by Elise Faber
“Wait!” Acting on an instinct she didn’t want to examine too closely, Heather put one foot out of the car, reached to snag his wrist, and hauled him to a stop. “Let me at least take you back to your hotel.”
“I’m getting drunk,” he said, but allowed her to pull him inside the car so that her driver could shut the door behind them.
“You’re already drunk,” she said.
He stiffened. “More drunk.”
“Fine,” she said, half-worried he was going to launch himself from the sedan. She’d never seen Clay like this. Usually he was so cold and uncompromising, impenetrable even under the toughest of negotiations. He was . . . well, he was typically as Steele-like as his last name decreed.
She wrapped her arm through his in order to prevent any unplanned exits from the vehicle and gave the driver the name of her favorite bar. “If you really want to drink, let’s do it right.”
And then she’d drop him at his hotel.
Except it didn’t happen that way.
Yes, they hit the bar.
Yes, they drank.
Yes, they got plastered.
But then they woke up . . . or at least, Heather woke up.
Naked.
With a softly snoring Clay Steele passed out next to her in bed.
That wasn’t the worst part.
Because Heather woke up naked and with a softly snoring Clay Steele in her bed and she was wearing a giant diamond ring on her left hand.
Still not the worst part.
That came in the form of a slightly crumpled marriage certificate tucked under her right cheek.
And not the one on her face.
She pulled it from beneath her, a cold sweat breaking out on her body, dread in every nerve and cell.
She still wasn’t prepared for the horror she found.
The marriage license had been signed by . . . Heather O’Keith and Clay Steele.
Holy fuck, what had she done?
—Get your copy at www.books2read.com/BadHusband.
Bad Hookup
Book Four
(www.books2read.com/BadHookup)
* * *
CHAPTER ONE
Rachel
* * *
Rachel watched her boss dance with her second husband—or maybe husband twice over was a better description?—and gave a little sigh of happiness.
Yes, Heather was technically her boss, but she was also her friend.
And her friend deserved a happily ever after.
The party was just getting started, friends and business associates spilling out onto Heather’s back patio that had been decorated with twinkly lights, an abundance of flowers, and plenty of portable heaters.
Only the Sextant—herself, Abby, Bec, Seraphina, CeCe, and Heather—along with Jordan and Colin, Abby and CeCe’s husbands, respectively, and of course, Clay, knew that the surprise wedding they’d celebrated that night was technically a second wedding.
The rest of the guests just thought Heather had pulled a fast one on Clay.
Rachel smiled as she remembered the way the couple had come down the stairs, both of their eyes a little damp, but love emanating from every fiber of their bodies.
The vows had been beautiful and—
Ugh. She was getting a little too sappy.
Wiping the tears away before they could escape—and heaven forbid, ruin her mascara as Abby was always so worried about—Rachel blew out a breath and set about making sure the food the caterers had delivered was arranged properly.
Soon the cocktail hour would be over, and then the group of fifty-plus—okay, so she knew it was exactly fifty-seven guests, because she was damned good at her job—would descend like locusts on the food tables.
Everything needed to be ready.
So, she went down her mental checklist. Appetizers. Check. Several types of salad. Blegh, but check. Entrees. Pasta, chicken, and vegetarian. Check. Check. Check. The cake was also ready, perched at the end of the table and waiting to be cut.
“This little shindig your doing?”
Rachel froze, all her nerve endings going on alert.
She knew that voice.
She knew if she turned around, she would see him.
Him.
Tall, much taller than her, but lean when compared to her curves. Still, all that lankiness hadn’t meant a lack of strength. He’d been all sorts of hard and hot as he’d pinned her against the door and pounded into her.
Rachel cleared her throat but didn’t rotate to face him. “Not my doing. I just helped out.”
A long pause, probably because normal people usually looked each other in the eyes when they conversed.
“Well, from what I’ve seen, you’ve done a lot of helping out.” He put a hand on the table next to her, and she shifted away, shivering. She remembered what those fingers could do, how they’d traced over her skin, slipped between her legs, slid inside.
Shuddering, she smoothed out a wrinkle on the tablecloth.
“For a last-minute surprise wedding, everything is beautiful,” he said, no doubt waiting for her to say something semi-coherent.
She didn’t.
Instead, Rachel shrugged and began fussing with the placement of the warming dishes.
The man didn’t take the hint. He didn’t leave.
Why won’t he leave?
She dropped her chin to her chest.
“So,” he finally said after another lengthy—and silent—moment. “Gay, taken, or not interested?”
“Oh my God,” she moaned, one hand coming up to push her bangs off her forehead. “This is not happening.”
“I—” A beat then his voice was incredulous. “I know that moan.” Warm fingers grasped her wrist, tugged until she could see him in all his yumminess.
Her moment of weakness. Her hookup because she’d been feeling desperate and lonely and—
“It’s you,” he said softly.
Yes, it was her. Rachel, the good girl who didn’t sleep around, who certainly didn’t hook up with random strangers in a bar.
Rachel, who had hooked up with a stranger.
The sex had been damned good. Incredible, actually.
But it had been just that. Sex. And she hadn’t been able to let go of the guilt. She’d now slept with a grand total of two men in her life, and one of them was her husband.
“I—” She tugged at her wrist. “I need to go.”
Heather and Clay chose that exact moment to saunter over.
Why universe? Why?
“Rachel,” Heather said, closing the distance between them and hugging her tight. “I told you not to work so hard on the wedding. This”—she swept her hand around the deck—“is all too much.”
“You deserve to have a beautiful wedding,” Rachel murmured to her boss and gave her a quick squeeze before she stepped back.
Heather shook her head, but she was smiling. “Thank you.”
“Yes, thank you,” Clay said. “For all of it. I know it was a lot of work, but we appreciate—Oh, good”—he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, turning her to face Sebastian fully—“I was going to introduce you two, but I guess you’ve already met my assistant, Sebastian.”
Sebastian’s expression flickered with shock—no doubt mirroring her own—but luckily, Clay and Heather were too lost in each other and the moment to recognize just how big of a bomb Clay had just dropped.
After a few more words, their bosses moved on to talk with a business associate, and Sebastian’s blue-gray eyes darkened. His stare, all heat and desire and sex appeal, was what had undone her the first time they’d met.
But it was his words, the hint of a growl edging into his voice that made her insides tremble in that moment.
“I’m really looking forward to working with you, Rachel.”
She tipped over a bowl of salad dressing.
—Get your copy at www.books2read.com/BadHookup
Also by Elise Faber
(see a full listing and descriptions at w
ww.elisefaber.com)
* * *
Roosevelt Ranch Series (all stand alone)
Disaster at Roosevelt Ranch
Heartbreak at Roosevelt Ranch
Collision at Roosevelt Ranch
Regret at Roosevelt Ranch (August 4th, 2019)
* * *
Billionaire’s Club (all stand alone)
Bad Night Stand
Bad Breakup
Bad Husband
Bad Hookup
Bad Divorce
Bad Boyfriend (Oct 6th, 2019)
* * *
Gold Hockey (all stand alone)
Blocked
Backhand
Boarding
Benched
Breakaway (Sept 15th, 2019)
* * *
Life Sucks Series (all stand alone)
Train Wreck
* * *
Phoenix Series (rereleasing soon-read in order)
Phoenix Rising
Dark Phoenix
Phoenix Freed
* * *
Phoenix: LexTal Chronicles (rereleasing soon, stand alone, Phoenix world)
From Ashes
* * *
KTS Series
Fire and Ice (Hurt Anthology, stand alone)