I grinned at her. “I figured,” I said slowly. “It’s okay, Leda. Don’t worry about it. It was just a misunderstanding.”
She frowned. “A misunderstanding?”
I nodded. “Well, obviously I made you uncomfortable.”
Leda shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “It’s not that, exactly.” She gave me a weird look and trailed off. “I’m not sure, actually.” I watched as her face contorted from anxiety into
“It’s fine,” I said without looking at her. “Just forget that it happened if it makes you uncomfortable.” I finally looked into her face without smiling. “It’s not a big deal, Leda. It was one night, and nothing happened.”
I watched as her forehead creased. “Nothing?” She repeated, looking stunning. Suddenly, I felt like I’d said the wrong thing.
“If you want,” I offered. “It’s up to you.” I was surprised that she didn’t seem to want that option. After all, she’s the one who ignored me for days after it happened. If she didn’t want to forget about it and move on, then why didn’t she say anything to me beforehand? No matter she wanted, I wasn’t going to play these stupid games
Leda frowned. “Whatever,” she said finally. “Have a great summer, Stratton.” She closed the door and I heard rapid footsteps down the hallway, followed by the slam of the front door.
I rolled my eyes. “Women,” I said out loud, shaking my head.
Chapter Eight – Three Months Later
Leda
I woke up with a start and wiped my forehead with my brow. It was the third night in a row that I’d had sexy dreams about Stratton, and I was desperate for them to stop. Taking a deep breath, I looked around the surroundings of my childhood bedroom and tried to relax. Everything was still painted the same shade of lavender that I’d supposedly loved as a child, and the whole room seemed to glow with the moonlight streaming in through the windows.
When I lay my head back down on the pillow, it felt sticky and warm. I sighed and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of my bed and stepping onto the floor. The house was eerily silent; even though I’d been home from school for a few months, I never got used to how little noise my parents made. My younger sister Judith hadn’t been home in days, and I was starting to feel really lonely. Even though I spent a ton of time on my own at school, feeling lonely at home was always kind of a weird feeling.
Looking around the semi dark room, I couldn’t believe that I’d spent so much time locked away here in high school. Maybe if I’d tried to be more social, I would have an easier time of it now. Sure, the people in high school had been idiots. But then maybe I wouldn’t have gone off to college without any friends back home.
There was a clattering on the nightstand and I looked down to see my phone buzzing with an unknown number. I bit my lip, hesitating. It was 1:00 in the morning, and I usually didn’t pick up calls from numbers that I didn’t know. Still, I had a weird feeling in my stomach. I reached down and swiped the call open.
“Hello?” The line was buzzing with static, and I could hear a faint echo of my voice fading. “Hello?” I tried again.
There was a sputtering mechanical sound and I heard a faint voice say, “Hello, is this Leda Andersen?”
A bolt of fear pierced my heart. “It is,” I said slowly. “How can I help you?”
The man’s voice was brusque and he had a thick accent. “You have a call from Stratton Müller,” he said. “Do you accept?”
I nodded, forgetting that he couldn’t see me. “I do,” I said in a shaky voice.
There was a static noise and I jumped back, thinking the line had been cut, when I heard Stratton’s familiar voice booming through the loudspeaker.
“Leda! I’m so happy you picked up,” he gushed loudly. He sounded tired and there was a lot of noise behind him.
“What happened?” I asked warily. With some quick calculations, I realized it was about 8:00 in the morning in Munich. I couldn’t think of why Stratton would be collect calling me that early. He probably just wants you to pick something up for him at school, I thought.
There was a pause. “I got arrested,” Stratton admitted. He took a deep sigh. “I was out with some friends, partying, and we got a little crazy. Two of my friends got in a fight and I was trying to pull them away from each other when the cops showed up.”
My throat clenched up. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Stratton said. “Totally fine, walked away like nothing happened.”
“So why are you calling me?”
There was another long pause. I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him. “I, uh, I lost my student visa.”
“So just apply for another one,” I said with irritation. “It’s not that big of a deal, you should be able to get another one in a couple of weeks.”
“No,” Stratton said, and there was a beat. “I mean, they took it from me when I was arrested. I sort of…had something like this happen before, and I was on probation.”
“Oh, my god,” I breathed. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Stratton said in a shaky voice. For the first time, I could tell how upset and panicked he was feeling. I felt a surge of pity for him and my eyes filled with tears. I wished I could throw my arms around him.
“Is there any way you can come back?”
Stratton coughed. “I think so,” he replied. “But there’s a catch.”
move in.”
I heard him sigh. “Leda,” he said. “It’s not that. I can only come back as a citizen.”
“So we’ll sign you up for citizenship classes! That’s easy!”
“No, Leda,” he said again. “I have to be married.”
I almost dropped the phone. “What?” I spat out, sounding more like an accusation than a question. “What are you talking about?”
“Will you marry me, so I can come home?” Stratton asked. The question hung heavy in the air. I looked out the window and watched as the moonlight dappled my parents’ backyard, making it look otherworldly. Still, I couldn’t answer Stratton.
“Will you marry me?” The question rung out in my head.
What was I going to do?
TO BE CONTINUED...
Prologue
I couldn’t get Stratton’s face out of my mind. The night before the wedding, I didn’t get any sleep. All I could think about was the fact that I was about to marry someone I barely knew, as a favor. You probably think I’m a moron for marrying Stratton; I knew my family and friends would. And Megan? No way could I ever tell her.
“Will you marry me, Leda?” He’d pleaded over the phone. I didn’t have the heart to refuse. Part of me, some desperately romantic and hidden part of me, wanted to say yes and pretend that he meant it. I knew that after everything had happened between us, things would never be the same again. I couldn’t just start ignoring him again. We were going to be married, for fuck’s sake. Married people spend their lives together.
I just hoped that I wasn’t about to make the biggest mistake of my life.
Chapter One
Leda
Taking a deep breath, I followed Stratton into the judge’s office. We’d been waiting for over two hours, and my nerves were frayed and shot. Stratton reached down and squeezed my hand with his own; it felt cold and swollen. Biting my lower lip, I glanced up at him. He was only wearing a black button down shirt and dark wash jeans, but all of the women in the court had stared at him—and then at me—when we’d walked in. His brown hair was brushed back from his forehead and his blue eyes looked darker than usual against the tan of his skin.
I looked down and felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. Even though I’d taken care to dress up in something that I liked, I still looked terrible next to Stratton. The looks people were giving us were obvious: “Wow, did he get her pregnant?” Burning with shame, I squeezed Stratton’s fingers. He pulled his hand away from me and together we stood at the front of the room.
The justice of the peace was an o
lder guy with a friendly smile and salt and pepper hair. “Y’alls the happiest couple I’ve seen today,” he joked. “Y’all sure you want to be here?”
“Of course we do,” Stratton said. He shot me a look. “We’re getting married, aren’t we?”
The JP looked from Stratton to me. I flashed a nervous smile. He didn’t return it, and I watched as he took my hand into the air and handed it over to Stratton. Stratton grasped on too tightly and I winced and tried to wiggle free.
“Marriage is something special,” began the JP. “It’s like a ring. Sometimes, you’ll even feel like it’s making you go around in circles. But y’all will always rise and fall together. You have to stay close.” He looked again from me to Stratton. “You can’t let nobody divide you. You can’t let parents divide you. You can’t let kids divide you. You just got to stay true to each other.”
As he droned on, I felt another stab of nervousness. It seemed impossible that Stratton and I could be happy together. After all, this wasn’t exactly a love match. It was a sham. It could even send me to prison.
“Do you take this woman to be your wedded wife?”
Stratton didn’t answer and I turned beet red. When he still didn’t respond, I kicked him in the ankle.
“Oh! Yes,” he said finally, looking at me with an apologetic face. “I did not realize that was my time to say yes,” he added. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. The JP looked visibly disgruntled.
“Do you take this man to be your wedded husband?”
I nodded. “I do,” I said calmly. The JP nodded his head at Stratton.
“You may now kiss the bride.”
Stratton leaned in close and I caught a hint of his musky scent. It drove me wild and I felt a blush rise to my cheeks again. We were so close that his eyes seemed to be all pupil. I closed my eyes and tilted my face up to feel Stratton’s smooth, warm lips coming in closer and kissing me. He tasted incredible, and I wanted the kiss to go on forever. After a moment, the JP let out a small cough and we backed away from each other hurriedly. I felt shame burning on my cheeks and I kept my eyes on the floor as Stratton hustled me out of the room.
“That was something,” he commented, raking a hand through his mass of brown hair. “We got a speech.”
“We did,” I replied. “That we did.”
Stratton turned to me and grinned. “Thank you, Leda,” he said quietly. He leaned in close and I thought he was going to kiss me again but instead I felt his lips on my cheek. “You don’t know what you’ve done for me. You’ve completely saved me.”
I shook my head. Praise outside of the classroom always make me feel awkward. “You’re a friend,” I said carefully. “I help my friends when they need it.”
“You’re amazing,” Stratton said. “I will spend the rest of my life trying to make this up to you!”
Then love me, I thought immediately. Thankfully, I didn’t actually say it out loud. “That’s not necessary,” I said finally. “Don’t even worry about it.”
“And we get a divorce when we graduate?”
I nodded. “Right,” I said slowly. “Because we grew apart during our last year, or something.”
Stratton shrugged. “Or something,” he repeated. We were walking away from the courthouse and there was a crowd of school kids passing by. I watched as they swarmed around us, laughing and running and stumbling. They had no idea how much inconvenience they were really causing, but I still couldn’t help but think they were cute. Their teacher laughingly apologized as she walked by, trying to keep an eye on all of her charges.
“Among School Children,” Stratton said, looking up at me and grinning. I frowned.
“I didn’t know you liked Yeats,” I said, blinking. Stratton smiled again.
“Well, the woman in it is named Leda, so…” he trailed off. I blushed.
“I love that poem,” I admitted. “It’s one of my favorites.”
Stratton gave me a long look. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” he finally said. “But you should know that I’ll always be grateful to you for this.”
“Stratton, really,” I said, feeling slightly exasperated. “What else could I have done?”
He shrugged. “Still, it was admirable. And I promise, I won’t tell anyone.”
I shook my head. “I won’t either. Not even Megan.”
We walked in silence. I thought about that week in the summer I’d had to decide whether or not I was going to do it. I couldn’t give Stratton an answer right away; I’d asked him for more time.
It was the hardest week of my life. I did everything I could to make sure I was weighing all of my options properly. Stratton suggested a prenup if it would make me feel more secure, and even though neither of us had anything, I was relieved. It would make the divorce much easier when it actually happened, and we could walk away like the whole marriage had never existed. Honestly, the only part that really bothered me was the idea that I wouldn’t ever be able to tell anyone about it. I imagined that was going to be hard. Even though we’d be parting amicably, I dreaded the moment that it was over.
“Hey,” I said suddenly. “Do you want to celebrate? Not us getting married, but you getting to stay in the country?”
Stratton nodded. “We could celebrate the marriage, too,” he replied. “Do you want to find a bar?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I could honestly use a drink. I still feel nervous from being around that judge.”
Stratton laughed and his eyes crinkled. “He was something, wasn’t he? I thought he was going to start lecturing us.”
“I know!” I laughed out loud. It felt good to shake off the awkwardness of the day. Stratton and I hadn’t seen each other in a few months; he’d only gotten back to the States yesterday. Even though his tan skin was glowing, there was a hint of dark underneath his eyes and he’d been yawning all morning.
“I’m going to have some drinks and take a nap,” Stratton said over a glass of beer a few minutes later. We’d found a place with an outside terrace and as soon as we sat down, Stratton took out a cigar and lit it. He offered it to me but I wrinkled my nose and turned away.
“No thanks,” I said hastily. “Celebrating?”
Stratton nodded as he puffed lazily. I sipped my beer and was surprised at how delicious I found it. I didn’t even realize how thirsty I’d been until we sat down.
“I’m tired,” I blurted out. “I didn’t sleep last night, either.”
Stratton raised his eyebrows and I felt my heart flutter inside my chest. “Nervous?”
I blushed for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. “Not even,” I lied. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Chapter Two
Stratton
Leda was quiet the rest of the time we were out. She drank her beer in silence and asked me about my summer, but didn’t really offer any information about how she was feeling. Instead, we chattered about frivolous things that meant nothing. It was painful to be around her and watch her hold so much of herself back.
“Leda,” I said, clearing my throat. “I want us to get along. We’re married, after all,” I teased.
She shushed me with a glare. “I know,” she said finally. “This just feels weird, that’s all.” I watched her intently as she sighed deeply and pulled her long, dark hair out of its intricate bun. “It’ll be fine in a few days,” she said after a pause. “It just feels so surreal.”
I nodded. “I know what you mean,” I said. “I didn’t think I’d be going through that until I was at least thirty.”
“Right?” She smiled up at me. “I feel the same way, but if no one finds out, I don’t think it’ll matter.”
“You’re correct,” I replied. There was a silence and I watched as she pulled her phone out of her pockets and tapped away furiously on the touch screen.
“Stratton?”
My head snapped up. “Yeah?”
“Do you think you’ll ever tell anyone, in the future? Like when you want to get married again?”
>
I felt a vise tighten around my heart. The only person that I’d ever really thought about marrying was my ex, Miriam. We’d been together all through primary school and I knew that she still loved me. We’d broken up when I came to grad school because I didn’t really feel like I’d ever had the chance to be on my own. Secretly, I always expected that we’d get back together. But I wound up loving the single life, and so it never happened. I felt both pained and guilty when I thought about it now. I know that I’d done her a wrong. But Miriam was in my past; not my future. My future, for now, consisted of Leda and a lot of studying.
“I’m not sure,” I said truthfully. Looking into Leda’s big serious eyes, I could tell she wasn’t fucking around. “Will you?”
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 133
