Runaway Vegas Bride (11 page)

Jane lay there in his arms, exhausted, spent, gloriously happy. She couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t fathom what he’d done to her and how glorious it had felt, how she couldn’t wait to do it again, to do anything he wanted, whenever he wanted.

“This is why women make fools of themselves over men,” she told him softly, once she could actually think again and form words.

He laughed, the sound so sexy, and thrust gently against her hips once, then again. “You begin to understand how I felt when you told me you weren’t wearing any underwear?”

She nodded, then got it. “Payback? This was payback?”

“No, Jane. This is a little thing called foreplay. What do you think?”

“That if the real thing feels any better, I may die.”

“And just think, we only have another three hours before we can get off this plane, find a hotel room and get naked,” he told her.

Three hours?

She whimpered. “What are we going to do for three hours?”

“Exactly what we’ve been doing,” he promised.

“No. I can’t. We can’t. Someone will see us. Someone will hear us. Wyatt!”

But he was kissing her again, and she wanted so much for him to kiss her.

She wanted him to do all sorts of things to her, right here on this plane. He couldn’t do much more than he already had, could he? She feared she was about to find out.

S
he felt as if she’d been drugged by the time they landed in Vegas, as if her entire body was utterly exhausted, limp with the aftermath of foreplay like none she’d ever known before and the added fear of trying to stay quiet enough that the whole plane didn’t know what they were doing.

Her skirt was all rumpled and up around her waist under the blanket, her legs like jelly. She had no idea where her shoes had gone. Her hair had either all come loose or Wyatt had taken it down, and she wondered if the stubble on his jaw had left faint reddish marks on her neck and her face.

Not that she really cared, as long as he was kissing her.

But they did have to get off this plane somehow, and she might as well be wearing a giant, blinking sign that said,
Nearly had sex on the plane to Vegas
.

“I feel like such a bad girl,” she whispered to him, as
she looked out the window, seeing a sea of neon lights below.

He leaned in beside her, looking out the window himself. “You were a deliciously bad girl on this plane, and now, look at all those hotel rooms below us, all those places for you to be bad, Jane.”

She grinned. “Are we going to be bad first, or are we going to hunt down our crazy relatives?”

“Well, it is about 4:00 a.m. our time. Surely they’ve already done whatever it is they wanted to do and are asleep by now. I figure we have some time before they wake up, so what would it hurt to be bad until the sun comes up?”

He dropped a kiss on her shoulder as he said it, and she wondered just how bad Wyatt, in the privacy of his own room, behind a locked door, could be. She didn’t want to disappoint him, although in truth, he seemed delighted in anything she was willing to offer him, so far.

The lights in the cabin came up and the pilot announced that they would be landing soon.

Jane groaned and hid her face against Wyatt, afraid that people had to be staring at them. His body was warm and welcoming, his arm around her, hand on the back of her head, holding her against him. He was chuckling softly.

“How terrible is it?” she asked. “Is everyone watching?”

“Jane, they’re all still half-asleep. No one really cares.”

She peeked out to the side, seeing no one, and then cautiously looked forward.

“See? It’s fine.”

“I’m all mussed up,” she said.

“Yes, you are.” He sounded quite pleased by it.

She brushed her hair back with her fingers and then
faced him, embarrassed as could be without the cover of darkness between them. “You have no shame, do you?”

“Not at the moment.” He took her chin in his hand. “And you look absolutely gorgeous like this. Someone should always be mussing you up.”

He kissed her softly on the lips, and something in her heart turned over, as if she’d gone to the dark side, too, and never wanted to lose this feeling. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big, long, deep kiss in the light, just because. He groaned, took her hips in his palms and pulled her onto his lap. She fell back against him, forgetting everything, until a woman cleared her throat somewhere near Jane’s ear.

They came up for air to find the stewardess, the gorgeous one who’d been eyeing Wyatt from the moment he stepped onboard, asking them to buckle their seat belts, because the plane would be landing soon.

And she gave Jane a look that said,
What in the world is he doing with someone like you?

Jane wanted to shoot right back,
Seeing how bad he can make me
, but shook her head and laughed instead.

Once they landed, Wyatt helped her straighten herself up as best he could and guided her off the plane with a hand riding low on her waist, just enough to feel a little devilish. They grabbed the first cab they found and he asked the driver to take them to the Pallazzo.

“Leo’s current favorite, I believe,” Wyatt said.

Jane leaned back against him, torn between snuggling in the cab and reaching into her briefcase and turning on her phone to see if Gram or Gladdy had answered any of the frantic messages she left for them or if maybe Lainie had tracked them down while Jane and Wyatt were on the plane.

“Don’t do it,” Wyatt declared. “If you turn on that phone and have a message from them, it might be hours before we sort out their troubles and can be alone.”

“I know,” she said, but the ultra-responsible, good-girl tendencies were harder to deny now that they were on the ground in the same city as her sweet but maddening grandmother and great aunt.

“We’ll be good and responsible when the sun comes up. I promise.”

“Okay, but you might have to take my phone away from me and hide it.” She pushed her briefcase over to him. “Here. Really. Just find it and take it.”

He fished through her briefcase, came up with the phone and slipped it into his pocket. Then he frowned and said, “It’s on. You turned it on when I wasn’t looking?”

“No,” she insisted. “What do you mean, it’s on?”

“I mean, it’s vibrating, so it must be on.”

“I didn’t. I swear.” She grabbed the phone out of his pocket and saw that it was indeed on, and she had a call coming in. “I must have forgotten to turn it off when we got on the plane, just left it on vibrate.”

“Don’t answer it, Jane. If you do, I swear, when I finally get you alone, I will make you pay for making me wait even longer.”

Responsibility warred with her overwhelming need for him but responsibility won.

“I’m sorry. Really, I am,” she said, answering the incoming call. “Hello.”

“Jane! Oh, thank God.” It was Lainie.

“Did you find them?” Jane asked.

“No, Gladdy called for you here, when you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Please tell me they didn’t get married already?”

“No. They…actually, I don’t know. Jane, they’re at the hospital. It…I’m sorry. It sounds bad.”

Jane froze, the words just not making any sense at first. “Gram?”

“No, Leo.”

Lainie told Jane the name of the hospital and insisted she had no other details, though she’d been trying and trying to call the hospital, Gram and Gladdy, with no response. Stunned, Jane thanked her and clicked off the phone.

“What is it?” Wyatt asked.

Jane slipped her hand into his and held on tight, then gave the cab driver the name of the hospital and asked him to take them there.

Wyatt just looked at her, and she could see him trying to make sense of this in his own head. Leo Gray seemed indestructible to her, and she’d only known him a few weeks. How much more invincible he must have seemed to Wyatt.

“All Lainie knew was that they took Leo to the hospital.”

Wyatt still didn’t move.

“Has he been ill?” Jane asked softly.

“No. Not that I knew. He’s always been incredibly healthy.”

He grasped her hand like a lifeline, with his other hand pulled out his own phone, went to click it on, but fumbled it, dropping it instead. Jane went to pick it up for him, but he held up a hand to show that he didn’t want it. And his hand was shaking.

“How far to the hospital?” she asked.

“Five minutes, tops,” the driver responded.

“Okay,” she said to Wyatt, still holding his hand, wishing she could somehow protect him from what could come. “Lainie said neither Gram nor Gladdy are answering their phones anyway. We’ll find out how he is in a few minutes.”

Wyatt knew the doctor was talking to him. Something about a stroke, Leo unconscious since he’d been brought in and on life support. There were questions about Leo’s medical history, his doctors’ names. Wyatt had that information. Jane handed over his cell phone, and he found the names and numbers. Did Leo have a living will? Did anyone have power of attorney to act on his behalf if he was incapacitated?

“Yes. I do.” A power he’d hoped to never exercise.

The papers? They needed the papers. No, Wyatt didn’t walk around with Leo’s legal papers on him.

Jane stepped in. Jane still by his side, still firmly holding his hand, saying she’d make the calls, get all the papers, so Wyatt wouldn’t have to do anything but see Leo.

Wyatt kissed her forehead, said, “Thank you,” and then let a nurse lead him through those ominous-looking double doors into the medical nightmare of machines and cubicles and terrified-looking relatives.

Jane’s grandmother was seated by Leo’s side, holding his hand and crying softly. She looked absolutely heartbroken, and on her left hand—the one holding Leo’s—something caught the light with a flash. A big new diamond ring Wyatt didn’t remember seeing before.

Wife number five, Wyatt thought, then remembered that Leo had always held out hope that one day he’d be able to say, “Till death do us part,” and mean it.

Wyatt feared his uncle was about to get his wish.

He walked to Kathleen’s side, took the hand she offered and then helped her to her feet. She threw her arms around him and wept softly, as Gladdy had done outside in the ICU waiting room.

Women, crazy about Leo and fighting over him to the end, Wyatt thought. How perfectly Leo-like. He sincerely hoped the old man hadn’t actually married both women. Settling the estate would be a nightmare if Leo had.

“He was so happy,” Kathleen said, still crying. “So very happy. We had a grand time, these last few weeks. Some of the best times of his life, he said. I’m grateful for every moment we had together.”

Wyatt smiled, despite feeling as if his heart was breaking.

It was exactly what Leo would have wanted. All it was lacking was Kathleen vowing that he’d been the absolute love of her life and that she’d go to her grave remembering the times she spent with Leo Gray. Her and Gladdy both would have been even better, from Leo’s perspective.

“He wanted me to tell you,” Kathleen said, “that you were the perfect son to him, all the joy and love without all the responsibility that comes with actually being a parent.”

Wyatt laughed, despite himself. “He actually put in more time raising me than my father did.”

Leo had never had children of his own, although between them, his four wives had given him a dozen or so stepchildren and unknown hordes of grandchildren, almost all of whom adored Leo and still kept in touch with him.

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Kathleen hugged him once more, kissed his cheek sweetly, then Leo’s. “We’ll be right outside if you need us.”

By the time they reached Leo’s doctor, they knew everything.

Leo had known for weeks that he had an inoperable condition that could cause a stroke, but for reasons Wyatt could not understand, had decided not to tell anyone. He’d just gone about his life, as it had always been until something like this happened. His best hope was to die with a smile on his face in the arms of a beautiful woman, the doctor remembered Leo saying. Wyatt told him that Leo might very well have gotten his wish.

Bleary-eyed and beyond exhaustion two hours later, he walked out of the ICU and found Jane there waiting for him.

She got to her feet, took his hand in her tiny one, and he wondered at how a man could feel instantly better just holding Jane’s hand. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Wyatt’s cheek. He thought there was nothing he wanted more in this world than to collapse into her arms and have her lie to him and tell him everything was going to be fine, when he knew damn well it wasn’t. That things would never be the same again.

Leo had been one of the few constants in Wyatt’s mixed-up life, one person he’d always counted on and somehow thought he’d always have. Silly given the fact that the man was eighty-six, but he certainly had seemed as if he would live forever.

“The doctors just have to see the power of attorney from my office,” he began, “wait a few more hours and repeat the brain scan, and then…”

“I know,” Jane said. “The doctor told Gram everything, given the fact that she has a big, new diamond on her finger and claims to have married Leo sometime last night.”

Wyatt nodded. “Please tell me he didn’t marry Gladdy, too?”

“No, although he bought her a lovely diamond necklace. A consolation prize? A kind of reverse wedding gift? I don’t have any idea. But Gram wanted you and I to know that she and Leo did sign some kind of prenup, because they both had promised us they wouldn’t marry again without one. So, they were thinking of us. She said they hoped we wouldn’t be too mad at them.”

Wyatt shook his head, thought about laughing, then felt his eyes flood with uncharacteristic tears. He wouldn’t have to worry any more about Leo and his various wives, his love life, his marriages or him getting kicked out of retirement villages.

“Come on,” Jane indicated. “The doctor said it’s going to be at least noon before they have everything in order and can…”

“Turn off the machines?”

Jane nodded.

“It’s what he wanted,” Wyatt told her. “What I promised him I’d do if he ever ended up like this.”

“Well, you don’t have to do any of it right now. There’s a hotel across the street. I had Gram and Gladdy get us all rooms there, and you’re going to get some sleep—”

“I can’t stand to leave him all alone, Jane.”

“Gram’s coming to sit with him. She or Gladdy will be with him until you get back. There will be dozens of things you have to take care of in the next few days. Take some time to sleep now, while you can.”

“I have to find my father and call him,” Wyatt argued.

“I left a voice mail for Lucy at your office. She’ll get to
work on finding him as soon as she gets in. Leo has four ex-wives somewhere that we’ll need to notify?”

Wyatt nodded. “I don’t even know if we can find them all.”

“Between Lucy, Lainie and I, we can find anyone. But right now, you’re going to sleep.”

Wyatt did something he never really did. He put himself into Jane’s capable hands and let her take care of him and everything else.

She walked him across the street, met her grandmother in the lobby and got key-cards for their rooms, then took him upstairs into a small suite on the fifteenth floor where the darkened sky outside the massive windows told him it was indeed still nighttime somehow and the glow of neon told him he could only be in Vegas.