Marry Me Now: An Arranged Marriage Collection

5

I shower first, mostly because if I don’t, I’m not sure I’ll be able to clear my head enough from that orgasm to function. I make the water hot and let it wash all traces of sex away, even though I swear my skin still smells like him. I stick my face under the stream and pray for it to wash away the dirty thoughts that won’t stop invading. Thoughts of everything else I’d like him to do to me next.

If that was only the practice run, I can’t imagine what Luke has in store for later tonight…

Finally, when my skin has turned red from the heat of the water, and I smell like the hotel soap, a delicious lavender scent, I step back out of the stream and towel myself off. I already picked out a different outfit, a skirt and blouse that are a little fancier than the sundress I traveled in this morning. Besides, that’s wrinkled on the floor by the window. And the panties I was wearing are soaked through, so I change those too. I hope I packed enough pairs of panties for the weekend, or I’m going to wind up going commando at some point.

My belly tightens at the thought of that, and at the thought of what Luke would do if he found me panty-less on some outing this weekend. I drive dangerous thoughts of his lips and fingers from my mind, and hurriedly get dressed. Back out in our room, I catch Luke still naked, smirking as he leans against the window and watches me exit the bathroom. Unless I’m mistaken, he looks a little disappointed I’m dressed already.

But, “My turn,” is all he says, and he crosses into the bathroom next. I’m still drying off on the bed when there’s a knock at the door. I go to answer it and freeze at the unfamiliar face on the other side.

“Oh, uh…” It’s a guy I’ve never met, handsome enough in his own way, though he can’t hold a candle to Luke.

The guy’s face, on the other hand, brightens with recognition. “You must be Mrs. Rossfield, right?” My heart skips a beat at the words. Especially when he adds, “Luke’s told me so much about you.” He sticks out a hand, and I stare at it for a beat, before I spot the woman beside him, also smiling. “I’m Paul,” he adds, and it all clicks now.

“Celia,” I say. “Nice to meet you. Luke’s just getting ready.”

“This is my fiancée, Meghan.” Paul gestures over his shoulder, but Meghan’s already sweeping past him into the room to hug me.

“So nice to meet you! I can’t believe you managed to tie down the infamous Luke Rossfield.” Meghan swats my arm with a playful smile. “You must be every bit as amazing as Luke claims.”

I laugh, wondering for the first time exactly what Luke told his friend about me. Did he make it all up? Or did he really tell them about me and just invent the marriage part? “I’ve heard great things about you both too,” I say, mostly just to buy time. To be fair, Luke did say a lot of nice things about Paul, and that anyone who caught his friend’s eye for the long-term must be special.

Luckily, I’m saved by the sound of the water shutting off, and moment later, Luke sticks his head out, a towel wrapped around his waist. “Paul! I thought that was you. Give me a minute.”

“Your room is amazing.” Meghan is pacing around it, wide-eyed with appreciative awe. I’m glad. It means I’m not the only one who’s not used to staying in places like this one.

“Check out the view.” I demonstrate, to the sound of appreciative gasps, while behind us, Luke steps out of the bathroom, fully dressed this time in a pair of jeans and a loose button-down shirt, the top few buttons undone. Still, he manages to make me catch my breath, even dressed casually like that. He looks like he just walked out of a catalogue and into our room. I watch with appreciation as he grabs Paul in one of those tight, back-slapping hugs guys love.

Meghan catches me watching, and grins. “So the shine doesn’t wear off once you’re married? That’s good to know.” She glances down at her hand, where she’s wearing a diamond almost as large as the one Luke bought me. I remember what Luke said, about Meghan and Paul’s wedding coming up soon.

My throat tightens a little. I feel guilty, suddenly, about pretending to be some kind of wise married woman who could dispense advice. I don’t know what I’m talking about—I’m just here playing pretend. But I force a smile anyway. “I find it hard to imagine a time when it could, to be honest,” I say, because it’s the most truthful thing I can.

Meghan sighs and smiles back happily. “I know what you mean.” I catch her eying Paul in the same way, like she’s drinking him in. It makes my smile turn genuine. “You know, I used to never think I’d settle down?” Meghan confides. She flashes me a sly grin. “I used to be kind of a wild child. But then I met Paul, and it was like… oh. Yeah. I could do this, with him.”

“Trust me, that I understand.” I fight back a smile as I turn to find the guys waving us over.

“We’re going for drinks, come on.” Luke waits until I reach his side, and then slings an arm around my shoulders, tugging me against his side in a casual gesture that sends my heart leaping into my throat. He acts like we’ve done this a million times before, and I love the feeling.

“So how did a guy like you wind up with such a stunner?” Paul jokes, flashing me a quick wink as he takes Meghan’s hand, with the kind of ease that makes me smile to see. They’re a good match, the two of them. Easy with one another, relaxed. Plus, I can tell from the appreciative glances Paul keeps shooting his fiancée’s way, they’re both head over heels for one another. It’s adorable.

Inspiring.

I elbow Luke, smirking. “Yeah, how did you win me over, exactly?”

He gazes down at me, eyes alight with mischief, as we trail the others into the hallway and down toward the bank of elevators. “Well, it was in a similar resort to this one, actually, wasn’t it, Celia? We’d been working together for a long time—”

Meghan fakes a scandalized gasp. “Ooh, so it was forbidden office love, then?”

“Something like that.” Luke grins. “But then one weekend, we were finally able to get away from the pressures of work, and just be ourselves with one another. I kissed her in the elevator, and that was that. Right, Celia?”

My cheeks flare bright red. Does he mean now? But he can’t. This is all just part of the charade, isn’t it? He needed a convincing story for Paul, so he used our real one, cleverly disguised. I force myself to smile easily, playing along. “Of course. Though, you’re leaving out the part with the mind-blowing sex.”

He said he’s competitive with his friends, after all.

Paul and Meghan burst into laughter. Luke leans in to kiss my cheek. “Trust me, I would never forget that part.” His gaze bores into mine for a moment, until the elevator doors ding open, breaking the tension. “I was just saving the best part of the story for last.”

The four of us pile into the elevator—the same one Luke and I kissed in not so long ago—and Meghan glances around us. “So, the mind-blowing sex—did that happen in the same elevator where you guys made out, or…?”

“Should we be careful which elevator we take in here?” Paul jokes, and all of us laugh.

When we reach the ground floor, we take a walk around the property first. There’s even more to the hotel than we were able to see from our suite’s windows. We pass tennis courts, a squash area, even an on-site vineyard, where you can go pick your own grapes, and learn more about wine processing from the hotel’s vintners. There’s also a full-service spa area that looks huge.

Meghan flashes me a grin when we pass that. “You and I are definitely coming back here at some point,” she promises.

Finally, we reach the bar, set on the farthest side of the hotel from us. It butts right up against the cliff above the beachfront. There’s a set of stairs near the bar that lead down to the beach, and the building itself sits close to the edge so that from the table we secure, we have a stunning view out over the sea. Down below on the beach, we spot people sunbathing, and a few intrepid surfers out battling waves in the deeper water.

Luke’s the perfect gentleman, pulling out my chair for me and ordering on all of our behalf, since he’s the most familiar with the wine list in this region. He’s always been like this, even at work events, but I’ve never appreciated it as much as I do now, with the full force of his manners trained on me.

It makes me feel special in a way no guy ever has before. I can’t remember the last time I felt like a real lady on a date, much less a pampered one.

It doesn’t hurt that, as we’re settling in after ordering, Luke scoots my chair closer to his, and slides one hand over to rest on my knee, underneath the table. His palm is warm against my skin, his fingers curled lightly around my thigh, a reminder of what we just did in our hotel room not so long ago. A reminder of how those fingers felt inside me, as he pushed my back up against the window.

I feel my breath hitch, and I know I’m starting to get wet again just remembering it. I try to think about something, anything, else. At the same time, though, I reach down to rest one hand over Luke’s, curling my fingers around his as I lean in to listen to Paul’s story, about how he proposed to Meghan. It’s a cute story, in which they were on vacation in the Swiss Alps, and he was trying and failing to teach her to ski, and he worried his whole proposal idea was going to be ruined because she just wanted to go back inside and nap instead of taking the lift up to where he’d planned the thing.

But the whole time, Luke’s hand inches higher up my leg, and it’s all I can do to keep my gaze fixed on Paul and Meghan, my smile normal, as we both try to pretend nothing out of the ordinary is happening here.

Finally, Luke’s fingertips reach the edge of my panties, luckily hidden out of sight beneath the tablecloth. He shoots me a sly sideways smile and runs his thumb over the crease where my thigh meets my hip, just once, pressing hard enough to make a shiver run all the way from the top of my head to my toes. Then he draws his hand away, back to his own lap, and leaves me breathless and panting.