Inked Ever After by Elle Aycart Read Free Book Online Page A

fucking great one.”
    She looked at him hopefully. “We eloping?”
    James chuckled. “No, babe. You know I wouldn’t mind, but
your mom and my aunt would flip the fuck out.”
    “Yeah, they would,” she admitted, her pout damn cute.
“Especially now that they have everything arranged.”
    “And you don’t really want to elope. You’ve always wanted a
traditional wedding.”
    Truth be told, he didn’t care if everything was ready. He’d
marry Tate right now if that’s what she wanted, and to hell with his aunt and
her mom. The problem was, the only reason eloping appealed to her was that she
was panicking, which was totally unacceptable.
    And he knew she didn’t want to skip the wedding; she’d want
to celebrate with her friends and her family, even if only half of it was
left—she’d regret it otherwise.
    She shrugged and lowered her gaze. “That was before. This is
now. And you haven’t seen the price of my dress,” she added, going for
cheerful. “Or you’d change your opinion.”
    “Don’t think so.”
    “I can’t wait for this to be over,” she said, leaning her
head against the headrest and closing her eyes.
    As her expression grew somber, James decided to lighten the
mood. “In a hurry to become Mrs. James Bowen, I see.”
    He felt ten fucking feet tall when a smile tugged at her
lips. “Mrs. James Bowen sounds beautiful, but I’ve been Tate Cooper so long, I
may have an identity crisis. By the way, do you know that Italian women do not
take their husbands’ last names?”
    James chuckled. It seemed his little spitfire took her
one-quarter Italian heritage very seriously, especially when it suited her.
“Babe, you not only do not speak Italian, but you’ve never even been to Italy.”
    “We’re remedying that, aren’t we? And once Italian always
Italian.”
    Well, two could play this game. “Good. I hear Italian women
are very submissive and obedient toward their husbands.”
    Her derisive snort was loud. “So say the husbands, I’m
sure.”
    Yes, he was sure too. Not that he was going to say a word.
No need to encourage her. “So I take it you’re excited about going to Italy for
our honeymoon, right?”
    “Excited is the understatement of the century, honey,” she
said, reaching for his hand and entwining their fingers. “Thank you.”
    He’d have preferred to go to a deserted island and spend the
whole two weeks naked with her, making love on the beach, but she wanted to go
to Lucera, the town her paternal grandmother had come from, and he was very
accommodating about what she wanted.
    “If you’re in such a hurry, we could skip the night at the
honeymoon suite and head straight for the airport.”
    She squeezed his hand. “No way. Not in such a hurry that I’d
pass on that. I’m dying to make love to my husband too.”
    James looked at her and felt himself grow hard. She just had
to smile at him, and he was ready to go. Talking about making love to her after
they were legally bound together—it was a miracle his cock hadn’t jumped out of
his pants and attacked her already.
    “Well, I’m glad to see it’s not your choice of groom that
has you so freaked out.”
    Tate tensed. “What do you mean?”
    He shook his head. That she still was under the stupid
impression she could hide anything from him amused and pissed him off at the
same time.
    She scooted over and snuggled against him, sweetly kissing
his jaw. “Of course not. I love you, James. You know that. It’s just…”
    She didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t have to. He
knew very well what had his woman so scared.
    He kissed the top of her head as she nuzzled his neck.
“Baby, you know I’ve been keeping quiet and not pushing it, but about the
wedding—”
    “Do we have to talk now?” she asked, trailing kisses over
his jaw and throat.
    “Tate—”
    “I know of a better way to spend our time.” And she put her
hand on his crotch.
    There she went again, trying to distract him with the