by Lindsey Hart
“Nothing. I- this isn’t going to work.”
“Why? You’re not with someone, are you? Oh my god-”
“No. No, I’m not with anyone.” The tone of her voice made it pretty obvious she didn’t want to talk about it and it didn’t take much brainpower to figure out that the pain in her eyes was probably related to that.
Brock shrugged. “There are worse ways to rebound.”
“You said that like a question.”
“I meant it as a statement.”
June shook her head. She eyed the plates of food on the bed. “Sorry. I thought I was hungry. I really don’t feel like eating anymore, but maybe they can box this up and I’ll take it with me. I have to get going. I have to make sure my friends know I’m okay. If I know them, they’ll be thrilled to see breakfast arrive with me.”
Brock checked the time. It was just before noon. Right. People in Vegas didn’t rise until the sun was setting. Dinner was breakfast. “No- I mean, you can’t just leave. We have to make a decision about this.”
“Hold your horses there, pervert. I wasn’t going to disappear.”
“Pervert. Nice pet name.”
“There are worse things I could call you.”
“Toothbrush thief.”
“Guy who whores around.”
“T-shirt snatcher.”
“Drunk marriage briber.”
Brock had to laugh. The real kind, straight from the gut. It had been a long time since he’d laughed that hard and he’d done it twice in the past five minutes. June cracked a smile too like it was contagious, and she couldn’t help herself.
“See. We’re good together. We can laugh and joke, even about this. That’s something, isn’t it?”
June rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. If I didn’t laugh about it, I’d probably cry. I’ve cried enough lately.” She clamped down on her bottom lip with her top teeth, aware that she shouldn’t have said that out loud. He liked the way her teeth indented on her full lip. He wanted to be the one who bit it for her.
Hard enough to draw blood. Holy shit. That’s over the line…
He wasn’t sure what it was about the curvy little blond with the striking eyes and beautiful features that made him react the way he did. He’d seen beautiful women all his life. He’d been with beautiful women. Honestly, women far prettier than June. It was- there was something about her that drew him in and he wanted to let her. He wanted to burn up like that poor ill-fated moth if she was the fire. If she was a vampire, he’d sure as hell let her suck him dry.
More totally fucked up thoughts.
Case in point.
June was halfway to the phone, probably to call for a few boxes to take the food back to her hotel with her when she leaves. So, he stopped her. He put his hand on her arm again and she froze. She looked down at his fingers like they’d bite her. God, he wanted to, but certainly not with his hand. Her lips. Her nipples. Her ass. His cock throbbed, and his balls drew up tight. Oh, it liked that idea.
“Hey. We made a bet last night. Why don’t we make one now?”
“Are you crazy?”
“This is Vegas.”
“Uh- yeah, I know, but look where that got us.”
“We’re sober now. This is the kind of bet you’ll like, trust me.”
June pulled away gently and crossed her arms, which only accentuated the beautiful swell of her perky breasts. Brock nearly groaned in pain. His balls had just hit ten shades of blue and he’d just emptied them, twice, the night before. Hell, maybe even in the early hours of the morning. The point was, they had no right to hurt as much as they did.
“Uh- okay, tell me what it is and I’m sure I’ll tell you no.”
“Two days. Give me two days, the rest of the weekend. If you don’t have fun with me then I’ll give you the annulment or divorce or whatever works. We’ll figure it out. But if you do… then you have to consider at least trying to stay married.”
June stared at him for a few long seconds that had him sweating. When she smiled, he nearly exhaled his relief in a long rush like a lovesick fool. No, no, not love. This wasn’t about love. Maybe. Maybe that could happen eventually, though he doubted it. This was about turning a mistake into something that could work for them. Maybe it was also about fixing his blue balls. But not love.
“I- well, I’m only here for the weekend, so that might work. Honestly, I’m only going to say yes, because my condition is that if you think of something, you have to pay for it. I know that sounds bad, but my girlfriends and I came here to have a good time, but honestly, we’re here on a shoestring budget and we can’t just go for anything and everything…” she trailed off, obviously embarrassed. Women had asked him for things before. Used him for things, but this was different. June was just being honest.
“I’ll pay for it if you honestly give it a shot.” He watched June’s confidence waver, but she quickly composed herself.
“Of course! I’m not a user. Maybe we can have fun. Who knows. Maybe we could salvage this epic fuck-up of the century and this could actually work. I’ve heard of worse. Aren’t all marriages shit anyway? This might just be par for the course.”
“Oh god. A fellow jaded traveler on the ride of life. I think I’m in love already.”
June rolled her eyes, but her smile widened. She swept her tongue over her lips to moisten them, which caused all sorts of combusting and hardening and swelling to happen in his pants before she turned back to the phone. He heard her swear that she was thinking with her vagina and clearly it was certifiable.
Yup, maybe he was in love after all.
CHAPTER 7
June
An hour later, armed with bags containing her clutch, shredded dress from the night before, all the containers of their leftover breakfast, and a ridiculous promise of an evening she’d never forget, June made her way back to her hotel room. She didn’t have a key card, but she knocked and luckily enough, Jasmine pulled open the door.
“Oh my god, what happened?” June dropped the dress onto the floor along with her clutch and stepped in. She wrapped her arms around Jasmine’s shoulders. Her best friend’s eyes were swollen and red-rimmed. Her cheeks were puffy and her lips watered.
“Oh…” Jaz brushed at her eyes. “Nothing. Sorry. We were just watching one of those sappy romances until you got back.”
“What? So, nothing’s actually wrong?”
Jaz shook her head and offered a watery smile. “Nope. Just the best Victorian style avowal of love I’ve heard in a long time.”
Mandy joined them at the entrance. She swiped at her eyes and offered the same watery smile. June groaned. “Oh no. Not you too.”
“I’m afraid so. We had to do something until you decided to show up.”
“We were worried about you. You didn’t answer your phone.” Jaz’s hands flew to her hips in a motherly gesture of worry.
June sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. I might have lost it.”
“Might? What number did you text us from then?” Mandy narrowed her eyes. She assessed June, the long t-shirt she was wearing, her wavy, half dry hair, and then, of course, her eyes fell to her hand. “Oh my god. Oh my fucking god! What is that?” She pointed at the gold band. “No! No, no, no, no, no!”
Jaz let out a shriek and lifted June’s hand. “Oh my lord. You didn’t? You got- married?”
“Without us?” Mandy chimed in instantly, like she was actually put out.
“Argh!” June gripped at her hair. “Just let me sit down for a second and I’ll tell you all about it. And no, you weren’t there because I lost my phone and I was so drunk I don’t even remember what happened.”
“Oh no!” Jaz gasped. She gripped June’s hand and led her over to one of the two double beds. The TV was rolling a list of credits. Apparently, she had good timing. She didn’t interrupt the bawl bag style happy ending for her friends. At least someone got a happy ending. At least some people still believed in love.
“You disappeared on us,” Mandy said before June�
�s ass even hit the bed. “We were at this club having drinks and dancing. You said you had to go to the washroom and you just disappeared.”
“Did this club also happen to be in a hotel that had a poker room?”
“I don’t know,” Mandy said, but Jasmine nodded.
“Yeah. You tried to convince us to go in there before we even went dancing, remember?” She cast a look at Mandy. Mandy’s eyes widened.
“Right. She did. I remember. Sorry.”
“Uh- well- the only thing I can remember about last night is that I was in a poker room. There was a guy sitting next to me. He was hot. I was drinking a lot because it was free, and well- it’s Vegas. We came here for a good time. We came here to forget about Rob.”
“And about his cheating ugly dick.”
June giggled. “Thanks Jasmine. I needed that.”
Jaz winked. “No problem.”
“Soo-uh- anyway, this guy was sitting beside me and he was smoking hot, I remember that. He made me nervous. Maybe I was drinking more to steady myself too. I don’t honestly know. I just- uh- he made this bet on this hand. It was a big one. He had me covered and I was going to go all in.”
Mandy stared back blankly, and Jaz wasn’t much better. Neither of her friends played poker. They didn’t even play cards. Unlike June, who came from a family of little old ladies. Not really. But they played cards like they were going out of style. Every single time the family got together, it was pretty much a guarantee that there was going to be a tournament of some kind started up. Usually, it wasn’t poker. That was something she’d learned and enjoyed on her own. Most likely it would be Crib or Bridge or Kaiser.
“Uh- so this guy…” June pushed on, aware that her friends were hanging on her every word. “He made this bet with me. If I lost, I had to marry him.”
“What?” Jaz screeched.
“Yeah, who on earth would say that?” Mandy spat. “Is this guy crazy?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. All I know is that I must have lost. We have the marriage certificate to prove it’s legit. I woke up next to him this morning. Here’s the kicker. He blacked out too. So, neither of us really remember what happened last night.”
Silence. Utter silence. Her friends sat, mouths hanging open, eyes wide. Finally, Jasmine recovered.
“So- what are you going to do? Get a divorce?”
“Wait!” Mandy startled them both with her eager exclamation. June set a hand over her racing heart and Mandy smiled guiltily. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come out so loud. I- well- what does he look like? Your new husband? Is he hot?”
June groaned. “You have no idea.”
“Oooohhhh!” Jaz let out an excited squeal. She gripped June’s hand in both of hers like a death vice. June nearly whimpered as her fingers were squashed into an unrecognizable shape. “Is he- what does he look like? You have to tell us!”
Great. I shouldn’t have said anything. “He’s- good looking. Ashy blonde hair. Smoldering dark midnight eyes. Jacked.” Mandy nearly hyperventilated on the edge of the bed. “Don’t make me have to get you a paper bag,” June threatened. “So what if he’s good looking?” So what if I apparently had amazing, steamy sex with him last night. Twice. So what if he ripped my dress to shreds. So what if he’s probably a god in bed. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly aware that she was sore. She’d been trying to ignore that fact all morning and since she’d had much bigger things to worry about, it hadn’t exactly dawned on her yet. Apparently, he was also packing. Her face flushed hot, but her friends were so worked up, they didn’t comment on it.
“Oh. My. God!” Jasmine slapped a hand over her mouth. “This could be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
“What are you talking about?” June had the feeling she didn’t exactly want to know.
“I mean, you got married to a guy who sounds like a god. He’s probably super dreamy. Sexy. If you had a few photos of you guys together… that would make Rob and your other ex’s, Damien and Steven, those cheating bastards- that would show them! You’re with a real man now, not scum like them.”
“Oh god.” June rubbed at her eyes. She suddenly felt very tired and very hungover again. The beginnings of a killer headache pounded at her temples. “I am certainly not going to do anything like that. For one, I hate social media. For two, I have them all blocked since I don’t want my ex’s creeping me. I don’t know what I was thinking about last night. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe I did want to get a little dose of revenge. Maybe he was just hot. I have no idea. Whatever it was, it was a bad decision.” She slammed her eyes shut. “And it gets worse.”
“How can it get worse? Is he a pervert or something?” Mandy asked.
June giggled. She couldn’t help it. She opened her eyes and dropped her hands into her lap and laughed so hard that her shoulders shook, and her stomach ached. Her two friends, who probably thought she’d taken that final plunge off the deep end, laughed along with her, nervously, but they laughed. God, they always had her back. She couldn’t imagine her mother’s reaction to her news. Mandy and Jaz had nothing on the scream fest that would have gone down. She laughed harder just thinking about it.
“Okay…” Jaz said, obviously uncertain. “You might have to tell us what the worse part of this is because I can’t really see how it could get any more complicated.”
“We’re getting a divorce. Or an annulment. Let me just say that. I know it’s going to happen. But…”
“Oh no. Not a ‘but.’”
“‘Buts’ are the worst.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
June rolled her eyes while Jaz and Mandy leaned forward. The TV started up with a whole run of commercials in the background, but none of them tuned into it, though they were blaring. Why were the ads always so much louder than the program? Her mom used to complain about that all the time. She’d scream at June’s dad to turn it down when the commercials came on. Every. Single. Time. June’s dad never did get trained into grabbing for the remote and muting the annoying ads. Or maybe he did it just to piss her mom off. There was a distinct possibility that after three decades of marriage, he got some sick pleasure out of it.
“Tell us!” Mandy begged, ripping June out of her musings.
“Yes! What could be worse?” Jaz prompted.
“Well… he might have made me another bet. This time we weren’t playing cards. I promise. It was just a stupid thing he said, and I felt- I don’t know. I don’t know if there is a way to describe how I feel about all of this.”
“Fucked up?” Mandy suggested.
June grinned. “That might be it. Uh- he asked me to spend the weekend with him. He wants to try and prove to me that this marriage could work or could be fun or something. I don’t know. It sounds crazy.”
“Because it is crazy,” Jaz cut in.
“It is crazy,” June agreed. “Very crazy. This whole thing might just be bat-shit.”
“So, the bet is he wants you to try and have fun and if he proves you can, then you have to what? Stay married?”
“Good guess.” June turned to Jaz. “Yeah, that was pretty much it.”
“That’s- how could he think that two days would be an indication of what a marriage would be like?”
“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think that,” June admitted. It was easier to try and make Brock out to be a lunatic. That way, her friends would stick on her side. “He- he said he doesn’t really believe in love. He’s tried it a few times and it hasn’t worked out. I- well you guys know what my history has been. We know that I never pick the right guy. That aside, he didn’t think two days would tell. He just wanted to show me that we might have some things in common and if we enjoy being around each other, that might lead to something else.”
“Like what?” Mandy leaned forward.
“I don’t know. I guess staying married and trying to figure it out.”
“Like, long-distance?” Jaz studied June’s face for answers that weren’t going to b
e forthcoming since she didn’t have a clue what they were.
“I don’t know,” June admitted. “I guess so. I don’t even know where he lives.” She shook her head. “This is just so crazy. So crazy! I just couldn’t say no. He can be very convincing. And I kind of thought that there wouldn’t really be any harm in having fun. The deal is if he pays for us, all of us, to go out and do some things together, then I’ll give it an honest shot at trying to enjoy myself and maybe consider continuing this in some way.”
“What? You’d leave us!” Mandy started her shallow breathing again and June really considered getting up and searching the room for a paper bag. They’d splurged on candy apples the morning before and she thought she remembered them coming in brown bags.
“No! Of course not!” June shifted and wrapped her arms tightly around Mandy. Jaz joined in on the hug. “I would never leave you guys. You’re everything. You’re all I have, other than my parents and my brothers, and God knows they’re not fit to fill in for girl’s night out.” Jaz and Mandy giggled. “I said I’d agree to give it an honest shot at considering what he said. I never agreed to move to wherever he lives or that I’d even consider not getting this marriage dissolved. I just- he looked sad when he talked about his past shit and it made me think about all the times I’ve failed. He was very convincing. You’ll meet him. You’ll see.”
Mandy and Jaz looked at her with two sets of glistening, excited, far too hopeful eyes. June wanted to protest. She wanted to cut her friends off right there and make them swear to her that they wouldn’t get romantically involved in this. That they wouldn’t go all gaga over Brock just because he was jacked and sinfully handsome and nice enough and…
“I almost forgot,” June cut in. “Those bags I set down when I came in have all sorts of breakfast. I ordered like ten things and of course, we didn’t eat any of it. I brought it back for us.”
“He let you charge it to his room?” Jaz asked, stunned.
“Really?” Mandy echoed. “Is he rich? What was the room like? Was it an expensive hotel? Maybe we can convince him to take us on something exciting, like a helicopter ride!”