4
My head was pounding as I watched him move around the room, and I tried not to think about the nightmare we’d just caught ourselves up in. I couldn’t handle this. My body was aching all over, the ring on my finger feeling as though it was cutting off circulation and about to send my finger straight tumbling to the ground. The covers of the bed felt oppressive, but there was no way I was going to take them off knowing I was naked beneath them and he could get another free show. I flushed at the thought of it. Where was the Amaya of the night before, the one who had slipped away from the party with a stranger, the one who had gotten up to god knows what all over this room, the one who had …
I looked down at my finger again, and my stomach clenched. Then, I noticed he had come to a halt and had slowly turned to look at me.
“What is it?” I demanded. “Did you find something?”
He shook his head, and I once again strained my memory to try and come up with what had happened the night before. Everything was coated in a sheen of champagne, and beyond taking his hand and walking out of that party, I couldn’t remember anything specifically. My body still bore a few marks that gave me some hints. I could feel fingerprints on my hips from where he had no doubt been clutching on to them, and there was a mark on the inside of my thigh that looked like a love bite. And, of course, this fucking ring on my finger. That too.
“I just had an idea,” he announced, and I cocked an eyebrow.
“Does it involve getting an annulment as soon as we can so we can both go home and forget about all of this?” I demanded, and he chuckled and shook his head. He suddenly seemed completely calm, as though none of this was happening. What the hell was going on? I pushed myself up on the bed and stared at him, waiting for him to explain what the hell was going on right now.
He took a seat on the edge of the bed and laid his hand on my leg, still beneath the covers. The heat of his touch sent a shiver down my spine. No, that was what had gotten me into this mess in the first place. If I had only allowed myself a little flirtation and then headed home, I wouldn’t be in this mess. It was typical. The one night I allowed myself to blow off steam and forget about all of it—about Jolene, the money, her illness, everything that came with it—this had happened. And now I was pretty sure it was for the best that I never had any kind of fun again. I obviously couldn’t be trusted not to do something like this.
“Hear me out,” he began slowly. He looked even better in the light of day, if that was possible. His strong jaw was outlined by the light streaming in through the giant window opposite the bed, and I tried not to pay too much attention to it.
“Just tell me,” I prompted him. I didn’t know how much longer I could spend here before someone started asking questions about where the hell I had gone.
“So, my nonna, uh, my grandmother, she’s been pressuring me to get married for a long time,” he explained. “And I run a company that’s not exactly—it’s the kind of place that suits a settled-down man, you know? That’s why my dad’s on his fourth wife.”
He snorted with laughter, and I couldn’t help but smile in response.
“And I’m your first?” I asked nervously. He nodded.
“If we are indeed married, then you’re my first wife,” he replied. “And I think we could turn this into something good if we just stick it out for a while.”
“What?” My eyebrows shot up, and he held his hand up to quiet me before he continued.
“I know it sounds crazy,” he conceded. “I get that. But you said last night that you were raising money for something.”
“A library,” I replied. My heart warmed as I imagined what it would look like when it was finished, how it would feel to be able to stand there and look around and know I had been the one to put this all together. I wasn’t sure how well I’d done the night before, but I could distantly remember giving away a few cards to people who appeared interested or at least were too polite to say they weren’t.
“It would make my family extremely happy if I were to get married.” He looked me up and down again as though he was seeing me for the first time. “Especially to someone like you.”
“You barely know me,” I reminded him. “How do you know your family would like me?”
“Because as long as you look like that and agree to stay married to me, I’m pretty sure my nonna’s not going to give a damn if you drown puppies in your spare time,” he replied, and I couldn’t help but laugh again. There was something loose and excited about the way he spoke like he owned the place and wanted everyone to know it. Confidence oozed off him in waves, and I could see why the men of last night had been attracted to this guy, even if I was too nervous at what I was sure he was suggesting to appreciate it much at that moment.
“And I could make it seriously worth your while,” he finished up. And that’s when my ears pricked up. I looked around this place again, reminding myself how gorgeous this suite was and how much damn money it had probably cost. This was a guy who could put his money where his mouth was when it came to cash, and frankly, I could use it.
I thought of Jolene, who was probably at home wondering where the heck I was right now, and my stomach twisted. A few thousand dollars alone would make her life a hell of a lot easier. And I would have done anything to assure my sister’s life was a little less difficult.
It had been so hard for both of us since Mom and Dad had passed away. Every time I thought of them, I still felt that twist deep in my stomach. A car accident had robbed both me and my sister of our family when she had been nothing more than a few years old. And, in the midst of the grief and working on my undergraduate degree, I’d had to move back home to step up and take care of my sister. Jolene had been born with severe physical disabilities that had required basically full-time care around the clock to keep her functioning, and when Mom and Dad had died, I’d been the only one who knew her well enough to step in and take care of my sister. I loved her, I did, and so I moved back home from the dorm rooms where I’d just been settling in and back into my old room to make sure she wasn’t left alone in the world. I hadn’t had any other choice. I’d had no money to pay for a career, and it wasn’t like my parents had left anything for us when they’d passed, just the house and the memory of them that I made sure to pass along to Jolene every chance I got. She was a good kid, sweet and funny and smarter than anyone gave her credit for, and my parents would have been proud of how she turned out.
Me, on the other hand? Well, I was sure Mom alone would have chewed me out for getting myself in so much debt, but relying on student loans as I made my way through grad school was the only way I knew to keep my head above water. It was consistent cash and meant I could study at home and look after Jolene on the side. Eventually, when I finished up, I even had a job guaranteed for me at a local library, the one I had been raising money for the night before. A job meant I could pay for Jolene to stay in a care home during the day so she could meet new people and start earning a college degree as she’d always dreamed. But I also had a mountain of debt guaranteed as well. So, when he sat opposite me, eyeing me and offering to make this worth my while, I wasn’t sure I could turn him down in good conscience.
“Let me get this straight.” I sat up, snapping into business mode despite the fact I was naked and handling a hangover. “You’re offering me a lump sum to stay married to you to keep your family happy?”
“Yep,” he replied, and the words hung in the air between us as I considered my options. The thought of it made me a little sick, and if this guy had suggested this the night before I would have shot him down on the spot. But now that we were already married, now that I would have had to drag myself through a lengthy legal process just to call things off, things were different.
I tried to quiet the questions in my head and just looked at him. Think of the money. Of the debts, the fact my car needed to be fixed, the little DIYs in the house that I needed to take care of. Money like the kind of money he had to have to stay in a place like this would change all of that. It would change my life and Jolene’s, and I wasn’t sure I could, in good faith, walk away from it.
Still, so many questions were racing through my mind. How long would we have to stay married for? What would happen when he was done with me? Did I have to meet his family in the process? Where exactly was he even from? What about sex?
“Only if you play by the rules,” he replied playfully, and I didn’t realize those questions had been tumbling out of my mouth instead of just through my mind. I went bright red, pulling the covers around me.
“How much are you offering?” I asked bluntly. No point talking about money if he couldn’t match my price. But then again, I had no idea what my price actually was for something like this.
He leaned forward, and I saw the way his eyes flashed with excitement, as though he had come up with the greatest plan in the world and nothing I could say or do was going to change his mind.
“How much do you need?” he asked. “Name your price, and I’ll match it. I can afford anything.”
I opened my mouth, racking my brains for a number but found myself distracted by the way he was watching me. Like he had last night, like someone circling in on their prey. For some reason, that sent something sparking to life inside of me, something familiar from the night before. And I had a feeling this fake marriage thing was going to be a lot more interesting than I’d imagined.