Take Me (Take a Chance 4)

He heard a rustling sound behind him. “Soon to be annulled husband.”

He stopped, his hand on the knob. A weight sat in his chest, heavy and begging to be let free. “Honey? What we just did right there wasn’t just any fucking. That was consummation.”

And with that, he stormed into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Something slammed against it and a string of curses so colorful they even made him blush sounded from within the room. Shaking his head, he closed his eyes against the harsh reality of day.

Closed himself away from her…at least until he could figure out what the hell to do next.

Chapter Nine

Morgan threw her boot at the door but it fell short of making her feel any better. Just like all the rest of her best laid plans. Like, oh, what was that again? Riiight. Not getting married and tied down to a man. And she’d done so freaking great with that goal so far. Well, she had up until Mike, anyway. Then, all it had taken was a night of drinking and mind-blowing sex and she’d decided it was a great idea to marry the idiot.

Ugh.

She shoved her hair out of her face and tried to ignore the way her hands shook. What was he going to do next? What would he say? He had said something about refusing to annul their marriage but that had been a joke…hadn’t it? He couldn’t seriously want to stay married to her. Why would he?

He was just as much against marriage as she was, if not more.

Besides, he couldn’t make her stay married if she didn’t want to be, no matter how much sex they had.

She slapped on her boots and stomped her way to the door. If he thought she would just lie down and wait for him to decide to do the right thing, then he had another thing coming.

When she ripped the door open, she found him in the hallway, leaning against the wall with a resigned look on his face. He looked so alone that for a brief second, she forgot how mad she was. Then he sighed and gave her a cocky, assessing look and the anger came back full force.

“What game are you playing?” She marched right up to him, hands on her hips. “And why are you still out here?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t know.” He rubbed his forehead. “When it comes to you, and us, I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.”

“I noticed.” She gave an uneasy laugh. “You married me, after all.”

He eyed her and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah. I did. I haven’t stopped thinking about why I would have possibly married you, feeling the way I do about marriage. I wouldn’t have done it without a damned good reason.”

“Because you were drunk,” she offered.

“I’ve been drunk before. I’ve never been married, though. Why you? Why now?”

His thoughts were so eerily close to hers, it scared her. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be married and neither do you. The only thing to do is fix it. Make it go away. You can send me my portion of the bill when it’s over.”

He lifted his hand and his fingers lightly grazed her jaw. Then he ran his thumb over her lower lip, his touch barely there. “And never see you again? Forget that for a second last night, I actually wanted love? Marriage? The normal things normal people want?”

She swallowed hard. “You don’t love me. We barely know each other.”

“Yet.”

“Yet.”

“I can’t shake this feeling that I didn’t make a mistake last night.” He met her eyes hesitantly, as if he didn’t want to see her reaction to his shocking words. “That we didn’t make a mistake, and maybe we should think some more before moving on.”

“I don’t think so.” She licked her lips, her tongue brushing against his thumb. His sea green eyes darkened and he watched her mouth. “Given our past couple of days, maybe we should avoid knowing each other better. Maybe we should stop seeing each other, before we forget our own goals. Clearly we’re a reckless combination.”

He cocked his head. “Goals? Like dancing across the United States.”

“Yes.”

“And if I’m not sure that giving us up is the best thing?”

“Then open your eyes.” She grabbed his hand, squeezed it, and dropped her hold on him. “Because you’re being blinded by something.”

She walked away from him, her steps slow but steady. Half of her expected him to chase after her and the other half wished he wouldn’t. She wasn’t sure what the heck she felt when he didn’t follow her. But it was for the best, really. They needed to stop this odd game of house they were playing. Needed to wake the hell up and stay away from each other.