There was a hint of anger under his comment. He had some nerve. He still thought I’d lied about the baby and was just putting on a show the whole time we were together. Which told me his comment about regretting letting me go was a bunch of Nebraskan bull.
Ten minutes later, we were married. It occurred to me that five years ago, this moment would have filled me with ultimate bliss. Now it was bittersweet.
He escorted me out of the courthouse and to a waiting car.
“Where are we going now?” I asked, looking down at the ring he’d put on my finger when pledged to love and respect me forever.
“Honeymoon.”
I looked over at him next to me. “Honeymoon?”
“Realism, remember. We have to have this look real. I’m the type of man that would whisk his bride away.”
“Where are we going?” I tried to hide my panic. I couldn’t leave. I had to get back by tomorrow to discharge Mason from the hospital and take him home. Thankfully, because Simon handed me my first hundred-thousand-dollar check, I didn’t have to worry about the hospital bill.
“I have an island in the Caribbean.”
I gaped at him. “I can’t go to the Caribbean.”
“Why not? You don’t need a passport where we’re going.”
“That’s not it. I just…I have to be home tomorrow.”
“Why? Why can’t you spend a few days with your new husband?”
“Work.” I lied.
I could see he didn’t believe me. “I’ve never lied to you, Erica. And I won’t. I ask that even if you hate me, you don’t lie to me. What is so important that you can’t take a short trip with me.”
I swallowed hard. “My son.”
9
Simon
I did a double take at her response. Erica had a son? I don’t know why I was surprised except I’d thought the whole pregnancy thing was a lie. For a nanosecond I had a horrible thought that perhaps she’d been telling the truth about my being her baby’s father, but then I remembered that it was impossible. I’d made sure I’d never be a father before I met her.
So the only three possibilities were that she was pregnant before meeting me, she got pregnant by someone else when she was with me, or she’d been with someone since me.
I might have been a bastard, but I wasn’t about to drag her to the Caribbean when she didn’t want to go. This fake marriage was going to be hard enough without forcing her to go on a honeymoon. I needed her to make this work which meant cooperation and compromise.
“Fine. We’ll fly to Omaha.”
She studied me for a moment like I’d grown a third eye. I suppose she expected me to respond to the fact that she was a mother.
“It’s not that far,” she finally said.
“Would you rather spend the two hours in the car with me or twenty minutes in a plane?” I said appealing to her dislike of me.
“We can fly.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s what I thought.” I called my pilot to let him know the change of plans so he could file a new flight plan.
Ten minutes later, we pulled into the small county airstrip where my plane was waiting.
“Go ahead and get in,” I told Erica. “I’m going to make a quick phone call.”
She nodded and headed up the steps to the plane as I dialed my contact’s number.
“Hey, Joe, listen I need you to do a deeper check on Erica…actually look up Leslie Erica Edmonds or just Leslie Edmonds.”
“Are you wanting anything specific?”
“Just the last five years.” I didn’t think she was lying now, but after all these months that she’d been delving into my life and now that we were married, I felt I needed to know more about what she’d been up to in the last five years since she hadn’t once mentioned the child since our reunion. I was an idiot to not do this before marrying her. It proved she still held some sort of enchantment on me.
“Any time frame you need it?” Joe asked.
“As soon as possible. I’m heading to Omaha now if you need to see me. Otherwise you can email me what you find.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
Once I hung up, I entered the plane. Erica was sitting in a seat looking out the window. I wondered if she was checking the view or lost in thought.
I sat across from her and pretended to check email on my phone, but mostly I was trying to wrap my brain around what I’d done today. I’d gotten married. I’d married Erica to try and win the respect of a rural town in Nebraska. Maybe I needed to get my brain checked, because that was a ridiculous thing to do.
Even so, Erica had lived up to her side of the deal. The lady at the boutique totally bought the wedding and that Erica and I were in love. I wasn’t sure Sinclair bought it, or maybe she just worried I’d somehow hoodwinked Erica. If only she knew that Erica was the one who played games.
As I thought about Erica’s deception, I couldn’t help but be curious about her being a mother. She must be a single mother, otherwise she couldn’t have married me. So where was the father? Had he dumped her before me or after?
“Who’s with your son?” I asked unable to keep from learning more about him.
“My mother watches him while I work. She’s with him now. Until tomorrow.”
I nodded. “I appreciated what you did at the boutique. Knowing how you feel about me, it had to be hard.”
She turned her piercing green eyes on me. “And knowing what you think of me, I find it hard that you’d want to even pretend.”
I shrugged. “Honestly, I’m not finding it hard, but then, as you know, I’m able to compartmentalize my feelings.”
She nodded and turned away. Funny how that last statement felt like a lie. Oh, I’d spent a lifetime hiding my true feelings, but there was a moment in the boutique when I’d looked at her in the lovely dress that accentuated her body perfectly, and a well of emotion surged. For a moment, as I took in her beauty, I saw the woman I’d loved five years ago.
“I always regretted losing you.”
I couldn’t believe I’d said that out loud. Thankfully, I was sure she thought it was part of the ruse. I don’t know what I’d do if she knew that at that moment, the statement was true.
The flight was over nearly as quickly as it started. I had a car waiting and it drove us to my penthouse.
“You still have this place,” she said as we walked into the building.
I had to take a breath because I felt a profound sense of déjà vu as we rode the elevator up to the penthouse. How many times had I done this with her five years ago? Usually, I was engaged in foreplay during the ride because I couldn’t wait until we got into the penthouse to touch her.
I shoved my hands in my pockets as they itched to touch her now.
“Would you like a drink?” I asked as I let her in and headed to the bar.
“Sure. Why not.” She planted herself on the couch, tucking her feet under her. It was something she’d done before. I wondered if she recognized that we were falling into an old routine.
Deciding we were still on a honeymoon, I popped open more champagne and poured us each a flute.
I handed her one then sat in a chair across from her, which was out of routine, but I did it because it felt dangerous to sit too close to her.
She sipped and looked out the window presumably at the view. She looked tired and withdrawn.
I knew I was a hard man, but I felt I’d gone out of my way to make this easy for her. So it was annoying that she acted like I was putting her out.
“Is it really that big of a hardship to be here?”
She turned to look at me. “It’s difficult.”
“Because I’m an asshole?”
She sighed. “No. That’s not what’s hard. Old memories mixed with what I know of you now…I have a hard time reconciling them.”
I nodded in understanding. I felt the same with her. “I haven’t changed.”
She arched a brow.
“I did business the same
way then. What was different was how I was with you. You were different.” I finished off my champagne and got up to get something stronger because I was feeling agitated about revealing so much.
“Why?” She watched me as I poured the two fingers of whisky and then returned to my spot away from her.
I shrugged. “You seemed different. Like someone I’d never met before. Perhaps it was unfair to elevate you like that. The truth is, people are people, right? You can’t trust anyone.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You believe that?”
“I know it. I’ve lived it my whole life.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “And yet you’re trusting me in this marriage.”
“You said it yourself, it’s transactional. It only requires a trust in your greed.”
She flinched. “No, you weren’t like this before.”
I took a long swig of my whisky. “Like I said, it was different with you.”
“You don’t trust anyone?”
“Not with my feelings. No.” I looked down into my whisky and swirled it. “I never did, Erica. Not until you and well…we know how that turned out.”
“Never? What about your parents?”
I scoffed. “My parents thought I was defective.”
She gaped like she couldn’t believe what I was saying was true.
I shrugged it off. “It’s not like it’s not true, but still, if your parents despise you, what chance do you really have in life?”
“I…I knew they weren’t very involved in your formative years, but you never told me this.”
I wondered if it would have made a difference if I had. I never told anyone before. I wasn’t sure why I was telling her now.
“Besides, what could be defective? You’re brilliant in business, even if you’re ruthless. You’re tall and handsome.”
“You think I’m handsome?” The minute I asked it, I felt like a pussy. Like a jerk fishing for compliments.
“It’s not an opinion. It’s a fact. Tall. Blonde.”
I wanted to think she was biased because she liked me, but I knew she didn’t.
“The truth is I was born with a genetic condition so yes; I wasn’t perfect as my parents hoped. I wasn’t athletic like my father. I was gawky and awkward, not fitting for the child of Oliver Stark. The rest of society seemed to agree. The level of torment I had to deal with because I looked like a mutant alien…” My gut churned with the memory of all the rejection. I downed my whiskey hoping to burn that feeling away. “That’s why I can’t have kids. I made sure I wouldn’t pass it on.” I made a scissor gesture with my fingers so she’d know what I meant.
She stared at me with a quizzical look on her face.
“What?” Now I was embarrassed for saying so much.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Simon, that your parents were jerks. That other people were jerks. People can be mean. You’re mean.”
My jaw tightened. “That’s how the world works.”
She shook her head and I hated the pity in her eyes. She stood and came to sit on the coffee table in front of me. “It’s not. You think so because that’s all you know, but it’s not true.”
She took my hands in hers. “The people Salvation aren’t like that. Yes, they stood up to you, but not because they are mean. They were protecting their own from an outside bully. If you didn’t insist on offending their traditions and conniving your way in, they’d accept you.”
“Their traditions are killing the town.”
She nodded. “Yes, but bullying them isn’t the answer. You could do good there if you didn’t go into it expecting something in return or anticipating that you need to hit first before they hit you.”
I had a flash of Tucker Marshall saying something similar to me outside of a PTA meeting last year.
“Do you love your son?” I shook my head. “Of course, you do. That’s why you’re doing this right? You want to provide for him? To give him a better life?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“I respect that, Erica. My mother wouldn’t have crossed the street to help me. And here you are, married to a man you don’t love to help him. I envy him having a mother like that.” The truth was, it softened the blow of her deception before. She must have been pregnant and sought me out to fall in love with her all to help her son. I couldn’t help but admire the lengths she’d go through. It certainly seemed like something I might try.
Her hands cradled my face. “Simon, your mother was a bitch. You deserved to have a mother who’d do anything for you. The fact that you don’t believe that, breaks my heart.” She rose from the table and hugged me.
Warmth and emotion flooded through me like a tsunami. I wanted to drown in it even as my guard flew up. I might understand and respect what she did to me five years ago to help her unborn child, but that didn’t mean I could trust her.
But the longer she hugged me, the greater the need inside me built, until I couldn’t fight it. I pulled her back into my lap, my lips found hers and consumed them like I was a man dying of thirst. And it worked. As the kiss went on, I began to feel quenched.
She pulled back and I thought she was going to run off, repulsed by me. Instead she just stared at me, like she was looking for something. I felt vulnerable. Like she could see into my soul and see it was lacking.
But then she smiled. “I see you Simon.” Then she kissed me softly like she had all those years ago. I knew I needed to stop this but I was powerless to do so. Even if she was going to rip my heart again, I couldn’t push her away. She was like air, breathing life into me.
10
Erica
The heart was a stronger force than my mind. I knew what Simon was capable of. Right now, I was in a fake marriage with him in order to make money to help my son…our son. I knew it proved his theory that money trumped all and I probably wouldn’t be able to change his mind around that.
But my heart…my heart saw my Simon from five years ago. It saw the man who I knew was wounded and longing for healing and hope. Who had reached out to me years ago and I was there for him until he thought I lied. I wanted to try again to tell him the truth about Mason, but I knew him well enough to know that wouldn’t change anything.
I knew the truth about him now. He’d had a vasectomy which was why he didn’t believe me. Mason was his son, so something clearly hadn’t gone right with his procedure, but I didn’t believe I could change his mind on that.
It also appeared that Mason’s disorder came from Simon. I wasn’t sure what to think of that. Would he reject Mason for that because of his own guilt or not wanting to be reminded of how his parents had treated him? Because I couldn’t know for sure, I didn’t say anything.
I led with my heart wanting to comfort the man I clearly still loved, even if I didn’t completely respect him. Instead I kissed him. I felt him release his guard and embrace me, emotionally and physically.
He stood, picking me up with him.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“One night, Erica. Can I have one night with you? One night like it used to be five years ago.”
I nodded. I could give one night.
He brought me to his room and set me by his bed. “You’re so beautiful.”
I felt warm from his words, but I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to feel. “Touch me, Simon.”
We undressed, taking our time. It was like we both knew this would be the only time we’d do this and we wanted to make it last. It was sad really. He couldn’t forgive me for the lie I never told, and I couldn’t quite forgive him for not believing me. And yet, we couldn’t stop the love. Or at least I couldn’t. Simon wasn’t an emotionally accessible man, so his behavior now suggested that he cared for me at some level.
He lay me on the bed and climbed over me, his eyes raking over my body. His hand started at my shoulder, caressing down over my breasts, along my belly and to my thighs.
“You’re so lush,” he said. “I dream of you.”
I
reached up and pulled him to me for a kiss. “It’s not a dream now.”
I opened for him, wanting to feel him pulse inside me. I arched, taking him. We groaned the echoes of it filling the room.
“So, fucking sweet,” he murmured against my lips. His fingers pinched my nipples making me gasp. He moved slow and soon it felt like torture. I needed faster, harder as my insides coiled tighter and tighter.
“Simon.” I pushed at him until he moved onto his back. I impaled myself over him, crying out at the momentary relief. I started to ride, bouncing over him as I chased my pleasure.
He levered up, his mouth sucking my nipple deep and hard, and I felt it straight to my pussy, ratcheting up the pressure.
“Oh God…Yes… Simon…I’m coming…”
“Come baby…come on me…take me with you…” He groaned and fell back, his hips bucking in time with me. Together we moved. Like this, physically joined, we were perfect. Why couldn’t we be perfect outside of this too was the great tragedy of our lives. “Ah fuck…I’m there…”
His hips shot up, and warmth filled my womb, completing the circuit and shooting me to the heavens. My entire body flooded with pleasure. We kept moving, drawing out the ecstasy until it was completely spent.
I collapsed on him, my heart still thundering in my chest.
He held me, and for that moment, it was five years ago when he and I were still happy.
He rolled us over and looked down at me. “I release you from the agreement.”
“What?” My heart sank. What had happened? Why was he ending our agreement? I needed his help with Mason.
“You’ll still get the money and the house, but you don’t need to pretend to love me.”
“Simon.” My breath stalled in my chest. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t pretend. I did love him. I just couldn’t be with him if he couldn’t be fully open with me. Without trust and respect, we were doomed.
“I want you to stay with me tonight. In this bed. I want it to be like it was, just for tonight, but you don’t have to. I’ll meet my terms no matter what.”
Fake Marriage (Contemporary Romance Box Set) Page 89
