Affinity: A Salvation Society Novel

by Harlow Layne

  I tried to close my eyes again, but the sound of Levi and another woman arguing with Abbi in the other room got me out of bed. When I walked out of the bedroom, I found Levi leveling an evil eye at me.

  “Dude, get dressed and meet us out in the living room.”

  He turned away, giving me his back before I could say a word. He acted like all this was my fault. Where the hell had he been all night? When I came back out after getting dressed, Abbi was curled up on the couch, full-on crying on the other woman’s shoulder. I ignored them and looked to Levi.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know. I can’t believe you pulled that shit on me. Do you know how pissed off Catherine is? When she gets ahold of you and the wifey, she’s going to skin you alive. It’s all over the internet.”

  “What?” Abbi and I both said at the same time.

  It was at that moment that the writing on my finger and what Levi had said finally took hold in my alcohol-soaked brain. Looking down at my finger, I wanted to erase the tattoo and the last twenty-four hours of my life like they’d never happened.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Jenner.”

  Chapter Three

  Abbi

  This couldn’t be happening. While I had scribbled Abbi Jenner on all my notebooks in high school, I never thought I would actually be Mrs. Jenner. Especially not to the has-been version that was staring at me from across the room like he wished I would disappear in a puff of smoke.

  Clutching Sophie’s hand, I begged her. “Tell me this is all a lie.”

  Sophie’s gaze never left mine as she broke the bad news. “I wish I could, but you really did marry that asshole.” She mouthed the words I’m sorry as tears built in my eyes. Sophie knew I’d had a crush on Reeves Jenner throughout high school and some of college, but she also knew it was no more. The pitying look she gave me wasn’t making me feel any better.

  And his friend had mentioned Catherine, my boss, was pissed. I knew that I was going to lose my dream job all because of one stupid drunken night. How had I let this happen?

  I jumped up as an idea came to me. “We can get it annulled like it never happened.” It was perfect. People got married all the time in Vegas and then got it annulled. What was one more?

  The man sitting beside Reeves grimaced and shook his shaggy head. He was cute with his long brown hair that almost brushed his ears and light brown eyes. He was dressed in skinny jeans—that under normal circumstances would have made me jealous that he looked better in them than I would—and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows revealing sleeves of tattoos on his arms.

  “Too late for that.” He picked up an iPad off the table and clicked around for a few seconds before he turned the screen toward us.

  I watched as a video on YouTube played of Reeves and me stumbling out of a limo; I looked like a monkey as I tried to climb him and wrapped my legs around him. I was just thankful that his large hands grabbed my ass, and the world hadn’t seen that I hadn’t worn underwear last night. That’s all I needed was for my brother, Paul, to see my debauchery all over the internet. The entire right side of the screen was filled with more videos like the one we were watching.

  Paparazzi surrounded us as we stumbled our way into the little white chapel and took video and pictures as they shouted at Reeves.

  “Who’s the lucky lady?” one of them shouted.

  “The love of my life,” Reeves shouted back.

  I watched in horror as my eyes filled with hearts before I sloppily kissed him. It looked like I was trying to swallow his head whole. Oh my god, what had I done?

  “I’ve loved you since I was in ninth grade,” I confessed on video.

  Kill me now. I wanted to throw up again, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the shit show that we were being shown.

  Reeves rushed us inside the chapel but turned at the last minute to shout. “We’ll be back in a few minutes as husband and wife.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How had Sophie and whoever this guy was let us get married?

  “Where were you?” I hissed at Sophie. Her face fell, and I immediately felt bad. It wasn’t her fault that I stupidly got hitched last night.

  “You guys took off, and it took us forever to catch a cab and when we did . . . ” She nodded to the iPad.

  Reeves was carrying me bridal style out of the chapel with a beaming smile on his face. “I want to introduce you to Mrs. Reeves Jenner.”

  I was looking up at him as if he was my moon and stars, and so in love, it was sickening. How much had I drunk last night?

  The paparazzi cheered as if they were really happy for us. I’m sure they were because they were going to make a lot of money off of their pictures and we were only making it easier for them.

  “Show us the ring!” one of them shouted.

  I looked down at the tattoo on my finger and sighed. I was pretty sure the wedding chapel didn’t do tattoos as wedding rings.

  “We’ve yet to pick out our rings, but bright and early Monday morning, I’ll take my sweet Abbi to the best jewelers in LA and let her pick out anything she wants.” Reeves laid the mother of all kisses on me, and my stomach rolled.

  Wrapping my arms tighter around his neck, I squealed. Fucking squealed like a little girl and professed, “I don’t need a ring when I’ve got you. I’ve wanted you forever, and now we are one.”

  I looked up to see Reeves staring across the living room at me. His face was blank as he assessed me.

  “Isn’t she the best! My Abbi only wants me for me and not my fame and fortune.” That led to us making out in the most disgusting way possible right before we made our way into the limo.

  In the background, a cab pulled up with Sophie and whoever the guy was next to Reeves stepping out and running after our limo.

  The paparazzi followed our limo and stopped in front of a tattoo parlor. How I wished someone would have filmed what had happened in the limo and what made us choose to get tattoos as wedding rings. Actually, I take that back. I’m glad I didn’t get to see what happened. We probably consummated our marriage going by how disheveled we both were as we slid out of the limo and made our way inside.

  While the tattoo parlor wouldn’t let the paparazzi inside to film, they got the entire thing from the outside. There was no way in hell to deny the proof of the video. Somehow last night, I met my high school crush, and we ran off and got married.

  How was I going to get out of this mess?

  “Maybe no one will watch it,” I spoke up, hoping with all hope that I was right.

  “It would be easier to find someone who hasn’t watched it. It’s the top story everywhere. And I mean everywhere,” the guy said.

  “Who are you?” I finally asked him. I didn’t care if I was rude. He was on Reeves’ side, and therefore, the enemy.

  He gave me a tentative smile. “I’m Levi, Mr. Jenner’s assistant.”

  “Where were you last night?” Reeves growled at him.

  “Putting out all your fires. You,” he stared Reeves down with a pissed off glint in his eyes, “were hell-bent on trying to cause as much trouble as possible. At one point, you locked me in a bathroom to give yourself some lead time.”

  Reeves ran his fingers through his hair, looking utterly defeated. “That’s not like me. You know that. Even when . . . I’ve never done anything like this before.”

  Good to know he didn’t run off and get married on the regular.

  Levi nodded but didn’t say a word.

  Resting his face in his hands, Reeves muttered, “What am I going to do now?”

  Levi looked down at his phone and frowned. “We’re about to find out. Catherine is on her way up.”

  “I’m going to be fired,” I moaned. “What am I going to do now, Sophie? When Paul finds out, he’s going to be so disappointed in me.”

  “Catherine will find some way to spin this,” Levi muttered right before there was a loud knock on
the door.

  Fuck, my life was over.

  Chapter Four

  Jenner

  I froze when I heard the knock on the door. Catherine was going to skin me alive and then throw what was left to the wolves, and I couldn’t even defend myself. I remembered nothing from the night before, and if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes and the evidence on my finger, I wouldn’t have believed it.

  My head pounded with each knock of Catherine’s fist. It was too early, and my head hurt too much for her to rip me a new one. She had asked me to have a low-key weekend and look at what I’d done. Levi got up to answer the door, patting me on the back as he walked by. He knew what I was in for. Lifting my head, I watched as Abbi whispered furiously with her friend. I had to admit she was a knockout. At least my judgment where that was concerned wasn’t impaired last night.

  I wished someone could tell us how we met or why we thought we were desperately in love and needed to get married. I’d never wanted to get married again after Poppy, so maybe she’d blown my mind with the best blow job I’d ever received. That had to be it. Not that Catherine would care.

  Speak of the devil.

  My pulse picked up as her heels clicked down the hallway and into the sitting room. She stopped directly in front of me and leveled me with her steely gaze. I’d never seen her as pissed as she was right then, and that was saying something with all the trouble I’d been in.

  “Why?” she gritted out. “What possessed you to let yourself be filmed last night?”

  I wasn’t going to lie to her. She already knew why. “I was drunk.”

  “That was more than drunk, Jenner.” Her arms flew out to her sides as she continued to stare me down.

  Hanging my head and breaking the staring contest, I confessed. “I don’t remember any of it. Levi had to show us the video. Maybe she drugged me.” I pointed toward Abbi.

  “Me? Drug you?” she shrieked. “I’ve never done drugs a day in my life. If there was any drugging, it was you who drugged me,” she accused.

  Catherine tapped her toe and sighed. “Abbi, the last person I expected to get messed up in Jenner’s mess was you.”

  “I know Mrs. Cole and I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I can’t remember a single thing, either.”

  “I think she’s faking,” Levi whispered to me. “She totally drugged you and convinced you to marry her for a big payout.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Abbi shrieked and jumped up. “I wouldn’t voluntarily marry him if he was the last man in the world. Have you seen what he’s done with his life?” She looked around the room, waiting for someone to answer, but no one did.

  I knew I’d fucked up, but she didn’t know me, and I didn’t need it thrown in my face.

  Abbi teared up as if she just realized what she’d said. “I’m sorry. Please don’t fire me, Mrs. Cole.”

  Wait, she worked for Catherine?

  I watched as Catherine paced the room. I knew she was trying to find a way to spin this and make my life a living hell for making her come to Vegas on the weekend when she was spending time with her husband. At least Jackson wasn’t here. He was a scary-ass dude.

  Catherine turned to me and let out a disappointed sigh. I hated her sighs. “Why did you think you could drink at all? Did they teach you nothing in rehab?”

  Admittedly, I wasn’t supposed to drink, but I thought I could handle one drink every once in a while. Obviously not. I never planned on drinking any more than that, though. Last night I hadn’t planned on drinking at all since I was out in public. Ever since my stint in rehab, the paparazzi had been documenting my every move, and it didn’t look good that I’d been late a few times lately. I’d be lucky if I wasn’t fired from my show. We’d already been picked up for a second and third season, but I’d been warned that I could easily be killed off if I didn’t get my act together. If a quickie wedding in Vegas didn’t do it, I wasn’t sure what would.

  “I have to say Abbi seemed like she’d be a model employee,” Catherine looked back and forth between us.

  “I’m trying my best, Catherine,” I groaned. She didn’t need to make me feel worse than I already did.

  “Your best wasn’t good enough, Jenner. You can’t keep showing up late just because you don’t like the show you’re on. This is a stepping stone in your career, and if you mess this up, you will never do movies again.”

  I hated that she was right.

  “Maybe you can learn something from Abbi.” Turning to the woman who ruined my life, Catherine’s piercing gaze landed on her. “Here’s what you’re going to do to make sure that Jenner doesn’t lose his spot on his show.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “I need you to stay married for one year.”

  “Not happening.” I couldn’t stay married to someone who had drugged me so that I’d marry them.

  Catherine only smiled at me. “By any chance, did you have Abbi sign a prenup before you got hitched?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered with pure frustration. “I told you I don’t remember anything.”

  “I’m going to say the answer is no then, and do you know what that means?” She made her way back to stand in front of me and gave me a knowing look.

  I knew what that meant. Abbi could take half of everything I had after only being married to me for one night.

  “You two are going to make it look like you’re in love and planned to get married last night.”

  “That’s going be the biggest acting job of my life,” I groaned.

  “What do I get out of this?” Abbi spoke up from the other side of the room.

  Catherine turned her gaze back to Abbi, and I slouched down on the couch. I was happy to not be the focus of her attention. “You get to keep your job.”

  “What about Paul?”

  Was this Paul her boyfriend? Did we get to have side pieces during this year of supposed marriage?

  “I can’t help you with Paul.” Catherine looked sad about that as her eyes softened toward Abbi.

  “Do we get to have someone on the side for this year?” It wouldn’t be too bad if that was the case.

  “I cannot stay married to him and pretend to be happily married while he’s out fucking anything that moves. I can’t let the public think that of me.” She gulped and looked genuinely upset. “I can’t do that again.”

  “There will be no one else. We can’t take the chance of the paparazzi finding out or someone selling their story to the press. One year with each other only,” Catherine declared.

  “I doubt he can do it.” Abbi glared at me.

  It might be hard, but I knew how to use my hand, and I was sure I could use my persuasion skills to get Abbi into bed with me if I was desperate enough.

  “He will if he knows what’s good for him. Now here are my conditions.”

  Conditions? This wasn’t going to be good.

  “First, you’ll be moving into Jenner’s home. Today.”

  “What?” I squawked. I liked living alone.

  “Please, Jenner, you have more room than you know what to do with, and it won’t look like a real marriage if you’re not living together. Let her pick one of the bedrooms and you’ll barely see her.”

  “Fine,” I grunted and then glared at Abbi, who was glaring right back at me.

  “Second, you will be seen out in public at least once a week, where you’ll hold hands, and you’ll look like a couple in love because no one who is not in this room will ever know that this marriage is a sham. Do you get me?”

  “Yes,” Abbi and I both agreed. Catherine always got what she wanted.

  “Third, you will stay faithful. We can’t have any scandals, so keep it in your pants. If you don’t . . . you’ll have to pay a million dollars.”

  “I don’t have that kind of money,” Abbi huffed.

  Catherine looked at her with kind eyes. “I know I don’t have anything to worry about with you.”

  I didn’t appreciate Catherine’s lack of faith in me. I wasn’t
sure how I was going to do it, but I would not let them win. And I sure as hell wasn’t paying a million dollars. No fuck was worth that much.

  I couldn’t believe my life had come to this because of one stupid night. Sitting up straight, I focused on my publicist. “I thought you were on my side.”

  Sitting down beside me, Catherine rested her hand on my arm. “I am, Jenner. I’m trying to help you keep your job and to hopefully get you to read for that movie you want to be in so badly.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it. Why do you think Abbi will stay faithful?”

  “I know what it feels like to be cheated on, and I would never do that to someone.”

  She did seem like she meant it and was wholesome-looking except for her dress and sex hair. I wanted to believe her, but she was getting more out of this than I was.

  Catherine picked up my hand and looked at my tattoo with the corners of her lips turned into a frown. “You’ll need to wear wedding rings. I’ll pick them up and bring them over later tonight.”

  “What you don’t like my ink?” I joked. Never did I think my first tattoo would be of some girl’s name on my finger.

  She looked at me like it hurt to look at my finger. “It’s kind of trashy. What made you get tattoos?”

  “Again, we don’t remember. The night must have been so bad we blocked the entire thing out,” I slumped down in my seat.

  Catherine looked back and forth between us. “It does seem strange that neither of you can remember. I hate to say it, but there’s a possibility you both were drugged.”

  “Who would drug me so I’d marry her?” It made no sense, but neither did two people having no recollection of the same night.

  “That remains to be seen, but let’s not put ourselves in a position for it to happen again. I’ll have Jackson see if he can get any of the security footage and find out if anything nefarious happened.”

  “Thanks, Catherine. For everything. I know I’ve been a shit client, but I’ll try to do better.”

  “I know things haven’t been easy for you, but you can’t let your ex win. She’s the one who’s missing out. You’re a great guy.”