Accidentally Met Him (Accidental Marriage Box Set)

by Lauren Wood

  There was coffee and breakfast already on the table and since it was Sunday, neither one of us had to go to work. Most of the time this was the part of the week that I could catch up on anything that needed to be done and then to do something creative. I hadn't been going back to the house much, but I wanted to today.

  “So, what are your plans for the day Deirdre?”

  “I was thinking that I would go back to the apartment and get some painting done. There is one large piece that I actually have already sold. I need to finish it up and get it packed and ready to go. The frame is the only thing left that I have to do.”

  “You sell your art?”

  “Of course, I do.”

  “But let me guess, you don't put your name on it.”

  “Exactly.”

  He just shook his head. “You really should put your name on all these things that you create. One day they're going to be worth a lot of money.”

  “Well I don't know about that, but right now it's worth a grand and that's enough to for me.”

  “You know that you don't have to work anymore. You don't have to bring money in or anything like that baby. I know that you are an independent woman, but there is no need for it. We can start a family and you'll be home anyways, so if you want to cut your career short now, you can.”

  It came out of left field and I had to shake my head, because I seriously couldn't believe it what he just said. We can start a family?

  “I like painting and I like cooking and I like writing. I will keep doing this whether I need the money or not. And I certainly am not thinking about starting a family right now. Once this year is up and I got the payout, well half, then I am going to have my restaurant. That is not the smartest thing to do if you're about to have a baby.”

  “Of course. Of course. That is why we have nannies though, isn't it?”

  One minute we were starting a family, and the next minute, I was hiring a nanny. It was already bad enough that we had somebody cooking our food and cleaning up after us. I couldn’t imagine someone to do the mothering as well. I felt like I was outsourcing everything.

  And how the hell did we get to the talk of having a family and kids? How had that happened? I am so confused. We weren’t even having sex, and this was for a gameshow. Danny acted like we were in this for real and that there was nothing strange about how we came together. Sometimes I really wondered if he knew what was going on, or was he just so used to having everything that he wanted, that no didn’t even register?

  We talked for a bit about a subject that I hadn’t even thought about in my own mind for a while. I raced through breakfast because it was an uncomfortable topic for me. When I told him that I was going to go get dressed and that I would see him later, he wanted to know if he could come along.

  My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him no. I wanted some time alone with my thoughts and it was hard to do that when he was there. But I had no real excuse and he wanted to go, so I just agreed. “But we’re driving there like normal people, by ourselves. Give your driver the day off.”

  “You are so weird sometimes, but whatever makes you happy.”

  It was strange to have everything done for us. I had felt that way since coming to live with my husband. I wanted to get back to my place where things were a little messy in some spots and I didn’t have to use a coaster. I wanted my coffee mug with the chip on the side that I always thought of as a little dangerous. I wanted to relax, and it was hard to do that when everything around me was worth its weight in gold. That was a hard environment to relax in.

  I went upstairs, and he was right behind me. While I’d tried to talk him into at least letting me have a room of my own and then sharing a bed at night, he had balked at the request. While Danny said that he wanted it to be as legitimate as it could be, I knew that there were other reasons for it. I didn’t quite know what they were, but I had a feeling it was just to keep me close.

  It was easy to get sidetracked after we got up there, because Danny was getting undressed and then dressed for the day. I was standing there, frozen in place while I watched his naked body come into view and then get covered up again. He looked damn good in his clothes that were made for him, but there was nothing at all to combat the view of him without them on.

  “Are you going to get dressed or not?”

  His words pulled me out of my thoughts and I was able to get a move on. The things that he did to me didn’t make sense. I was falling for him, even without letting him touch me. How was I going to go another forty-nine weeks with Danny, feeling this way? I was never going to get out of this in one piece. It already felt like I was missing a part of me when he wasn’t around. It was only going to get worse. I was sure of it.

  “Yeah, just give me a minute.”

  “Take your time Deirdre. I always like to watch.”

  I could already feel the heat from his stare, but fair was fair, right?

  Chapter 79

  Danny

  Deirdre was a whole other person when she was at her apartment. I could tell that she was far more relaxed, and it made me realize that she needed her own space when we got back to the house. I may have let my driver off for the day, per her request, but my assistant was still on call and I made a few phone calls when she went into the back of the apartment to get some packing supplies.

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “Just needed to check on something for work. All done now though.”

  She had given me a dirty look because she made it clear that Sunday was a no-work day. Deirdre always started the conversation with, “If I was your real wife…” If I heard those words, I knew that it was going to be something that she didn’t care for. Me working all of the time, warranted those types of conversations, more than anything else did.

  “You said no work, remember?”

  “I know. So, what can I help with?”

  “You can help me frame it. It’s in the bedroom. Then we got to pack it for shipping on Monday. They are going to come pick it up for me.”

  I agreed, even though it seemed like a lot of effort for a thousand bucks. I didn’t know much about art, but I knew that she could sell them for so much more if she had the right clientele.

  I followed her into the bedroom and it was the first time that I saw the painting that she was going to sell. I now knew why it wasn’t in the front rooms. It was a full nude of a dark-haired woman laying on her side. She had a seductive pose and it was almost life-size.

  “Woah.”

  She snickered behind me as she came in. “Yeah, this was an odd request, but it was romantic.”

  “How is this romantic?”

  “Whell, the buyer is her. She wants to give this to her husband. She is gone a lot and she wanted something to remember her by.”

  After a moment, I had to say something. I wasn’t going to say it, but I couldn’t help myself. “So, you just made a whack-off poster for some rich guy, because the wife doesn’t want him watching porn?”

  Her face fell. “I never thought about it like that.”

  That got me laughing and earned me another cross look from her. “I guess it’s not so romantic after all, is it?”

  Deirdre sighed and told me that she liked the way she thought about it more. I was a bit surprised that she hadn’t honestly thought about it. For such a naughty little minx, it was hard to imagine how she could be so naïve other times.

  She ignored me for a time, only talking to me when she wanted to tell me to do something for her. I don’t know what was going on in her head. Deirdre wouldn’t meet my gaze and I wanted her to. I was sure that something was going to be hidden there and I would be able to see it. This tension between us was cuttable at this point it was so thick. Why couldn’t today, right now, be the moment when we decide to take this a step further?

  Deirdre on the other hand, wasn’t going for it. She was all business and I think the sudden rush to cover it up and pack it away, came from my comment. It wasn’t something I should
have said out loud, but it was nice to have no filter sometimes. My wife was keen to not directly audit most of her words, and I had started to do the same. It could get awkward in some company, but I was okay with that.

  When the painting was packed up and I helped her get it to the door, she was a bit out of breath. It weighed more than it looked, and all the packing had just made it heavier. She was in sweat pants again and a tank top that she had shed down to. The more she moved around, the hotter she became. I just liked the view and the way she’d thrown her hair up in a knot on top of her head. It was sticking out in all directions, but it gave youth to her face.

  “So now what?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I want to go rinse off and change. Do you mind waiting around? I will make you something if you stick around for a bit.”

  “Sure, you don’t need help?”

  “No.”

  The answer was so quick that I had to laugh. She certainly hadn’t given it any time at all.

  “Okay then, I guess I will wait out here.”

  “Thanks. I won’t be long at all.”

  I watched her go and felt the throbbing below the belt. This was a thing that I was going to have to get used to. It certainly wasn’t something that I was ever going to be so happy about. Certainly, wasn’t too happy about it at the moment.

  Every time I turned around, Deirdre had me in this position. As many times as it had happened, I still wasn’t numbed to it. I don’t think it was something that I was ever going to get used to.

  While she was gone, I sat at her desk and read some more of her poetry. It kept my mind off of the fact that she was touching her wet and soapy body and I wasn’t allowed to. The more she told me no, the more I wanted her. It was perverse and sure to send me a little crazy before it was all said and done.

  The shower turned off and I went into the kitchen, planning to start a pot of coffee, but not knowing where anything was. She came in not too long after that and told me that she was going to make some lunch. I wasn’t expecting much, but I at least enjoyed watching her move around the kitchen. It was clear that she was at home there and I was starting to see what I’d been missing having the cook there. This day was so informative. I wanted a way to convince Deirdre that this was real.

  I was the type of person that went for what I wanted and knew exactly what it was that I wanted. In no uncertain terms, Deirdre was what I wanted, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen when this year was over. She talked about it like it wasn’t that far away, but it was.

  Smelling her, seeing her, being around her all the time, every night, with no release from another, was daunting. Right now, I was watching her chop some vegetables and all I could see was her body moving and more importantly, the ripe breasts that I could see with or without her shirt on, jiggling as she moved. It was hypnotic and none of this helped to stave off the feelings of need that she wrought inside of me.

  “Cheddar or Havarti?”

  “What?”

  Deirdre giggled the way that she did, and her nose scrunched up. “You aren’t even listening, are you?”

  “I was.”

  She just shook her head. “You’ll just get both.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about and it didn’t matter. As long as it was edible, I was going to love every bite of it. I was already deciding then and there, that the cook was going to start getting some days off. I wanted to watch my wife in the kitchen every night and any morning that I could. I was spellbound by her and I was already thinking about how great she was going to look when she was in the kitchen, pregnant with our child. My mind never went to such domestic endeavors before now, but they overwhelmed me from time to time, when I least expected it.

  Chapter 80

  Deirdre

  The day was meant to be a break away from Danny, turned into something else altogether. We ended up watching a couple of movies after we had lunch and then it was dinner time. Danny wanted to go out, but instead we went and did a little shopping and we cooked together.

  It made things even worse because the apartment’s kitchen wasn’t all that big, and we were bumping into each other left and right. That meant that I could feel the hard-on that he literally seemed to sport all the time. I wanted to ask him about that, if it bothered him and what not, but I didn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to say such things, even if it was on the tip of my tongue.

  All that it meant in the end was after the food was cook, neither one of us was hungry for it. I don’t know why, but there was something so different and natural when we were here together. My house felt different or maybe I was just different in familiar surroundings. Whatever the reasoning was, I wanted things to go differently.

  After dinner, I asked him if he wanted to stay the night here.

  “You want to stay here?”

  “Yeah, why not?”

  I was thinking of the size of the bed and how it would be to start out where we finished off every morning. We had done it once, but that was a while ago and there were other things that I wanted to think about. I had to think about.

  “Um, okay. If you want to stay here, I have to too.”

  “We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I know that your place is way nicer, but I miss this old apartment.”

  “No, of course, I want to be where you are.”

  I smiled at him because sometimes he really did say the sweetest things and it was hard not to like him. I knew that there was going to be something that would come from this, but he didn’t know that. I’d already decided that if he was going to turn me down to stay the night, I was going to stay here by myself. If he stayed without too much prodding, well that seemed to be the perfect chance for a little reward. Good or bad, that system always seemed to work pretty well.

  “Good. I am getting tired, are you?”

  It was early, and I could tell that he wasn’t tired, but he seemed to get the hint and decided that all of a sudden, he was too. It was rather amazing.

  Neither one of us said anything. I turned the lights down until there was only one tiny one in the corner that was illuminating in only the most basic way. It was a bit messy, so I didn’t want either one of us to trip on anything.

  When he started to get in with his clothes on, I asked him about it.

  “Well, I didn’t think that you would want me like this, as close as we are going to have to be. This bed is a lot smaller than ours at home is.”

  I liked the way he said the other bed was ours. He said random weird things like that all the time and I really thought it was the sweetest thing.

  Instead of answering, for the moment I started to take my own clothes off. “After trying it out last time, I don’t want to sleep with clothes on. It’s much more comfortable without them.”

  His eyes widened a little bit and I could tell that he wanted to curse me. I was more than positive that I was one of a few choice names in his mind right now. He thought I was going to toy with him some more, but it wasn’t my intention at all. I had something else that I wanted to try out. I was sure that it was going to be all that I needed and more.

  When I got underneath the covers, I was still waiting for Danny to get naked. I shivered a little bit when he took his shirt off and trembled when his pants came off. Everything in me wanted to look away. I knew what came next and I always had before, even though I’d seen it up close and personal several times.

  “What are you doing Deirdre?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you’re looking at me like that, naked, in this tiny ass bed. What are you doing to me? I’m seriously not sure if I can keep doing this. It’s hard enough in our bed at home, but this is…”

  He just stopped talking when I pulled the sheet back and patted the bed next to me. I know that quite a lot of my torso was bared, as well as most of one thigh and a glimmer of what lie between.

  “Come here and get in bed. We have to sleep together, so this is mandatory. Do you want
me to get dressed?”

  Danny may have been fussing about his blue balls, but he still moved forward and assured me that he would be able to manage without me getting dressed.

  “Good, because it really is more comfortable this way. You were right about that.”

  “Well as long as I was right.”

  Danny didn't say anything, and I knew it was because he had something else on his mind. It was it hard to see what it was. He was thinking about exactly what I wanted him to think about. There was no real need to pretend that this was more or less than what it was.

  When he sat down next to me in the bed, I was immediately surprised how little room we had left. We have never stayed in a bed together, besides the one at the hotel right after we got married and his bed that was huge.

  It was strange to be so close to him and I could feel the edge of the bed with my thigh, so there was nowhere else I could go. Danny was a big guy and he took up for more than half of it. It had always been good enough for just me, but I was rethinking that now.

  The only way that we were really going to fit all that well, was too lay on our sides or for me to lay on his chest. While I liked the idea of laying on his chest listening to his heartbeat I knew that it was most likely a bad idea. It was the last thing that I needed to be doing.

  When he suggested that we lay on our sides, I went along with it because there was no better alternative. I had woken up this way many times and it was very comfortable to have his arms wrapped around me. I always feel safe when I was being held by Danny and I wanted to feel that way now. I wanted to remind myself that this was Danny and it was going to be just fine. It was going to complicate things, I was sure of it, but maybe it was time for something a little problematic.

  As I backed up against him, I could tell that nothing had changed. He was just as hot and ready for me now, as he had been before. That made me smile because it would lead into what was going to happen next. Neither one of us had any clothes on, so all I had to do from the beginning was move backwards. I liked the sounds he made when I pushed myself against him and then opened my legs a little bit so that his member could slide between them. It was like before, but this time it was going to be different. This time I was going to make sure that my hips were at the right angle.