by Ella Miles
“Well, there is no time to go back to your hotel room to get dressed. So yes, you are.”
I hold up the dress that I know is going to show off my every curve. Sebastian stares at it, his eyes imagining it on my body.
“Fine, if you’re going to wear that, I can manage wearing Boden’s preppy clothes.”
“Good.” I walk into the bathroom and shut the door in Sebastian’s face.
“If we are husband and wife, I should really get to see you undress!” he yells through the door.
“We aren’t, so you don’t get to look!” I shout back as I change out of Sebastian’s clothes. Oaklee wants us downstairs in twenty minutes, so I don’t have time to shower and get ready.
I stare at the shower. I should shower. I should remove all evidence of Sebastian from my body, get his scent off of me.
I take a deep breath, breathing in his shirt. It smells like pine and fresh grass and man. It smells like Sebastian. I fold the shirt up neatly along with his boxers and put them on the edge of the counter.
Then I flip the shower on and step under the cool spray. I can’t get sentimental when it comes to Sebastian. He’s not mine. It doesn’t matter if we are technically married or not. It doesn’t matter if we slept together or not. We aren’t together.
I step out, quickly blow dry my hair, and slip into one of Oaklee’s dresses. I don’t have time for makeup. I don’t have time to search through Oaklee’s bag to find hers. So instead, I pinch my cheeks. I don’t wear makeup that often anyway, I’m more a tomboy than a girlie girl.
I open the door and find Sebastian. He turns when I step out, staring at me with his intense smolder that would have me jumping back into bed with him.
“That won’t work,” I say.
“What won’t?”
“That look you are giving me won’t convince me to fuck you again.”
He leans in close.
I hold my breath, so I can’t breathe him in. I’m strong enough to fight his good looks, but there is something about his smell that makes me weak in the knees and ready to do something stupid for him.
“Good thing I wasn’t asking then. Because I only fuck women once.”
I roll my eyes and start walking toward the door. “Of course you do. You’re one of those man-whores who thinks his dick is so special that it can only grace a woman’s pussy once. When in reality, no woman would make the mistake of fucking your disgusting dick twice.”
I reach the door and grab the handle, but Sebastian slams his hand on the door, preventing me from opening it.
“Oh, sweet Millie, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging to ride my cock again.”
“No way in hell.”
And then he runs the back of fingers softy down my cheek. I melt on the inside at how gentle and warm his touch is.
This is the man I want.
The kind of man who puts my needs above his own.
But this is just pretend for Sebastian. In reality, he’s selfish. I don’t even know if he made me come last night.
I grab his hand forcefully, letting him know I won’t deal with his crap.
“Want to make a bet?” I ask.
He grins. “My sweet Millie, I never thought you’d gamble on something as dirty as this.”
“We are in Vegas,” I say.
“I bet that you will be begging to be back in my bed by the end of our time together.”
“And when I resist?”
“I’ll get down on my knees and worship your body at your feet. I’m a king; I never kneel.” He winks at me.
We both exit the room and enter the elevator to take us to brunch. Please, don’t get stuck.
I look at Sebastian watching the elevator with the same trepidation.
When the doors open on the bottom floor, we both let out a breath. But I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed. Being stuck on the elevator sounds better than dealing with this brunch.
“I resist, you become my servant for one day, Mr. King.”
“Deal,” he says.
“What about you? What do you get if I give in and beg for you?”
He smirks as he steps between the open doors.
“You—I get you.”
9
Sebastian
“Congratulations!” The room breaks out in one big cheer as Millie and I step into the room of the restaurant that has been reserved for us. It was supposed to be Oaklee and Boden’s send-off brunch before their honeymoon with the wedding party and a few other special guests, but it appears the news has spread that Millie and I got married instead.
Millie freezes in shock as she stares at all our friends hooping and hollering for us.
I’m just as shocked as she is, even though we both should have known this is what was going to go down. There was no hope that news like this hadn’t spread. For all we know, they were all at our wedding.
I go through the options in my head of surviving this.
One—say we were drunk and did it for fun to distract everyone and that we are getting it annulled immediately.
Two—deny, deny, deny. No one has proof that we are married. We don’t have a marriage license. No one can prove shit.
Three—it was a one-night stand turned insta-love. We fell hard and instantly and just had to get married immediately.
I look at Millie, whose cheeks are redder than I’ve ever seen them as people start throwing questions our way.
Option one is the most honest, but also embarrassing and reckless.
Option two isn’t feasible. Everyone already thinks we are married.
And option three isn’t believable.
But there is another option…
I take Millie’s hand in mine, marveling at how perfect her small hand fits my larger one.
“What are you doing?” Millie hisses through a fake smile.
“I’m getting us through this with the least bit of embarrassment possible.”
“How?”
“Trust me.”
She snickers. “I don’t even know you.”
“Well, then it wasn’t very smart for you to marry me, was it?”
She frowns, but at least she doesn’t look embarrassed anymore, which is an improvement.
“Thanks! I’m so lucky to have found the love of my life. Millie is the most incredible woman I’ve ever met. Only she could get me to settle down,” I say, gripping Millie’s hand as we walk into the banquet room covered in flowers. Everyone is either holding a mimosa or bloody mary.
There is a table at the far end that says bride and groom on each of the seats. I notice that Oaklee is sitting to the left of the table, which means we are expected to sit in the chairs.
“We can’t sit there. That’s for—“ Millie starts.
“Oaklee isn’t sitting in the chair, and I don’t know where Boden is. Come on, just follow along, and we will get out of here unscathed.”
Millie reluctantly follows me to the chairs labeled Bride and Groom and takes a seat next to me.
“How did you meet?” Val asks. “Tell us your love story!” She practically squeaks.
“Umm,” Millie is expected to answer, but I take over.
“Millie got a job in my marketing department. We’ve been dating secretly for months. Millie didn’t think it was appropriate to let it be known that she was dating her boss.”
Everyone laughs. “No way, Millie is wild. She wouldn’t care that she’s dating the boss,” Val teases.
Millie’s eyes cut to mine, and I raise a brow. Apparently, Millie is wilder than I thought.
“Just how wild we talking?” I ask Millie at the same time Millie asks me, “You work at a marketing firm?”
“Not really,” but I don’t say more about my job.
“My wild ways are overblown.”
I smile and throw an arm around the back of a chair as a waitress places two mimosas in front of us.
I look up and find Larkyn looking at me curiously. If my story checked o
ut, there would be no way she wouldn’t know that Millie and I were dating. She knows everything that happens in the center. And she’s one of my best friends. I tell her everything. I’ll tell her the truth later. Kade is looking at me with a surprising amount of pride on his face, not usual coming from my brother. So I’m going to enjoy this ride for as long as I can.
I reach forward, grabbing my glass before realizing I picked up the damn mimosa instead of the water glass. I set it down abruptly and pick up the water glass.
“You okay?” Millie asks, noticing my move.
“Yes, just still hungover and don’t want to drink.”
“I know what you mean. I’d be happy never drinking again.”
I nod and stare at the mimosa. I’m surprised the cravings haven’t kicked in. But so far, I don’t crave alcohol any more than usual. It’s going to be damn embarrassing when I go back to the center and have to start my sober countdown all over again.
“So it was an opposites attract situation?” Shepherd asks.
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“I just mean that Millie is fun, outgoing, adventurous, and kind. And you’re serious, responsible, and well…a bit boring.” Shepherd smiles when he calls me boring, knowing that I’m going to punch him for that later.
“I just mean your life is so routined, and hers isn’t. How does that work?”
I realize that I know practically nothing about Millie’s life. I don’t know what she does for a living. I don’t even know if she lives in Santa Barbara with me so that my meet-cute story could be true or not. And I sure didn’t take Millie for adventurous and spontaneous. To me, she’s just sweet, kind, adorably sexy, Millie.
“Ooh, show us the ring!” Oaklee squeals.
Millie holds out her hand, and all the bridesmaids swarm. Oohing and awing over the ring I must have bought her. I don’t know how much it cost me, but it doesn’t matter. I have more money than I know what to do with.
“When did you propose?” Oaklee asks.
“Weeks ago. We just didn’t want to overshadow your big day.”
“That’s so romantic.”
“Why’d you get married so fast?” Val asks.
“Well, we were in Vegas and thought, what the heck? All our friends were here to celebrate with. And we just knew now was the time. We didn’t want to wait,” I say.
One of the bridesmaids rubs her tummy as if to ask if Millie is pregnant.
I glare at her. “No, that’s not what this is. We are in love. We didn’t want to wait,” I say to her sternly through a tightened jaw.
She drops it.
Just then, brunch arrives. Everyone turns their attention to the food, so the conversation turns away from us.
Oaklee takes this moment to move to our table, though, leaving us no room for alone time.
Just a little bit longer, I think. Once this meal is over, everyone will go their separate ways, leaving Millie and I time to get our marriage annulled quietly and spread rumors that we decided to be just friends. And more importantly, give me time to win our bet. I may not fuck women more than once, but with Millie, I’d like to make an exception since neither of us can remember our first time.
“Where’s Boden?” Millie asks Oaklee.
I frown at Millie. It’s not really the most important question to be asking Oaklee when we have her all alone to ourselves right now. The questions we should be asking are what happened last night and how in the world did we end up married.
Oaklee sighs. “He’s gone.”
“Gone? How could that be? Last we saw you two you were making out and—“ Millie says.
“And then we had an epic fight and decided to break up for good.” A tear escapes Oaklee’s eyes, and Millie grabs her and pulls her into a tight hug.
“Oh, Oaklee, I’m so sorry. What do you need? What can I do to make this better for you? Do we need to go up to the room and order gallons of ice cream?”
“No, nothing like that. Just keep being the center of attention. No one asks about Boden when they are focused on the surprise wedding of the century.”
“Oaklee, about that…”
“We will keep all the focus on us, don’t worry,” I wink at Oaklee, and she smiles back.
“I knew you two would make the perfect match for each other. I just didn’t realize you were dating. You were so mean to each other,” Oaklee says, giving Millie a sly smile.
Millie exchanges a glance with me. “Yea, well, we were trying to keep our relationship on the down-low.”
“I’m glad you aren’t doing that anymore. I told everyone Boden is in our room sick with the same bug that I had and that we will reschedule or have a smaller wedding later. But it isn’t true. He’s probably at a strip club and already found another woman he’s fucking by now.”
Millie takes Oaklee’s hand and squeezes three times. She squeezes three times back.
“I know,” Oaklee says. And for a moment, she and Millie share a secret conversation without me.
I know Oaklee will be one of the few people who eventually learns the truth about Millie and I’s relationship, but for some reason, the thought of the two of us being together makes her happy, so I guess we will pretend around everyone, at least for today. Tomorrow we return to our own lives.
“Ooh!” Oaklee starts jumping up and down excitedly.
Millie grins, seeing her friend so happy, but I know better. I cock my head suspiciously in her direction as I cut my eyes around the room. Thankfully, no one is paying us much attention.
“You have to stop jumping up and down so you can tell us what you’re thinking,” Millie laughs at her obnoxious friend.
Oaklee stops jumping and grabs both of our hands. “You should go on our honeymoon.”
“Oh no, we couldn’t do that,” I say, terrified. I have a life to get back to. And if I know Boden’s dumb ass, their honeymoon was probably planned for Florida. No, thank you.
Millie shakes her head. “I think you should go, Oaklee. Maybe take a close friend to go with you. It could be healing.”
Oaklee shakes her head. “Nope, I don’t want to go and sulk. I want someone who is actually going to enjoy it to use it. It will be my thank you for taking the attention off of me.”
“Oaklee, I really don’t think—“ Millie starts.
“I’m not taking no for an answer. You are going. You deserve a honeymoon after that crappy Elvis impersonator wedding you had and getting married in lavender instead of white. I’m going to do this for you. I just need to get the names changed on the flight and reservations.”
Oaklee pulls out her phone and starts making calls.
“Shit, well, how are we going to get out of this?”
Millie bites her lip. “I think we should go.”
“What? We can’t go. I have a life to get back to!”
Millie takes my hand and strokes the back of it. I instantly feel calm. How did she do that?
I stare at her holding my hand so casually, like we’ve been doing it for months.
“I know, I have a life to get back to as well. But surely since you’re the boss, you can take a week off from work. I can get time off. And it will give us time away from everyone to figure out what to do about our situation.”
“I’m not spending a week in some crappy motel in Florida. If we are going on a ‘honeymoon,’ we are going somewhere nice at least.”
Millie laughs. “They weren’t going to Florida for their honeymoon. Oaklee booked the most expensive hotel in Maui.”
“Hawaii?”
She nods.
I frown. “I guess I could spend a week in Hawaii.”
She laughs harder. “So accommodating of you to spend a free week in Hawaii. It’s very noble of you, King.”
Apparently, that’s my new nickname. I’ve been called that plenty of times before, but somehow, hearing it fall from Millie’s lips gets my heart beating a little faster in my chest.
Clinking of silverware against glass gets our atte
ntion.
“What are they doing?” I ask as everyone taps their forks, spoons, and knives against their champagne flutes.
Millie sighs. “They want us to kiss.”
The corner of my lip curls up. “Oh, do they? They aren’t the only ones.”
“I’m not kissing you. I’d lose the bet.”
“No, the bet was that you’d be begging me to fuck you by the end of our time together. Which apparently, just extended to a week in romantic Hawaii. A show kiss isn’t you begging.”
“Fine.” She plasters a fake smile and is about to lean over to give me a chicken peck on the lips. That’s not going to fly—with me or them.
So instead, I grab her hips and jerk her up. The room erupts in hoops and hollers and yelling for us to kiss.
Her eyes light with fire as if to say, you wouldn’t dare.
Oh, honey, you have no idea how far I would dare.
I dip her back away from the room. And then I lower my head over hers. My hand is running up the side of her smooth black dress that clings to her full hips and breasts. She should be wearing white, not black, but no one argues when it’s Millie we are talking about. She’s my sweet, bossypants.
She licks her lips, waiting for the kiss, but she doesn’t close her eyes, which excites me even more. She doesn’t play by the rules. She likes to watch.
“Are you going to kiss me or not?” she dares me.
I lower my lips, and she parts hers, preparing for more than a chicken peck.
I stop just short. Our lips are so close that if I’m not careful, they’ll collide. But I’m very careful. I don’t want the first kiss I remember with this woman to be in front of a crowd. I want our first kiss to be because she’s begging for it.
Instead of kissing her, I breathe my hot breath into her mouth.
“I won’t kiss you, sweetheart, until you beg me to. Which based on how fast you’re breathing and how hard your heart is thumping, is going to be very soon. And once I kiss you, you’ll be begging for more.”
I run my hand through her hair, messing up her hair just enough for everyone to believe that we’ve kissed, and then I pull her up.
Millie bites on her bottom lip and blushes as the crowd cheers. Oh, my dear sweet Millie, I’m going to enjoy getting you back into my bed.