The image in my mind makes my mouth water, as does the recollection which cascades down to my cock, and I can barely stop the obvious erection I now have.
I feel like I’m going to pop a vessel when she has to bend down and touch the dress.
It’s beautiful and I get that she must be so fascinated she’s not thinking about being naked. But I’m still a man and the only beautiful thing in this room to me is her. I’m pretty sure I didn’t care for the dress as much as getting her out of it.
“This looks like something Vera Wang would design,” she mutters in a breathy rasp. “I think it could be. Oh my God. This would have cost more than the money I have saved up for my house. I can’t afford this.”
“But I can,” I fill in and she looks at me.
When she looks around the room she straightens and shakes her head.
“These are all things I want.”
It seems like I must have been hell bent on getting her everything she wanted, which explains the stuffed animals.
When I spot our clothes by the side of the sofa relief washes over me. Her purse is here, and my wallet are there too.
I rush over to get them, not missing that she stole a glance at my naked ass too.
She looked and I looked, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to the other side of the one we’re on.
I hide myself while I pull on my boxers and toss her, her clothes.
“Thank you.”
I catch sight of her tight little nipples when she pulls the dress over her head and she sees me looking. She frowns at me, but I don’t care. That might be the last I see of her like this. In fact I’m sure it will be. Thinking otherwise would mean I’d be planning to get her in bed again, or back inside her and I know that’s not going to happen.
You have bigger fish to fry Ethan. Stop thinking about sex with Bree and think about fixing this mess.
“I think we must have come here before we got married.” I can’t believe I’m saying that.
“What if we didn’t get married? Maybe we um just bought all the stuff and dressed up.” She nods and I consider this possibility.
That’s highly possible. I stand and drag on my pants. Maybe we did do that.
It would certainly help if I could remember more than the sex and kissing.
I walk over to the kitchenette and stop in my tracks when I see a large wooden framed picture of Bree and I dressed in our wedding clothes.
Next to it is a silver wedding photo album and marriage certificate, which is also framed.
My phone and her phone are on the table too but I’m stuck on the picture of us.
“Bree, we really did get married,” I tell her.
She joins me and she goes ramrod straight when she looks at the picture of the two of us and the certificate.
Her gaze settles on the picture I think I know exactly what’s drawing her to the image of us.
It’s the way we look.
I look from my face to hers and we’re wearing the same expression of love.
No one could tell me that the people we’re looking at aren’t head over heels in love with each other.
I didn’t even know I could look like that. I’m smiling and I don’t even look drunk. I look normal and so does she.
The smile on her face speaks of her inner happiness.
Bree has her head rested on my chest and my arm is wrapped around her bare shoulders. I’m holding her like she’s mine.
“I wonder what made us decide to do that,” she states.
“I don’t know.”
My phone flashes with a text. I would ignore it but it’s my grandfather.
I reach for the phone and look at the preview which tells me the craziness has only just began.
The text says:
Just got your message, I’m so proud of you.
Congratulations to you both. Let’s meet when you get back home to talk business. Of course, Diane and I would love to meet your wife.
My heart is racing. No, it’s more like galloping. My God, I actually messaged my grandfather to tell him I got married.
I click into the message and I could kick myself over and over again when I see my message to him.
Not only did I send him a copy of the picture of Bree and I but I said:
Just married to the girl of my dreams.
But it gets worse than that. the little notification above says sent to all. As in I didn’t just send that message to my grandfather. I sent the message to everyone in my contact list I know.
When I flick out of the message from Grandfather, a myriad of messages from everyone awaits me. Everyone.
“What else happened?” Bree asks. “You look pale.”
“Oh God.”
“Tell me.”
“I… took a copy of the picture and sent a message to everyone I know.”
She gasps and now she’s pale again. “You did what?”
“Check your phone, maybe you should check your phone.”
She grabs her phone and when her eyes go wider than they already were I don’t have to ask what happened.
Frantically she starts looking through her phone and the rapid breathing comes back.
“I did the same thing. What the hell. Oh my God. Everyone knows. My family. My God my damn family. Ethan we have to fix this. We have to go back to the church or whatever. I don’t know and fix this.”
“Yes. Of course.” I say that but in the back of my mind something stalls because I did what I thought I was never going to do.
“Maybe if we can remember where we got married we can go back there and tell them we were drunk and made a mistake, so they can fix it. This is Vegas people must do this craziness all the time right?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“It could be done within the hour, and we could go home and laugh about it and tell everyone we were screwing with them.”
She’s flipping out. I can see it. The quiver in her voice suggests she’s about to break. I might make her break faster because even though this is Vegas, you can’t get a marriage annulled within an hour.
“Bree. It’s not exactly as simple as that. It won’t happen that quickly.”
“Well, how long do you think it might take?”
Last I heard it might be a week and that’s if you can get through all the paperwork on time, but I won’t tell her that.
An idea forms in my mind as I stare at her and see how much she’s freaking out.
“It’s going to take a while, Bree. What if I get all the paperwork and take care of everything as best as I can while I put you on a flight home.”
“Home,” she mumbles.
“Yeah. You go home and get some rest and I’ll catch up with you later, or more likely tomorrow. The flight’s going to take a while and I don’t know what I’m going to have to do here.” I should also probably check in with the guys. That’s all I’m doing though. This situation with Bree might be crazy but there’s no way I’m staying in that suite tonight with them and God knows how many strippers doing God knows what. I am officially bowing out of this bachelor weekend.
“Do you want to do that?” I ask.
“Yes, are you sure?”
“Yes.” It’s best if I’m not around her. I have to think.
It would be simple to tell everyone it was a prank if my grandfather wasn’t included in the mix.
Telling him it was a fucking prank is not going to go down well at all.
He wanted me to get married and he never says he’s proud of anything or anyone unless he means it.
I can’t think about that now, however, because I have to put my wife—my wife—on a flight back home.
I married Bree Dawson. Married the girl I used to pick on like I breathed air.
Her the goody-two-shoes southern belle and me the kid who was always in and out of juvie.
I married her and I can’t even remember saying I do.
Chapter 17
Bree
There are over two hu
ndred messages on my phone and near enough the same amount of missed calls.
I looked at the messages from my parents and replied to them both letting them know I’d call them later, right before I got on the plane and left Ethan—my husband.
My husband.
I got married.
I keep trying out the words in my mind and every time they filter through the fibers of my understanding shock suffuses my being. Because I didn’t just get married, I married Ethan Carson. And as luck would have it, I can’t even take off the rings on my finger. They are stuck there on my finger like I glued them.
The rings aren’t even small. They’re just stuck as if the universe wants to keep me in this malady.
I’m nearly home now and night fell long ago. I’m in a taxi on my way back from the airport. I should be home in about ten minutes. Shelby is already there waiting for me. Quinn and Logan were going to come by too, but I told them I’d see them tomorrow.
As close as I am to Quinn, right now I feel like I just need family, as in Shelby. Besides, and I feel bad for thinking this, but I didn’t want to be around Quinn and her perfect husband and perfect marriage and their perfect baby on the way, when I feel like my life is going down the crapper.
They’ll know, just like the other friends who are close to us that Ethan and I must have gotten drunk, so the damn marriage is fake. Shelby knows too because I told her, but she’ll understand me a little differently to everyone else.
Mama offered to come by too but that would be the worse thing ever.
I can’t see my mother right now. Mama isn’t like Shelby and she’s happy about the wedding.
Most of Mama’s messages I read bitched at me for either getting married without her or getting married without the family. Then the last few were more congratulatory in a manner of speaking because she said good job for beating Lucille to the alter. Although she couldn’t be more shocked I married Ethan Carson.
There were messages from Lucille too, but I haven’t read them yet. I did catch one preview though of five words which sounded as insincere and fake as she is. My guess is she’s jealous as fuck I not only beat her to the alter, but because even though her husband to be could be the next James Bond, Ethan is a million times that. There is literally no comparison. She’s not going to like that one bit.
If I wasn’t so worked up over everything, I’d at least take pleasure her displeasure.
But I can’t, I’m tired and freaked out and I spent most of the day travelling back with all that time on my hands to think about the situation.
The flight was substantially longer than the one I took to go to Vegas but honestly it wasn’t the length that bothered me. It was everything else.
I have two suitcases I didn’t have before too. Ethan bought them for me so I could pack the stuff up.
As freaked out as I was by everything I packed, being respectful that Ethan must have paid a shit load of money for it all.
Especially the dress. I recognized the design of the dress from looking through wedding magazines months ago when Lucille insisted we all get together and help her choose.
That wasn’t the aim of the meeting though. She wanted to show off how much her dress was likely to cost. Of course, she had Vera Wang’s latest designs brochure and I have a feeling that’s why I ended up in that dress.
If I remember correctly, the damn thing cost about fifty grand. Remember as in remember what Lucille said about prices and what I saw at the time in the brochure.
So, of course I packed it. Ethan bought me a dress that cost the same amount of money I have saved up for the house.
The said house that sent me to Vegas and as I live and breathe in this moment, I don’t have an answer from him about it.
I have no memory of the parts of last night that matter and for what I do remember before the heavy drinking began, we never spoke about the house.
I was too busy in my fascination over what it felt like to kiss him to remember.
Good job Bree, good job.
I remember those parts and us talking in the VIP room. That first kiss did something to me and that’s why I’m in this mess.
He was different and my brain took note of that. My brain has also neatly filed away that the man seemed to get me everything I wanted. Even the Bellagio.
If I’m running with the idea of giving Bree what she wants, my guess is we ended up there because I must have told him I wanted to go there someday.
There was nothing in that suite that was him. The damn food was inspired by me too. Popcorn and pizza is all me.
The taxi pulls up in front of my apartment and I get out with my things.
I practically run inside and when I see Shelby, I continue my pursuit into her awaiting arms finding the refuge I sought.
“Oh sugar, come on and tell me what happened,” she beckons and sits me down in the living room.
Then over hot chocolate and double chocolate cookies I tell her everything I remember while we try to get my rings off and fail and she looks at my dress.
She’s still kneeling down beside my suitcase looking at my dress, mesmerized.
“My God. This would have cost nearly as much as that rock on your finger.” She says with a lighthearted chuckle.
“I know,” I agree.
She lifts the dress out of the case and holds it up. “Whatever you do I hope you decide to keep this.”
“Oh, Shelby right now the dress and everything is freaking me out to no end, and I wish I could take these rings off.” I try to yank then off again but nothing is working. We even used some butter and massage oil.
“Girl, them rings are the least of your worries. Just forget them for the moment. At least everybody knows and you don’t have to hide.”
“What am I going to do? All I wanted was the house and we never closed that conversation. For all I know he could have sold it.”
“I think he would have told you.”
“I don’t know. Now I’m in this mess and that whole trip feels like it was for nothing. He stood to get a million dollars. I never knew if I managed to convince him or anything. Shelby why am I so prone to shit. I slept with Ethan a lot and married him.”
“On the plus side when you do remember, the sex parts might not be so bad.”
“Shelby,” I chide. Those are the parts I don’t want to remember because that’s when I’m going to start freaking out.
“What? I’m just being realistic. There’s no way you can tell me you haven’t thought of him like that. No way. I won’t believe it.”
I groan inwardly because I can’t lie to her even if I can to myself.
She laughs. “Oh Bree, I’m sorry for the mess, but I can’t too rightly say that something like this wasn’t a long time coming. Everybody could see it besides you.”
“Shelby, this is Ethan we’re talking about. I just got out of God knows what could have happened to me with Liev. This is not what I need and not with a man who’s turned my world every way except the right way for as long as I can remember. I am not okay with this.”
Seeing my frustration, she comes back on the sofa and sits, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.
“Keep talking. Tell me how you’re feeling.”
“I feel like I just made my life more confusing than it already is.” I hug the fluffy cushion next to me and rest my chin on top of it.
“Did you hear from Ethan before you got here?”
“No. I kind of guessed I wouldn’t. He’s there for the bachelor weekend. He’s supposed to be there until tomorrow night. He’s not going to take a break a break from that to check on me.” Although he said I was likely to see him tomorrow.
I can’t allow myself to believe that because I know what he’s like. Or rather men like him. I doubt he’ll even sort out any paperwork to annul our marriage because he’ll probably be too busy getting laid.
My husband getting laid by someone who isn’t me.
Christ.
I shouldn’t even be thinking
that. But damnit, I was irritated enough in high school when I saw him with his skanks and used to wish he could see me as more than the girl he picked on. What the hell am I supposed to be like if I’m married to him?
“I can see you’re worried about that.”
“I’m not.”
“Darlin, you and I both agreed we’d never lie to each other. Let’s not start now.” Shelby holds my gaze. “As much as you love your mother, I take it there’s a reason I’m the one who’s here and not her. I would never claim to be better than my sister at taking care of her daughter, but what you’ve made me is the person you can tell everything to. Please let me be that for you.”
I consider what she’s saying to me, and I honestly don’t know where to start.
“Okay. I am worried about that. Is that crazy? Is it crazy that it would crush me if I knew he was with someone else even though we got married and can’t even remember?”
“It’s not crazy.”
“But it should be because it’s not real.”
“I think parts of it are.”
“I don’t know Shelby. It’s Ethan and I can’t trust him like that.” As I say that I remember what he said to me earlier about trusting him to take care of everything. Now that I’m home I’m not sure about anything.
“You will figure this out. Right now, I think you need some rest. I wouldn’t speak to your mother or friends yet until you talk to him. Let them wait.”
I nod. That sounds like a good idea.
“Thanks for being here Shelby.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that. I’ll always be there for you whenever you need me. Now go on have a nice hot shower and get some sleep. I’ll stay over and make breakfast then I have a few errands to run tomorrow. I want you to stay in touch with me though.”
“I will.”
I head upstairs shower and change for bed, but I don’t sleep for a long time.
When I do, I hear Ethan’s voice whispering to me: tell me your dreams baby and I’ll make them come true.
That’s what he said to me. I keep hearing those words ringing through my mind for a long time.
Out of Bounds: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Sinful Bachelors Book 2) Page 10