“And the second reason?” she asked, breathless.

“Because you’re crazy about me and I’m afraid it’ll crush your delicate little heart if I don’t marry you.”

“You are such an arrogant ass—”

He kissed her again, both of them laughing.

“Marry me,” he repeated, against her lips. “Marry me, Jessie Ann.”

“Okay. I’ll marry you.”

“Good.”

Smitty slid his hands around her waist, pulling her toward him, when the sound of bodies colliding with the door cut into his next move.

“Auntie Jess! Are you up yet? Mom said to come for breakfast.”

“O—”

Smitty covered her mouth with his hand.

“Tell your momma we’ll be down later.”

Jess pulled his hand away. “What are you doing?”

“Gettin’ my morning Smith greeting.” He tugged on the sheet covering her body and Jess slapped at his hands.

“Stop that! They’re right outside!” she squeaked.

“Y’all get away from that door!” he yelled.

“They must be tusslin’,” a pup complained.

“Well, hurry up,” another barked.

“We’ll be down in a minute,” he promised, giving her a healthy leer as he went to his hands and knees and rose over her. “As soon as we’re done tusslin’.”

Jess slapped at his hands again. “Tussling? Have you been teaching them that?”

“Oh, you want me to be more specific?” he asked, finally snatching the sheet from her body and sighing happily as he stared down at her. “Lord, you look good in the mornings.”

“I thought you had a hangover.”

“It’s gone,” he said, pushing her onto her back. He brushed his fingers against her mark, unable to stop touching it. She arched into his touch, her arms reaching out for him.

“We can’t do this now, Smitty,” she protested, even as she opened to him. Even as she took him into her body. “They’re waiting for us for breakfast.”

“They can wait,” he groaned against her neck.

Poor thing, she had no idea he’d be waking her up most mornings like this.

Jess wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He rocked into her slowly, taking his time, his lips resting against her temple.

“Mornin’, Jessie Ann,” he murmured against her soft skin.

He felt her smile, her breath catching in her throat. “Mornin’, Bobby Ray.”

Epilogue

It was bad enough he was in a tux. It was bad enough they made him cut his hair. But the sobbing had to stop, and it had to stop now.

Smitty started to stalk across the room, but Mace stepped in front of him andheld him back. “No, you’ll regret it in the morning.”

“But it’ll make me happy now.”

“As soon as the wedding is over, I’m sure he’ll stop.” They both looked at Smitty’s father. Bubba had been crying for nearly two days straight. He said it was because the “boy” was bringing shame on the Smith Pack by actually marrying someone. But at the same time he clearly adored Jessie Ann. He kept hugging her, telling her how pretty she looked. Then Jessie assured herself the lifelong love and protection of Bubba Smith when she asked him to walk her down the aisle because her own daddy wasn’t there to do it. After that everything had to be perfect for Jessie Ann, and anyone who looked like they might even think about annoying her had to face off against Bubba Smith. They’d already changed caterers three times. At least one was filing charges for assault.

Lord, the man would be an absolute mess during the ceremony.

“Why don’t we get your mom to handle him and you go for a walk. The ceremony doesn’t start for another thirty minutes.”

“Yeah, okay.” Smitty glared again at his father before walking out through the sliding glass doors of the lower floor bedroom. The dog, he’d named him Shit-starter after Sissy Mae, right by his side. He finally had to start bringing the damn mutt to the job since wherever Smitty went the dog went too. He seemed to think of himself as more wolf than dog and refused to hang out much with the other dogs of the Pack house. As far as Shit-starter was concerned, he was a Smith Packmate and expected to be treated as such.

Not that Smitty minded. He liked the little bastard, although he’d never say it out loud.

He had no idea how this wedding got so out of control. He’d thought Jessie had been exaggerating the first time they talked about it when she said 300 guests. She hadn’t been. Between the Kuznetsov Pack’s business contacts, the Smiths from all over the Southeast, nearly half of Kenshin’s entire Pack, and an unhealthy number of geeks, they were nearing 400. They actually had to rent a castle on Long Island. A real, honest-to-God castle. Smitty thought you had to go to England to find those.

In the end, though, Jessie and Smitty had little to say about the entire event. Momma, Sabina, and May had taken over, the three of them getting along like they’d known each other for the past century. They went mostly for traditional except they couldn’t have groomsmen or bridesmaids. Sissy and Ronnie Lee had every intention of standing up with him. Phil and Danny with Jess. They ended up with the more politically correct “grooms-people” and “bridespeople.” Smitty still thought it sounded ridiculous, but he was glad his sister would be with him while he stood there in this stupid monkey suit waiting for the torture to end.