The Wedding Pact Box Set

by Denise Grover Swank

  “Yes, I guessed as much. But what exactly would she do?”

  “She would disown me and ban my father and brother and Gram from ever speaking to me again.”

  “She would really do that?”

  “She’s done that exact same thing for lesser offenses. She has a sister. When I was in middle school, they had a stupid fight. Mom said it was over which toilet paper was better, of all things, but they haven’t spoken since. Gram doesn’t even mention her around my mother. And whenever I asked Gram about it, she would just say it wasn’t her story to tell. That it was up to my mom if she wanted to tell me about it someday.” She shook her head “Who could disown their own sister over something so ridiculous?”

  Josh stared at her in shock.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” She propped up on one elbow. “Why would I care what she thinks? But I don’t want to lose my entire family. I love my dad and my brother. And while I know Gram would still call me, I’d never see her now that she’s living with my parents. My father . . . he loves me, but I’m not sure he loves me enough.” She sat up, anxiety forming a ball in the pit of her stomach. “To tell her everything would make me an orphan in every sense of the word.”

  He sat up next to her, taking her hand between both of his. “And what’s the very best-case outcome from all of this?”

  “Best-case? That we would get married tomorrow with them still thinking you’re Jay.” She shook her head and pushed out her frustration with a heavy breath. “But since I don’t see you changing your last name in the near future, the far more likely best-case scenario is that you break up with me tonight and my mother spends the rest of her life shaming me. Every Thanksgiving I come home, I’ll still hear that I single-handedly lost them fifty thousand dollars.” She shrugged. “But at least I’ll still have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving dinner.”

  No, Megan would have to find another solution to this problem, but as she stared into Josh’s worried face, she wasn’t sure there was one. And she only had herself to blame.

  Chapter Twenty

  Josh had to admit that the odds were stacked against them. Megan would have to throw her entire family away simply to take a chance on him. They hardly knew each other, but he knew enough to think she might be the one.

  He thought back to something his father told him back when he was a sophomore in high school. His longtime crush had just broken his heart by refusing his invitation to the homecoming dance, so his father had brought him out for pizza. They’d talked about anything and everything else until they were halfway through their pie, and then all his father had said was, “There are lots of girls out there, Joshy. You’ll probably date a bunch of them. Or maybe you’ll only date a few. But one day, you’ll find the one.” He’d given Josh an all-knowing smile and wiped his hands on a napkin. “It will probably knock you over when you least expect it. At least that’s what happened with me. Your mother walked into my Biology 101 lab in college, and there was something about her that made me take notice. We were lab partners, and I could hardly focus on what we needed to do. I asked her out before we left the room. We were engaged a year later, but I knew right away I’d marry her someday. And every day I spent with her only made me more certain. She’d look at me in this special way . . . and my heart would melt. I wanted to make all her dreams come true, and you know what? I’ve spent my life trying. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love your mother, and I never will.” And with that, his father had picked up another slice of pizza. “Someday you’ll find the one. And I can’t wait to meet her once you do.”

  Josh had blown off his father’s words, thinking his father couldn’t possibly understand what he was going through. But now he knew . . . and it saddened him that his father would never meet Megan.

  But the memory of his father’s words gave him renewed determination. “So you’re really going to break up with me tonight?”

  She shook her head slowly. “No. You’re going to break up with me.” Tears filled her eyes and she stood. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I want the rest of our time together to be happy.”

  He stood and pulled her into his arms. They had so many strikes against them, but he still held on to a slender thread of hope. “Okay.”

  She forced a smile. “So for today, let’s pretend like we have forever and avoid thinking about what happens tonight. Happy memories. Agreed?”

  He smiled softly at her. “Yes.”

  She grabbed his hand and tugged, her smile turning genuine and playful. “Now come take a shower with me.”

  “Okay, but I’m warning you now that I like really hot water.”

  Her eyes twinkled with wicked delight. “No cold showers for you. I can live with that. But I don’t think you’ll need one today.”

  He laughed, but his heart was still aching, reminding him that there were plenty of cold showers in his foreseeable future.

  At first he thought it might be impossible to recapture their earlier playfulness, but it slipped back on easily when he was with her. They took turns washing each other, laughing about Josh confusing her shower gel for conditioner, then kissed until the water turned cold. Megan shrieked, still in the process of shaving her legs. He teased her, saying pioneer women had shaved in less favorable conditions, and she ordered him to get out.

  “You know that you’re actually doing me a favor, right?” he laughed. “I already told you how I feel about cold showers.”

  “Well, in that case, I insist you stay.”

  He laughed and stepped to the back of the tub.

  She looked up in surprise, her wet hair hanging in her face. “You’re actually going to stay?”

  “I take my fake marriage vows very seriously, Megan Vandemeer. Your wish is my command.” He grinned and crossed his arms, pressing his back against the wall to keep out of the way of the stream of cool water.

  She chuckled and returned her attention to shaving. The sight of her nude form bent over her long legs stirred him again. Good God, how many times could he have sex in a twenty-four-hour period?

  She giggled. “I wasn’t aware that marriage vows included staying in cold showers.”

  “My fake marriage vows contain many unconventional promises.”

  Her gaze returned to him, stopping mid-stroke with her razor. “And what would those be?”

  He shrugged, grimacing with mock apology. “You’d have to marry me to find out.”

  She finished with her leg and stood up, turning toward him with a seductive look in her eyes.

  God, he wanted her.

  Her eyes dropped down to his growing erection, then shot back up to his face. “Your vows include cold showers?” Her voice was deeper, thick with desire.

  “Possibly.”

  She placed her hand on his chest and looked up into his eyes, but the teasing glint in her gaze told him it wasn’t foreplay. “Then you won’t mind this.”

  Before he realized what she was doing, she grabbed the detachable showerhead off the wall and sprayed him with cold water.

  He yelled and tried to jump out of the tub, but she grabbed his arm, laughing. “I thought your vows included taking cold showers with me.”

  “Then after we exchange our fake marriage vows, I’ll be happy to comply. I can’t give up the milk before the wedding,” he laughed. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t need to buy the cow.”

  She broke into giggles. “I bought a water buffalo last Christmas through Heifer International, so technically I already own one.”

  He pulled the shower handle from her with one hand and pulled her to his chest with the other. “Then that would make you a bovine bigamist, Ms. Vandemeer.”

  She eyed the shower nozzle, which Josh had pointed toward the tile wall. “What are you going to do with that?”

  He waggled his eyebrows. “If I were an eye for an eye type of guy, I’d hold you down and spray you.”

  “And if you weren’t . . . ?” A hopeful look crossed her face.

  “I guess you
’ll never find out.” He turned the water on her for a couple of seconds until she shrieked. Then, still holding her, he turned her sideways and reached for the faucet, turning off the water but leaving the showerhead dangling from the wall.

  “You’ll pay for that,” she said between giggles.

  He pressed her back against the tile and kissed her, playfulness turning to passion. Releasing the hold on her wrist, he pressed his palm against hers, interlacing their fingers. He pushed her arm against the wall while her free hand slid into his wet hair, holding him close. His erection pressed against her abdomen, and she reached for him, stroking his shaft.

  “You’re a very resilient man,” she grinned against his lips.

  “Only with you,” he said, his voice deepening.

  He reached between her legs and she gasped.

  “You really want to do this again?” she asked, spreading her legs wider for him.

  He sucked in his breath, telling himself to slow down, but Megan seemed to have other ideas. “I told you that I had a hard time deciding between having you in the shower or on the bed. This is what I call a win/win situation.”

  “So you like to have your cake and eat it, too?”

  He dropped her hand, then cupped her ass and lifted her higher on the wall. “I definitely love cake.”

  His mouth found hers as she helped guide him into her. She looped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, holding on as he began to move.

  “Do you have any idea how much you turn me on?” he asked as he pushed inside her.

  She tilted her pelvis to take him deeper. “I have a pretty good idea,” she said breathlessly.

  Neither one of them lasted long. Her soft whimpers nearly pushed him over the edge, but he held on until she came, too. When she cried out and tightened around him, he buried his face into her neck and dug his fingers into her ass cheeks as he plunged deep and hard inside her before coming.

  He leaned against her and she started to laugh softly in his ear. “If that flight attendant knew how amazing you are, she probably would have fought harder to keep you.”

  He nuzzled her neck, making her squirm. “She never had me. You had my full attention on that flight.”

  “And now?” she asked.

  He arched back to look into her face. “I’m all yours, Megan.”

  “Lucky me.” She gave him a sweet smile, and he marveled that she was such a chameleon—soft and vulnerable one minute, mischievous the next, then seductive and sexy.

  Her eyes, focusing on something behind him, widened in horror, so he looked over his shoulder to see what had startled her. Gram was staring at them through the partially cracked shower curtain, holding up a small camera.

  “I knew he’d have a nice patootie,” the older woman said.

  Her words jarred Megan from her trance. “Gram! What are you doing in here? Did you take pictures?”

  “I heard all that banging and moaning. I thought we had a ghost. I wanted to get a picture of it. I figured we had a chance to be on that ghost show The Dead Files.”

  “We don’t have a ghost! Get out of here, Gram!”

  “Can I just get one picture of Josh’s ass?”

  “No!”

  Josh came to his senses and jerked the shower curtain shut, turning to face Megan. “How much do you think she saw?”

  “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see your backside drawn in charcoal and taped to her wall.”

  “Oh, God . . .”

  She laughed. “It could be worse. She could have seen the front.”

  “If your grandmother is home, does that mean your mother is? Doesn’t she usually take her everywhere?”

  Her amusement disappeared. “Oh, no . . .”

  He dropped his hold on her, and she slid down the wall. Desperate to comfort her, he said, “I don’t think she’s here, Meggie. From what she said on her voice mail, she had a very full morning.”

  “Okay.”

  He cupped her cheek and tilted her face up to his. “Why don’t you listen to her voice mail to verify, and I’ll hurry and get dressed and go investigate. Okay?”

  She nodded, looking worried.

  “Babe, even if she’s here, it’s not the end of the world. She already expected us to have sex.”

  “But if Gram—who’s as deaf as an eighteen-year-old dog—heard us, then my mother definitely did. I’ll never be able to face her.”

  “Megan,” he said, gently. “I’ll take care of it.”

  She nodded again, looking relieved. “Okay. Thank you.”

  He got out of the shower and handed her a towel. “And I’ll check the time, too. I suspect we’ll need to hurry if we’re going to meet my brother at eleven.”

  “Where is he, anyway?” Megan asked. “Why isn’t he here?”

  The reminder of Noah’s mission for the day hit Josh square between the eyes. How could he have forgotten? What the hell? Two days with this amazing, gorgeous woman, and he was ready to toss in the towel and let his business close. But he knew he’d do anything to keep her in his life. Talking to her this morning made him realize that he’d made his father’s legacy such a priority, he’d lost sight of everything else. Whether he could find a way to keep Megan in his life or not, he had some serious reevaluating to do with the rest of his life.

  But he was going to work on one problem at a time. And Megan came first.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Megan climbed out of the tub and listened to her mother’s voice mail. Josh was right. It sounded like her mother would be tied up all day before leaving in the morning. But she noticed something else. Josh hadn’t mentioned that she had a voice mail from Jay, yet he must have seen it.

  Megan almost deleted it without listening, but curiosity got the best of her.

  “Megan, I know our wedding was supposed to be in a couple of days, and it’s made me realize how badly I fucked things up with you. I want to take you out to dinner tomorrow night and we can talk things over. Give me a call.”

  She stared at her phone in disbelief. Did he really think it would be that easy?

  Another question registered, giving her pause. Would she have gone back to him if Josh hadn’t come into her world? No. There was no way she would have been able to trust him again. Jay Connors deserved whatever miserable life he’d created for himself. She deleted his voice mail, hoping her non-response would be message enough.

  Josh came back to the bathroom as she put her phone on the bathroom counter next to Josh’s dead one.

  He leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb. “The good news is that your mother’s nowhere to be found. Gram says she refused to run errands with her. Get this, Gram’s excuse was that she thought she was coming down with something after running around naked last night.”

  Megan cringed. “Good . . . I guess.”

  “The bad news is that Gram wants to go to the tux rental place with us. Since I found her in her room with an easel and charcoal, I agreed. I figured it would stop her from immortalizing me in art . . . at least for the moment.”

  Megan laughed. “Looks like we have a chaperone.”

  Josh didn’t look so excited. “I’d be lying if I said that idea thrilled me, but when your grandmother isn’t streaking or trying to see me naked, she’s actually kind of fun.”

  “I’m pretty fond of her myself.”

  “Say, I really need to check my emails, but my phone is dead. Any chance I can use the computer in the home office?”

  She glanced up in surprise. Why hadn’t she considered that? “Uh . . . sure. It’s password-protected, though.”

  “Do you happen to know it?”

  A grin spread across her face. “It’s probably the same one Dad uses for everything. Lovebug4Me.” She spelled it out for him. “He used to call me his Lovebug.”

  A strange look flickered in his eyes. “You’re sure he won’t mind me using it?”

  “No, of course not.”

  He hesitated in the doo
rway. “How long do you think it will take for you to get ready? We have about forty minutes before we’re expected to show up.”

  “Twenty to twenty-five minutes. I have to do something with my hair.” She lifted the damp strands hanging over her shoulder. “It only takes about fifteen minutes to get there.”

  “Perfect.” He glanced at her phone. “Do you think I could borrow that? I need to check in with my business manager.”

  “Of course.”

  He gave her a quick kiss, then slid the phone off the counter and disappeared without another word.

  Josh sat in Bart’s office chair, staring at the startup screen to his desktop computer.

  He knew the password that Bart Vandemeer used for everything. The implications of what he could do with that knowledge were mind-boggling.

  Of course, Megan could be wrong, but Josh had seen the man in action the previous day. He wasn’t technologically savvy, which would mean he probably didn’t change passwords unless he had to. He entered the password into the startup screen, his stomach knotting as he waited to see if it worked. If the password was a dud, it got him off the hook with his big ethical decision.

  But the password was accepted, and the screen flipped to a starry sky background full of icons. Josh was relieved. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to break Bart’s privacy by checking email and document folders, but at least the decision hadn’t been made for him. Josh had never made a choice passively when he could help it. He preferred to weigh his options and make a well-planned move. That’s why he was more confused than ever since Megan had entered the equation. He’d never waffled this much in his life. Megan was his kryptonite.

  First, he really did need to check his own email. The computer had two browsers. One was open with multiple tabs, including Bart’s email, and the other browser was closed. Josh opened the second browser and uploaded his email account, not surprised to see fifty emails waiting for his attention. He’d only left Seattle two days ago, but he’d neglected things the day before while searching for information about PMV Engineering.