Wife for Now

“But you’re the one who really deserves it,” he adds, just before he bends forward to point through the windshield. “How’s she look?”

My eyes widen as I take in the veritable castle we’re driving up to. It’s set on a cliff high above the Pacific, the waves crashing onto white sand beaches far below. Up here, the hotel sprawls into four wings, looking more like a palace that belongs in Europe than here in SoCal. But I’m not complaining.

We pull up to the main drive, and a valet opens the door for me, then offers a hand to help me out of the car. Before I can lift a finger, another hotel valet has opened the trunk to remove our bags.

“We’ll bring these to your room, Mr. Rossfield,” he says, already hustling inside. I move to follow, but Luke stops me with one hand on my elbow.

“I almost forgot.” He draws a small box out of his pocket, and my heart does a painful skip in my chest.

Is that…?

“We have to make this convincing, don’t we?” With a grin, he pops the lid and offers up one of the most beautiful diamonds I’ve ever seen.

I inhale sharply, mostly to try and keep my composure. It’s a princess cut, with a white gold band. It’s everything I ever imagined, and in my wildest dreams, my own wedding ring might look like it one day. At least I can say I had it for a few days, I think, as Luke slides it onto my finger, his eyes on my face to gauge my reaction.

I’m grinning like an idiot. I try to tamp it down, but there’s no disguising this. “It’s beautiful,” I whisper.

He leans in to kiss my cheek, his lips lingering against my skin for the barest breath of a second. “Only the best for my wife.” Then he presses a hand lightly against the small of my back to guide me forward, into the hotel.

It takes me a second to remember how to walk. If this weekend didn’t feel like a dream already, now it definitely does. I suppress a shiver and cross the hotel lobby, trying my best not to look at the ring on my finger. Trying not to let myself fall for the lie. It’s just a bet. One weekend.

But damn, what a weekend it’s going to be.

The bellhops see us straight into the elevator, but inside, they just push the floor for us and step back out again, leaving us alone as the door slides shut. Luke turns to grin at me. “We should practice, you know. Before we have to perform for an audience.”

I arch an eyebrow. “Practice what, exactly?”

His smile remains fixed in place, but there’s something new in his eyes now, a spark that wasn’t there before. A heat. “Kissing,” he says, and before I can react, he’s reaching up to cup my cheek and tilting my face toward his.

I’ve imagined this moment a hundred times before. But I never imagined it quite like this—how warm his palm would feel cupping my cheek, or how I would catch his scent beforehand for a second, a hint of smoke and spice. My eyes drop to his lips, and I have just enough time to let them flutter closed before his lips find mine.

The kiss is soft at first. Hesitant. He kisses me like I’m delicate, breakable. But then I reach up to twine my arms around his neck and kiss him back. The moment I do, his free hand slides around my waist, pulling me against him, and his lips part as he deepens the kiss, his tongue slipping past mine to claim me, completely.

I can’t help it. He tastes even better than I imagined, feels so much more real than I ever pictured. All my fantasies, all my fanfiction stories, they pale in comparison to the reality of his warm, muscular body pressed against mine. This is Luke, I remind myself. This is really happening. It feels like I just wandered into a dream.

His hand slides down my waist to my hip, his fingers digging into me through the fabric of my thin sundress. I arch one leg around his, and I can feel the hard press of his cock against my belly, thick and throbbing through his pants. I moan into his mouth, unable to help it, because fuck he feels so good.

The moment I do that, though, he pulls back, chuckling softly, those searing blue eyes of his fixed on me as he laughs. “Maybe you don’t need any practice after all, Celia.” He reaches up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, one that escaped as we kissed. His hand lingers against my cheek. “You’ve got the horny newlywed act down perfect.”

My cheeks flush bright red, and his grin deepens, like he knows exactly how wild he’s driving me. But before I can respond, the elevator reaches our floor, and he takes my hand to lead me out of it, down the hallway, toward the suite that we’re sharing.