I glanced down at the yellow rock on my finger, rolling my hand from side to side and staring at it while the preacher spoke with Derek and Charlotte as they held hands and stared into each other’s eyes.
I held it against my chest, smiling. Grateful for the chance to be Cinderella for a few days. At the stroke of midnight the next night, my fairytale would be over. I wouldn’t have someone who adored me and called me his own, and my life would no longer have this injected adrenaline rush I’d been enjoying.
“And that’s it!” Maureen shouted, clapping her hands together. “I think we’re good here! You guys go eat.”
The party dissolved as people found their bags and things and headed to the door. Reservations were at Ventana Centro at seven.
“Ready?” I asked Lincoln as I approached him. He’d been watching my clutch the whole time, and he pulled it out from behind him and handed it to me.
Standing up to straighten his suit jacket, he peered down at me with a smirk. “I saw how you were looking at that ring up there.”
Fire burned my cheeks. “What? No I wasn’t.”
“What were you thinking about?”
I sighed, my shoulders raising and then falling gently. “Just that I’m having fun.”
He reached for my hand and pulled me in as we headed out to his waiting car. “Me too.”
FOUR – LINCOLN
Seeing Charlotte didn’t feel the way I thought it would. It had been a good couple years since I last saw her, though we’d remained friends over the year. I could never offer her what she wanted – undivided attention. I put my career before her always, and she needed a man who would put her before God.
I wasn’t that man. Maybe Derek was. And maybe it was a good thing she found a guy like that, because they were hard to come by. Assholes like me were a dime a dozen. Charlotte wanted five kids and a house in the suburbs. I wanted to work hard and play harder, flying the world with a beautiful, intelligent woman on my arm who knew her worth.
Seeing Charlotte didn’t affect me the way I thought it would. I thought she might make my breath hitch in my chest or I thought I’d feel a clench around my heart. None of that happened. All I thought about was Odessa and the fresh start she represented.
I pulled Odessa’s chair out at the restaurant, pushing it in behind her. The dim lighting coupled with the flickering candles made her light up. Or maybe she was lit from within. All I knew was something changed when I saw her own her power. Prancing around like sex on legs with her newfound confidence was going to do a number on me, I just knew it.
Pretending she was my wife was going to be easy. Saying goodbye to her – that was going to be the hard part. I didn’t want to think about that. Not yet. I was having too much fun pretending.
“I think I’ll have a glass of wine tonight,” she said, running her finger down the wine list. “Something white. What do you think, Mr. Avery?”
“I’m going to order a single malt scotch,” I said, taking a seat and resting my arm across the back of her chair. I breathed her in again, just like I’d been doing all night. I never wanted to forget how intoxicating she was.
The clinking of glasses pulled our attention to the head of the table, where Derek and Charlotte sat side by side, sharing a place setting barely meant for one person. They stood up, glasses in hand.
“Thank you everyone for coming,” Derek called out. “I’d just like to propose a toast.”
The room quieted. All eyes were on them.
“Charlotte and I would just like to say that it means the world to have each of you here tonight,” he said. “And the fact that we have your support and you’re all going to be sharing our special day with us, just means everything. We love each and every one of you here. Thank you.”
Glasses chinked and clanged and a few people said, “Here, here.”
“But there’s one more thing,” Derek said. Charlotte stared up at him, shooting him a curious glance. “My best friend for as long as I could remember recently got married.”
I looked over at Odessa who shot me a confused look and shrugged her bare shoulders.
“It came as a surprise to me,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, if any of you know Odessa, she’s not the marrying type. She’s not one to settle down, and she’s certainly not one to settle. But she finally found someone. And I wanted her to know…” He stared at the ground before lifting his gaze across the table. “I’m happy for you, Dess. I really am.”
What kind of asshole turns his wedding toast into a speech congratulating the girl he used to love on her new marriage? My hand gripped her shoulder possessively. He’d moved on, and for all intents and purposes she was mine.
At least until midnight Saturday night.
Charlotte’s big, blue eyes glassed over, but she smiled through it. I almost felt sorry for her. Derek still loved Odessa, that was glaringly plain to see, but he was still going to marry Charlotte. Maybe he didn’t love Odessa in the marrying-way, but that was still a bitter pill for Charlotte to have to shoulder the eve of her big day.
Odessa waited until Derek’s speech was over and the appetizers and drinks had arrived before excusing herself. “I’ll be back. I just need to get some air.”
“You want me to come with you?” I shouldn’t have asked. I should’ve just gone.
“No, no,” she insisted. She grabbed the skirt of her dress and headed toward the front, and I watched as Derek’s eyes followed her and he stood slowly, as if he were debating following after her. But before he had a chance to remove himself from the table, I had to get to her first.
I couldn’t let him ruin Charlotte’s weekend. And I sure as fuck wouldn’t let him ruin Odessa’s.
FIVE – ODESSA
What the hell?!
I welcomed the gush of cool, night air that kissed my face as soon as I set foot outside the restaurant and swallowed lungful after lungful of it until my breathing had slowed.
“Odessa.” A man’s voice called out to me from the doorway. It wasn’t Derek’s, and I sighed a breath of relief knowing he hadn’t chased after me. That would’ve made things way too awkward and I just wanted to get through the weekend unscathed. I could only imagine Charlotte sic’ing her sister-minions on me like wild dogs on raw meat.
I spun around to see Lincoln standing behind me, his hands in his pockets and a concerned look on his ridiculously handsome face. “Hey.”
“You okay?” He lifted one brow. “I know you didn’t want me to chase after you, but, as your husband for the next twenty-eight hours, it’s kind of my job.”
Twenty-eight hours. He had a countdown going. Charming.
“I appreciate your concern, Lincoln, but I’m fine.” I forced a smile, resting my hand on my hip. “Did you see the way Charlotte was looking at me? Gosh, that’s why I ran out of there so fast. She was burning holes in me the entire time.”
“I wasn’t watching Charlotte. I was watching you.”
I squinted an eye and cocked my head to the side. “Why?”
“Because I care about you. I hardly know you, but I care about you.” He pulled a hand from his pocket and reached out to take my hand, pulling me into him. I fully expected him to kiss me. Under any other circumstances, under the pale moonlight above and wrapped by the mild May night air, it would’ve been romantic. My lips parted, mostly due to wishful thinking. “What do you say we get back inside? If we’re gone too long, it’s just going to be that much more awkward by the time we get back in there.”
“You do have a point.”
He squeezed my hand and pulled me inside, keeping a carefully close distance between us. We picked up fresh drinks from the bar and headed back toward the private dining room.
“You’ve got me for the next twenty-eight hours,” he whispered in my ear when we sat down. “Remember that. Anything goes down? Things get weird? Find me. Go to me. I’m here for you.”
“Likewise,” I said with an adoring smile. “Not that you need me. You’ve had your shit tog
ether since the second we met.” I took a swig of my wine and studied his handsome face, never wanting to forget the way his strong jaw clenched when he smiled or the way his perfectly straight nose twitched when he said certain words.
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” he said, taking a drink from his pilsner.
I opened my mouth to ask him if he cared to elaborate, but one of Charlotte’s sisters began clinking the side of her sparkling cider glass with a knife and declaring that she had a speech to make.
Later. I’d have to ask him later.
We survived the rest of the dinner, Derek and Charlotte completely refusing to look our way as they plastered smiles on their faces and pretended like Derek’s awkward speech hadn’t happened.
Welcome to adulthood! Where you pretend like shit doesn’t happen constantly because dealing with it sucks.
We snuck out of the restaurant an hour later and climbed into the car that was already waiting for us outside.
“Ugh,” I sighed, kicking off my painful stilettos. “I just want to get tomorrow over with.”
I did and I didn’t. My carriage was a mere twenty-seven hours from turning into a pumpkin.
“It’ll be here before we know it,” Lincoln said, reaching down and picking up one of my feet. He placed it in his lap and began rubbing the arch of my foot.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I shied away, but he refused to release my foot. Tension released and my feet melted into liquid. “You play the role of doting husband quite well.”
“Give me the other one,” he commanded, taking that one as well and rubbing out all the kinks.
“A girl could get used to this,” I smiled, relaxing back into the dark leather seats as the city lights passed us by. A short time later, the car dropped us back off at our hotel. Lincoln rode the elevator to my floor, holding the door as I exited. I turned to face him. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Are you asking or telling,” he smirked. “You’re not chickening out on me are you?”
“I’m telling. I’ll be there. I’ll definitely be there,” I said. “I want to get at least one dance with my fake husband before this is all over.”
“You happen to be in luck because you married a man who knows how to cut a rug.”
“Is that so?” I lifted an eyebrow and flashed a playful grin.
“Your fake mother-in-law made me take lessons as a child. They’ve sort of stuck with me through the years.”
“I don’t know my fake mother-in-law, but I really, really like her. A lot.”
The elevator began to buzz from Lincoln holding the door open too long. I expected him to offer a quick wave and disappear back inside. Instead he stepped out, letting the doors shut behind him.
My heart raced. What was he going to do next? I bit my lip, imagining what might happen if I allowed him to escort me to my room. All kinds of things could happen. And I would’ve have stopped a single one.
“Sorry, I, uh,” he said, his lips spreading into a wide grin that showcased his perfect teeth. “I wasn’t ready to say goodnight yet.”
Thumping in my chest made its way up to my ears. Was he going to kiss me? Oh, God, I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted him to do a lot of things to me.
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, batting my eyes.
“I just wanted to tell you to be yourself tomorrow,” he said. “And we’re going to drink the hell out of that open bar and dance the hell out of that dance floor. We’re going to party like we’re the ones who just tied the knot. And Sunday, when you fly home, you’re going to remember how Derek’s wedding was one of the best nights of your life.”
If we’d have been in a 1950s movie, I’d have told him to shut up and kiss me. He was a good guy, this Lincoln Avery. I regretted how quickly our time was ending. I really wanted to get to know him more.
“Same to you,” I said. “I hope you’ll always remember those four days you spent married to some pathetic girl who cried to you on an airplane once.”
He gave me a subtle wink before pressing the call button on the elevator. The doors parted a second later and he stepped inside.
“See you tomorrow.”
SIX – LINCOLN
Odessa was a vision in peach as she stood next to Charlotte and her sisters up at the altar. When I’d escorted the last of the guests, I found a spot in the very back with a clear shot of Odessa.
I’d tuned out the vows and the music and the corny love poems. I’d tuned out the formalities and the breathtaking beauty of the stained glass windows in the daylight. All I saw was her.
When I found Odessa later that night at the reception, she seemed relieved to have reconnected.
“There you are, Mr. Avery,” she teased, sticking her tongue out slightly. I wasn’t sure if she was relieved to have the ceremony over with or to have found me again. Maybe it was both.
“You did well up there,” I said.
“I tried,” she said jokingly. “I knew all eyes would be on me and not the beautiful, blushing bride, so I had to bring my ‘A’ game.”
Lighthearted Odessa was even sexier than ever. Gone was the high strung, anxious ball of messed up emotions I’d found crying on the plane. Standing in front of me was a girl slowly beginning to know her power.
“I think I have to sit up there,” she groaned, pointing toward a fancily decorated table where half the bridal party sat, looking like bored statues. “After the dinner, I’ll come find you again and we can boogie.”
“Sounds good. I brought my boogie shoes, so we should be good.”
She laughed before prancing toward her table, turning back and throwing me a sexy smile before taking her seat next to Charlotte’s youngest sister.
***
“May I have this dance?” I asked, coming up behind her after dinner as she poured herself a glass of wedding punch.
“You may,” she said, taking a sip from her cup and setting it down before reaching for my hand.
I led her out to the dance floor where the D.J. played some pumped up jam from the eighties. Odessa swayed her hips to the rhythm and ran her fingers through the loose ends of her hair as a smile captured her entire pretty face. The second the song ended, a slow song came on, and I wasted no time in pulling her into me.
The two of us danced in our own little world. The one we’d made by letting go of our past and erasing our irrational expectations for our futures. The one we’d found by joining forces with a complete stranger who just so happened to share the infliction we’d each thought we had to suffer through all alone.
We’d both come to the wedding filled with dread and longing. We’d both come thinking we’d be alone the whole time. I was beginning to realize meeting her was the best thing that’d ever happened to me.
Dancing next to the girl who was slowly coming into her own, my heart ached at the realization that our evening was coming to an end.
“I need to take a break,” she said breathlessly after a few more songs. She dabbed the back of her hand across the faint sheen of her forehead as a smile spread wide. We found an abandoned table and sat down. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually having fun here.”
The DJ announced that the couple were taking the dance floor for a final dance before heading out. They had an early plane to catch Sunday morning, which would whisk them away to a deluxe Bahamas honeymoon.
Derek and Charlotte took the floor, gazing longingly with wanton looks that would make a guy believe the rehearsal dinner speech had never happened. I only watched them for a moment, turning my attention back toward the pretty filly in peach seated across from me.
Her lips formed a silent yawn as she scrunched her nose and slumped forward. “I’m so tired.”
“That’s too bad,” I said.
“Why’s that?”
“We still haven’t consummated our marriage,” I said, sitting up straight. The window of opportunity was closing fast, and at that point I had nothing to lose. She was going to hop on a plane the
next day, and we’d be back to our usual routines by Monday morning. All of this would be a distant memory, and I’d be lucky if she remembered my name a few years from now.
She cocked her head to the side, as if she were considering it. “True. I mean, it seems like it would be the proper thing to do…”
My heart palpated in my chest as I stood up and reached for her hand. “Well then, Mrs. Avery. Let’s not keep the driver waiting.”
SEVEN – ODESSA
My mouth went dry as I thought of all the things I wanted to do to him and all the things I wanted him to do to me. We practically ran out of the reception hall and threw ourselves into the backseat of his waiting town car, a mess of peach chiffon and custom suit. I straddled his lap, hoisting the skirt of my dress up around my waist as his hands cupped my face and brought my lips into his.
Crushing me with a hard kiss as the car pulled forward, my fingers raked through his hair as our tongues danced. He tasted like cinnamon and felt like a dream. The faint prickle of his five o’clock shadow against the underside of my wrists combined with the bulge forming beneath his suit pants sent a fire straight to my core that only one thing could extinguish.
“You’re so fucking hot, Odessa,” he breathed between kissing me. “And you should know that I never say things I don’t mean.”
“I’d tell you how hot you are, but you’re probably well aware,” I teased, leaning back in for more. Our lips crushed into one another over and over, and his hand navigated the layers of fabric that surrounded my hips until he found my panties. Slipping his finger under the soft fabric that covered my mound, he massaged my clit. I bit my tongue as I grinded my hips, meeting his movements one by one.
Neither of us cared about the driver or the fact that there was no partition. We were sitting in the back seat of a sedan, but nothing around us mattered. Nothing around us existed.
“Here we are,” the driver said a few minutes later after clearing his throat.
Temporary Wife (Episode 3) Page 2