by Casey, Ember
His smile falls. “Royal…family.” He shakes his head. “I forget that you’re an actual princess. I mean, your father is probably going to send your military to shoot me in my sleep, isn’t he?”
“If we’re really married, you’re now a prince. It would be treason for him to have you assassinated.” I can’t help but smile up at him. “Technically speaking, of course.”
“A…prince.” He shakes his head again. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“You really don’t need to worry about it, Pax. Like I said, my family will have it annulled. It will be like it never even happened.” Even as I say the words, my stomach twists around on itself. I’m not so sure that I want it to have never happened.
“Right.” He gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Like it never happened.”
There’s a pounding on the door, and Pax drops my hand, walking over to answer.
Mick strides in, carefully closing the door and locking it behind him again.
“That was pretty fast, Mick.” Pax’s brows draw together. “The news must not be great—”
“Uh, yeah. That would be accurate.” His gaze darts between the two of us. “What do you remember about last night?”
“Sophia said there was an Elvis impersonator. She said I sang—”
“Oh, you sang, all right.” He rolls his eyes. “It hasn’t gone viral yet, but give it another few hours.” He holds his phone out to us, pressing the button to play the video. A second later, Pax begins warbling “Love Me Tender” with the man impersonating Elvis.
“I have zero recollection of this,” Pax grumbles as we watch the video.
He might have no memory, but it all seems vaguely familiar to me, almost as if it happened in a dream.
“It gets worse.” Mick turns to stand next to Pax, looking down at the phone with him.
Just as I remembered, as the song comes to an end, Pax gets down on one knee and proposes to me. A few minutes after that, we say our vows and the man impersonating Elvis pronounces us husband and wife.
“This place videotapes all their weddings and posts them online.” Mick shakes his head. “You two…I swear to God…”
“But you said it hasn’t gone viral.” Pax gives him a weak smile. “I mean, we could pay them to take it down.”
“I’ve already tried to bribe them.” Mick looks like he might be sick. “I don’t think they knew who you two were until I called.” He rubs his temple. “Honestly, if I hadn’t said anything, they probably wouldn’t have realized—”
“So we were fine?” Pax shoves the phone back at Mick. “We were okay until you called them and asked them to take it down?”
Mick shrugs as he shoves the phone in his pocket. “Possibly. Or not. They might have figured it out at some point.”
“Fuck…” Pax drags his hand through his hair. “Fuck. What the hell do we do now?”
I gulp. For as bad as this is—for as angry as I know my family is going to be—I’m much calmer than I probably should be.
I take a deep breath. “Now…now we go talk to Victoria.” I pull Pax’s hand into mine. “Now we need to face my family.”
Pax
Honestly, when I thought about my future, marriage never really came into the picture. Fame and fortune? Of course. Women? Lots of them. But never marriage. It was so far off my radar that I’m surprised it found its way back in. Part of me still wonders if any minute I’ll wake up and realize this is all a twisted dream.
But as Sophia and I make our way to Victoria’s room, I’m forced to admit to myself that this is really fucking real. And something we need to deal with, one way or another. Sophia’s family members aren’t the only ones we’ll have to face—if this gets out, we’ll be answering to every paparazzo, too. . And the guys are going to be pissed—part of our appeal to our fans is that we’re a bunch of horny rock stars. If I go off the market, that image is shattered.
And that’s not even considering what’ll happen when Ma finds out. She might not have the military resources Sophia’s family does, but she’ll be equally upset that I didn’t tell her I was getting married.
The longer I think about this, the more I realize just how fucked we are. Yes, this marriage is obviously a mistake…so why don’t I want to rush to undo it?
I haven’t come up to an answer for that by the time we reach Victoria’s room. She answers the door on the second knock, a cup of coffee in her hand. She’s dressed and polished as if she’s been up for hours, and when I glance behind her, I see her laptop open on her bed, surrounded by notebooks and loose sheets of paper. A room service cart sits next to the bed, with a half-eaten plate of what appears to be French toast going cold.
She looks surprised to see us.
“Hey,” she says, stepping aside to allow us into the room. “What’s going on?”
“We have a problem,” Sophia says. I’m glad she’s taking charge here—I’m not sure where I’d begin.
Victoria’s gaze darts between us. “What sort of problem?” She shuts the door and strides over to the bed. Her coffee goes on the cart before she grabs her little notebook.
“A big one,” Sophia says, and something in her tone catches her sister-in-law’s attention. Victoria stiffens and looks up at her, her notebook still unopened in her hand.
“How big?” Victoria prompts.
Sophia doesn’t look my way, but I can sense her searching for me out of the corner of her eye. I step closer to her.
“Pax and I got a little drunk last night,” she says. “Actually, we got very drunk. And we did something very stupid.” She raises her hand for Victoria to see.
And she doesn’t have to say another word. Victoria’s eyes hone in immediately on the ring Sophia is still wearing, and she gasps.
“You didn’t,” she says.
Sophia takes a deep breath. “Unfortunately, we did. Mick is tracking down all the information he can, but it seems to be real. And that’s where things get even more complicated. Apparently the wedding chapel where we ended up posts videos of all of their weddings online.”
Victoria curses and dives for her laptop. “What’s it called? This chapel?”
“Aphrodite’s Wedding Chapel,” Sophia says.
“I haven’t gotten wind of this yet, which means there’s still hope to contain it,” Victoria says.
“My manager tried to pay them to take it down, but they refused,” I say. “They’ll probably try and use it to give their business some viral publicity.”
Victoria bites absently at her nail as she watches the video. Finally, she looks back up at us.
“Our best hope is for me to convince my editor to buy exclusive rights to this,” she says. “The chapel might be willing to sell if the price is right. That will get it down from this website for the moment, but there’s a catch—Celebrity Spark will want to use the footage for their own ends. This is a huge story. But if Celebrity Spark controls the video, we can at least shape how and when it comes out. We’ll be ahead of the story.”
“There’s no way to suppress the video completely?” Sophia asks, her voice tight.
Victoria shakes her head. “Not on my end. But maybe…” She reaches for her coffee again, obviously deep in thought. “The only other option is to have your family buy it, Sophia. Or have them threaten to sue the chapel. Did the two of you sign anything saying they could use this video for promotional purposes?”
We look at each other and shrug. Honestly, I could have signed a number of stupid things last night.
Victoria takes a long sip of her coffee before continuing. “If your family is involved, we may be able to stop distribution of the video, but we probably can’t hide what happened completely. Word will get out if the royal family of Montovia is taking legal action against a wedding chapel in Las Vegas. If Celebrity Spark buys the video, the video will still be published, but again, we can at least get ahead of the story. And as the initial publication to break the story, we’ll be seen as the authority. Rumors w
ill fly either way, but we’ll have the platform to spin the facts the way we want.”
“In other words, it’s a lose-lose situation,” I say.
Victoria steadies her gaze at me. “Maybe you should have thought of that before the two of you got married.” She glances at Sophia again. “Publicity aside, what are the two of you planning to do about this?”
Neither of us immediately answers. I look at Sophia, and she looks back at me.
“I’m assuming my family will have it annulled,” Sophia says finally, and though she’s talking to Victoria, she never looks away from me. “They’d never allow it to continue. Pax and I have only known each other a few weeks, and we didn’t exactly have approval…”
“I’m not asking what your family is doing about this,” Victoria says. “What do you want?”
Sophia finally breaks my gaze, turning back to Victoria, but I swear I see a slight flush on her cheeks.
“We were drunk,” she tells her sister-in-law. “We don’t even really remember the whole thing.”
That’s not really an answer, but neither Victoria nor I say anything. Victoria is staring at me, though, with a knowing look in her eyes. As if she’s waiting for me to say something.
I shrug, suddenly uncomfortable. “Let’s focus on one problem at a time. Let’s figure out what we do about the video. If we don’t act fast, it’ll go viral before we have any chance to control it.”
Sophia nods. “You’re right. Let’s stop this video.”
Victoria is still watching us closely, and I have a feeling she isn’t saying even half of what she’s thinking. “What do you want me to do?”
Sophia and I share glances again, and I hope we’re on the same page. “If the video is going to get out either way, then I want to be in charge of the story. I think we should let Celebrity Spark buy it.”
Sophia nods. “That sounds like the best option.”
Victoria makes a couple of notes for herself. “I’ll call my editor immediately. But I’ll warn you two—he’ll want this story to go live as soon as possible. I guarantee it will be the cover story of next week’s issue, and it will be up on the website sooner than that. You have a day, at most, before this goes live.”
A day at most. Less than twenty-four hours to figure out what the hell we’re doing. To alert our families about what happened.
“In that time we have to decide how to spin it,” Victoria goes on. “We essentially have two choices here. Our first option is to frame this as a mistake—a romantic one, yes, but a mistake nonetheless, an impulsive thing you did in a moment of passion. If we go that route we want to make sure that we rectify this as soon as possible, so that by the time it goes to press you’ll already have your annulment or divorce. Plenty of celebrities have had impulsive Vegas marriages that only lasted a few hours. It’s practically a cliché these days—if we frame it right, it’ll be old news two weeks from now.” Her expression grows more serious. “The other option is to frame this as a legitimate marriage. An unorthodox one, yes, but once again, we can make it out to be something deeply romantic—that despite your differences, the two of you realized you’d found your soul mate and didn’t want to wait another minute to promise yourselves to each other forever. I imagine there’d have to be a more official follow-up—maybe a small ceremony in Montovia or something—but we don’t have to decide that now. The only thing we have to decide now is which angle to take. Is this a mistake or a marriage?”
Sophia
We speak at the same time.
“Mistake,” I say.
“Marriage,” Pax sputters.
I blink at him a few times as he stares at me, wide eyed. “Marriage?” My jaw drops as something twists in my belly. “Really?”
“I mean…yeah.” He works his jaw for a moment. “Yeah.”
Victoria lifts a brow before shaking her head. “I’ll give you two a minute. You obviously need it.” She sighs as she rises from the bed. “I need to call Andrew, anyway.”
My gaze darts to hers, and she smiles. “Don’t worry. I won’t say anything to him. Yet.” She shakes her head again. “I’m… I wouldn’t know what to say, anyway.”
“And Nicholas doesn’t know.” I give her a look that I hope tells her I don’t want him to know.
She nods. “It’s not really my place to say anything to anyone. Not yet.”
I release a small breath of relief as she leaves the room, looking back up at Pax.
He takes my hand in his. “Would it really be that terrible? To play husband and wife for a little while?”
“For a little while?” I stare down at our entwined fingers. “So you want this to be an act? A role I play?”
“A role we play. I mean, think about it. It would make the sex tape a non-issue. For everyone—even your family, right? And it would just make things…easier.”
“Easier.” I try to take my hand away, but he only holds it tighter. “Nothing about this has been easy, Pax. And…and we just talked about this the other night. We were going to enjoy the moment. Take things one day at a time.”
“And we can still do that.” He lifts my hand to his lips. “I’m sure your family can find a way to annul this in a few months if they want to.” He blinks at me a few times. “If it doesn’t work out, I mean.”
“Right.” I stare at him for a moment. I have to admit, there’s something about this that makes me feel warm inside—something about knowing he wants to at least try now that we’ve found ourselves in this situation. But another part of me isn’t so sure that the only reason he’s even considering going forward with this marriage is because of his manager—because of the publicity.
But Pax wouldn’t use me. There was a time when I might have been right to suspect something like that, but now… Now I’m not so sure this doesn’t have more to do with his actual feelings.
Of course, he still can’t admit he has any feelings at all.
“So? What do you say, Mrs. Donovan?” He grins. “That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Sophia Donovan?”
I shake my head slowly. “Not as nice as Prince Pax.”
He rolls his eyes. “We’ll need to go and see my mom. After the concert tonight. We have a few days before we have to be in Phoenix. We’ll need to make sure she—”
“We’ll need to tell my family, too.” The realization makes me almost sick to my stomach. We’ll need to speak to my father. I… He can be quite…intimidating.” I don’t want to tell him just how intimidating my father can be. If Pax thinks Nicholas has been bad, he’s in for a rude awakening.
I give him a weak smile. “We’ll see my mother, too.” I squeeze his hand. “She’ll be kind to us, no matter what she’s actually thinking.”
His face turns pale. “Because…because your family is going to hate me. Because they already hate me.” He shakes his head. “You know, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” He heaves a sigh. “I just…I just don’t see any other way out of it, you know?”
“We could still go the mistake route. Have the marriage annulled today.” Even though I thought this was what I wanted a few minutes ago, now I’m not so sure. “If you want.”
“I don’t.” He frowns. “Want. I mean, I don’t want to have it annulled. Not yet.” He kisses my fingers again. “You think I’ll have to face your father alone?”
I give him a small shrug. “Maybe not.”
His lips turn up into the smallest of smiles. “So it might not be that bad—”
“No,” I interrupt. “It might not. But if my brother Andrew is also there…”
His face goes white again, but he forces a smile. “Then I’ll just take them both out. They’ve never met anyone as charming as me.”
I can’t help but smile. He has no idea what he’ll be in store for if we have to face my family. “Pax.” I stare up at him, giving his hand another squeeze. “Maybe we just shouldn’t go to Montovia. It might be better—”
“What happened to being your own woman?” He grins. “To m
aking your own decisions in life?”
“This isn’t the sort of thing…” I sigh, releasing his hand and sitting on the edge of the bed. “My parents will have my head. It’s…complicated. I know you don’t understand.”
He sits on the bed next to me, pulling my hand into his again. “I don’t understand. At all. And to be perfectly honest, the thought of meeting your family makes me want to puke. Nicky has been more than bad enough.”
“Exactly. And he’s by far the most reserved of my brothers.”
“Okay. So here’s what we’re going to do.” He pauses for a moment, staring at the wall in front of us. “I do the concert tonight. I don’t really have much choice on that one.”
I give a slight nod, though he’s no longer looking at me.
“Then we rent a car…drive to my mom’s. We sit her down, tell her about the news that’s going to break.”
“And then we…what? Get on a plane to Montovia to tell my family?”
The click of the door interrupts his response. Victoria strides back into the room, a new cup of coffee in her hand. “Well? What have you two decided?”
Pax stands, pulling me up with him. He gives my fingers a quick peck as he smiles at my sister-in-law. “We’ve decided we’re going to be married.”
Victoria lifts a brow, giving us a slow nod. “Okay.”
“We’ll need to you to distract Nicholas.” I glance up at Pax before turning my gaze back to Victoria. “We’re going to go tell Pax’s mother tonight after the concert. We don’t need him trying to stop us.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Victoria’s gaze darts between the two of us before landing on me. “And what will you do about your family?”
Pax answers. “I guess…” He glances over at me, his smile falling only slightly. “I guess we’re going to Montovia to tell everyone the good news.”
Pax
The show goes on that night without a hitch—well, mostly. The guys can definitely tell something is up, but since I don’t fuck anything up, they mind their own business. Charlie does give me a couple of looks, though, and I know he sees right through my poker face.
