Alexis bounced down the stairs. “Great.”
We went outside together to greet the movers and to direct them on where to put her things.
I watched them carry in a bed, a dresser, and less than ten boxes.
“Where’s the rest of your stuff?” I asked, walking into Alexis’s new room.
She looked up from a box she’d opened. “What do you mean?”
“You had to have more than a bed at your apartment.”
She cringed. “Oh, I did, but you don’t want any of that stuff in this nice house. My furniture is awful. Old and a lot of hand-me-downs. The only thing I spent money on was my mattress, and even that wasn’t a lot.”
I gritted my teeth and tried not to curse. When she had lived with my brother, she’d had a nice house with beautiful furniture. Not only did my brother make good money, but both of us also had money from when our parents had passed and from our father’s shares of pharmacy. It had been put into a trust that gave us funds every month. Neither of us was hurting for money. Kevin didn’t need to swindle his ex-wife out of her settlement money.
“What an ass.” I couldn’t bite my tongue.
Alexis lifted her head. “What?”
“Nothing.” I didn’t want her to feel worse about her decision to marry Kevin. “So, what did you do with the things you didn’t move?”
Her brow furrowed. “I left them at the apartment. I didn’t think it made sense to move everything when I’m going to go back soon.”
I sighed, feeling bad for her. “If my brother does any digging, he can’t see that you still have your apartment half-furnished.”
She bit her lip. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
I got down on my haunches and lifted her chin. “You don’t have to apologize to me. This isn’t your fault.”
She nodded, but I felt like she didn’t agree.
“Also, you have to remember, when this is all over, you will have your money and won’t have to move back there.”
She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You’re right. I keep forgetting that.”
“Do you want me to call the moving company back?”
Grimacing, she said, “No. Like I said, my stuff wouldn’t fit in with your things. I’ll donate it.”
“Hey, good idea.” I stood. “How many months left on your lease?”
“Uh…two, I think.”
“I’ll take care of that for you.”
She jumped up. “You don’t have to do that. I can pay the—”
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.
Alexis and I locked eyes.
“I think your brother’s here,” she whispered.
Boom, boom, boom.
He’d gone from ringing the bell to pounding on the door.
“That was sooner than I’d expected.” I exhaled a whoosh of air. “Here goes nothing.”
The doorbell was ringing again as I walked down the stairs.
“I’m coming. You can stop now. I know you’re there,” I yelled.
Swinging open the front door, I was ready to confront my brother, but I wasn’t ready for who was actually on the other side.
“You got married?” My ex-girlfriend, Lorraine, pushed past me and walked in.
“Come in,” I said sarcastically.
“Trevor, how could you?” she whined.
“Lorraine, we haven’t dated for two years.” I was completely baffled as to why she was so upset.
“But we always get back together, Trevor.”
I could see where she had a point, but she was delusional if she thought I was ever going to marry her. “Yes, we dated on and off for many years. But we’ve never gone this long without getting back together. I thought it was clear that we were over.”
A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.
I motioned for Alexis to come over.
My new wife came to my side and slipped her arms around me. I had always been affectionate with the women I dated, and Lorraine would know that. I kissed Alexis on the top of her head because this woman understood the assignment.
“Lorraine, you remember Alexis?”
Lorraine scoffed. “Don’t you think this situation is weird?”
My ex and I had dated while Alexis was still married to Kevin. We had even gone on a few couples dates together, so it was a little weird.
Alexis shrugged. “The heart doesn’t care what’s weird and what’s not. It just knows it’s in love.”
I squeezed her side. “Good answer, babe.” I’d added the nickname at the last minute. It felt right.
“Besides, aren’t you engaged to someone, Lorraine? You have it posted all over social media,” Alexis said, turning toward her with a hand on her hip.
“Yes, but…”
“But you still hoped that Trevor and you would get back together someday?”
Lorraine looked away.
“I don’t blame you,” Alexis said. “This man is a keeper. But you can’t have two men.” She paused. “I mean, you can. If they are both up for a polyamorous relationship. But I’m guessing your fiancé isn’t interested.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “And we both know Trevor doesn’t like to share.” She straightened. “So, I guess the only thing I have to say is, you snooze, you lose. Finders keepers, losers weepers.”
“I am not some prize, Alexis,” I joked.
She laid her head on my chest. “You’re right, honey; you’re not.” She lifted her head again. “Sorry, Lorraine, but he’s mine.”
I laughed. “Did you need anything else?” I asked my ex. “Because we need to finish unpacking some of Alexis’s stuff, and it is our wedding night.”
“No.” Lorraine headed to the door. “I think I just wanted to see if it was true.”
“It is,” Alexis said. “Thanks for coming though.”
My ex left without another word, and Alexis stepped away from me.
“I guess that was good practice for when Kevin comes around.”
“Yeah.”
“Were you surprised to see her?”
“Very. We’ve been over for a long time.”
“That’s good. She was never good enough for you.”
My eyebrows rose. I’d never realized Alexis felt that way.
“I suppose I should get back to unpacking.”
“Alexis?” I said before she left.
“What?”
“How did you know I don’t like to share?”
She smiled. “I know you, I guess.”
Part of me didn’t think it was an unreasonable thing to know about me. Another part of me couldn’t believe she knew that.
“Yeah, I guess…” I shook off my thoughts. “You’d better go finish unpacking. I’m sure my brother will show up soon.”
Chapter Eight
ALEXIS
Trevor and I both retired for the night without a word from Kevin. It was a shock since he wasn’t big on social media, but it felt anticlimactic to go to bed without him confronting us.
But one thing I hadn’t considered until I pulled back my comforter was that maybe he didn’t care. He had thrown our marriage away before we were even separated, so maybe my marriage to his brother didn’t bother him even though he would now have to share his inheritance.
I knew I was doing the right thing in helping Trevor, but I was disappointed.
Such was life, I supposed, and I shouldn’t be surprised that I had lost out again when it came to my ex-husband.
Amazingly, I had fallen asleep hard and fast, but I woke up a couple hours later in full alert mode.
I wasn’t sure what had woken me until I heard a banging at the front door. The hall light flipped on, and I saw Trevor walking past in only a pair of pajama pants.
My heart began to beat fast. It had to be Kevin at the door. I didn’t know anyone else who would be outside the house at midnight.
I slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the edge of the hallway to listen.
; “I’m coming,” Trevor bit out as the sound of the front door opened. “What?”
“Don’t what me,” a familiar voice said. “I just got a phone call, telling me my wife married my brother.”
I held my breath as I waited for Trevor’s response.
“She’s not your wife anymore, man. She’s mine. You didn’t want her, remember?”
“She left me.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“She left my bed. That’s the same thing,” Kevin said.
“Only after you treated her like shit. Why do you care anyway? You’re getting married to someone else soon.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Then, what is?” Trevor sounded like he was tired of the situation. “You don’t own Alexis. She can marry whoever she wants.”
“How did this even happen? How did you two even get…” Kevin trailed off and gasped. “This is about Nana.” He laughed. “I should have known. You don’t even like Alexis. You just married her to get the pharmacy.”
I flinched at hearing Kevin say Trevor didn’t like me, and I tried to push it away because the bigger factor was that Kevin had figured out Trevor’s plan. We had expected it, but it was going to take some convincing to prove we were a real couple.
“I admit, we might have gotten married sooner than normal—Alexis doesn’t want you ruining our legacy either—but we were already a couple and would have gotten married eventually anyway.”
“Ooh…smart,” I whispered to myself.
Admitting part of the truth made it more believable. We hadn’t discussed it, but I thought Trevor had made the right decision.
“I don’t believe you,” Kevin said.
“Don’t believe what?”
“That you two are in a relationship.”
“You don’t have to believe it, but it’s true.”
“When our grandmother passes, I’m going to prove that your marriage is a sham.”
The front door closed, and there was a shuffling sound.
“You’re not going up there, Kevin.”
Shit. If he came up here, he was going to see that I was in my own bed.
“And why not? Because you don’t want me to see that you and Alexis aren’t sleeping together?”
I spun around and quickly made my bed. I grabbed my phone and the glass of water I had sitting on the nightstand and carefully slid out into the hall. I bolted toward Trevor’s room while trying to be light on my feet. It wasn’t easy, and my heart was racing when I got there, but I made it.
“I’m not letting you disturb my wife. She’s sleeping.”
Kevin snorted. “You’re a liar.”
I went to the unslept-on side of the king-sized bed and set my things down as if I had put them there before going to sleep. I stripped off my pajamas and looked around. Would I have taken my PJs off before bed, or would my new husband have taken them off for me?
“You can’t stop me.” Kevin’s voice was louder and closer than before.
I didn’t have time to worry about where my clothes landed. I just threw them on the floor and slipped under the covers just as footsteps pounded on the stairs.
Laying my head on the pillow, I did my best to pretend like I’d been sleeping.
“Aha…” Kevin said.
I half-opened one eye and put my hand up, as if the hall light were too bright for me. “What’s going on?” I asked in the best scratchy-from-sleep voice I could come up with.
“My brother doesn’t believe we’re a real couple,” Trevor said.
I sat up to lean against the headboard, letting the sheet slip off of my chest just enough to show a breast. I figured Kevin had already seen them, and maybe knowing I was naked would help convince him that our marriage was genuine.
Rubbing my eyes, I said, “Sorry to break it to you, Kevin, but Trev and I are the real deal.”
“Trev? You two are on a nickname basis now?”
“Lexie and I are a couple, so yeah.”
Kevin laughed. “You messed up. Alexis hates being called Lexie.”
Fuck. I always went by Alexis, but Trevor probably hadn’t known that about me.
I needed to salvage this.
I yawned like Kevin hadn’t caught us. “Listen, Trevor makes me come—unlike you. He can call me whatever he wants.” I pushed my body back down and got comfortable, as if I were bored with the conversation. “Now, go away, Kevin, so my husband can come back and make love to me again.”
Kevin pointed his finger at me. “This isn’t over. I’m going to prove this is a fake marriage.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Trevor. “Hurry back,” was the only thing I said.
Trevor grabbed the back of Kevin’s neck. “It’s time for you to leave. It’s late.”
He managed to get his brother to turn and go back downstairs, and I sighed with relief. That could have gone horribly bad, but I thought Trevor and I had done pretty well.
The two brothers talked more. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but with Kevin still in the house, I didn’t want to get up and go back to my room, so I closed my eyes in case he came back upstairs.
Now that I was alone, I noticed how comfortable Trevor’s bed was. When I got my divorce money from Kevin, I was going to buy a bed just like this. I smiled as I pictured my ex reluctantly handing me a check.
That was the image I fell asleep to.
Chapter Nine
TREVOR
I watched my new wife walk down the stairs, fully clothed, while I hid my erection behind the kitchen island.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to be attracted to Alexis, but my body did not care. I couldn’t get the image of her beautiful breast and dark rosy nipple out of my head. It didn’t help that I’d had to sleep next to her naked body all night. My saving grace had been my big king-sized bed and the ability to put some space between the two of us.
But I also couldn’t get her words out of my head. “Listen, Trevor makes me come—unlike you. He can call me whatever he wants.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised my brother was a selfish lover, but I was.
One thing for sure was, I needed to stop thinking about Alexis in a sexual way, or I was going to be miserable throughout this whole marriage.
“Sorry about calling you Lexie last night,” I told her as she took a seat at the counter.
“It’s fine. I’m just hoping my reason for being okay with it was believable.”
I took a sip of my coffee. “He wouldn’t have believed us, regardless of what we said. Coffee?”
“Yes, please.”
Opening the cupboard, I got a mug out for her and poured her coffee. “I admit, I panicked when he bolted past me and actually went up the stairs. I didn’t know how I was going to explain you being in a different bed. Thanks for being quick on your feet. No pun intended.”
She smiled as I pushed her cup over to her and leaned on the counter with my elbows. “I’m just glad I woke up when he got here. But I’m sorry I didn’t go back to my room after he left. I fell asleep. Your bed is so comfortable.”
I didn’t know what possessed me to say what I said next, but I opened my mouth and told her, “It’s not a problem. You can sleep there every night if you want. It might be smart. I wouldn’t put it past Kevin to use his key to sneak in while we’re sleeping.”
“I agree since I’m pretty sure we didn’t convince him.”
“Yeah, he’s an asshole, but he’s pretty smart. He was definitely still skeptical when he left.”
Lifting her coffee to her lips, she met my eyes. “Does this mean we should also sleep naked?” she joked.
I raised an eyebrow. My dick liked that idea.
She looked away and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. That was inappropriate.”
I’d embarrassed her. “No, no, it’s fine. We are husband and wife after all.”
“Only in the loosest sense of the words.”
I frowned, her statement sitting wrong with me for some
reason. “I’ll get the locks changed right away. My brother shouldn’t be able to get in, no matter what.”
“I appreciate that.” She took a drink. “What did Kevin say to you after you left the bedroom?”
I sighed. “Just that he wasn’t going to hand over the inheritance to me.”
“What did you say?”
“That I didn’t expect any less from him. And then he said he was going to prove that we only got married because of the will.”
“Do you think he’ll be able to do that?”
“I’m going to do my best so he can’t.”
“Do you really believe you’d lose the business if he was able to prove it?”
“That all depends on how good our lawyers are and what the judge thinks. Technically, the will never said the marriage had to be real, but one could argue that a fake marriage doesn’t count. Bottom line: I don’t want to risk it.”
“I understand. I will do whatever you need for this to be a real marriage.”
“Thank you. And I’ll do what it takes to get you your money.”
Alexis looked away. “Do you think maybe we should find out some more things about each other? Like, intimately?”
“You mean, so we don’t have another nickname mishap?”
“Yes.”
“You realize I’m going to have to call you Lexie now. At least sometimes.”
She chuckled. “I know. I don’t really hate it. I just prefer my full name instead.”
“Noted. I’ll only call you Lexie during private moments.”
Her eyes widened, and I laughed.
“I mean, in front of my brother, for things like, Lexie, it’s time for bed.”
She shivered.
I frowned. “Is that okay?”
“Yes. That’s just fine.”
I wasn’t convinced. “You let me know if it’s not.”
“I will. We should probably also discuss PDA. Neither of us wants to do something the other doesn’t like and have Kevin call us out on it.”
“You’re right.” I rubbed my chin. “I like holding hands.”
“I noticed.”
Not Another Fake Marriage (Not Another Romance) Page 4