“It's nice to meet you," she says again, causing me to laugh. I can't even remember the last time I laughed. Only she does this to me. No one else in my life even comes close to causing this kind of reaction. No one. It’s insane. We’ve said very few words to one another.
"You said that already, peaches." The nickname rolls off my tongue effortlessly. Her peaches and cream skin are just begging to be tasted.
"So I did. I'm a little nervous."
"Don't be. You have nothing to fear from me, Fiadh," I reply, hoping to reassure her.
"Alright. Fiadh chose a religious ceremony. Is that alright with you, sir?" Another man dressed as a ringmaster asks me.
"Yes. Fine. Whatever she wants." I mean it. Whatever she wants, she'll have.
A minister steps forward, reads a verse from First Corinthians, and begins the short ceremony.
"By the power vested in me by God and the great state of Nevada, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
And by God, I do. She takes my kiss and gives me her mouth. Her plump lips are soft and yielding. Our tongues dance, and never has a kiss felt so right, not that I’ve done much kissing. I need so much more from her now.
Yeah, whatever the fuck I thought I wanted; Fiadh blew that right out of the water.
Let’s see what this marriage has in store for us.
Chapter Two
Fiadh Mulligan
I can’t believe I just auctioned myself off like livestock to the highest bidder for money. A lot of fecking money. Why the feck did I think this would be a good idea?
“I can’t believe I am fucking doing this. If Aunty Rita finds out what I just did, she will fecking kick my ass,” I murmur out loud while pacing back and forth in the small room I was escorted to twenty minutes ago.” Well, that's why you set up a big thing about your fake boyfriend, silly. So when you tell her that you’re married next week, she won’t think anything of it.”
I have lost my mind. I am talking to myself out loud. I go to bite my nails, then think better of it can't have fucked up nails when he puts a ring on me. Wait, does he even have a ring? Are we doing rings? Oh my God, was I supposed to get a ring?
Breathe, bitch. You can’t go passing out. I take a deep breath and sit down on the only chair they have in the room after I pull my dress back on. With my head in my hands, I wonder how everything turned into shit so fast. I, never in a million years, thought that I would get married, let alone marry for money, but my Aunt Rita is really sick, and her medical bills are piling up so fast they are making my head spin.
With chemo and hospital stays, we are sinking and sinking fast. I keep telling her that everything will be okay, but I think she can tell that I am lying. Nothing about this is going to be okay. She is the only family I have left. She is more like my mom than my aunt. She has been raising me since I was five, and my mom left me on her doorstep. My mother is what you’d call a free spirit. Oh, she breezes in every now and then, but then she’s off on her next adventure. Being a mother just wasn’t for her. She met my dad on vacation in America a little over eighteen years ago. She came home with a bun in the oven, but my Da, Edwin, took care of me monetarily and came to visit whenever he could. After Ma went on her first adventure, I spent the summer with him. When I came home to go back to school, he died in a fire. He was an only child of only children. My grandparents had passed away before I was born. It was just him, and now it’s just me. I have to be able to take care of the one person who has always been there for me. I could get a job at a pub or something in Dublin, but I’d never be able to make enough money to pay the bills. I barely made it through school, so my lie about university is just that. A big fat lie.
I left Aunt Rita in Dublin to come to America, the home of my father. He died a long time ago, though. She thinks I am doing a semester abroad, but that was a lie. I found this auction and thought any little bit would help, and I only have to be married for five years. I never imagined that I’d be bought… for so much money or to such a hot man. I stand at the knock at the door.