She knew we were here getting married, but I couldn’t bear to put on this charade in front of her, so she was at a friend’s house.
“How about I take you two to dinner to celebrate?” Ryder said, shaking Wyatt’s hand.
“I’ve got dinner and a honeymoon suite booked in Lincoln,” Wyatt answered.
“What?” I whirled toward him. “I can’t leave town. I’ve got to pick up Alyssa.”
“We’re taking Alyssa,” my mother said. She sounded like she’d known about this, but why? She knew this was fake.
“It’s got to look real,” Wyatt whispered next to me. “Real newlyweds have a honeymoon. It doesn’t have to be real though.” There was an edge to his tone after the last statement. I suspected it was annoyance at my no-touch rule.
“It’s your wedding night. Go have fun. One last hurrah before you take on Stark,” Ryder said.
I really wanted to veto this idea, but Wyatt was right. If we didn’t act like two people in love ready to celebrate their wedding day, people might get suspicious. Mo was proof of that.
“I need to see Alyssa before we go,” I said. “She doesn’t know about this plan.”
“She’ll be fine,” my mother said.
“I can’t just leave after I told her I’d get her tonight.” One thing I’d always strove for was to be accountable to her. If I gave my word, I stuck to it.
“We’ll stop by,” Wyatt said with his hand on my lower back. I appreciated that he understood that it was important to me.
Wyatt helped me into an SUV, and gave two little honks as we drove off.
“Is this new?” I asked, looking around the vehicle. Before, I’d only seen his truck, and an old sedan his mother used.
“It’s used. New to me.” He pulled out onto the highway and toward Alyssa’s friend’s house. “It seemed like we should have a family vehicle.” He glanced at me as if he was concerned I’d balk at the idea. “I mean, I know this is all fake, but if it were real, we’d have something like this.”
“You’re taking all this seriously,” I said.
His fingers flexed and then gripped the wheel, giving me the impression he didn’t like my comment. “Why are we doing this if we’re not going to take it seriously? It needs to look real to the outside world, right?”
I nodded, and decided not to tell him that I’d been considering letting Alyssa stay with my parents during this marriage. I didn’t want to be away from her, yet at the same time, it felt wrong to bring her into a fake family. More than that, I worried what would happen if she got attached to Wyatt and this all went to shit and he ended up leaving again.
“I’m sorry about the mayor crashing the party,” I said, deciding to change the subject.
He glanced at me again before returning his eyes to the road. “You do know he’s in love with you, right?”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say love, but I know he was interested.”
His jaw tightened. “Why aren’t you?”
I looked at him, wondering why he was going there. “I like the mayor, but not like that. Besides, I work for him. It wouldn’t-”
“Plenty of bosses fuck their staff.”
I flinched at his sharp tone. “Mo isn’t like that. He respects women. He respects boundaries.”
Wyatt scoffed. “Yeah, like not interrupting one of your staff’s wedding because you’re jealous. He certainly respected that boundary.”
Touché.
“You can’t be that upset. You didn’t go all caveman on him.” I didn’t know why he was acting like he was the injured party.
“I nearly did.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Because you wouldn’t have liked it.” He turned onto the side street that led to Alyssa’s friend’s house.
“No. I wouldn’t have.”
“You can handle yourself, Sinclair.”
My lips twitched upward. “Yes. I can.”
“Is it a problem that he’s guessed that this marriage is fake?”
“No. I don’t think so.” It was another reason why this honeymoon was a good idea. If Mo had questions about the marriage, perhaps Stark would too. The more we acted real, the better the chance we had at pulling this off.
He parked in front of the house.
“I’ll be just a minute.”
“Can I come?” His expression was surprised that I planned to make him wait. “I’m her step-dad now. It seems like we should be a unit.”
Inside, guilt lanced me in two. Again. Maybe on this honeymoon I’d be able to tell him the truth.
“Yes, of course.”
We walked up the stone path together. Wyatt had his arm on my lower back. He was doing a much better job than I was of making this fake marriage seem real. I realized that my attitude and behavior could blow it for us, which would be terrible considering the scene I’d just made with Mo to tell him me and Wyatt were real.
“Mama!” Alyssa ran up to me as her friend’s mother let us in.
“We weren’t expecting you yet,” the mother said.
“We’ve had a change of plans.” I bent over to look Alyssa in her green eyes. “Wyatt and I are going out of town for a night. Grandma and Grandpa will come get you and you’ll stay with them.”
She looked up at Wyatt and then me. “Are you going on a honeymoon?”
“That’s right.”
The two girls looked at each other and giggled.
“When you come back, will I be able to go with you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, even though I was still uncertain.
“Will I see the horses?” she asked Wyatt.
“Absolutely. I’m expecting you to help with them.”
The two girls clapped. “I’m so jealous,” her friend said.
“Maybe you can come for a sleepover and help too,” Wyatt told her. They clapped again, but I had that ongoing uneasy feeling. Yes, we needed to act real, but in some ways, it felt too real. I couldn’t allow that.
“We’re going to go now, so you be a good listener for your grandparents, okay?” I told Alyssa.
“’K.” She followed us out. “What do I call you now, Wyatt? Step-daddy?”
We all stopped. I went still, as panic overtook me.
“What do you want to call me?” he asked.
“Wyatt, I guess.”
He smiled. “Wyatt it is.”
I swallowed as once again guilt and fear threatened to bury me.
He helped me into the SUV and I did my best to smile and wave as he drove us away from Alyssa and her friend.
“She’s a great kid, Sinclair,” he said next to me. “I can’t imagine how hard it was to be so young and by yourself. But you’re a great mom.”
Maybe. I might have been a good mom. But I was a terrible person. I looked over at him, wanting desperately to tell him the truth and at the same time, unable to make the words form in my mouth.
“We have a little drive before Lincoln. Want some music?”
I nodded and then turned to look out the window while Wyatt sang along as he drove us to our fake honeymoon.
21
Wyatt
Sinclair was a little off the entire day. Of course, it wasn’t every day you got married, so I initially put her mood down to nerves. After the incident with the mayor, she seemed agitated, so I did what I could to keep things calm and easy. I’d nearly given up on the honeymoon idea, even though the mayor was questioning the legitimacy of our marriage. Fortunately she saw the need to carry on the ruse.
Of course, for me, it was a chance to spend time alone with her. She was adamant that there would be no more physical contact between us, and I’d respect that. That didn’t mean I wasn’t prepared for honeymoon sex, but if it didn’t happen, I’d accept that.
Mostly I just wanted time away from Salvation, our families and the Stark business to reconnect with her. Ten years ago, we talked about anything and everything. I felt closer to her than I’d ever felt to anyone. Walking away from her
had felt like walking away from a part of my soul. Whether this marriage stayed fake or not, what I really wanted was to feel that connection with her again. I hoped a night in Lincoln, away from stress and pressure, would facilitate the start of that.
I looked over at her sitting in the passenger seat. She was staring out the window. I wondered what was going on in her head. The furrow of her brow suggested it wasn’t good.
“You know, this isn’t my first fake wedding,” I said.
She turned her head to me. “What? You fake married before?”
I laughed. “No. I mean I’ve been to another fake wedding. When I was in the military we were sent to bust up a weapons and drug deal between two bigwigs in the cartel in South America. They’d set up the meet as a wedding, though it was completely fake.”
“The military does that sort of thing?”
“Protect America from threats. The cartel is a threat. Anyway, we went in disguised as caterers.” I smiled, letting her know this wasn’t a heavy deep and real war story. Not that some serious shit hadn’t gone down, but in the end, all turned out well.
“Do you speak Spanish?” she asked, turning toward me. I was glad to see her re-engage with me and show interest in my story.
“Si, Senora.”
“You nearly flunked high school Spanish,” she said, smirking at me.
“You learn a language quick when your life depends on it. Plus, the military has special schools. High school teaches it all wrong.”
“So, what did you do at the fake wedding?”
“Well, we broke up the deal, taking down two significant players in the fight against weapons and drug trafficking.”
“You got your man.”
“Men. And my leader got the fake bride.” I grinned.
She cocked her head. “She was in on it?”
“No. She thought they were auditioning for a movie. My leader helped her through her disappointment.” I waggled my brows so she’d understand what I was saying.
“Oh. I see. Did that happen a lot?” she quirked a brow at me and I realized perhaps that part of the story should have stayed hidden.
“Sometimes. Always consensual.”
Her smile faltered a little. I wished I could tell her I’d been faithful to our love all those years, but I wasn’t about to start lying. The only thing that I’d been faithful to was how I felt about her. The other women, they were simply to assuage the loneliness or get my rocks off.
Then again, she hadn’t been faithful to our love either. She’d hooked up with someone far sooner than I had. I wanted to ask her about the man who gave her Alyssa, but the few times I’d broached the subject, she’d closed down on me.
“Sinclair.”
She looked at me.
“I never forgot you. Or stopped caring for you.”
She gave me a wan smile.
“Often, nearly always, actually, I imagined you.” I wasn’t sure if I should have been telling her this. What did it say about me that when I was with other women, Sinclair was on my mind? Would she see that as a good thing or bad?
I didn’t have time to find out as we pulled up to the hotel.
“Wow, Wyatt, you went all out,” she said as she took in the fanciest hotel I could find in the city. Lincoln was a great town, but it wasn’t New York. Still, the hotel offered a lot of great amenities a newlywed couple would want. “You didn’t have to.”
I shrugged. “I figured we’d live it up before we had to get down in the crap of dealing with Stark.”
She shook her head as she looked into the wide lobby area with its gray and chrome décor. “A new car, fancy hotel… Did you inherit money?”
I laughed. “No. Uncle Sam provides a lot for its soldiers so I was able to save some.” I put my hand on her lower back as I led her through the lobby to the front desk. We checked in and because I’d booked a suite, a bellboy took us up to the room.
I tipped the young man and ushered him out as I watched Sinclair take in the room, her eyes wide. No one had done this for her, I realized. No one had ever treated her to something special. Including me back when she was mine. I hoped I had many more opportunities to make her feel special.
“There’s just two of us. What are we going to do with all this space?” she asked.
“Whatever we want. Play tag. Do yoga.”
She laughed.
“There are two beds,” I said, wanting her to know I wasn’t expecting any traditional honeymoon activities. I noted a bottle of champagne on the table, compliments of the hotel. “How about some champagne?”
“Maybe we should save it for after dinner.”
“Dinner will still be there. We can order room service if you don’t want to go out.” I popped the cork on the bottle and poured us each a flute. “Cheers.”
She clinked her glass against mine. She took a sip and her nose scrunched up. “Bubbles.”
She was adorable and a wave of emotion flowed through me. I wanted to tell her about it. About all that was pumping in my heart. I wanted to kiss her and taste Sinclair mixed with champagne. Instead, I took a long sip of my drink.
“You seem to have thought of everything, but forgotten this is all fake.”
Inside, my heart felt squashed in my chest. It was followed by annoyance. “You can tell yourself that all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m married to the most beautiful woman in the world.”
She gasped, clearly not expecting that.
“I intend to make the most of the night, even if we end up sleeping in separate beds.” I refilled her glass. “By the way, not consummating a marriage isn’t grounds for an annulment. I checked.”
She looked up at me.
“So, if you do want to have sex, you don’t have worry about not being able to get an annulment.”
She swallowed and looked down. I noted a pink tinge coming to her cheeks. Was it the champagne or the talk about sex?
“How do we get an annulment?”
God dammit! That’s the thing she focuses on. The annulment, not that we can have sex?
I worked to loosen my jaw that tightened in annoyance. “You tell the court I tricked you into marrying me. Coerced or scam marriages can be annulled. Or you can say I’m crazy, which I suppose I am.”
“Good to know.” Her smile was beguiling.
Did that mean she was reconsidering her no-touch rule? Perhaps this honeymoon was going to be closer to real than I’d thought. I considered kissing her to find out, but then decided perhaps it was too early to test it. She needed romance. She needed me to show her that I didn’t see her as means to an end in saving my farm.
Ten years ago, we had a sweet secret summer, but I hadn’t been romantic. Sure, I picked a flower or two for her, but I never took her on a real date.
I frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“This will be our first date.” Perhaps I shouldn’t have called it a date as that suggested a real relationship, something she was against having.
Her brow furrowed in thought and then she looked up at me. “You’re right. It’s because of that stupid bro’ code.”
I grinned. “I owe you, then. How about we clean up and I’ll take you to a fancy dinner.”
“I don’t need fancy, Wyatt,” she said.
“You deserve fancy.” I took a chance by stroking my finger over her cheek.
“Well, if you insist.”
“I insist.”
I watched as she disappeared into the bathroom to freshen up. I finished my champagne and then went to the balcony to look out over the city. If I played my cards right, this would be the start of a lifetime with Sinclair. I could finally have the family with her that we’d planned. I could be the husband and partner Sinclair needed to fulfill her dreams. I could be a father to Alyssa. Yes, tonight was the beginning of the realization of the plans we’d made ten years ago.
22
Sinclair
Clearly, Wyatt was a weakness for me. I’d been success
ful at avoiding him by working hard, spending time with Alyssa at my parents’ house, and coming back to his place too late to spend time with him. Since he was up before dawn and out of the house, I hadn’t seen him then either. I truly believed that I had built an immunity to him. As it turned out, I was wrong. All my girlie parts were firing with desire for him.
The first sign that perhaps I was still under his spell was when I saw him in his suit this morning. I’d never seen Wyatt in a suit before. He wore it well. Really well. Yummy well.
The next sign was when I was ready to rip off my dress and let him take me on the table in the suite after he informed me that not having sex wouldn’t get me an annulment. I was sure he did it on purpose. After all, we were alone in a suite with champagne. I knew what he wanted. But he was going to respect my wishes, so if I was going to sleep with him, it would be on me to make the move. And make the move I almost did.
But then he talked about our first date. That made me nervous. Yes, I wanted him to fuck my brains out, but I didn’t want a real relationship. When Stark was dealt with, this had to end.
All this ran through my head as I looked at myself in the mirror in the bathroom as I freshened up. More than fixing my face, I was trying to get myself together, but it was hard because he was exactly as I wanted him to be ten years ago, but now it was ten years too late.
I touched up my makeup and straightened my hair. Then with a deep breath I stepped out of the bathroom. Wyatt was standing with his hands in his pockets staring out the window. He looked like he should be in an Armani commercial, the way his coat hugged his broad shoulders. He was tall, sexy, and sweet. He was my husband. Perhaps one-night indulging in that wouldn’t hurt. We could have one night to live as if we’d achieved our dream and he hadn’t left.
He turned and smiled, making my heart do cartwheels in my chest. “Are you ready?”
I nodded.
He came to me, putting his hands on my arms and leaning to kiss my cheek. “You’re beautiful, Mrs. Jones.”
Fake Marriage (Contemporary Romance Box Set) Page 13