VCard for Christmas

That’s what I tell myself, but the longer I don’t answer it, the louder the banging gets. I walk out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around me. As I get close to the front door, I can hear Lincoln’s voice. “Avery, open this door before I kick it in.”

I roll my eyes. His protective, sexy alpha routine was hot last night... now, knowing what I do, it’s not.

I tighten the towel around me and sling open the door. “What do you want?”

9

Lincoln

She’s even more beautiful without any makeup on her face. That’s the first thought that hits me, and then the next is what I was thinking when I woke up this morning and she was gone. “Why’d you leave?”

She doesn’t answer me. She frowns. “Stay right here.”

I put my hands on the doorway and peer into her apartment. What the fuck? She’s mad, but I can’t imagine what for. After the night we had, this morning is not shaping up the way I thought it would. She’s walking toward me with disgust on her face. She holds the ring I gave her last night out in front of my face. “Here’s your ring.”

I shake my head. Fuck that, I’m not taking the ring back. She’s going to be wearing that thing for real from now on. “Keep it. Put it back on.”

She sighs, and her voice is laced with frustration. “No. I’m not wearing it.”

I take the ring from her and slide it over her finger. “You’ll wear it until you pick out what you do want.”

Her mouth drops in shock, and she’s shaking her head. Her whole body is trembling, but it doesn’t seem to be for the same reason as last night. “I’m not wearing that ring or any ring you get me, for that matter.”

She tries to slam the door, but I put my hand out to stop it. I stupidly ran over here without putting shoes on, so I’m standing here in the freezing cold with only a pair of jogging pants on. “Let me in.”

And even though she can’t close the door, she holds it steady so I can’t push my way in. “No.”

I search her face, looking for an answer. This is not the same woman I was with last night. “What happened between last night when I made you come two times on my dick and this morning when you snuck out of my bed?”

Her body jerks, and she holds the towel tighter around her body. She feels those words. She knows and I know how her body reacted to me last night. She can’t take it back now and act like nothing happened between us. She can’t act like she didn’t fall in love with me last night.

“I know,” she says softly, and I swear there’s pain in her voice.

I reach for her, and she steps back. I grit my teeth. “What? You know what?”

“I heard your wife on the phone when I left this morning.”

I stare at her, waiting for her to laugh or make some indication that this is a joke. “The only wife I have is you... it may not be official yet, but to me it is.”

She shakes her head. “That’s not funny, Lincoln.”

“I’m not joking.”

She starts talking with her hands, and it’s then I know that she’s really upset. “Look, I heard it, okay? I heard the woman say that she was your wifey and she’s sorry she couldn’t make it last night. I can’t believe you’re married... I can’t believe you’d do that to me.”

My mind starts to race, and then I remember my call to my friend Barry yesterday. He said he was going to help me with a wife, even mentioned asking one of our mutual friends. “I’m not married. There never has been a Mrs. Lincoln Roberts, and in the future there will be only one Mrs. Lincoln Roberts, and I’m looking at her right now.”

She grips the doorknob. “I know what I heard, Lincoln.”

I look down at my feet and up to her. “Will you please let me in? I’m going to get frostbite.”

She looks down at my toes that are a bright red. She takes a step back, and I all but jump into the apartment. She moves into the room, but I just follow her. I woke up this morning with her sneaking away. I don’t want there to be any distance between us. I go to stand in front of her, and she tries to move, but I stop her. “Listen to me. Stand here until I get it all out and then you can move if you still don’t want to hear what I have to say.”

She crosses her arms over her chest and looks at me defiantly. She wants to walk away and leave me, but I’m not going to let that happen. I know that last night was special. Now I just have to convince her of it. “What you heard was the result of my friend Barry trying to help me out last night. He knew the situation I was in, and that’s who I was talking to when you came outside to take your trash. He said he would find me someone, and I told him I would take care of it but he didn’t listen. That’s all that was. I’m not married... not yet, anyway.”