by Nicole Casey
He swallowed visibly and lowered his eyes.
“Of course not, Mr. Sphinx.”
I spun to meet my bride-to-be and she looped her arm through mine happily, Trevor ambling after us with great reluctance.
It’s not like I’m keeping this a secret forever, I justified. I’ll tell her as soon as we get home.
It wasn’t like I had a choice. I probably would have shut up about it if I didn’t know someone else would tell Asha the truth, that I was pretending to be my brother.
“Is he okay?” Asha whispered at me. “He looks like he’s going to vomit.”
“He’s fine,” I insisted. “Aren’t you, Trevor?”
I turned back to look at the driver and he returned my gaze with defiant eyes.
“Of course I am, Mr. Rustin. Why wouldn’t I be?”
6
Asha
Time froze for a moment and I gaped at Trevor.
“W-what did he just call you?” I breathed but before Adare (or was he Rustin?) could say anything, Trevor’s face flushed and he looked away.
“My apologies, Mr. Sphinx. Slip of the tongue.”
I whirled and looked at my new lover, the man I was supposed to be on my way to marry and he met my eyes steadfastly.
“Why did he call you Rustin?”
“You heard him,” Adare said nonchalantly. “Slip of the tongue. It happens all the time. Come on.”
He gently yanked my arm and without giving me a second to consider anything else, I found myself standing before a bored looking bleached-blonde, popping gum.
When her eyes rested on Adare, she perked right up, a wide smile forming on her lips.
“Well hello, honey,” she purred, ignoring me altogether. “How can I help you?”
Her voice grated on me but not nearly as much as the look she was giving Adare, like she was going to swallow him whole the second my back was turned.
“This is the place people come to get married, isn’t it?” Adare demanded, sounding annoyed.
“Sure is. Have you got any ID?”
I stepped up to his side as he pulled his wallet from the back pocket of his pants and pulled out his license.
Adare Edward Sphinx.
I exhaled, marveling at my own stupidity. Of course he was Adare. I would know the difference. They were twins but they were fraternal twins…weren’t they?
I wracked my brain, urging myself to recall an image of Rustin Sphinx but nothing immediately came to mind. My Google searches had been limited to Adare.
“Miss?”
The receptionist was looking at me, still cracking her gum obnoxiously but I could see her checking out Adare through her peripheral vision.
I was getting cold feet. Of course I was. It was natural to look for weird excuses not to do something big and life altering, human nature really.
I fumbled for my purse and removed my ID, sliding it across the counter for her to punch it into a computer.
“I’ll get the Chaplin ready for you,” she announced, raising her shockingly full bottom out of the chair. From the chest up, I would have never guessed she was over two hundred and fifty pounds.
Adare squeezed my hand and I gave him a nervous smile. I didn’t want to reiterate my concerns. His argument for making it happen was valid.
Then why couldn’t I let go of the apprehension building in my gut?
Adare’s phone rang and he grunted, pulling it from his pocket.
“I better turn this off,” he muttered, killing the screen but before it went dark, I could have sworn the name on the display read, “Adare.”
You’re losing your mind, I told myself, fingers shaking slightly as I reached subtly for my own phone. I suddenly wanted to see a picture of Rustin Sphinx.
“We’re ready for you, honey!” The blonde sang, shattering my thoughts. I noted with disdain that she wasn’t talking to me at all.
“Ready to do this?” Adare whispered at me and I nodded quickly, releasing my grip on the cell phone in my hand so that it fell back into my purse. There would be plenty of time for Internet searches later. Whatever I was concocting in my mind was borne from nerves.
I liked Adare and he liked me. Marriages had been started on a lot less and I certainly could have done a lot worse.
What else did I want but a gorgeous stud who knew how to go down like a champ and was the heir to a pharmaceutical fortune? We’d oversee our parents’ empires together and build it to greater heights together.
And if tonight were any indication of what was to come, maybe there would be love in our future…along with a baby that could never be taken from me.
A whoosh of air escaped my lungs and I moved forward with Adare on my arm. Yes, we were going to do this…even if Trevor continued to stare at us both with unmistakable distress.
I was shivering slightly when we got back into the car but I wasn’t cold, even though Adare mistook my tremors for a chill. I didn’t protest when he removed his jacket and wrapped it around me.
“It’s warm out tonight,” he commented, peering out at the black sky. “Are you cold?”
I shook my head and dropped it against his broad chest, listening to the surprisingly even rhythm of his heartbeat.
This marriage thing didn’t faze him at all, I thought, snuggling closer into his body, relishing the firm form of his body against mine. It was almost eerie how connected I felt to him now when earlier I’d felt very little.
My alcohol buzz had long since worn off but I still felt heady. Adare had placed his class ring from Yale on my finger, a placer he said but I couldn’t stop staring at it like it was a four-carat diamond.
It wasn’t the stone that mattered—it was the intoxicating realization that I’d married this guy, this virtual stranger but I didn’t feel remotely wrong about it.
Shit. Maybe I should listen to my parents more often.
It was a putrid thought but I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, even as I felt my eyes growing heavy and gritty. It had been a long and eventful night, one filled with unexpected twists and turns. I was looking forward to finding a bed and crashing for a few hours.
Maybe after we consummate our union, I thought as the Sphinx mansion came into view.
The party still seemed to be going full force and when Trevor opened the door, I blinked sleepily at him and offered him a smile. Surprisingly, he only looked at me with pity before turning away. He was acting weird but what did I know? Maybe he always acted like that.
“Come up to my suite,” Adare urged me, hurrying me out of the circle drive. “Let’s get some rest. We’ll have a lot of explaining to do in the morning.”
I didn’t object, my feet seeming to float over the pavement and it wasn’t until we entered through the kitchen that I realized I was being snuck inside.
Honestly, I was grateful that we managed to avoid other people. Adare and I had agreed to wait until the next day to tell everyone about our elopement. It was a good thing too—I didn’t have the energy for a lot of questions.
Through the back stairs, Adare led me by the hand, pausing to look at me about halfway up.
“Shouldn’t I be carrying you?” he asked lightly and I giggled but to my utter shock, he scooped me up in his strong arms, taking my breath away but I wrapped my arms around his neck. A burst of heat surged through my body, mixing with a wave of adrenaline and the tiredness I was feeling faded away to a growing desire.
I buried my face into his neck, inhaling the spicy scent of his cologne, co-mingled with the faintest whiff of sweat. The aroma was tantalizing and my lips found the thread of his pulse along his jugular.
Gooseflesh exploded over his neck, beneath the stubble of his five o’clock shadow. I rubbed my nose against him, savoring the scent and feel of his raspy skin against me.
I couldn’t think of a time when I’d ever been so instantly aroused by someone’s touch.
His hands tightened around my waist and it was almost difficult to breathe, crushed against him, his strides increasing in
quickness as he made his way to the third floor of the mansion, presumably to where his suite lay.
There hadn’t been any talk about where we’d stay or what we’d do after the ceremony. I was glad he hadn’t suggested going back to my place. I had no interest in bringing my new life around my parents that night.
Or any night. This could be my escape from them too.
It hadn’t really occurred to me until that moment but the idea sent another burst of heat through me and my teeth gently sank into his flesh in my excitement.
He grunted, pausing to kick open the double doors of his room with so much force, I was shocked they didn’t come off the hinges but that was truly the least of my concerns in that moment. I was far more focused on the fire surging through me, making my nipples rock-hard and longing for his hands.
We didn’t even make it into the bedroom.
Adare dropped me onto the settee in the sitting room and my shirt was off, chest heaving with anticipation.
He crashed down on me, his tongue flickering out to sample me, hands roaming over my body, somehow everywhere at once.
I don’t know when or how his clothing came off but we were pressed together against the chaise, our skin burning into each other as Adare’s mouth continued its expedition over my yearning form.
He had me on my stomach, straddling me so that I could feel the hardness of his cock between my cheeks. This was his preferred way of taking me—I already knew that but he wasn’t about to plunge into me, not yet.
I sighed when his lips found the edges of my bare shoulder, his abs defined over the prickled skin of my back. I instinctively bucked upward, loving the sensation of his huge shaft teasing my cheeks. He was dripping for me already but he had other plans, his lips traveling lower, over the curve of my ass.
My hair blocked me from doing anything but enjoying ride and he rose my hips upward to spread me wide before dropping his face deep between my cheeks.
His tongue was everywhere, licking my own flush of wetness, driving the tip inside both my openings and making my fingers curl painfully into the taut material of the settee.
I groaned, his stubble tickling me almost hurtfully as his laps went crazy. He wanted me to come and when his fingertips found my pulsating clit, I knew any resistance was futile.
I better get used to this. I’m putty in his hands.
The thought only brought me higher and I let myself release like a faucet over his face. Strangely, I thought I’d squirted but that wasn’t anything I’d ever done before. Yet when he slipped his index finger inside my ass, his mouth still going to town on me, I did it again, almost instantly.
What was this guy doing to me?
He’s not just a guy. He’s your husband.
My nipples were hard enough to cut glass and when he finally untangled his tongue from my core, I flipped around before he could stop me. I wanted to look into his face this time, to see what he was experiencing when he came inside me.
Adare didn’t protest, the veil of desire in his eyes overcoming any room to fight with me about positions and suddenly, I pounced on him, thrusting his back against the low back of the sofa.
Straddling him, I sank onto his cock, crying out again. Was it going be this shocking every time we fucked? The size of him took my breath away again. My breast ended up in his mouth, his lips latching on to suck at me as he drove himself deep inside. My fingers twined into the dark blond of his hair at the base of his neck, drawing his mouth closer and he bit at me.
“Fuck,” I breathed, feeling the now-familiar sensation of a climax building inside me. Adare’s hands gripped my waist, elevating me slightly before beginning to pound with primal energy.
Grunts radiated through his chest and I screamed out but the noise got stuck in my throat, the shock of his nearly violent thrusts rendering me paralyzed.
My nails dug into the skin of his neck and he grimaced, his eyes locking on mine.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Asha,” he growled. It was all I could take and endlessly, I gushed over his stiff, throbbing cock in yet another orgasm.
He slapped my ass once, twice and grunted, his emerald orbs glazing over as the walls of my pussy sucked him into me.
Hot spurts of lava rushed up inside me and I fell forward, my breast in his face, his breath almost burning me as he groaned.
I’d have bruises tomorrow but I didn’t care. We were husband and wife. I would wear his marks like a badge of honor on my skin.
I squeezed against him, drawing out every last drop of his climax inside me.
With a final push inside me, I felt him finish entirely, his hands still firmly on my ass and I could have fallen asleep with Adare still inside me but a loud bang on the door caused us both to start.
“Looks like the party moved upstairs,” I commented dryly, falling off him to grab my clothes, lest we be burst in upon. My naked body was for Adare and him alone.
He didn’t say anything but a shadow crossed his face as he reached for his boxers and slid them over his perfectly sculpted stomach. I licked my lips as I watched him amble toward the door.
“Hey!” I heard a familiar voice call out. “Are you in there?”
It sounded exactly like Adare and slowly, the euphoria I was feeling began to dissipate.
“Not a good time!” Adare yelled, his face paling as he paused before the closed door. He turned to me, a look of near panic in his eyes. “Why don’t you go to the bedroom? Maybe have a shower?”
I didn’t move, an inexplicable feeling of dread overwhelming me.
“Who is that?” I croaked.
“My brother.”
“Rust, I’m coming in.”
Before my husband could react, the door flew open and my breath was stolen so quickly, I began to gasp.
Adare stood in the threshold, his face a mask of every emotion I was feeling as he took in the scene before him.
“Oh fuck,” the man I’d married muttered.
“What the fuck?” his identical twin demanded.
From the way their hair fell in a swoop down to the base of their differently colored shirts to the perfect curve of their asses, they were the same. I hoped I was imagining things, dreaming but I wasn’t. I was watching a nightmare unfold, one which I wasn’t going to wake from.
“Asha, what the fuck are you doing?”
“Dare, leave her alone,” Rustin sighed, confirming my innate fear as his brother strode toward me. The smell of our sex hung heavily and undeniably in the air but the sex wasn’t even the worst of it.
A swell of dizziness rushed to through me.
What had we done?
Instantly, I thought of all the little hints I gathered over the night, clues that I wasn’t with the same man I’d barely gotten to know over the past three days.
“You asshole!” Adare howled, whirling to glare at his brother. “What did you do?”
This isn’t happening. Shit like this doesn’t happen in real life. I’m having a nightmare.
But apparently it did and I was left gaping at the brothers whom I had never realized were identical until that moment.
I had seen the signs, hadn’t I? Seen them and ignored them because I’d been so caught up in Rustin’s tongue. How could I be expected to know that Rustin Sphinx was such a snake that he would swoop in and seduce me?
Seduce me. As if I’m some hapless victim. Maybe you didn’t know it was the wrong brother but you were a very willing participant in everything that happened tonight…kind of.
Yet as I stared at the two facing off, Rustin with a bemused expression on his face and Adare ready to punch something, I wondered how I didn’t piece it together earlier. Even in his fury, Adare carried himself with so much less confidence than the cocksure bastard who had lied to me.
“Let’s face it, Dare, you wouldn’t know what to do with Asha if you got her,” Rustin sighed and rage flooded me. Suddenly, I found my voice as I leapt from the sofa and lunged toward Rustin, my hands outstretched. The u
rge to throttle him was unbearable.
He sidestepped me, catching my arms as he did and grunted.
“Come on, Asha,” Rustin sighed, meeting my livid eyes. “We work together. You can’t deny that we have chemistry between us that you just didn’t have with Dare. Who cares how it happened?”
“Who cares?” I echoed in disbelief. “I care!”
A little voice of reason quipped a quick question into my furious mind.
What if you’d met Rustin first? All of this would be moot.
I silenced the idiot voice and refocused my fury on Rustin.
“Dad is going to hear about this!” Adare spat, his hands closing into fists at his side. “Come on, Asha. I don’t blame you. Rustin is notorious for being unable to keep his dick in his pants. It’s not your fault.”
The words made my stomach lurch.
And after all this, he’s telling me I’m just another notch in Rustin’s belt? This keeps getting better and better.
Rustin scowled at his brother.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he retorted and I remained frozen in place, unsure of what to do.
“How very caveman of you, Rustin. The lady can make her own decisions. I’m sorry this happened, Asha. I should have warned you about him but I never thought he’d go this far.”
Adare was barely looking at me and I knew I was just trapped in a battle of egos between two brothers. Adare didn’t give a rat’s ass if I’d slept with Rustin from an emotional standpoint. We had no chemistry—I’d known that already. No, this was about showing the other up and I was just an unwitting pawn in Rustin’s game.
He’s a man-whore who’s used to getting what he wants. And I gave it to him like a fool. Without a fight or a question.
“Of course she can make her own decisions,” Rustin replied, holding my gaze. My face was flushed crimson, humiliation and ire overwhelming me. I wanted to slap his smug face. I’d imagined all of it, the connection between us, the feelings that I thought he had for me.
I deserved whatever I got.
“Come on, Asha,” Adare said again, his voice raspy with anger. “Let’s go before I do something I regret.”