Star Crossed (Stargazer #1)(62)
Author: Jennifer Echols

Lorelei and Colton watched from the red carpet that stretched down the aisle of the tiny chapel, standing at a noticeable distance from each other. She thought she’d seen them having an argument at the party. She’d been afraid Lorelei or Colton would storm out of the club, and she’d hurried over to placate them. But they’d insisted everything was fine.

The aisle stretched past four rows of empty pews to the chapel doors. There were no windows for photographers to take pictures through, thank God, or all this would have been for nothing. There were windows above the doors, though. Both bodyguards and Colton’s driver waited outside, guarding their privacy from the paparazzi. Their cigarette smoke curled behind the glass.

No, Wendy thought. She didn’t want to say a few words at her own wedding. She just wanted to get this over with.

But Daniel looked haggard at the end of his fourth long night in a row, with the purple bruise not quite faded under one eye, and oh so handsome. She probably shouldn’t, but she did have something to say to him.

“Daniel,” she began.

His eyes widened at her, warning her not to make a joke and give them away.

She wanted to tell him to chillax. Instead, she said, “This year, I’ve traveled to Los Angeles, Seattle, Paris, and Rome to assist the rich and famous with their problems. This month I’ve resurrected the career of Satan and his band, and I’ve tried and failed to stop a rock princess from having her bare bu**ocks posted online.”

Wendy was interrupted by a farting noise. She, Daniel, and Elvis all looked toward the red carpet. Lorelei’s tongue was sticking out. She was blowing Wendy a gentle raspberry.

Wendy turned back to Daniel. “And yet I can unequivocally say that the most interesting time of my whole life has been the time I’ve spent with you.”

She expected his face to remain unchanged, even if his emotion actually went from patient to exasperated. To her astonishment, she detected a movement in his jaw, as if she’d elicited an actual emotion so strong that it made his face move—almost into a facial expression. She still couldn’t tell which one.

As she was contemplating this, Elvis turned to Daniel. She thought Elvis would have to remind Daniel that he was being asked to say a few words at his own wedding. She hoped not, because if Daniel seemed too bored, Lorelei and Colton might suspect the whole wedding was a publicity ploy.

To her surprise, Daniel said, “Wendy,” looking straight at her. “When you make me laugh, I feel like I’m finally alive again.”

His expression could have been anything. Anger? Fear? Love? This last thought made tears form at the corners of her eyes. To keep herself from crying, she stuck out her bottom lip in fake sympathy for him.

He laughed. There in the middle of their cheeseball wedding, he genuinely laughed with the corners of his dark eyes crinkling. He stepped forward and took her hand.

Elvis moved forward through the ceremony. Wendy watched Daniel grinning at her. Her hand tingled where her palm met his. The tingle spread warmly up her arm and across her chest.

“Do you have any vows?” Elvis asked next.

Daniel cut his eyes toward Elvis, then back toward Wendy, and his lips parted. He was about to make up an excuse. Or, worse, a vow he didn’t mean.

Wendy cut him off. “Better not,” she said. “After all, it’s Vegas.”

This time everyone laughed, but Daniel’s eyes looked worried. He squeezed her hand as if to give them both the strength to get through the rest of this.

Elvis said, “Then, by the power vested in me by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

Wendy went cold. She actually felt all the blood draining out of her brain, and she thought she might faint. She was calculating how that rumor would spread through the tabloids, and whether it would get warped into good publicity or bad publicity for Lorelei, when Daniel stepped forward and reached one stable hand around the small of her back.

“You may—” Elvis said.

Daniel pushed his other hand into her hair.

“—kiss the—”

Daniel eased her backward. His dark eyes met her eyes for a moment before his lips found hers.

He kissed her deeply, but she felt more than the kiss. She felt her whole body melting into his.

It was going to be really bad when they got divorced.

Lorelei and Colton burst into applause and wolf whistles. High-class. But it made Wendy happy, and when Daniel finally broke the kiss and stood her up straight, he was laughing again.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

In the wee hours of the morning, when most of the party guests had stumbled down to the casino to lose some money before finally making it back to their hotel rooms, and the pounding music had shut down, Lorelei swayed her way across the club to bring Wendy a flute of champagne. “To you,” she said, tapping Wendy’s glass with her own.

Wendy took a long sip. She needed it.

But then she said, “No, to you. I didn’t expect the press to ask you about my wedding. I didn’t prep you, but you handled it exactly right. You denied you got married, but you never said you’d been to your PR rep’s wedding, so you didn’t throw me to the wolves. I’m proud of you!”

“You told me not to admit I was friends with anybody who wasn’t famous,” Lorelei said.

“I did tell you that, but I didn’t expect you to remember it when you were under pressure.” Wendy leaned back against the wall, satisfied. “My little chickadee has flown away. You don’t need me anymore.”

Lorelei gasped. “No! You’re quitting?”

“Of course not! I couldn’t quit anyway. Your contract is with Stargazer. I could quit the company, but I couldn’t quit you. They’d just send someone else. I’m saying your crisis is over.”

“Well, I might let you go back home now. But I still want you to handle stuff for me when it comes up.” Lorelei pointed her flute at Wendy. “And when there’s an event like this, I want you to come party with me.”

“Even if I’m the downer?”

“Especially if you’re the downer. I had a lot of fun with you this week. I know you said I’m not supposed to be friends with bodyguards and hairdressers and people like that, but I feel like you and I are friends, and not just because I’m paying you.”

“I feel like that, too,” Wendy said honestly. “I’ve felt like that ever since the first morning when I heard you sing. I knew you were special. And I already thought you had killer taste in shoes. Come here, pretty girl.”