April took her seat at the table, giving Cole a quick smile, but not meeting his eyes. It wasn’t her mile-high romp that had her uncomfortable with their sudden situation anymore. They had diffused that with a little innuendo and teasing banter. What had her heart beating like a jackrabbit was the kiss from a few minutes ago.
That had been a hell of a kiss.
“I assume you know that our dinner partners have disappeared for a little pre-wedding quickie,” Cole said mildly.
April let out a sigh of annoyance. “Yes,” she answered, clearly exasperated. “I can’t believe they did that. I mean, we just got in for Christ’s sake!”
Cole laughed his deep, throaty laugh. “I know. So busy being involved in each other, they don’t even realize how rude they’re being.” He shrugged. “Oh well. Works in my favor tonight.”
April narrowed her eyes and was about to ask what that was supposed to mean, when a waiter arrived with two glasses. One was a long stemmed wine glass filled with a deep red cabernet, the other a short tumbler with what looked like nothing but straight whiskey.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Cole said with a knowing smile. “But I ordered a couple of drinks for us. No sense wasting a perfectly good evening.”
April wasn’t sure if she agreed, but it was hard to say no to a good glass of red wine. They clinked their glasses together, and she took a sip.
“So,” Cole began. “How do you know Claudia?”
April swirled the wine in her glass. “We’ve been friends since freshman year of college. We were roommates.” A smile crossed her lips as she remembered the good old days when they had been practically inseparable. “I don’t think either of us thought we were going to be lucky enough to room with someone we didn’t hate, but we did. What about you? How did you meet up with Maxwell? You’re business partners, right?”
Cole became thoughtful, considering the question. “Well, yes, we are. But we’ve known each other a lot longer than that. Max and I were neighbors as kids. Both from low-income families. Got into loads of trouble. When we were ten, we promised ourselves that one day we would get out of there and make something of ourselves.”
April rested her chin in her hands, listening with more than just polite attention. “I see you kept that promise.”
He laughed. “Yeah, but it didn’t go quite as smoothly as we had anticipated,” he admitted, running a hand through his thick dark hair. She remembered how silky it had been between her fingers. She brought herself back to the present, focusing as he continued.
“We actually fell out of touch for a few years during high school. I fell in with the wrong crowd, forgot what we had promised ourselves.” His smiled slipped briefly as he lost himself in thought. A moment later he returned from wherever he had gone and took a sip of his whiskey. “It wasn’t until college when Max found me again and said he had a great idea for a startup company. I said he was crazy, but I agreed to help him anyway.”
April grinned. “Best decision of your life?”
He smiled back. “One of them.”
They finished their drinks and ordered another round. Those disappeared quickly, too. By the fifth drink, April was feeling the effects of the alcohol. “So you’re not a romantic,” she said, taking a deep drink from her glass. “Why not?”
Cole wasn’t as sober as he had been earlier either. Leaning forward across the table, his bright eyes focused on her. “Why lie to a girl?” he answered. “No point in getting her hopes up for some happily ever after that only happens—”
“In bad chick flicks,” April finished for him. “Suddenly everyone’s pissed off, because nothing’s like the movies, right?”
Cole leaned back. “Exactly. You get it. You’re not like those other girls,” he said, his words only slightly slurred. “Not stupidly expecting some prince charming to scoop you up. You’re a realist.”
“Exactly,” April agreed. “You’re the first person to really get that, you know?”
Cole smiled at her, an idea forming in his mind. “You know, it’s stupid to spend our lives dodging all these unattainable expectations,” he said, the thought taking a more concrete form in his mind. “Always having to break bad news to people who just don’t get it. But we get it.”
April nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we definitely get it.”
“In fact, since both of us know that we don’t want to waste our time dodging balls and chains,” he said, the coolness of his voice making it seem that all of this was a brilliant plan in his alcohol addled brain. “Why don’t we just get hitched to each other?”
April stared at him for a long moment. “You mean, get married to each other?”
“Yeah,” Cole said, nodding. “Then we won’t have to worry about it, right?”
She started to nod. “Right. That’s a great idea!”
Slightly unsteady, Cole rose from the table, offering his hand for April. She took it, standing up and nearly falling over. She leaned heavily on him and they both laughed. This was the best idea anyone had suggested to her in a long time.
They walked unsteadily together, laughing and kissing casually as they headed towards a chapel. Luckily, they were in Las Vegas where a chapel was around every corner. They found one quickly enough and only had to wait twenty minutes for the Elvis impersonator to bind them together in holy matrimony. There was even a set of rings they could buy.
“Thank you, thank you very much,” the Elvis impersonator said, pronouncing them man and wife.
Cole crashed his lips against April’s and they kissed passionately, until the pastor told them they should take it to their room. The newlyweds thought that was an excellent idea.
Since April was sharing a room with Claudia, they both agreed that Cole’s room was a better choice than hers. They took the elevator up to the room, stumbling in and grateful that they had it to themselves.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Cole pinned her to the wall, hands reaching around to grip her ass and lift her up. Her skirt hiked up high on her thighs as she obligingly wrapped her legs around his waist and held on to his shoulders tightly. He pressed his hard body against her, kissing her passionately, as he rubbed his length against her crotch.
April was on fire. Her body begged and pleaded for more—for fewer clothes and more skin, more touching. Cole’s hands squeezed her rear, his kisses moving from her lips to her neck and shoulders. She was grateful that her dress was strapless as his lips and tongue moved along her bare skin.
“Mmm,” she hummed against him, leaning her head back to give him better access.
They likely would have continued had the elevator not binged to let them know they had reached their floor. The doors opened, revealing a couple that let out a gasp of surprise at seeing the other, entwined couple.
Cole and April stopped, her feet slipping to reach the floor and laughed at the expression on the other two people’s faces. April called out a quick, “Sorry!” as Cole pulled her along down the hallway to his suite.
He used his key to open the lock and they burst through the door.