Mail-Order Groom: A Valentine Romantic Comedy

No, he almost said. She was the one who was mad, not him. But since good manners forbade him from saying such a thing, Philippe simply shook his head. "I do not get mad easily."

"Well...I just found it funny, when I remembered Dr. Manolis warning me about forcing myself to remember anything from the past two weeks."

"And yet you did it anyway."

There was her husband's disapproving tone again, but crazily enough, Charlee-Mae found the sound so very sexy.

"Was the memory that you were trying to recall worth the headache?"

Charlee-Mae's shoulders started to shake.

"It is that funny?"

"Well..."

Philippe wondered if she was deliberately trying his patience.

"I was trying to remember..."

Why did she not simply spit it out?

"If I ever saw you naked?"

Her husband nearly choked, and Charlee-Mae couldn't help but giggle.

"That...was really what you were thinking about?"

"Can you blame me? After all, it's not every day a woman wakes up with a ring on her finger—-"

A slight frown creased Philippe's forehead as his wife pulled her drawer open to retrieve a set of papers.

"—-while her medical report finds her hymen intact?"

Chapter Three

Philippe's mind was reeling. A virgin? How the hell could a woman who looked like she was made for the bedroom be a virgin?

Charlee-Mae was amused at the way her husband was struggling to contain his shock. "Dr. Bowles was the one who gave me this." She handed over her medical report, but her husband simply put it back in the drawer, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

"So I guess it's true?"

Fuck no, Philippe wanted to say. Because it was crazy as hell. How could she be a virgin? A virgin, for fuck's sake. Didn't everyone these days lose their virginity in their teens? He certainly had, even though technically, his first fuck had been when he was eleven.

"When Dr. Bowles first showed me my medical report, I really thought she was joking. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was just so...me? I mean..." Her tone turned impish, and Philippe found the tone strangely bewitching. "I may have lost a few memories here and there, but it doesn't change who I am, and I just know I'm the type of person who'd risk everything for a whirlwind romance...but just as quickly make a dramatic exit if we have a big fight."

Charlee-Mae glanced up at him expectantly, and Philippe cleared his throat to buy himself some time. What exactly was he supposed to say?

"That's how it happened between us, right? We fell in love at first sight, you proposed, I accepted, we had a fight, I ran away, then..." His "wife" suddenly paused. "Was it my fault or yours?"

Now, that at least he knew how best to answer, and he said quite simply, "Neither."

Charlee-Mae felt touched. "Oh, bless you, you're so sweet."

Philippe could not recall ever being described as 'sweet', and he wasn't certain how to feel about it.

"That probably means it's my fault, isn't it? And it kinda makes sense," she added musingly, "since you're here in Wyoming—-"

There was another pause, and Philippe was beginning to understand that his "wife" was simply the type to speak her thoughts out loud.

"Do you live here? In Jackson Hole?"

"Non. I am here for my company's upcoming launch."

"Oh." Charlee-Mae frowned. She had thought they were here because they had made up, and this was where they had chosen to have their honeymoon, but maybe not?

"Am I supposed to be here, too?"

"Oui."

"Huh." Since she didn't want to risk another headache by forcing herself to remember, Charlee-Mae tried to imagine and recreate what could've generally happened between them. "If you're here for work, and I'm supposed to be here, too, then maybe...we did have a fight," she concluded, "and that's why you had to come up here alone. But when I realized I was wrong, I decided to go after you, and that's when I had my accident. Is that what happened?"

"It doesn't matter—-"

Charlee-Mae's heart just melted. "I can't believe someone who looks as hot as you do can be so sweet."

Philippe was perplexed. How was he fucking sweet?

"You obviously don't want me to think it's my fault..."

Actually, Philippe was simply playing it safe with his answers, but if that was how she wanted to think of it, then who was he to stop her?

"But—-" Charlee-Mae wrinkled her nose. "I definitely know how crazy I can get, which, by the way, you can totally blame on Dynasty—-"

"Dynasty?"

"It's my favorite show," Charlee-Mae shared excitedly. "I'm obsessed with it. Have I never told you that?"

"Not as I recall..."

Charlee-Mae sighed. That her husband was being so careful with his answers hadn't escaped her notice, and that really was just so sweet of him! He obviously didn't mind painting himself the bad guy, if that was what it took to keep her feeling from upset. No wonder he had been able to steal her heart and make her say yes to marrying him in just two weeks. After all—-