“You don’t look so bad yourself, Warner,” I say.
He flashes a smile at me. “Thanks.”
God, he’s sexy. This is torture.
Doug glances down at his watch. “We should probably get going.”
Alex nods. “You ready to meet Blake Howard, Nellie?”
Right. I’m going to meet the man who might change my life. And Parker will put in a good word for me, as long as I do exactly what he wants.
I swallow hard. “Yep, all ready!”
The ballroom is absolutely huge. It’s a good thing, because it seems like Parker has invited the entire staff of Coleman-Roth and Isabelle’s invited everyone who works at Macy’s. Seriously, there are a lot of people here. Circular tables are dotting the room and a banquet table in the back where the wedding party is sitting. Waiters are dancing around with trays of drinks and hors d’oeuvres. I don’t know if I’ll ever get married someday, but if I do, I know my rehearsal dinner (whatever that is) will not look like this.
“Crowded,” Alex comments, looking dismayed.
“Do you know a lot of people here?” I ask him.
He lowers his eyes. “Yeah. Well, some.”
I put my hand on his shoulder, but it doesn’t seem to perk him up. He looks like he wants to leave. He opens his mouth and I can almost hear the words coming out. And honestly, if he said it, I’d leave in a heartbeat. That would be a sign this isn’t meant to be.
But he doesn’t say it.
Doug wanders off to get some food, but Alex stays put and so do I. All I know is I’m not leaving his side tonight. I can’t imagine what it must be like to see all his old friends again after what he’s been through, but I’m guessing it’s rough. I’m not about to let him deal with this situation on his own.
“Alex Warner!”
His eyes lift, and I catch sight of two guys in identical suits striding toward us. They have the look of investment bankers, with their expensive haircuts and suits, and the look of utter confidence on their faces. They stop a couple of feet shy of Alex’s wheelchair. The taller of the guys starts to put out his hand for Alex to shake but instead pats him on the shoulder.
“Alex,” he says in a soft, kind voice. “Hey. How are you doing, man?”
“Oh, you know.” He smiles crookedly. “I’m hanging in there, Mark.”
The guy, apparently named Mark, looks Alex over. “We all felt terrible about… everything. It's obvious why you couldn’t come back though.”
“Yeah,” Alex breathes.
“Hey, don’t feel bad for him,” the shorter guy says. “While we’re busting our asses at Coleman all day, he’s probably hanging out at home, collecting big fat disability checks. Right, Warner?”
Alex manages a smile. “Yeah, something like that.”
The shorter guy is looking me over in a way I don’t appreciate, especially considering he’s got on a wedding ring. “And who’s this?”
“This is Nellie Levy,” he tells them. “Nellie, this is Mark and Justin. She’s…”
“I’m his girlfriend,” I say.
The two guys’ eyes widen at my declaration. I don’t know what’s so surprising about that.
“That’s great!” Mark says. His eyes flit between me and Alex. “Good for you, Alex. That’s really great.”
Justin gives me another of his appraising looks. What the hell is wrong with this guy? I just told him I was with Alex, yet he’s still doing it.
So just to drive the point home, I sit down on Alex’s lap. Well, not just to drive the point home. I’ve been wanting to sit here since the moment I saw him in this suit. And the truth is, I’m beginning to really like sitting here.
“Hey,” Alex whispers in my ear, “you don’t have to…”
I know I don’t have to. I want to.
I look at his face and forget all about the two guys who are now gawking at us. All I can think about is how much I want to kiss him. I know I made up that stupid rule about no kissing. And the sip and puff control is kind of in the way. But at this moment, there’s nothing I want more than to feel Alex’s lips on mine.
So I push his controls away and I kiss him.
Chapter 35
Alex
Nellie’s kissing me.
Holy shit.
How did this happen? One minute those assholes from Coleman are chatting with us, and fucking Justin is looking at her like he’s a lion and she’s a deer he’s looking to gobble up. Then all of a sudden, Nellie’s on my lap. And that’s fine—we’ve established it’s cool for her to sit here. But from the beginning, I had to promise no kissing. That was the rule.
It looks like the rule has officially been broken.
Her lips are so soft. So soft and her breath so warm. And this isn’t a screen kiss. Her tongue is in my mouth, moving against mine, making every tiny hair on my neck stand at attention. I’d heard being paralyzed from the shoulders down makes the parts of your body that you can feel more sensitive, but I’d never experienced it before until this incredible, mind-blowing kiss.
While we’re kissing, I don’t allow myself to think about it. I just enjoy how her lips feel. She’s got one hand on the back of my neck, and that hand is so soft. I wish she’d lace it into my hair, but my stupid headrest is in the way. I want to touch her back, feel that black hair under my fingers, her smooth skin against mine, but that’s not going to happen. So I just focus on what she’s doing to me and how good it feels.
Her mouth separates from mine, and it looks like Mark and Justin took off while we were kissing. I guess it was a long kiss.
Shit, I hope she’s not thinking Doug needs to pay her extra now.
No, she wouldn’t.
“I, um…” I smile crookedly. “I thought kissing was off the table.”
She arches an eyebrow. “Are you complaining?”
“I am not.”
She leans forward and kisses me again. And now I’m thinking maybe this isn’t part of the arrangement at all. Maybe she’s not doing this to make my old friends jealous. Maybe she’s kissing me because she wants to kiss me.
But every time I contemplate asking her, the conversation goes like this in my head:
Nellie, is this part of the act or did you really want to kiss me?
Oh. Oh my God, Alex. I had no idea you thought… I mean, I was just trying to make you look good in front of your friends…
Right. Of course.
I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get the wrong idea…
No, I’m not going to ask her. No way. I’m just lucky I get to do this.
Her lips separate from mine again, and this time her lipstick is smudged. She gently wipes my lips with her thumb. “You’re not a bad kisser.”
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I breathe.
She smiles—her expression is so difficult to read. What is she thinking? What does this all mean? Christ, this girl. She’s killing me.
“So,” she says, “if I grab us a plate of hors d’oeuvres, will you eat some of them?”
I’m reluctant to say no to any of her requests, but I’m not excited about being fed in front of all my old colleagues. Nellie and I had talked about it beforehand, and she agreed we’d ask for my meal to-go and she’d feed it to me back upstairs in the room.
“What if I sit on your lap while I feed you?” she whispers in my ear.
“Okay,” I agree, because actually, I’m starving.
“Do you want to pick out some hors d’oeuvres together?”
I glance over at the crowded banquet table where all the food is laid out. People are surrounding every inch of the table. I imagine my chair plowing into someone’s legs by mistake. “Just pick out whatever. I don’t care.”
“Sure thing.” She hops off my lap, the smile still plastered on her face. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
I watch Nellie walk away. She has a great ass. I can’t stop staring at it.
She’s picking out food from the table and putting it on a pl
ate for us. But as she’s reaching for one of the trays, a tall man with slicked-back hair approaches her. I expected her to ignore him, but instead she flashes him a big smile and the two of them start chatting.
Damn, I’m going to need to go over there.
Except I forgot she never moved my sip and puff control back to where I could reach it. She didn’t move it far, maybe three inches to the left. But almost certainly out of my reach.
I stare at the tube. I never feel as frustrated with my disability as I do when something is three inches out of my reach. If I had any movement whatsoever in my arms, this wouldn’t be a problem.
I sigh and lean forward as far as the strap on my chest will allow. I’m still about two inches short. I stare at it, trying to problem-solve some way to reach the damn thing. I glance around, seeing if there’s anyone who I might feel comfortable asking to help me. There isn’t. People are glancing my way, but quickly look away when I attempt to make eye contact.
Goddamn it.
Just when I’m about to give up, a hand reaches out and shifts the tube those two inches closer to my face. I grasp it gratefully with my lips, bringing it back into position. I look up and…
Shit, it’s Parker.
Chapter 36
Alex
Maybe Parker Ashmont isn’t so bad.
After all, he’s helping Nellie with her career. He’s done something to make Isabelle fall in love with him. And now he’s the only person in the whole goddamn room who bothered to help me when my controls were out of reach.
“Thanks,” I say.
I puff into my controls and my chair turns so I can face him. Christ, he seems tall now that I can’t stand. We were about the same height before.
“No problem,” Parker says. He nods in the direction of the banquet table. “It’s my fault Nellie got sidetracked by Blake Howard.”
I look over at the slick-looking man who’s currently chatting her up. “That’s Blake Howard?”
He grins. “The one and only.”
All right, I guess I can understand Nellie allowing herself to get sucked into a conversation with Blake Howard. He’s the whole reason we came here tonight, after all.
“Hey, Warner,” Parker says. “I have to ask you a question.”
I turn away from the banquet table and look up at my former colleague. “Sure, shoot.”
He lowers his voice a few notches. “How much are you paying Nellie to be here?”
My mouth goes dry. That’s not the question I expected him to ask. I don’t know what I expected though. In retrospect, anything Parker asked was going to be insulting.
“What are you talking about?” I choke out.
He shrugs. “She admitted you were paying her to be here. I just was curious how much.”
“She…” I feel a jab of pain in my left temple. “She told you that?”
He nods. “We had a little talk last night.”
Last night. When I was with Isabelle. No wonder she was so eager to let Isabelle come over—was she planning to meet Parker all along?
Oh Christ, was he the reason she didn’t get much sleep last night?
“Don’t worry,” Parker says with a grin. “I’m not going to go around the room telling people. It’s just between you and me. I’m just curious about her price—that’s all.”
I hate the grin on his face. “Fuck you,” I say.
“What did I do?” He blinks a few times. “I invited you to my wedding—you, my fiancée’s ex—and I’m helping Nellie get a job. I think I’ve been a good guy. I just want to know the answer to a simple question.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“Of course I am,” he laughs. “But we already knew that. At least I own it, right? Look, I’m just curious because… well, I’m hoping to bang her too. I mean, look at those tits.”
My relief at his admission that he didn’t have sex with her last night is short-lived. He hasn’t had her yet, but he wants her.
“She’d never…” I start to say, but then I’m not sure. Would Nellie fuck Parker? Ten minutes ago, I would have said no. But I have no idea what’s going on inside Nellie’s head. She met up with him, after all. She told him I was paying her.
Fuck, how could she tell him that? How could she betray me like that?
“I’m pretty sure she will,” Parker says. “Look what I’m doing for her! And it’s not like I’m going to help her out of the goodness of my heart. She knows that.”
I try to push away the horrible, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I get it now. Parker told Nellie she’d only be able to work for Blake Howard if she slept with him. And judging by the enthusiastic way she’s chatting with Howard, I’m guessing she’s made up her mind to go through with it.
“I was impressed by how she was kissing you,” he goes on. “It looked real. She’s talented. She goes all in.”
I want to tell him it was real, but the truth is, I’m not sure of it anymore.
No, that’s not true.
The truth is, I’m now pretty sure it wasn’t real.
I feel like a fucking moron. How could I have thought Nellie really liked me? I’m paying her to be here! In real life, women don’t fall in love with the cripple who’s paying her to be his girlfriend for the weekend. Yes, she broke her no kissing rule, but that’s only because she felt sorry for me.
“Now I’m assuming what she does for you in bed is different from what she’d do for me,” Parker is saying, “but how is she? I mean, on a scale of one to ten. Where one is a cold fish and ten is the most mind-blowing fuck you’ve ever had in your life.”
“Fuck off, Parker.”
“Wait, I’m an idiot, right?” He laughs. “You probably can’t fuck anymore. Shit. Sorry about that. I was being insensitive, wasn’t I? But still, she does other stuff for you, right?”
I puff into my control, intending to turn away from Parker. Except I blow too hard—a mistake I haven’t made in a long time—and my chair jerks forward, nearly crashing into him. He leaps out of the way just in time to avoid having a broken foot.
“What the fuck, Warner?” Parker yells at me. “You trying to run me down?”
A bunch of people are staring at us now. I don’t want this attention. And I especially don’t want anyone in this room to know what we were just talking about.
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “That was a mistake.”
“Jesus,” Parker mutters. “You ought to have to take a driving test to control that thing. You could hurt someone.”
The tips of my ears are burning. I wish I had punched Parker in the nose while I still had the ability to do it.
Before things can escalate further, my brother comes running over. Doug has got a drink in his hand and looks like he was probably having a decent time until I managed to make a scene. This trip would have been a lot more fun for him if I hadn’t tagged along. He could have brought Alyssa and they would have had a great time. Now not only has he had to worry about my care for three days straight, but he also had to shell out a bunch of money to get Nellie to come with us. And he has to deal with me making a scene.
This trip was a mistake. A big fucking mistake. Everyone told me so and I refused to listen.
“Alex.” Doug puts down his drink on a table and furrows his brow. “Everything okay? What’s going on?”
“I…” I look down at my lap. My legs have shifted, even under the straps, so they’re tilted to the left. “I want to leave.”
“Leave?” His eyes widen. “We just got here.”
“Please,” I say in a low voice. “I want to go. Now.”
I wish I could take off without involving anyone else. But I can’t. I don’t know what the hell I’d do in this hotel all by myself—that would be impossible. And I can’t get into the hotel room on my own. I at least need Doug to take me back first, then he could return to the party if he wants.
“All right,” he finally says, “let me get Nellie.”
“No—” I start to say, but
he’s already gone.
I sit there, fuming. I don’t want to see Nellie. I don’t want to have anything to do with her for the rest of this trip. She’s not who I thought she was, that’s for damn sure. I could accept she’s not into me—that would be no big shocker—but I thought she had more integrity than this. How could she blab about our arrangement to Parker? How could she consider sleeping with him?
Doug returns with Nellie by his side. They’re wearing equal expressions of concern on their faces. I feel like I’m with my parents. Nellie puts her hand on my shoulder—I want to shrug her off, but I can’t even do that.
“Alex, are you okay?” she asks. “Doug says you’re not feeling well.”
“I’m fine,” I mumble, not meeting her eyes. “I just want to go.”
“But why?” she asks.
“Because I don’t want to be here anymore,” I say through my teeth. “Is that too much to fucking ask?”
“But…” Her face falls. “I don’t understand…”
“You looked like you were having a good time,” Doug says.
Fine. They want the truth? I’ll give it to them. I look up at Nellie. “Why did you tell Parker I was paying you to be here?”
Her face blanches and I can’t tell she’s not going to deny it. “Oh…”
I turn back to my brother. “Can we go please?”
“I’ll come with you,” Nellie says quickly.
“Don’t bother,” I say to her. “I heard you’ve got a nice arrangement going with Parker and Blake Howard. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”
It’s almost worth it to see the look on Nellie’s face. It’s clear I nailed it.
“Alex,” she murmurs. “You don’t understand. It’s… it’s not like that…”
“It’s not?” I raise my eyebrows at her. “You mean you’re not going to sleep with Parker to help your career?”
She hesitates. And that hesitation says it all.
“Doug, let’s go,” I say. I puff on my controls and this time the chair turns like I want it to. Thank fucking God—I don’t need another scene.
My Ex's Wedding: A Fake Boyfriend Romance Page 20
