Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
I whimper softly as a heatwave rolls through me. Archer Graves is a dangerous, dangerous man. He may also be slightly unhinged.
I do not love it.
Maybe if I tell myself that often enough, I’ll actually believe it.
He nips my skin and then settles back in his seat with a triumphant smirk. I scowl at him, which only makes that damn smirk grow.
Why isn’t he freaking out about the fact that we got married last night? Micah is his best friend. He should be losing his shit right now. Actually, he should have been freaking out when we woke up married this morning. But did he? No. He seemed hurt when I brought up divorce. Or pissed.
I narrow my eyes on him, my mind rife with suspicion. “How drunk were you last night, Archer?”
“What?” His brows furrow like he doesn’t understand the question, but I’m not buying what he’s selling. Because he tenses ever so slightly and his smirk slips. I’m not sure if it’s guilt or regret or something that might as well qualify as both, but something flickers in his eyes before he manages to school his expression. “What do you mean?”
It’s a simple enough question, and he’s far from stupid. In fact, he’s one of the most intelligent men I know. He had full ride offers from three different Ivy League colleges before he decided to draft instead. He knows what I’m asking, and he’s trying to buy himself time. Trying to think his way out of a corner.
“How drunk were you?” I ask again, my eyes locked on his face, looking for any little sign that he knew what we were doing last night.
My own memory has holes big enough to drive a Zamboni through.
I remember video poker and the way he kept brushing up against me and whispering in my ear. I remember kissing him on the elevator. I even remember saying yes when he suggested getting married. The only memories after that are kaleidoscope flashes of a wedding chapel and him slipping a ring on my finger. And then there’s nothing. No kiss. No signing the certificate. No getting undressed and crawling into bed with him. My memory is just soup and then a void.
And somehow, even though I should regret it…part of me doesn’t. That’s the part that scares me. It’s the part that worries the hell out of me. I married my brother’s best friend while I was drunk in Vegas, and I don’t entirely regret it.
It was a terrible decision. One that may just rip their team and their friendship apart at the seams. And I’m starting to suspect that Archer knew what he was doing the whole time.
I was wasted.
But was he?
“Drunk enough,” he mutters. A muscle in his cheek ticks as his eyes slide from mine.
“You knew what we were doing, didn’t you?” The truth hits me like a freight train. I stare at him with my mouth hanging open and my mind reeling. Oh my gosh. He knew! I know he did. The truth is written all over his gorgeous, lying face.
Micah hits a particularly loud snore beside him, momentarily capturing his attention. He glances over at my brother and then mutters a curse before turning to face me again.
He leans in close, putting his lips right up against my ear. “Yeah, I fucking knew, little bird,” he rasps against my ear. “If that makes me an asshole in your eyes, I’ll accept it. But it doesn’t change the fact that my wife belongs in my home and in my bed.”
The whole world tilts upside down. Or maybe my place in it does. I don’t know! All I know is that he’s not denying it. He knew what we were doing last night, and he did it anyway. He married me anyway.
“Why?” I ask, the word shaking on my lips.
“Same reason you’d been wanting to kiss me forever,” he mutters.
“I…” I stare at him, rendered speechless. There’s no way this man knows I’m in love with him. He can’t know…right? Hesitation slides through me, sending my heart racing. Sending me spiraling toward a full-on panic attack.
No. He doesn’t know. He can’t know, I tell myself. I’ve been careful. This is something else. He means something else.
Sex!
Yes. That’s it. He means he married me because he wants to fuck me. That’s all this is. He didn’t want to feel guilty about sleeping with his best friend’s sister, so he married me.
I hear the desperation in my own thoughts, but I cling to it like a lifeline. I delude myself because…because it’s the only option. Because the alternative is admitting the truth and watching all hell break loose. It means watching my world crumble.
And believe me, it will crumble. Micah will never forgive us. Their team will be torn down the middle. Archer will lose his best friend. And I’ll lose my brother.