TWELVE
Everett
“Everett Wilder? You married Andrea Faith last night, correct?”
The words of the front desk attendant still rung heavily in my ears as I stared at her. Andrea. In my bathroom. Wearing the most pathetic excuse for a wedding ring possible. I looked back down at my hand and took in the sliver of a gold band around my left ring finger.
Holy shit. Had we gotten married last night?
“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all this,” I said.
But Andrea didn’t speak.
“Lucas has pulled some elaborate pranks. And I never wanted to come on this trip in the first place. He’s getting me back for not wanting to come. I know this is him,” I said.
And again, Andrea didn’t respond.
“It would’ve been easy if he enlisted Jessica’s help. Or another one of my brother’s. I was adamantly against this trip because of everything our business is dealing with. It’s very possible this is all them. One slip of money to the right person could have fabricated that phone call,” I said.
I thumbed behind me to the phone, but Andrea simply stood there. In the middle of the bathroom with a broken glass in the sink, I watched tears rise to her eyes. What the hell was I supposed to do? I knew what I could do. I could call the front desk again and ask for someone else. Anyone else. Another desk attendant.
I needed to talk to another desk attendant.
I picked the phone back up and pressed ‘0’. The phone rang twice, then someone picked up.
“Mandarin Oriental, this is Derek speaking.”
“Derek. Everett Wilder. We spoke a moment ago.”
“Mr. Wilder. How can I help you and your beautiful new bride-to-be?” he asked.
“I need to speak to your supervisor,” I said.
“Is there something wrong?” he asked.
“Yes. And I need to speak with them now. It’s not an issue with you. It’s… an issue with the room,” I said.
“Of course, Mr. Wilder. I’ll get her on the phone immediately.”
I tapped my foot and waited as I looked back at Andrea. She was stiff as a board. In an absolute trance with tears streaming down her cheeks. I wanted to go to her. All of me wanted to wrap my arms around her and pull her into my chest. I had to admit, waking up with her in my arms had been fantastic. Feeling her softness against my chest was a feeling I hadn’t experienced with any woman in a very long time. But the last thing a woman like her would want at a moment like this was me touching her.
Shit.
“Mr. Wilder, this is Felicia Grant. How can I assist you?”
“Miss Grant, I need you to do me a favor.”
“Of course. How can I be of service?” she asked.
“I need you to check your logs and see if you see my name anywhere in them.”
“We have many logs. Is there one in particular you’re looking for?”
“I wish I could specify that, but I can’t. The night’s a little fuzzy and… you know how it goes.”
“Of course. You’ll have to give me a few minutes, but we can do a broad sweep through our logs, Mr. Wilder.”
“I’ll be here. Thank you very much. And if you could be so kind as to not inform Derek what you’re doing, I would really appreciate it.”
“Discretion is our utmost concern with situations like these. I’ll be back with you in a few minutes.”
She probably thought I had hired a damn prostitute or something, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want there to be any overlap between the possibility of a bribed front desk attendant and getting the truth. My eyes fell to the gold band again and I scoffed. A piece of tin was more like it. Not nearly the type of band I would have gotten for myself on such a special occasion as getting married.
I could only imagine the cheap piece of crap that was on Andrea’s finger.
I looked back at her again and saw her glancing down at her finger. She wiggled it around and I saw something shiny catch the light of my bathroom. Fuck. She really did have a ring on her finger. And judging by the pathetic landscape of light it refracted, it was the cheapest ring alive. I saw her wipe her face before she turned her back to me and a part of my heart broke. She was distraught, and here I was trying to figure out whether or not we had actually done the stupidest thing imaginable while in Vegas.
I needed to be comforting her. Not on the damn phone with someone.
I watched her turn on the water and splash some in her face. She cupped her hands and covered her face and neck in the cool substance. She stuck her lips underneath the faucet and chugged as quickly as she could. Like if she could ingest enough water, it would lift the haze over her mind and everything around her would change. She’d be in her own room, alone, with no ring on her finger and every recollection of what happened last night.
Electricity shot down my spine.
From what I could remember from last night, it had been fantastic. The feel of her against my skin. The way her body cradled mine effortlessly. How easy it was for her to open up herself to me and how wonderful it had been to command such beauty. Her curves. The softness of her skin. Just thinking about it made my cock harden against my jeans.
I turned my back to her to conceal the outline growing against my leg.
“Mr. Wilder?”
“Yes. I’m here,” I said.
“I have you in two logs from last night. One log is your marriage to Andrea Faith.”
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth as that word barreled over my ear again.
“And the other log is the honeymoon log.”
“The what?” I asked.
“Yes. The two of you have a scheduled honeymoon starting tomorrow.”
“Well, you can cancel that.”
“Are you sure, Mr. Wilder? It’s a beautiful honeymoon.”
“I’m more than sure. Cancel it, right now.”
“You put down a deposit on it. You’ll lose that deposit.”
“I don’t care. Cancel it now,” I said.
“Give me just a second, Mr. Wilder.”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Holy fuck. No matter who I talked to and no matter what I did, it seemed as if this wasn’t a prank. It seemed as if this wasn’t something concocted by my brothers or by Jessica or by anyone else. I reached down for my cell phone and quickly opened up my mobile banking application. If I had put down a deposit on anything, it would be logged away in my transactions. While the woman typed away in my ear, I entered in all my information and pulled up my bank account statement.
And my eyes bulged when I saw it.
“The exclusive premium honeymoon package has been cancelled, Mr. Wilder. Is there anything else I can do for you this morning?”
Rewind last night.
“No, ma’am. Thank you for your discretion and your cooperation.”
“My pleasure. If there’s anything else I can do for you during your stay at Mandarin Oriental, please don’t hesitate to call.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
I dropped the phone back to its cradle as my eyes scanned my bank statement. I mindlessly sat on the edge of the bed, raking my hand through my tangled hair. Holy shit. Andrea and I had gotten up to a lot more than a simple bath and some good times in my hotel room bed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
My head whipped over to her and I saw her standing in the doorway. Her eyes were filled with worry and she was fidgeting with the ring on her finger. I patted the bed next to me and she came to sit down, and with each step she took she looked as if she grew smaller and smaller. More and more meek as she came to get the truth. She sat down beside me, her legs stretched out, and I tilted my phone for her to see.
“What’s all this?” she asked as she took it.
“My bank transactions for the last few days. Take a look,” I said.
Andrea’s eyes fluttered over the screen as her jaw slowly dropped. She scrolled and scrolled, becoming completely familiar
with the massive amount of transactions that had taken place. There were numerous charges for drinks at several different bars. There was one very cheap charge from a pawn shop, which I can only imagine is where the rings came from. There were three places where we apparently stopped to eat. Or at least did something. There was the charge for the exclusive honeymoon whatever bullshit that woman had been talking about. The deposit alone was ten thousand dollars.
But it was the wedding chapel expense that had caught my eye.
And I could tell it caught Andrea’s as well.
“Cupid’s Wedding Chapel?” she asked.
She didn’t even bother to look at me. Just settled my phone back in my lap before she sighed.
“What happened on the phone conversation?”
“Andrea, I think we—”
“What happened on the phone, Everett?”
She turned her eyes up to mine and I watched them water with tears again.
“The first time I called, I got a man by the name of Derek downstairs. He informed me that we had gotten married last night, which was why I asked for your last name. He said I married an Andrea Faith.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“I figured maybe it was a prank. A very elaborate one. That Lucas or someone else had bribed a front desk attendant, so I called back to speak with the supervisor.”
“What did they say?”
“I told Miss Grant not to communicate with Derek in any way and to run my name through whatever logs they kept in their system. And when she finally came back to the phone, not only did she tell me I had married an Andrea Faith last night, but that I had booked us a honeymoon that started tomorrow,” I said.
“What?” she asked breathlessly.
“I told her to cancel it. But… I don’t think this is a prank, Andrea.” I listened as she drew in a haggard, broken breath. “I think we got married last night,” I said.
I watched Andrea stand up from the bed and walk over to the floor-length windows that looked out over Las Vegas. She really was a beautiful woman. Thick red hair that fell just below her shoulder blades. Dazzling green eyes. Sloping curves in places that made my cock ache for more, all wrapped up in a tiny package with a soft cheek that barely grazed my chest when I was standing in front of her. She wrapped her arms tightly around her body and let out the heaviest sigh I’d ever heard. It communicated so much more than her words. The stress. The heaviness of the situation. The defeat of it all.
“I told Jessica there were two things I wasn’t doing while in Vegas,” she said.
“And what were those?” I asked.
“Sleeping with someone and getting married.”
I let out a mindless chuckle as Andrea shook her head.
“What possessed us to leave this room last night? I don’t remember anything past—”
My eyes trained on her and I saw her take stock of my body in the reflection of the windows.
“I don’t remember anything past you grabbing my ankles,” she said.
I saw the back of her neck flush before it trickled down between her shoulder blades.
“I remember a little more than that.”
“What happened?” she asked.
She turned to look at me and I felt fire rush through my veins.
“You know. Just…”
Her eyes implored me for details, so I girded my loins as best as I could. The last thing I needed to do was have a raging erection during a conversation like the one we were about to have.
“I grabbed your ankles and flipped you over, and you begged me to continue.”
“I did?” she asked.
“You did. So, I did. In multiple formats. I um…”
Andrea brought her hand up around her neck, smoothing her fingertips over the soft skin I had nibbled on all night last night.
At least, the parts of the night I could remember.
“Well, a lot of acrobatic work was done. Against the windows. The wall. The shower.”
“We went into the shower?” she asked.
“We went into a lot of spaces. I remember falling back into bed, covered in sweat with your giggles in my ear. Then, it falls blank for me, too.”
“So the last thing you remember was us, naked, in bed.”
“Yes.”
“Like how we woke up,” she said.
“Yes.”
“And there’s no way this could be a prank?”
“Not unless Lucas came in, stole my debit card, racked up a ton of purchases without being asked for identification, bought rings at a disgraced pawn shop, and snuck back in to slip them onto our fingers. And that’s just the set up for what we found initially this morning.”
She raked her hand through her hair before she turned back out towards the morning view of Vegas.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
That was the million-dollar question. And it was one I didn’t have an answer to.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
“There has to be something we can do. We can’t just… be married. We hardly know one another. Marriage, it’s supposed to be more than this. Not just some piece of paper, but—”
Her hand shook as she ran it through her hair again. I watched her catch one of the knots in her hair on her ring and she groaned. She tried to work her hand out of her hair but continued to struggle. So, I got up and went over to her. I wrapped my hand around her wrist and took a look at the ring, grimacing slightly at the cheap piece of plastic on her hand. It wasn’t plastic, but it might as well have been. A cheap diamond. A nicked and scratched gold band. True gold wasn’t even the color I would’ve picked for her skin tone. Rose gold was what she needed. Rose gold with a diamond surrounded by peridot stones.
Like the color of her eyes.
“I think what we need to do is take a deep breath,” I said as I began unraveling her hair from her ring.
“How can you be so calm right now?” Andrea asked.
“Well, there will come a point where it’s my turn to freak out, so I expect you to be grounded enough to handle it. For now, I’m the one grounding you.”
I slowly worked her hair from around her finger before I smoothed it behind her ear.
“There we go. Better?” I asked.
“Much,” she said.
My hand fell from her hair and I took a step back. I needed space from her. From the faint smell of her perfume and the muted scent of her womanhood. It still floated around my head. Underneath my nostrils. I walked back over to the bed and sat down, letting out a heavy sigh as I did so. What were we going to do? We needed a plan.
But my mind wouldn’t think clearly enough to come up with one.
“Are you hungry?” Andrea asked.
I rose my gaze up to hers and watched her walk over to the tray of food.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, now that we’re practically convinced this isn’t a prank, we know this is technically in the right place. I think food might help give us strength and clear our minds.”
I watched her pick up a small plate and put some food on it. A couple of strawberries. A piece of toast. Three mini Danishes. An apple slice. She walked back over to me and sat down, then handed the small plate to me. Her eyes fluttered up to mine and I gazed into them, taking in my reflection that looked back at me in her stare.
Andrea was kind. Thoughtful. Considerate. Not the kind of woman that could ever find herself in this type of situation. I took the plate from her and nodded my thanks, then picked up the apple slice and tossed it into my mouth.
“Are you going to eat?” I asked.
“In a minute. Once I take a few deep breaths,” she said.
I studied her carefully as she sat there. Back straight. Eyes stoic. Lips set in stone. She drew in a few deep breaths as her hands pressed into her knees, then she rose to go get herself some food. She came back with a small plate filled with things to eat, then picked up one of her hard-boiled eggs and sat it down onto mine.
“Forgot about those. Sorry,” she said.
“Nothing to be sorry for.”
We sat on the edge of my bed and mindlessly ate, watching as the sky grew brighter with the sun. I knew it would only be a matter of time before one of my brothers came knocking on my door. Only a matter of time before Jessica went looking for Andrea. But for the time being, neither of us seemed to care. We needed to take the time to allow our reality to dawn on us. For our circumstance to settle on our minds so we could come up with a plan.
I had married Andrea Faith last night.
The issue? I wasn’t sure if that was such a bad thing to begin with.
THIRTEEN
Andrea
I picked at the breakfast on my small plate as I sat next to Everett. Deep down, I was in full blown-panic mode. One hundred percent. I stared out the window of his hotel room, feeling his powerful energy next to me. I had been ready to excuse my actions with regard to sleeping with him. I had been ready to admit what we had done and move on from there. I would’ve gone back to my room, taken a long shower, and come up with something to tell Jessica had she gone and tried to find me last night after the rainstorm.
But this? This had no explanation.
The ring felt foreign on my hand. It felt rough. I kept glancing down at it, anxious to work it off my finger. I didn’t want it there. It didn’t belong there. But for some reason, I was worried about offending Everett. I didn’t know why that was a concern, or why I thought he would even be annoyed in the first place. But I didn’t want that to happen. I’d had my outward panic. I’d gotten my ring tangled up in my hair in the middle of a fit. I needed to tone it down until I could get out of his room.
But my heart rate kept skyrocketing.
I glanced over at him as he cleared his plate. He got up and went to go get more food as I picked at the miniature cheese Danish on my plate. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell at him and tell him how stupid we were for doing whatever the hell it was we did the night before. So many drinks. His bank account was full of transactions at bars in the area. Had we gone drinking alone? Had someone been with us?
Holy hell, did others know we had gotten married?
I wasn’t hungry. I was too flabbergasted to eat. I set my plate off to the side on the bed and put my head in my hands. I didn’t know what to do. I’d married a stranger in Las Vegas. Me. The girl who hadn’t had sex since high school. The girl who hadn’t even thought about a relationship life since getting her heart broken and moving away from her father. Me. The one who ran the youth center downtown and made her entire life about kids she wanted to help when she was younger.
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 10