He’d quizzed her on whether or not it was genuine, or if she was using an alias, but she assured him that she wasn’t. He was the one involved in criminal activity, not her, so if anyone had a right to suspect the other was using a false name, it was her. Except Dax made such a big deal about this being completely legitimate that she couldn’t really doubt him.

They went to a little white chapel advertising that it had a drive-thru window. The night was bright with neon, the city alive with possibility. Droves of people came here hoping to win the jackpot, Ivy was probably the only person in the whole state of Nevada who felt like she’d brought her jackpot with her.

Ivy reached for the front door handle of the chapel, but Dax caught her hand and drew her away from the entrance. In the shadow of the awning above, he pushed her to the wall and rested an arm at the side of her head. His own bowed head gave her cause for worry.

‘What is it?’ she asked. If he had decided that he no longer wanted her then she might be forced to go back to the Starks’, back to Trystan. ‘Dax?’ Cupping his face, she brought his stooped form up enough for him to meet her eyes.

‘I need you to say yes,’ he murmured.

‘What?’

‘I… I did something stupid, before I came to get you at Mauri’s.’

‘Something stupid?’ she asked. ‘What did you do?’

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time, but… now I’m embarrassed to admit that I did it.’ He got on the defensive. ‘And I’m not the type of guy to be embarrassed, I mean fuck the world. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks—‘

‘What was her name?’ Ivy whispered, sick at the thought of him touching another woman. ‘Where did you meet her? Did you go looking to get laid or did it just happen by accident?’

Warring emotions overcame her because technically, until today, they hadn’t been together. Except at the beach house he had admitted that he cared for her and she had wanted them to have a future. She wasn’t sure that she had the right to be sick and angry, but she didn’t know if she could erase the images of him being intimate with another woman imprinted on her mind.

He frowned. ‘What?’

‘Was it after you were with me last night?’ she asked. ‘I know that we weren’t together, together, but—‘

She stopped talking when he sank down in front of her and she saw him fumble with something in his inside pocket. Unsure what it was, she was about to ask when he popped open a box and showed her a single solitaire diamond ring.

‘I bought you a goddamn ring, Minx, I didn’t fuck around on you.’

‘You bought me a ring,’ she said, trying not to swoon because his scowl told her that he wasn’t happy about this humiliation, so she covered her mouth with both hands to conceal her soppy grin. ‘Oh, baby.’

‘Just say yes or no so that we can get this shit over with,’ he grumbled, lowering his attention to the ground and she knew he was worried that someone would come upon them and he would be caught in this humiliating position.

For all of his stomping and strutting, he did respect her, and this act proved that to her. ‘I say yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’

There might be something cliché about Vegas, but at the same time it was the place that they met. He took the ring out of the box and handed it to her as he stood so that she could slide it on herself. It looked like he was about to toss the box away, so she salvaged it before he could, then leapt up into his arms and kissed him.

That intimate action might have been naïve, because it took only half a beat for him to have her pressed to the chapel wall. Crouching, he ran a hand down her thigh and lifted it up to coil her limb around his hips. There was a busy street just behind him, and they were at the main entrance to a no doubt frequently used establishment. Their passion for each other had been contained for too long and her kiss had been enough to reawaken his want.

‘Let’s get this done,’ he said, backing off but keeping hold of her hips. ‘Once this is done, that’s it, right?’

‘Yes,’ she said again, admiring the ring on her hand. ‘Let’s get married, Dax.’

‘Then no one can take you away from me.’

It seemed that that was his biggest fear. He took her into the chapel as she considered the gravity of what he had just said. None of the details mattered to her so she let Dax deal with it all. All that mattered to her was that he hadn’t let go of her hand and his determination to do this hadn’t wavered.

Once they were joined in matrimony there was no way that Mauri could make her marry Trystan, so not only was Dax protecting their love, but he was protecting her as well. This could cost him dearly, but he’d made the choice, just as she’d told him he would have to. Dax had chosen her and she had to make sure that he never regretted his decision.

The wedding was quick, their eyes and hands remained locked throughout the ceremony, and when it came time to say “I do” neither of them hesitated. This was it. They were now man and wife; she was Mrs. Ivy Harrow.

Tonight she had learned that romance wasn’t completely lost on Dax, though tradition certainly was. As was proven when he opened their hotel room door and strode in, preoccupied by other things that were on his mind. Ivy didn’t step over the threshold, she just caught the door before it closed then cleared her throat.

Dax glanced back, still stuffing the key card back into his wallet. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘You’re supposed to lift me up.’

‘Why?’ he asked, tossing his wallet onto a side table. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘There is nothing wrong with me,’ she said, torn between losing her patience and laughing. ‘It’s tradition.’

‘What’s tradition?’

‘That the groom carries the bride over the threshold. Really, Dax, you’re not off to the best start with your husband duties.’

‘No?’ he asked, swaggering back to her. ‘Maybe I’ll gain points when I perform other duties.’

Crouching down, he tossed her over his shoulder and hoisted her into the hotel room in the most un-traditional pose possible. But when he threw her down on the bed and kicked off his shoes, she decided that she couldn’t care less about tradition, at least none other than the consummation part.

‘Maybe I plan to play hard to get,’ she teased.

‘You don’t have a choice when it comes to putting out,’ he said, yanking his tee-shirt off over his head.

‘I don’t?’

‘No.’

‘Because we’re married now?’

‘That,’ he said. ‘And until we’ve consummated the marriage it can still be annulled. We don’t want Mauri trying to pull that one on us, do we?’

Now that the deed was done he was much more relaxed and it was nice to see him back to his comfortable self. In front of Bruno, and the other mobsters, he was cold and aloof because it suited the image. But with her it was a different story.

This was like being back in his bedroom in the beach house, where they could tease and argue, and know that they were safe with each other. The masks came off, the games ended, and they could just be. Dax gave her safety. All of her life she’d existed in an unsecure state, never sure when or where the next pay check was coming from; or if she’d have enough money to eat and pay bills the next day. Now that she had this love, none of that mattered, because every challenge would be faced together, she finally had somewhere to belong.

‘I guess I have no choice then,’ she said.

Sitting up, she pushed down her dress and then elevated her hips to shimmy out of it. Ironically, she was still wearing the underwear that she had chosen for her wedding day, which this turned out to be. When she lay back down on the bed, Dax remained standing. As much as she enjoyed basking in his flattering gaze, she worried about how all of today’s events had affected him.

‘If you’re having second thoughts…’ she said, wanting him to know that he could still back out and she wouldn’t hold him against his will.