The Reluctant Billionaire's Temporary Bride: Love is worth fighting for (Las Vegas Brides of Convenience Book 1)

by Anne Martin

  She kissed me and kissed me until someone cleared their throat. I pulled away, kissed her one last time and got out of the car. I smiled at the doctor who was far too young and smiled at Sunny far too warmly.

  “You must be Mr. Hammer,” he said, extending his hand to me.

  I took it with a smile. I could shatter his hand so easily. “Death-Hammer. I want assurances that I’m leaving my Kitten in good hands.” My hand tightened on his and he blinked a few times from the pressure.

  “Of course,” he said, patting my arm, the confident doctor who was in complete control.

  I yanked him close while I hissed. “If you don’t do your utmost to keep her from suffering, I will break your right femur. And then your collarbone. Nothing personal.”

  He blinked at me and then I was stalking down the covered walk like if I hurried it would make this all end sooner. Did I want it to end? I wanted her to live. I needed her life to make my world make sense. I whirled around and walked back to her. I took her in my arms and kissed her.

  She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me, hanging onto me like she didn’t ever want to leave. When I put her down, I took her face in my hands, kissed her forehead, eyelids, nose, chin, and mouth, one last, long lingering kiss before I said, “Next visiting day, I’ll come. I don’t care how much like a sexy swamp monster you look like. I love you no matter what.”

  I put her bag in the doctor’s arms and went back to the car. I drove away without looking back. The drive was a little blurrier than usual, but I only drove faster. I had work to do.

  My team made it through the preliminary circuits easily enough. We had a month to prepare for the grueling three hundred mile cross-desert race/war. It wasn’t entirely legal to be honest, but money often took care of legalities.

  Visiting days were every Wednesday and like clockwork, I drove her yellow Camaro to the clinic and sat in the driveway staring at the building. I’d said I’d be here. I was here. I wanted to see her. I ached to see her. I was dying without her, but if she wasn’t doing well, if she was fading away and it was my fault, how could I live with myself? I got out of the car and slammed the door. I stalked towards the clinic because I had to handle that guilt. It wasn’t going to get better, not if she didn’t recover. I had to face that reality. She had to see that I could do more than fight for her, I could fight for us, and face the future with faith. Faith? Maybe that was too strong a word. Hope? Maybe desperation was closer to the truth.

  I certainly felt desperate as I sat in the peach chair, waiting for my Kitten to decide whether or not she wanted to see me.

  Doctor Albright came over smiling brightly. I hated his smile. His teeth were way too good. His parents had paid a fortune on orthodontists. “Mr. Death-Hammer,” he said loudly like the other visitors wanted to know they had a quasi-legal celebrity in their midst.

  “How is she doing?”

  He nodded and smiled, but didn’t answer.

  I almost gripped his throat, but instead I clenched and unclenched my fists.

  “Follow me,” he said, turning with that bouncy step. I hated it. He should be a little more somber in his work when not everyone made it.

  She was sitting in the courtyard, curled up in a cushioned chair, my blanket wrapped around her while she sketched. Her eyes were on the distant mountains, fingers stained brown.

  “Mrs. Death-Hammer, you have a visitor.”

  She looked up and stared at me. It had only been three weeks and she was already gaunt with translucent skin. She licked her pale lips. “I said that I didn’t want visitors,” she whispered.

  My heart broke. I shouldn’t have come. I cleared my throat and walked over to her. I sat down in the volcanic rocks at her feet. “What are you drawing?”

  She turned it over on her lap, probably smearing it on her vanilla colored gown. Either vanilla, oatmeal or natural. “Why are you here?”

  “I said that I’d visit you.” I’d missed three weeks.

  She shook her head tightly. “I don’t want you to come any more today than the last three times. Why did you push your way in?”

  I glanced over at the door where Doctor Albright stood watching out of the way. I smiled at Kitten. “You look terrible. Still, I was looking forward to something truly monstrous. Where are the scales, the oozing flesh?”

  I saw that smile. It eclipsed the sun. She eclipsed the sun. I took her hand and she let me, but she didn’t kiss me. She leaned her head on the side of the chair and looked at me.

  “Brute, tell me something true, something about you.”

  I swallowed. “I like to tan nude. I could give you pointers some time.” I winked at her while she laughed, low, scratchy, like she’d forgotten how.

  “I’ll put it on my list.”

  “List?”

  “Things to live for. Tell me something else, something real.”

  I hesitated while I stroked her hand. “I didn’t come the last three weeks. I was terrified that I’d see how sick you were and feel too guilty for pushing you into it. I broke my promise. I’m sorry, Kitten.”

  She frowned at me. “They said you were here.”

  “I was in the parking lot, but I didn’t try to see you. They lied.”

  “Why?”

  I shook my head and kissed her fingers. “No more lies. If I can’t come because I’m too much of a coward, I’ll text you and let you know.”

  She sighed deeply and relaxed further into the chair. “I miss rolling around your bed with you. I think I’ve become a Death-Hammer addict.”

  I smiled at her and felt a little bit warmer. “That is the sweetest thing you’ve ever said, Kitten.”

  “I hated watching you go.” She closed her eyes and tears rolled down her gaunt cheeks.

  I brushed those tears with my fingertips and licked them. “When I got back to the house and my mother said that you’d gone home to Aunt Willie, I followed you. I stole a car and everything.”

  “Why?” She frowned at me.

  “Because I didn’t want you to leave before things were right between us. I didn’t want you to leave anyway, not without me. Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I want things to be how they were before.”

  “With you cage fighting?”

  I grinned at her. “That’s not the worst part of the gig. Coming up is the Three Hundred. That’s brutal. It’s a race across the desert with rebel fighters ready to sabotage and decimate. It’s serious.”

  “Brutal sounds right up your alley.”

  I tightened my hand around hers. I wanted to hold her so tight, to keep her from ever hurting again. “I think you softened me up, Kitten. Now days the only alleys I want are yours.”

  She smiled and leaned forward to kiss my forehead before she fell back, pulse flickering in her throat from the effort.

  “Mr. Death-Hammer,” Doctor Albright called.

  “I think we’ll just ignore him,” I said.

  She shook her head. “You should go. If I’m serious about getting better, and I am, I can’t be rolling around a king-size bed with you.”

  I ached so much for my precious Kitten. “You still want me, even after all the lies?”

  She shook her head slightly. “I never lied about wanting you. I don’t know why that would change just because I can’t trust you.”

  “Sweetheart, I…”

  “Mr. Death-Hammer?” Doctor Albright was so close.

  I kissed her cheek softly and stood up, walking over to the doctor. “Yes?”

  He smiled so bright, but nothing like my Kitten’s smile. “Please come with me.” He nodded nicely to Sunny, but her eyes were closed. She could fall asleep that quickly.

  He walked back inside the long building, but didn’t lead me towards the foyer. “I’m glad you came. As you can see, she’s struggling with the treatments.”

  My heart stopped. “She doesn’t look well, but I’m sure you’ve seen worse.”

  He shrugged. “We don’t want to see worse, we want to see her thriving,
meeting markers, living up to her father’s intentions. I think that part of it was the miscarriage she had her first week here. That took a lot of strength out of her.”

  I stopped walking. “Miscarriage?”

  He came back to frown at me. “She’s not aware that she was ever pregnant or that the treatment caused her to abort.”

  “You must have known. You would have tested her.”

  He hesitated then nodded. “We knew, but we’d already started the process. The fetus wasn’t viable.”

  I grabbed his front and slammed him against the wall. His face started turning purple, but I couldn’t stop, not while I stood there feeling rage fed by this overwhelming fountain of agony. Finally, I was able to step back and put down my hands.

  “And you never told her. What kind of a place is this? If there isn’t anything else you wanted to throw at me…”

  “There is, actually,” he said, sounding a little raspy. He rubbed his throat and kept giving me glances like I might attack him again.

  I just might. “What?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “Her room. Follow me.”

  I walked into the room filled with medical equipment and pictures of me. She’d sketched me onto every surface including the ceiling, some of the images rather shocking. How could she draw every piece of me from memory like that? I was used to being in front of a lot of people, but I wasn’t usually quite so bare, and the way she’d rendered me, it wasn’t the tough guy who could take anything, it was someone else, someone who was always smiling, with my eyes even if my mouth was serious. Except for the pictures of me in the cage. I’d been terrifying, but still beautiful.

  I licked my lips. “What did you need?”

  “You. She needs more of you.”

  “I’m going to be working hard for the next few weeks.”

  “It’s essential…”

  I almost grabbed his throat again. I stepped too close, forcing him back a step. “It is essential. I’m paying for her treatment. Maybe it’s easy for you to come up with mostly legal cash like this place charges, but it takes some effort for me.”

  “Your mother has offered to pay.”

  I started laughing. “Did she? I’m almost tempted to let her. It would be funny trying to watch you nail down her money. No, that’s a farce that will close your doors forever. What did you need?”

  He gestured around the room. “At least you can text her, send her flowers, keep contact. You could call her. She’s waiting for you to call. She’s always waiting for you.”

  “She refused to see me forthe past three weeks.”

  He nodded. “She was still waiting.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to understand what I felt walking into her beautiful mind, completely carpeted in images of me. Flattered? No. Humbled and embarrassed. She deserved so much better.

  “Think about it,” he said as I headed out of the room. There was nothing to think about. If Kitten needed me to send her flowers and texts, that’s what I’d do. I texted her as I left.

  Next time, try to have some oozing pustules for me to ogle.

  It took a few minutes to get her reply.

  Such high standards, how’s a girl to reach them?

  I smiled before I slammed my fist in the steering wheel, got into the Sunshine chariot, and drove back to work.

  Chapter 17

  Sunshine Wilson

  I spent a lot of time curled up in the chair on the patio in his blanket, clutching my phone and waiting for texts. I wasn’t always strong enough to answer them right away, but every one of them was like a shot of hope to my heart, enough to help it keep beating.

  I’d watched my dad go through this, so I wasn’t surprised at the pain, or the haze when they gave me drugs to take the edge off. It was different being trapped inside a body you couldn’t control, couldn’t recognize. When Nix came the next Wednesday, I was sitting in the sun on the patio, but I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there.

  He squatted down at my feet.

  “Kitten, you look terrible. Still, no oozing pustules. Next week is the big desert war. You should watch it. I’ve got it all hooked up in your room. I’ll be the sexy one with the best bumpy stomach muscles.” He took my hand and kissed it.

  I tried to sit up, but it took so much effort and the pain left me gasping. “I love you.”

  He froze and I froze, but my heart pounded so hard.

  “Kitten, you don’t need to say that. We’ve got time.”

  I shook my head and gripped his hand tight. “This is killing me. I can feel it in my bones, in my blood, my cells. It’s taking my life out of me. I want you to know that I loved you more than I’ve loved anything. I love your moments. I love your short, brutish philosophy. I love your motorcycle and your incredibly beautiful behind. And front. I love…”

  He kissed me. I would have pulled away, but I couldn’t move. He kissed me slow, sweet, so sweet, and when he ended the kiss and brushed my nose with his lips, I could have sworn he was trembling. “Kitten, I’m sorry that I didn’t love you better, but I gave you everything I had. I’m still giving you everything I have. I’m yours for now and as long as you’re still kicking.”

  “You’ll move on when I’m gone?”

  He hesitated. “What else is there? Wish me luck, okay? I’m terrified of this race. No one comes out of it unscathed, and I’ve had a really long lucky streak. It’s going to end in a big way. But I have to win. I’m going to do it if I have to walk through flames and run over coals.”

  I laughed, sort of. “A real man would walk over the coals.”

  He shook his head and kissed my forehead. “A real man would do lots of things. I messed up with you so many times.”

  “Don’t die in the desert war. That would be terrible if I recovered and you died. I think I would kill myself.”

  He laughed that time then pressed a hard kiss to my forehead that hurt distantly the way that everything hurt distantly. “That’s the spirit. Together in death as in life. I’ll order the matching tombstones.”

  He left me. After that, the treatments stepped up because I wasn’t doing well with easing into it, or something. Not sure why they did what they did because things were so blurry. When my Aunt Willie came, I sobbed and she came to hold me against her.

  “Honey, what have they got you on?” She took charge, managing the medication so I was on that level of practically coherent. I could manage pain levels that would make someone else a quivering ball of snot. I’d had a lot of practice.

  I liked it better not being so out of it, particularly since that way I could watch the desert wars. If I’d thought it was terrifying to see Nix in a cage, it wasn’t anything close to the havoc and danger of the race through the desert. There was sabotage, surprise attacks where people rose out of the sands in these terrifying masks like plague doctors, surrounding Nix’s group. He took out the first guy, ripping off the mask and strangling him with it. Trixie was pretty awesome. Guns weren’t allowed, neither were knives, so it was all hand to hand combat, except for things like sand masks, apparently.

  “He’s brutal,” my aunt said, eating popcorn while she watched in fascination.

  “Short and brutish.”

  She shook her head. “Nothing short about that man.”

  “Aunt Willie! That’s my husband you’re talking about.” I threw some popcorn at her head.

  She raised her eyebrows and then broke out laughing. I laughed too. Not for long. Doctor Albright came in to see why his patient wasn’t drooling all over the bedpan. I really disliked him. My Aunt appreciated that he was handsome. Apparently, me being medicated seemed to give her license to be slightly shocking. Maybe she was medicated too. I giggled a little bit. She did research like my dad, her brother, but hers was a little more pain relief than changing genetics.

  I would have been more worried about watching Nix literally walk through firestorms, but everything was a little bit glowy with my aunt’s help. Until it wasn’t. Three days after N
ix started his road war, I went through the worst part. This was the die now or survive to the next level of agony.

  Drugs didn’t do anything. Nothing. The pain was inside my head, my bones, my soul. I spent a lot of time screaming while my aunt put cool cloths to my head. It hurt so much they tied me down to keep me from hurting myself and others. I remembered my dad going through this. I’d been so scared, but afterwards, when he came down, he was more himself than he’d been for a long time. I’d thought he was finally going to get better, but the next morning he was cold. Gone. Just like that and after so much pain.

  I opened my mouth to scream while my back arched. My jaw hurt so much. It popped and foam frothed on my lips.

  I wanted to quit. I wanted to be with my dad and mom and stop hurting. They were right there on the other side of the door just waiting for me.

  “Sunshine Wilson, don’t you dare quit now!” I opened my eyes and on the screen Nix was fighting three guys, his face a mask of terror as he knocked out his opponents with unmitigated fury.

  “I’m tired,” I told him.

  “I’m tired!” he screamed as he hit a guy and rolled down into the sand. “Keep fighting!” He was so serious.

  I smiled at him. “Okay. I won’t open the door, but you have to come back to me. Promise.”

  I closed my eyes and I felt his lips brush my forehead.

  “I’m coming, Kitten. I swear.”

  I hung on. I hung on and hung on and hung on until five minutes had passed. Then five more. Then five more until the sun came up over my windowsill and it was morning. I smiled at the sunshine before I fell asleep for the first real sleep I’d had in days.

  When I woke up, everything was a little bit blurry. Probably it was my drugs all messed up.

  “Kitten, I’m still waiting for the oozing pustules.”

  I turned my head with great effort, and there, in a hospital bed next to me was Nix. He wore a cast over most of his body. “What happened to you?”

  He grinned at me. One of his teeth was broken off.