by Tiana Cole
But she’d encouraged him, wanted him to fuck her because of the money, and that made it shameful. That lovely money, the money she had to have, changed what might have been a wonderful night into a job.
If the girl Alan left with that night was a hooker, and Deja was quite sure she was, she hadn’t been the only woman taking money for sex. What Deja had done with James wasn’t any different at all. This morning, when so many truths were coming out, the realization that she’d played whore hit her full force. She’d pretended that wasn’t what it was, but what it all came down to was deliberately seducing him because she’d been paid to. Her head games didn’t matter. That she’d managed to convince herself that she wasn’t doing that at all didn’t change the reality, and it didn’t even matter that before she had sex with him, she’d already decided she liked him.
Confronting that particular truth made her feel sick. Her motive, getting Alan’s money, tainted everything. It even poisoned the memories of the wonderful sex they’d had after they were married. She’d only agreed to do all this because it was supposed to be a prank, but now she didn’t seem to even have that to shield her judgment of herself. All of it was fake. Every last bit of it.
And she had to maintain this falsehood.
Having the truth come out would be a relief. Deja was almost as bad with secrets as she was with lies. They hurt people and she didn’t like having to keep them, even when they were well intended, like for a surprise birthday. Still, here she was, being paid to act out a lie. Even if she wasn’t telling one, the lie and the secret around it seemed to be getting darker.
The pain of realizing that she’d married a man she didn’t know was intense. As absurd and surreal as the entire night had been, as much as it wasn’t supposed to be serious, she’d ended up legally married. They had gone through a legal ceremony and consummated the marriage. Annulling it later on didn’t make that much difference. She, Deja Fontaine, had gotten married.
Her conscience screamed at her to tell him the whole story—put all her cards on the table and be done with it. Even if he hated her for what she’d done, having the truth out there, not having to pretend about any of it, she’d stop feeling bad about herself.
The problem was the damn money. She needed it. It was a matter of life and death. Fifty grand was so little to these people. All she had to do was stay married for a week.
Regrets were a waste, not to mention painful, but now she wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t stayed after he’d fallen asleep. What if she’d gotten him back to the room, let him screw her, then taken her clothes, the souvenir marriage folder, and every other sign she’d ever existed and disappeared. Then, after the week, she could show up and tell Alan to pay her.
But she knew Alan wanted the world to know about the marriage. Something in his plan required they publicly humiliated James.
And now she had to ask herself if there was a truth she hadn’t known. That it was all about a business deal and had nothing to do with a prank on a friend.
She’d already realized that she was in over her head, and the prospect of it being part of a fraud sent a chill through her.
Someone who couldn’t keep secrets or tell a lie had no business embarking on a life of crime, even white collar crime. No business at all. But when you stumbled into something like this, how did you back out?
Looking at James’s face showed his distress clearly, and she was responsible for it. Was it even possible to make things right when they’d gone so wrong?
CHAPTER THREE
Making the call to Kieran Oliver was a frantic and, on reflection, ill-advised thing to do. It was stupid to call him while he was still upset, still unable to think clearly. And doing it while the woman was in the room listening probably hadn’t been his best idea. He was going to talk about her, after all. Her presence would make an awkward call almost impossible.
As he heard the phone ring, however, James felt that, given some of the decisions he’d made in the last twenty-four hours, making this call was nowhere near the worst. Not even in the same league.
The painful part of making this call would be admitting to Kieran he’d been an ass. He’d have to explain how he’d accidentally gotten married. He had no reason to think the man would be sympathetic.
And he wasn’t.
“I think there is something terribly wrong with this connection. I can’t be hearing what I think I heard. Please repeat what you said. You did what?” the Irishman asked.
“I got married.”
Kieran’s laugh was hollow. “Married? What brought on that happy event, may I ask?
“The truth is I’m not quite sure.”
“You aren’t sure.”
“It’s a bit of a blur and my head isn’t working.”
“But you managed to find a woman willing to put up with your shitty manner long enough to get through dinner, and one you liked well enough to take to the altar. She must have low standards.”
“We didn’t have dinner.”
“Oh, well that explains everything.”
The sarcasm stung. “We met last night, dancing.” He glanced at Deja and she nodded, being decent about him not remembering. “I was drunk.”
“I would never have guessed. So you went drinking and dancing and wound up married to someone you don’t know.”
“That’s about it.”
“Serves you right.”
“Okay, I fucked up, Kieran.”
“This part about you going out drinking and getting polluted? That isn’t like you. I mean, drinking a little, picking up a girl at a dance club and taking her back to your room for a nice shag…that I’d expect.”
“None of this is like me. This deal I’m here to negotiate was going well.”
“With Shen Liang?”
“Right. I was optimistic. I was at loose ends after he and I had dinner. When he went off I ran into an old friend. We both had a slow day scheduled for today and I accepted his invitation to have a few drinks and relive old times. That turned into more than a few. I must’ve not been paying attention, because I lost control. When I met this beautiful lady,” he smiled at Deja, “I let my guard down.”
“Normally that guard of yours is more like a wall.”
Here it comes.
“How long are you going to hate me because I wouldn’t marry Kathy?”
“After making her think you would. And I don’t hate you. I just don’t like what you did.”
“Right from the beginning I told her I wasn’t looking to get married. She just wouldn’t believe me.”
He laughed. “You weren’t looking to get married and yet here you are married to some tramp you just met.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt your sister, Kieran.”
“But you did.”
“Yes, I guess I did.”
“That guard of yours worked fine with Kathy, but not with this one. Did she outfox you, or was this love at first sight?”
“I have no idea. Maybe neither. Maybe just a good time that got complicated.”
“And now you called me because you need me to save your ass? I’m supposed to protect your business interests, not save you from yourself.”
“C’mon Kieran. I’m asking your help here. We go way back.”
“I don’t understand you, James. You’ve got all the experience in the world when it comes to negotiating deals—you work magic. Sometimes I think you can fucking read people’s business minds. You can turn them for or against almost any sort of business plan. Yet, when it comes to dealing with regular people, you fall on your face. You don’t care about people much, or you’re afraid of them. I’ve never sorted out which it is.”
“Does that matter?”
“Yes. Think about it. This woman found whatever chink you left in that armor, dude. Neither of us knows if she did it deliberately or lucked into it, but, for a time, she connected with you. She must have or you wouldn’t have married her. Even drunk you would have wanted some kind of connectio
n.”
He thought of telling Kieran the truth, that she was his dream girl, but under the circumstances that sounded dumb—incredibly dumb. Besides, saying that would rub salt in the wound, make it clear that even though he’d had an affair with Kieran’s sister, she hadn’t been the kind of woman he wanted to share his life with. That she felt the same about him cut no ice with his lawyer either. “So what do I do?”
“That depends, doesn’t it?”
“On what?”
“On what you want out of this. You’re the one who told me that you have to begin any negotiation with asking yourself what outcome you want. I took that to heart and now you need to apply it. All sorts of things are possible, but what outcome do you want?”
“I don’t get what you’re asking.”
“Look, James, being married isn’t a crisis. It is a standard business and legal arrangement between two people. As a lawyer, I have to approach it that way. Like any other contract, you can choose to end it or make a go of it. Breaking a contract will cost you, and so will honoring it. In this case, there is an emotional price to consider, as well as her right to assert some sort of economic claim on you. You gave her that right.”
“I guess I did.”
“So before you leap into action you might spend a little time thinking about the consequences of those actions. For instance, how do you feel about the girl?”
“Feel about her? I hardly know her.”
“She was smart enough to bag you, so she’s got something going for her. She obviously appeals to you. But then, maybe only to a drunk you—I can’t say. At any rate, you might want to spend some time seeing if that’s worth keeping.”
James looked over at Deja, who was sitting quietly, prettily, and listening. It amazed him that each time he looked at her he saw something else to like. Why was he insisting on being foolish? He couldn’t stay in a marriage with a woman he’d married almost by accident. “What if I decide I want out?”
“I’m not licensed to practice law outside of California, but as I recall, Nevada law allows for an annulment under what is called a ‘want of understanding.’ If you were stone drunk, you’d qualify.”
“Nice.”
“You’d need the testimony of the minister or someone else who saw you. How about the friend you were drinking with?”
“He was long gone by then.”
“Anyway, if you want out, I’ll research other grounds for an annulment too, but I’d expect that would be the most sensible.”
“How long would that take?”
“I’d need to talk to local lawyers to find out. Like all things legal, it depends on lots of factors, such as the backlog in the courts. More important, will she agree to it?”
James looked at Deja. “We haven’t talked about that.”
“Well, you damn well better. If she doesn’t want to cooperate, you’ll have to file what’s called a single signature petition, and you’ll have more trouble proving you were drunk if she says you weren’t. That can take longer because she can fight it. It could take months.”
“Crap. There is a video, though.”
“Of the marriage.”
“Yes.”
“And it shows you being stupid drunk?”
“I haven’t had the stomach to watch it yet. I assume so.”
“So send me the video online and be nice to her in the meantime.”
“I am. That’s easy to do.”
“Did you screw her?”
“What?”
“Did you fuck the girl?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Because if you got her pregnant, the child is considered legitimate even if you have the marriage annulled. So you’d have child support to take into account, even if you aren’t paying alimony.”
James remembered the condoms on the nightstand and let out a sigh of relief. “I think I’m safe there.”
“Good. Beyond the support, offspring always complicate things later on, such as inheritance. If that isn’t an issue, you still need to find out what she wants. It might be a lot different than it was last night. You need to learn what it would take for her to help you get what you want. If she wants to remain Mrs. Andrews, you might have a minor problem, but even that wouldn’t be insurmountable.”
“You find out what I need to do and how fast we can do this,” James said. “I’ll negotiate things here.”
Kieran laughed. “Negotiate? Right, that sets the right tone.”
“What?”
“Don’t negotiate, dude. Just talk to the woman? Be a gentleman.”
“You just be my lawyer and find out the options.”
“One bit of lawyerly advice. If you intend to dump the chick, don’t fuck her anymore.”
“Why?”
“If it turns out that we need to fight her, if it has to go to family court, that would undo the claim that you were only interested in her because you were drunk. She’d be able to make the claim that you were enjoying conjugal favors while trying to get shed of her. That wouldn’t keep you from getting rid of her, but it might make doing it a lot more expensive—even result in significant alimony payment forevermore.”
James looked at Deja and felt a longing. “Okay. I understand.”
When he hung up, Deja laughed at him.
“You think this is funny?”
“Some of it. Especially the look on your face.”
“And what part of this is funny?”
“You don’t see the humor in waking up and finding out we are married?”
“Not at all.”
“I do. And I think it’s funny that you are a businessman.”
“Why is that funny?”
She made a face. “I would assume that being a businessman would require people skills, the ability to charm and cajole the people you work with, yet you seem to deliberately antagonize people, or at least make them not happy to help you get what you want.”
“How am I doing that?”
“After our night together, you look at me like I’m the enemy, then you call your lawyer to talk about the grand mistake you made. And what makes that funny, is the way you spar with him—you are nasty to the very person you called for help.”
The comment struck a sensitive chord and he resented her insight. Who was she to coach him on interacting with people? “Kieran’s my lawyer. Sometimes he confuses the role of legal advisor with that of old friend.”
She scowled. “You are rotten to him because he acts like a friend?”
“It’s mutual rottenness. A while back I was going with his sister. She wanted to get married and I didn’t. We had a rather nasty break up. He won’t get over it and this little silliness reopened the wound.”
“Are you sure that’s what he can’t get over?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were sharp right from the beginning. You sounded very defensive.”
“I’m embarrassed by what we did, and having to tell him.”
“But your tone of voice said you expected him to rip you apart for it, that you don’t trust him.”
“But I do trust him. I wouldn’t have a lawyer I didn’t trust.”
Deja shrugged. “Okay. So, did your trusted lawyer give you step by step instructions on how to get rid of me?”
Again, her grasp of the situation unsettled him. She was sharp, and that made her dangerous. Unfortunately, it also added to her attraction. “He’s going to have to research it. There are a lot of options for us.”
“Fine. I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with.”
“That will take some time. In the meantime, can we talk about things?”
“Things?”
“Us.”
She laughed. “Us? First you call your lawyer about making me go away, and now you want to talk to your new wife? I suppose I should be flattered you are interested in what I have to say at all, but, frankly, that you do things in that order makes me wary. My guess would be that he told you that you need my help or y
ou might be stuck with me. Maybe I need to talk to my lawyer.”
“You have a lawyer?”
“I have an entire phone book packed with them. Unlike yours, most won’t be top flight, but they’ll work on a contingency fee, and I don’t think the situation requires a legal genius.”
James decided to tell her exactly what Kieran said. “He said that if I’m smart, I’ll to get you to agree to an annulment. I should do whatever it takes to gain your cooperation, otherwise, apparently, it takes forever.”
She sneered at him. “What a fascinating person you are! I wake up in bed with my new husband saying, ‘Good morning, Deja. How was the honeymoon? I enjoyed screwing you, so would you mind signing these legal documents for me like a good girl so I can dump your black ass?’”
He thought of telling her how much he liked her black ass then thought better of it. Mixed messages wouldn’t help. Besides, if he really liked her, why was he pressing so hard to void the marriage? “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you, or take you for granted. I’m having a bad day.”
“So you think that makes it all right to ruin mine? What did I do to you?”
He sat on the bed. “Maybe you conned me.”
Despite him being right, even though he didn’t know it, his attitude was starting to really get to her. “Seeing that getting married was your idea, how is it that I conned you, James?”
He glared at her. “I’m curious why you agreed to marry me.”
The question struck her as funny. “Right now it’s hard to remember. My memory doesn’t include what I was thinking at the time, or what I recall isn’t convincing, but I’d guess it was for the same reason you proposed—it seemed like a good idea at the time. We were drinking a lot and having a lot of fun. We both wanted it to go on forever.” She pointed at him. “Your words.”
“Seriously?”
“Like I said, you told me that if we got married, it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t go to work tomorrow. Today, now. Maybe I better call in sick. It looks like losing my job now might be a bad idea.”