantic, but damn it was fun. I wanted to pull
some levers and have a few cocktails. I was in Vegas after all.

Carter
rolled his eyes but he did it with a smile. “Okay, but let’s get a room first.”

“Sure
honey, I’m flexible. Every hotel has a casino downstairs.” I winked at him as
he grabbed my hand. We thanked Elvis and went back out to the car.

We ended
up staying at the Bellagio because the water show happened to be going on as we
drove up the strip. My squealing had Carter turning into the parking lot a few
seconds later.

Check-in
was completed in minutes and they even upgraded our room when they found out we
were freshly married. We hauled our bags up to our room and I found myself less
ready to gamble than I thought. I was feeling pretty frisky.

I pulled Carter close as
we surveyed the room. “You know, Carter, I think I’ve changed my mind. I want
to see if married sex is any different than what we’re used to.” He raised his
brow and paused as if to check if I was serious before pulling his shirt over
his head. I caught the glint of his wedding ring as he moved and my hooha
started tingling. He was mine, all mine.

I
hurriedly yanked off my own shirt and started to shimmy out of my jeans. Why
did I decide to wear skinny jeans today? They were like a second skin and I
couldn’t shed them as quickly as I wanted to. Carter was gloriously naked
before I was able to peel them off, so he graciously helped by popping the snap
of my bra for me.

The second
his lips grazed my neck I knew there was no time for the bed. I turned around
and threw my arms around his neck as he hoisted me up and onto his waist. My
bra was still dangling from my arms, but I wasted no time in wiggling myself
into position as he moved us up against the wall. Seconds later he was pounding
into me and my back was scraping against something hard.

“Ow babe,
ow.”

“Am I too
much for you?”

“No, I
think you’re grinding me into the light switch.” He immediately took a step
back and held onto my butt as he moved us to a flatter area.

“Sorry.”
He looked remorseful and he stopped all movement from his nether regions. I
obviously couldn’t have that.

“Don’t
stop. Everything else is perfect.” I tried to lift myself up and down on top of
him but I was sadly lacking in upper body strength. Luckily he got the message
and a second later we were back on. I was extra glad he was still holding me up
a minute later because I came faster than I had ever come before. I couldn’t
even keep my grip on his neck.

“Oh
god
.”

“I’m not
god, honey,” he ground out as he continued to hammer himself into me. He came
moments later with a loud growl.

“You are
to me.” I was barely able to get the words out I was breathing so hard, but he
heard them because his arms tightened and he pressed me harder against the
wall.

“I love
you, Mrs. Ross.” The sound of my new name gave me fresh goosebumps.

“I love
you, Mr. Ross.” He kissed the tip of my nose before setting me back down on my
feet. “Now, get your clothes back on, Double Diamonds is calling my name.”

“Is there
not a drop of sentimental blood flowing through you right now?” he asked while
shaking his head. I could tell he wasn’t mad so I didn’t feel bad.

“No, I’ve got gambling
fever, now hurry up.” I opted for a different pair of jeans, comfort was my
goal, but I did put my white blouse back on. It
was
my wedding day.

He dressed
almost as fast as he had undressed, so after I checked my appearance in the
bathroom mirror we were ready to go.

“Let’s go
lose some money,” he said while taking my hand and leading me out the door.

“Are you
kidding me? I’m on the luckiest streak of my life.”

EPILOGUE

Hot Buns

 
(
or
How I Got My Cooking Show on TV)

“That was the coolest
thing
ever
! I wish we could have
stayed up there all day.”

“It was
fun I guess, after I got over the nausea,” Carter mumbled as we made our way
back to the rental car.

I wanted to feel guilty
for begging him to go up in the hot air balloon, but
come on
, we were staying in
Napa
.
What romantic trip would be complete without a balloon ride over the vineyards?
The fact that Carter went along with it, considering his fear of heights, made
me especially glad I had the good sense to marry this wonderful man.

“When we
get back to the vineyard I’ll show you just how much I appreciate you
forfeiting your relaxing morning by spending it up in the sky.” I wagged my
eyebrows suggestively so that he knew a blow job was in his immediate future.

“I’m
actually going to hold you to that.” He smirked as we crawled into the car.
Yes, getting my way with him was just that easy. We had driven in silence for
about a mile when I heard my phone ding out that I had gotten a text. I reached
back into my purse and pulled out the phone, thankful that I had left it in the
car. How irritating it would have been to hear my phone while we were floating
in relative silence.

“Wow.
Seven missed texts and four missed calls from Cheryl. What in the world could
be so important?”

I opened
my texts and felt my body chill as her texts got increasingly more urgent.

OMG! I think there’s a problem with
your site.

Call me as soon as you get this!

Pull down your new video!!

Call me NOW!!

Where are you?—EMERGENCY

Check your site—hurry!!

You posted a PORN of yourselves on
your website!!!!

I pulled
up the site and clicked on the most recent update, Hot Cross Buns. We had set
two new segments to post automatically while we celebrated our first anniversary
in
Napa
Valley
, Hot Cross Buns and Ultimate Mac
and Cheese. Unfortunately, what opened was the sex tape we had made after
coming home from Cheryl and Paulo’s Halloween party. We had been a little
tipsy, so filming ourselves had seemed like a good idea at the time. I saw
myself doing a drunken striptease while wearing my Princess Leia buns as Carter
lounged on the bed wearing nothing but his Jedi belt and a lecherous smile.

“Nooooooo!
Carter, we posted our porno on the website!” I could barely get the words out
because I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate. Carter screeched to a
stop on the shoulder of the road and grabbed the phone out of my now numb
fingers.

“Fuck! Why
didn’t I double check?” He started punching something into the phone while I
let the magnitude of this horror sink in. What if it got linked to YouTube? How
could I ever show my face again? I had just sent porn to at least six thousand
people, not to mention the number of visitors that just happen upon my site by
chance while looking for a recipe. I dug out my Xanax and popped one. A few
seconds later I shook out another and chewed them both, bitter taste be damned.

“How did it get on our
uploads? Were we hacked?” It seemed like the only reasonable explanation.

“No, I named our
Halloween tape
Hot Buns
because you
looked so sexy in them. I didn’t know then that you were going to do a segment
on hot cross buns. I just didn’t pay enough attention when I was getting
everything ready for our trip. I’m so sorry, babe.” He wasn’t looking at me but
at the screen. “It’s pretty damn sexy, though.”

“Are you kidding me right
now? Pull it down before it goes viral!” I couldn’t believe he was being such a
man
. Couldn’t he see the big picture?

He had the
grace to flush. “Right.” He typed in a few more things before handing back the
phone. “It won’t let me log on to the site from the phone; I need to get to the
computer.” He peeled out and off of the shoulder of the road and sped the six
miles back to the Black Dog Winery, while I sat in a semi-shocked stupor,
remembering all of the dirty things I had done for the camera. I had another
chilling thought.

“What if
your mom sees this? Oh god, I’ll never be able to look her in the eye again.”

“I’m more concerned about
the fact that we sent out an adult video without a warning. We could be in a
lot of trouble. There are going to be some complaints.” Crap. I hadn’t even
thought of the legal repercussions. They might shut my site down. My vision
started to flicker as I let this new information filter in. My dreams of a
cooking empire were over. Just when I thought I was home free, with my cookbook
out, selling better than expected, and the site getting almost a million hits a
month. Why couldn’t things ever go smoothly for an extended period? It seemed
like there was always something that had to go wrong.

I jolted
when the car came to a stop and Carter threw open the car door before hopping
out and taking off for our room. I grabbed my stuff out of the back seat and
followed at a more leisurely pace. There wasn’t anything I could do about it; I
let Carter handle the computer stuff.

“Is
everything all right, Mrs. Ross? Your husband just came running by.” Suzy at
the desk was eyeballing me curiously.

“He has an
emergency at work.” I smiled weakly and continued up to our room. When I opened
the door Carter was already at the computer and typing furiously. A few seconds
later he looked up.”

“I pulled
it off of the site, but I can’t do anything about the people who already opened
their emails. There’s already over fifty comments and they aren’t flattering.”

I took
offense at that. Carter and I made a pretty hot couple. We knew what we were
doing in bed and we looked good doing it. “What do they say?” I waited a moment
but he didn’t answer me.