I married a stranger.
I stood up and walked back over to the windows. There was no way. This was an elaborate hoax. It had to be. I didn’t get drunk. I didn’t sleep with stranger. And I sure as hell didn’t marry strangers. Nope. Something was very wrong with this situation, and we had to figure out what it was. This was Jessica, all the way. It had to be.
“Do you think someone slipped something into our drinks yesterday?” I asked.
I turned around and looked at Everett as he tossed a strawberry into his mouth.
“What?” he asked.
“Do you think we were roofied and set up?” I asked.
“Someone still would have had to use my card. And if that’s the case, then they got into your room as well and placed an outfit in here for you to use.”
“So, it’s possible.”
“Andrea.”
“Don’t take that tone of voice with me. I know myself, Everett. I have a drink or two. I don’t get drunk. I had my heart broken in high school and I haven’t dated since. I don’t have sex with strangers. I don’t marry men I don’t know. This isn’t something I do.”
“Vegas makes people do a lot of things they don’t normally do.”
“I want to go to the doctor and get tested.”
“What?” he asked.
“You’re taking me to the doctor to get tested for drugs. Those can still be detected in the system after twenty-four hours, right?”
Everett cocked his head and sighed. Shit. I knew I was grasping at straws. I knew I looked crazy. But there had to be an explanation. None of this was like me. Not a damn bit of it. Had I lost my mind? The only thing I could think was that I had been drugged and dragged around town. Or drugged and dumped into a bed with someone else who had been drugged.
“Are we sure it wasn’t the brothers and Jessica?” I asked.
“Andrea.”
“I still don’t like that tone.”
I turned back toward the view from his hotel room and watched as he approached me. His massive shoulders and his chiseled chest and those abs I could do my damn laundry on. He placed his massive hands onto my shoulders and began to massage. His thumbs pressed deep into my muscles, pulling a moan from deep within my throat. I pressed my hand against the window and bent my head over, allowing him to work my shoulders and my neck slowly. Steadily. With a hint of—
My mind flashed. Visions of his hands on the small of my back. I saw the ceiling of the room. I felt something tickling my feet. Then, I felt those strokes on my calves. The same strokes with the same thumbs. Massaging up my calf. Up my thigh. In the crook of my leg.
“You gave me a massage last night,” I said.
I felt his hands still against my skin before they slid from my body.
“I did?” Everett asked.
“Yes. A leg massage.”
“It should shock me, but it doesn’t.”
“Do you remember that?” I asked.
I turned around and craned my neck back to look up into his eyes.
“I don’t.”
“Well, I just did,” I said.
“Was it a good massage?”
I snickered and shook my head before I groaned.
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“Can we freak out just a little while longer? I’ve got a little more freaking out in me.”
“You can freak out more later. But right now, my brothers are going to be up soon. And I don’t know about Jessica or anything, but…”
“Shit. Yeah. She’ll come and find me,” I said.
“So, we need to figure out what to do. What we’re going to do.”
“What is there to do? I mean, an annulment, for starters.”
“It would actually be a full-on divorce,” he said.
“What?” I asked flatly.
“In the State of Nevada, the grounds for annulment aren’t just ‘we got drunk and were stupid’. The state will annul a marriage same-day if we’re blood relatives, if the marriage required parental consent that wasn’t given, if consent between the two adults was fraudulently obtained, if one or both adults were mentally incompetent—”
“There. That one,” I said.
“Or if either of us are legally married to another person.”
“We can go the ‘we couldn't give consent’ route. Everett, we don’t even remember what we did. How could we have been in a state of mind to consent to a marriage?”
“Getting drunk doesn’t fall under those standards. Those rules are established in case someone is coerced. Or held at gunpoint. Or threatened in any way to get married to someone else. Those laws don’t protect people who get drunk and get married,” he said.
“How the hell do you know all of this anyway?” I asked.
“You were staring out that window a lot longer than you thought you were.”
“I was?”
I watched him nod as I leaned my back against the windows.
“Okay. So, if annulment is off the table, then we divorce. Does Nevada have uncontested divorce policies?” I asked.
“You didn’t know about annulments, but you know about uncontested divorces?” he asked.
“Doesn’t everyone? It’s just a divorce where both parties consent.”
“Anyway. It doesn’t matter. Yes, I think Nevada has uncontested divorces.”
“Good! That’s good. We can get the paperwork, track down a lawyer, get it worked up, get it filed. Maybe we’ll have to fly back to be seen in court for thirty minutes or something, and it’s done.”
“That’s fine with me. But what do you want to do until then?”
“What do you mean?”
“We have rings. We’re married. What do you want to do with the rest of the trip? We’re here for two more days. And I highly doubt we’ll be able to do much of this while we’re here. Which means I’ll need to be on the phone with lawyers figuring out how this is going to work without any of my brothers realizing what’s going on.”
“And if Jessica gets a hold on what’s happened, I’m never going to live it down. Not to mention she’ll harass you until the day is done and over again,” I said.
Then, another thought occurred to me.
“How many people in the hotel do you think know we got married last night?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Everett asked.
“You said they had logs downstairs. How many employees do you think know we got married?”
“Who cares if they know? They just can’t say anything about it.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. What if we start doing things around the hotel and someone refers to me as ‘Mrs. Wilder’ or something like that?”
“They could refer to me as ‘Mr. Faith’ if we want to be that progressive married couple.”
“Stop it, Everett. This is serious,” I said. But his chuckle was so soothing to my ears.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m just… really trying to lighten this up a little bit.”
“Well, don’t. Because this is serious.”
“I know it’s serious. But the first step we can take is not wearing these rings. They’re cheap anyway. Not nearly the kind of ring I would ever buy my fiancée.”
I watched him work it off his finger and I didn’t have the reaction I thought I would. I looked down at my ring and wiggled it around on my finger, then looked back up and watched Everett toss his cheap piece of metal onto the bedside table. It bounced around and swirled before stilling on top of the table, but something inside of me felt off.
A bad sort of off.
“Take your ring off and I’ll get them stored away somewhere,” Everett said.
The way I felt about it was too much to process, so I stuffed it down as best as I could. I slid the ring off my finger and handed it to him, then he picked up his ring and went into his bathroom. I heard him rummaging around and opening drawers, and when he came back his h
ands were empty.
And for some reason, I didn’t like that.
My finger suddenly felt empty.
“Okay. Rings are taken care of. I’ll get on the phone with lawyers this afternoon to discuss what’s happened and see what we can do about starting the uncontested divorce paperwork. Until then, we should probably just act like it’s business as usual,” he said.
Why the hell did I not like this plan!? I needed sleep. Sleep, a decent meal, and a lot of coffee. My mind was obviously confused. Dehydrated. In another place altogether. I slid my hand through my hair and felt it smoothly go through. There was nothing there for my hair to get hitched on. A sparkle didn’t catch my eye. Nothing scratched against my skin.
“I need more sleep,” I said breathlessly.
“You and I both. You're more than welcome to sleep here, if you want,” Everett said.
“No offense, but that’s sort of what got us into this mess in the first place.”
“True. If we fall asleep together again, we might wake up pregnant.”
“Don’t you dare make a joke like that. This isn’t funny. Oh, shit. Wait a second. Did we use protection last night?”
I watched Everett’s face fall before I rushed over and gathered up my things. I rummaged around for my room key before I rushed out of his room. I looked both ways before slamming my key into my room, then I shoved myself in and tripped over my own two feet.
I felt something strong wrap around my waist before I fell to the floor.
“Gotcha,” Everett said.
“What in the… world are you doing in my room?” I asked.
I pulled away from him and stood up as I grabbed my purse.
“I don’t remember using protection last night, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not on birth control of any sort. So, my first stop is to a drug store.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“No! You can’t come with me. What if someone sees us?”
“I’ll sit in the car while you do your thing. But you're not going and getting anything alone.”
“Everett, while I appreciate the chivalry, now isn’t the time.”
“I’m coming with you,” he said.
I rolled my eyes as I quickly slipped on a pair of flip flops. I grabbed a hair tie and threw my hair up into a bun as the two of us charged out of my room. Plan B. I needed to get to the drug store and get Plan B. Hell, I needed two Plan B’s. There was no way on God’s green earth I was walking away from Vegas both married and pregnant.
Nope. Not happening.
We slammed our way into the elevator and hit the button for the garage. And the second the doors opened, Everett and I made a beeline for a car that was pulling up to us. It rolled around and the door stopped right at me, then he reached forward and opened the car door for me.
“Do you and your brothers do anything normally?” I asked.
“No. Get in,” he said.
I slid across the buttery leather seats and almost groaned as I leaned back into them. Everett told the driver to get us to the nearest pharmacy, then we were off. I closed my eyes and tried to block out everything. The way my mind swirled. The conflicting feelings I had ebbing in my gut. The heat of Everett’s body next to mine. I felt him try to wrap his hand around mine, but I pulled it away.
The last thing I wanted was him touching me.
The second the car stopped, I pushed my way out onto the sidewalk. I rushed into the pharmacy and headed all the way back, then tapped the bell on the desk until someone came to tend to me. The look of panic on my face must have said it all, because before I said anything the pharmaceutical attendant reached for a Plan B package and slid it my way.
“Would you like some water as well? The bottles are right behind you,” she said.
I thanked her profusely and lunged for the drink encasement. I ripped a bottle out and tossed it to her, then she rung me up as quickly as she could. I opened my purse and slid her my card before I ripped the package open, then I took the first pill as designated before setting an alarm on my phone for the other one.
“Would you like your receipt?” the woman asked.
I chugged the rest of my water, feeling my head clear for the first time that morning. I panted as I removed the bottle from my lips, then shook my head. I didn’t want any other proof of this day. I didn’t want any other proof of this fucking trip. I handed her the empty water bottle before I wiped my hand across my mouth. I could only imagine how crazy I looked. How desperate I seemed. But I didn’t care. None of it mattered. This trip had officially turned into the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to me, and inside I was panicking. Scared. I wanted to curl up into a little ball and cry myself back to sleep.
But I couldn’t.
I had to stand strong and get through it. Just like everything else in my life.
“Thank you,” I said breathlessly.
“Can I help you with anything else?” she asked.
I grabbed the second pill I’d have to take in ten hours and shoved it into my purse. I shook my head at her before I walked away, mindlessly wandering down the aisles of the drug store. I didn’t want to go back to the car. I didn’t want to slide in next to Everett. I wanted to book a flight and go home. I wanted to get back to my kids. Back to the youth center. Back to when things weren’t as complicated as they were right now.
In Vegas.
I finally found my way out of the store and Everett stepped out of the car. He reached for my arm and guided me in, helping me to settle down on the seat. My head fell against the cushions of the car as my mind drifted off. I thought about what my kids were doing. How the youth center was getting along with me. I thought about the rest of the summer and how much work I still had to do in order to coordinate summer activities. I thought about our budget. I ran numbers in my head. I thought about anything and everything that had nothing to do with this damn vacation Jessica had talked me into.
It wasn’t until I felt something warm slip into the palms of my hands. And when I looked down, the biggest and most fragrant cup of coffee sat against my skin.
“Enjoy,” Everett said.
Tears rose to my eyes again as I looked over at him. He brought his iced coffee to his lips and sipped, studying me as I sat there. He promised me coffee, so he got me coffee. A man of his word, no matter how small. I was beginning to see Everett Wilder in a completely different light. He wasn’t the man I had run into on the street that day. He wasn’t the womanizing plague I had assumed he would have been. He was kind. Strong. Considerate. Virile. Primal in his ways with sex but caring in his love for those around him.
He would make a great husband one day to someone who deserved him.
Fuck. I had never chugged hot coffee so fast in all my life.
FOURTEEN
Everett
If the morning wasn’t enough of a rush, the second I dropped Andrea off at her room I heard a door open. I rushed over to mine and dug out my key, then slammed myself in before anyone got a good look at me. Fuck. None of this was good. And I didn’t even want to get started on the look Andrea had given me in the car just before she chugged her coffee.
It was a mixture of regret and wonder. Like she was debating between hating me and accepting our reality. But I had to have imagined it, right? There was no way in hell with the way she had reacted to the news that she actually wanted to be married or have anything to do with me. And I wanted nothing to do with any of this. I had a plan for my life. A plan that didn’t include a wedding I couldn't remember or a surprise child. I raked my hand through my hair before I made my way for the bathroom.
I needed a cold shower.
I stripped myself of my clothes and hopped in. I turned on the water as cold as I could stand it and allowed it to pour over my body. Now, we had to act like nothing was going on and pray someone at the hotel didn’t out us. This was going to be fun. I also had lawyers to call. Well, lawyer
s to leave messages with. No one would be in their office on a random Saturday afternoon. And if they were, I’d have to pay a pretty penny to get them to see me on such short notice.
An action that wouldn't go unnoticed by my brothers.
Nope. The safest route was to leave messages and then take calls in my own damn home when we got back. Which was fine. If I hired the right lawyers to represent both of us, neither of us would have to travel back. We could leave everything the way it was when we came in, they could fax us the information, we both could sign it, then the lawyers could appear in court for us in Vegas. Neither of us would have to get back on a plane and fly out in order to resolve the issue.
Then, there was the issue of resolving it in the first place.
That one immediate thought I’d had kept sticking with me. I don’t know what possessed me to think it, but I couldn’t shake it. My initial reaction to the idea of being married was a tick beyond nonchalance. It wasn’t until Andrea began to panic that I panicked as well. At least, it was when I saw all of the consequences our decision could have had. But just the idea of being married to Andrea? I didn’t balk at it the way I thought I should. It was wrong, and we still didn’t need to be married.
But I couldn't honestly say I regretted it.
I shook the thought from my mind. My body shivered in the icy cold water as I washed myself down. I needed to wake up. I needed to screw my head on straight. Because something told me Andrea wouldn’t. Something told me she would panic for the rest of this damn trip, which meant I had to hold her down so she didn’t blow a gasket herself. I turned off the water and reached for a towel, then stepped out and looked in the mirror.
And the red marks against my skin had me entranced.
I walked toward the bathroom counter and traced my fingers along their tracks. They were down my chest. Down my abs. Down my fucking back. If anything, I hated that I couldn't remember them. I hated that I couldn't remember Andrea clinging to me that desperately or raking at me that hard because of my cock. What a memory those would have left behind. I felt my girth pulsing to life and I shook my head. Now was not the time to get riled up. I had to keep my cool.
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 11
