“Hey! Everett!”
Lucas’ voice barreled through my hotel room door before he started banging on it with his fist.
“Get up! We’re all going gambling!”
I rolled my eyes as I made my way for the door. I ripped it open and watched Lucas shield his eyes.
“Can you warn a man first?” he asked.
“Don’t bang down my damn door if you don’t want to know what I’m doing behind it,” I said.
“Just wanted to come by and let you know that the bulk of us are headed down to the slot machines and the poker tables downstairs. Jessica and Andrea just left with Flynn.”
I wanted to ask him if Andrea looked okay, but I bit down onto my tongue.
“Then is there a reason why you’re still standing here?” I asked.
“Nope. Got the hint. See you down there.”
Then Lucas turned on a dime and jogged toward the elevator.
Gambling. Great. An activity at the hotel. We couldn't go gambling anywhere else? I mean, anywhere else in the whole of Vegas? We hadn’t once left the hotel. Now would be a good time to do just that.
All of us. As a group.
It was our last full day in Vegas, for fuck’s sake. Why weren’t we going out and painting the town red? Taking in the restaurants? Gambling at all of the high-end casinos and treating the girls to a wild time? Not that Andrea needed any more of a wild time. What we didn’t need was one of the hotel employees slipping up on us and fucking us over. I tossed my towel into the corner and slipped an outfit out of my suitcase. If I didn’t come down to gamble, the brothers would know something was it. And Andrea would probably think I was avoiding her, which would only add fuel to her raging fire. And none of that was something I wanted. So, I pulled on my clothes and made my way downstairs.
My brothers and the girls were gathered around a blackjack table. Flynn was making all sorts of noise. Probably trying his hand at card-counting, though he was fucking terrible at it. Jessica sat by Lucas and was practically draped over him, hanging off him in a teeny little dress like most women did with their men in places like this. I saw Andrea standing at the corner of the table near an empty seat. She wasn’t sitting down. More like trying to keep everything bottled up inside.
If a puckered asshole manifested itself into a person, it would look the way Andrea did now.
“Relax,” I said as I walked over to her.
She jumped, like she didn’t even register the fact that anyone else was there.
“You look tense. Relax.”
“Easy for you to say,” she whispered.
I slid into the empty seat next to her and had the dealer deal me in. I tossed some chips onto the table and played a couple of rounds, and each one garnered me a few more wins than the last. Lucas kept clapping whenever I won, and Flynn was cheering like a drunk maniac already.
I looked at his drink and saw he wasn’t drinking anything else but a damn beer.
Lightweight.
“Looks like someone’s on a roll,” Jessica said, grinning.
“Nope. You can skip us. I want to see how much Everett’s going to rack up before tanking hard,” Lucas said.
The dealer kept her eyes on me and my wins kept pouring in. I had no idea how it was happening, but the chips in front of me kept piling up. Card after card was dealt, and I kept making good decisions no matter where I turned. Flynn clapped his hands while Lucas whooped and hollered. Jessica made some comment about the rest of the trip being on me as I looked up into Andrea’s eyes.
Even I could see her shock as the dealer dealt me in again.
“Looks like your wife is your lucky charm, Mr. Wilder.”
My eyes widened at what the dealer said as Andrea’s face paled. Off in the distance, I heard Jessica laugh. She made some crack about Andrea never doing anything with her life, much less getting married. A comment I would’ve been more than happy to fix on the spot had I not been so speechless. The dealer’s eyes flickered from Andrea’s to mine before she registered her fuck up, but by then it was too late.
Andrea’s face was stoic and pale, and my jaw practically swung on the top of the table.
“Andrea?” Jessica asked.
“Yes?”
“Could I see you for a second?”
I peered over at Jessica and saw her eyeing Andrea closely. She slipped from Lucas’ lap as my brother’s eyes landed on me and Flynn’s eyebrows hiked up. I whipped my head over to Andrea quick enough to watch Jessica pull her away from the table. She stumbled over her own two feet and I had to resist my immediate reaction to get up and help her steady herself.
Shit. This wasn’t good.
“Another hand?” the dealer asked.
I panned my glare back over to her before I shook my head. I no longer wanted to test my luck. I gathered up my chips and left the table before my brothers could say anything and I went to go cash them out. I went in with five hundred dollars to gamble away and I walked out of there with almost ten thousand dollars in the form of a check. I needed to get to a bank. Stick it in my account somehow. That would be a good excuse, actually. I could take the car, find a bank installation, deposit my check to be processed on Monday, and in the process I could get to calling lawyers.
But my eyes were sweeping the area for Jessica.
“Taking your winnings to a bank?” Lucas asked.
I whipped around on my heels as my eyes locked with his.
“I am. Don’t really want a ten-thousand-dollar check burning a hole in my pocket until we get home,” I said.
“You uh… want to talk about what happened at the table?”
I peered over his shoulder and saw Andrea and Jessica talking. Only, she didn’t look distraught. In fact, she looked a little excited talking with Jessica.
What was that about?
“No. I don’t. I need to get to the bank. See you guys in a bit,” I said.
Then, I pulled away from Lucas before he could ask any more questions.
I hailed our driver for the weekend and he came riding up to me. I rattled off where I needed to go and I was surprisingly informed that some Vegas banks are open for truncated hours on Saturdays, which was nice. It meant I could actually deposit this check instead of leaving it for someone to find on Monday. I slipped out of the car when it came to a stop and went into the bank we had pulled up to.
And while I stood in line, it gave me time to think.
I figured the girls would have been shocked. Or horrified. Possibly upset. But when I found Jessica and Andrea talking, the two of them looked almost excited. I didn’t know what to make of that. Maybe Andrea had dodged Jessica’s questions. Or maybe Jessica hadn’t caught on and the two of them were gabbing it up about last night. Or what parts of last night Andrea remembered. I didn’t know. I’d have no way of knowing. The only thing I did know was how it initially struck me.
And the initial feeling I felt was relief.
I shook the thought away from my head as I approached the bank teller. I slid my check to her and told her I wanted to deposit my winnings and she immediately turned on her charm. She pressed her tits together and smiled kindly at me. She made a little too much eye contact and was a little too friendly with her words. Her eyes raked down my chest and she took her sweet time inputting my information.
Then, she asked the question I knew had been brewing on her tongue ever since she got a gander at the amount on my check.
“So, if you’re free tonight, I don’t have to work,” she said.
“While the offer is kind, ma’am, I’m married,” I said.
“I don’t see a ring on that finger.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I’m married.”
She huffed as she slid my receipt to me, then I slid it into my wallet. I walked away from the bank and headed back to my car, and the entire time my chest swelled with a pride I wasn’t sure I deserved to feel. Andrea didn’t want to be married. I didn’t want to be married. There was no reason for me to use our
marriage as an excuse to not get laid. But, something felt wrong about it. The second that woman started flirting with me, it wasn’t because she knew I had money. That wasn’t what bugged me.
What bugged me was that when I looked up into her face, I didn’t see the bank teller.
I saw Andrea.
“Where to, sir?” my driver asked.
“Back to the hotel. I need a nap,” I said.
“Any stops along the way?”
I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes.
“Nope. Just back to the hotel,” I said.
I wondered what Andrea was telling Jessica. I wondered if Jessica would spill to any of my brothers. I felt the car maneuvering me through the streets of Las Vegas and I allowed my emotions and my mind to run wild. Run free. Was it possible Andrea could be happy about this arrangement? She had a big smile on her face for someone admitting to her friend that she had gotten married and couldn’t remember it. And my encounter with the bank teller. That wasn't something I could shake. That was the first woman I had ever turned down that had blatantly come onto me, and I had no reason to turn her down. I wasn’t really married. Only on paper. I didn’t know Andrea. We weren’t committed to one another. We didn’t feel anything for one another.
Yet, it felt wrong to betray her. A woman who was only my wife on paper.
But more than that, part of me wanted the bank teller to be her. Part of me wanted Andrea to want me as much as that woman had.
What the hell was going on with me?
I needed sleep. A lot of it. I needed sleep, water, and food. My mind was obviously clouded and distracted from all of the things going on. And rightfully so. My emotions were simply mirroring the upheaval I felt on the inside, which was fine. Shit happened. I was allowed to have weird feelings about all this shit.
But when the car pulled up to the hotel and I got out, my pursuit wasn’t in search of my room. My pursuit became her.
Andrea.
And when I saw her standing at the elevator, I strode for her and slipped my hand onto the small of her back.
“We need to talk,” I said.
Then, I ushered us both into an empty elevator.
FIFTEEN
Andrea
I kept up as best as I could while Jessica tugged me out of the gambling room. This wasn't good. None of this was good at all. She pulled me over to a corridor by the front doors of the hotel before she released my arm, then she looked me straight in the eye.
“Why did you look so uncomfortable?” she asked.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me. That woman called you his wife, and instead of laughing and correcting her, you looked like you swallowed dynamite.”
“Dynamite? That’s the analogy we’re going for here?”
“Deflection. Andrea, you always deflect when you’re uncomfortable.”
“Because you just dragged me out of a room full of people stumbling all over myself. You couldn't have been more obvious with what you were doing.”
“Tell me the woman messed up.”
I eyed Jessica carefully as my mind began to swirl.
“The woman messed up,” I said.
“Now, did the woman mess up because you didn’t want her saying anything? Or because what she said was true?”
“Jessica, come on. People are staring.”
“Andrea. Did you marry Everett last night?”
“I told you there were two things I wasn’t doing if I came to Vegas, remember?”
“Then why is Everett staring at us like his head’s about to pop off?”
I snuck a glance around the corner and saw Everett whip his head back around to the table. I knew he was worried. Panicking at least as much as I was. My mind ran through all sorts of scenarios as to how to get myself out of this situation. I didn’t need to be telling Jessica this. It was something we needed to keep under wraps. But as my back settled against the wall and I closed my eyes, I felt it on the tip of my tongue. I was scared. I didn’t remember my night.
And I needed my best friend.
“Jessica, if I tell you this, you can’t tell a soul. Okay?” I asked.
“Tell me what?”
“I can’t say anything to you until I know you’re going to keep quiet about it.”
“Andrea, you’re scaring me.”
“This goes nowhere. Promise me.”
“I promise. You know me,” she said.
“Not even Lucas.”
“Not even Lucas,” she said.
I sighed and shook my head before I pressed my hands to my eyes.
“I married Everett last night,” I mumbled.
“You did what now?”
“The woman was right. I married Everett.”
“You did what!?”
I reached out and clamped my hand down onto her face.
“Sh-sh-sh-sh.”
“Sorry. Sorry,” she mumbled against my hand.
“Quiet. And not a soul,” I said.
She nodded, and then I took the liberty of removing my hand.
“You married Everett.”
“Yes.”
“Willingly?” she asked.
“Jessica, I don’t even remember the night.”
“Wait, you got blackout drunk and married Everett?”
“I’m assuming that’s what happened, yes. Because I literally do not remember anything beyond half of our encounter in his room,” I said.
“Encounter in his room. So, you didn’t just marry Everett.”
I sighed and shook my head as Jessica’s hands cupped her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
“Jessica, keep it down.”
“Oh. My. God!”
“Shut up, would you?” I asked.
“You had sex.”
“Yes, I had sex.”
“You had sex for the first time since high school,” she said.
“Yes. I had sex for the first time since—”
“How was it?”
“What?” I asked.
“You had sex for the first time since you got your heart broken, Andrea! How was it!?”
“I really shouldn't have told you this,” I said.
“We’ll get to everything else in a second. Let’s stick to what you remember first, okay?” she asked.
“Okay. Fine. Yeah.”
“So, how did it happen?”
“Well, when a boy and a girl get really drunk together…”
“Come on, Andrea.”
“I’m scared, Jessica.”
My eyes connected with hers and her face instantly softened.
“I had sex with a man I barely know. I couldn’t remember if we had used protection and I don’t use birth control because I don’t have sex. I had to roll out of bed with a man I married on accident, pick up clothes off the floor I don’t remember getting from my room, and race to a drug store to get Plan B so that I didn’t leave Vegas married and pregnant.”
“Why didn’t you come get me, Andrea? I would’ve gone with you so you didn’t have to do that alone. Did Everett go with you?”
“I didn’t come get you because we’re trying to keep this under wraps. We have a plan to fix all this… shit. But I don’t want to go blasting it around to everyone. And yes, Everett went with me. I mean, he hailed a car and sat with me in it while I went in, you know.”
“Well, at least someone was with you. Okay. So, I take it this all happened after the two of you spent the afternoon at the cabana by the pool?” she asked.
“It did. The storm came through and caught us, and we got drenched. And it about froze me to death,” I said.
“The rain made you cold?”
“Right? It was weird. I couldn't stop shivering and it made Everett worried. So, he carried me up to his room because I couldn’t get the key out of my pocket quick enough to get into my room.”
“Aww, that’s kind of sweet.”
“He ran me a hot bath and
put me in it to warm me up, and things kind of… morphed.”
“You had bathtub sex, didn’t you?” she asked.
I grinned and shook my head as I drew in a deep breath.
“Come on. Fill me in on what you do know. At least enjoy what happened a little bit, Andrea.”
“Yes. We had bathtub sex. And it was incredible and toe-curling and so many things I had never experienced before.”
“Oh. Yes. Get it, girl.”
“Well, after the bathtub—and after I had stopped shivering—”
“For all sorts of reasons,” she said, grinning.
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“Anyway, after all that, he picked me up again and went to go put me back onto the bed. I figured we were done. I figured he’d let me sleep off the copious amounts of alcohol in my system before I went back to my own room. But then, he grabbed my ankles.”
“Oh hell, yes.”
“And flipped me over.”
“Go, Everett!”
“And that’s all I remember.”
“What!?” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. That’s all I remember. There was a brief point this morning when I was freaking out about what had happened that Everett gave me a shoulder massage to calm me down and a flash of a memory came into my mind, but that’s it. That’s all I’ve got.”
“What was the memory?”
“A leg massage,” I said.
“Like, just a leg massage. Or…?”
“Or. Definitely or,” I said.
Jessica laughed and shook her head as a smile crossed my cheeks. I felt my cheeks flush as I put my head into my hand. It felt so good to talk with Jessica about all of this, but I had no idea how Everett would feel about it. About me just blurting this out to her while strangers passed by us.
“This is why you can’t tell Lucas anything,” I said.
“Trust me, I’m a closed door,” Jessica said.
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 12
