Chapter 8
R ival.
I could have fucking strangled my wife.
Wife.
I had a wife.
My eyes lowered to the platinum band on my left ring finger. Sailor Addison was going to test my patience and my resolve. She told her father I was a contractor who’d built her wall units.
The shit gut punched me in a way I hadn’t been expecting. The worst part was that I couldn’t rightly be angry about her not taking accountability when I hadn’t done the same. At least where our marriage was concerned. My mother had no idea she had a daughter-in-law, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to present the idea to her. I also fully planned on remaining married to Sailor even after our contracted year expired and I didn’t want my mother to hate Sailor for manipulating this situation to marry me.
I was a grown ass man fully capable of defending my actions and Sailor could argue the smartest, skilled legal sharps under the table and have them second guessing their entire lives. She was just that damn good but my sweet Sailor wouldn’t stand a chance in defending herself against my mother. Not where I was concerned. I wouldn’t put my wife in the line of fire, no matter how fucking pissed I was with her. So no, I couldn’t truly be upset about Sailor’s panicking to keep our sham of a union from her father.
But…
It still fucking gut punched me and that was a harsh reality. I needed to remedy the situation and the only way to do so was to ensure she had no argument about our willingness to fully embrace this ordeal head on.
As soon as the door to my guest room closed and Sailor was locked away behind it, I decided to bite the bullet and get this over with. If I expected Sailor to be fully committed, I had to be as well.
“Rival, sweetheart. I was just thinking about you?” I grinned at the cheer in her voice. My mother was always happy.
“Yeah, what about me?”
“Mostly how I haven’t seen my son in so long I can’t remember what he looks like.”
I chuckled at the implication. “Look in the mirror, Ma, It’s hard to forget when I look just like you.”
“You look like your father,” she asserted with a clipped tone.
“What happened to the whole ‘I got my good looks from you but my bad attitude from him’?”
“Boy, don’t try to check me.” My smile expanded.
“Wouldn’t think of it. How are you?” I leaned over my legs and dropped my elbows into my thighs, lowering my head.
“Old, tired, and happy.”
“You’re not old.”
She scoffed. My mother would celebrate her sixty-fourth birthday this year. She was also still very active and looked much younger. She also wouldn’t dare classify herself as old unless it benefited her agenda, such as fishing for a compliment. “You’re probably in better shape than I am if we’re being honest.”
The woman biked daily, traveling miles around the city, took weekly yoga classes, and hiked with a group of women who loved to explore nature. Most of my physical activity came from building things and occasional pick up games at the gym with Jairo. I was fairly fit but my mother’s athleticism would surely surpass mine.
“Then you should do more with your love, son. You’re too young to be outdone by an old woman.” I chuckled at the smugness of her tone. “Now tell me why you’re calling. What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing’s on my mind. I just called.”
“You don’t just call, Rival. That’s what I do. You call when your heart and mind are heavy and right now it’s both. You’re my child, no matter the distance, I’m always connected to you. What’s wrong?”
I grinned and lifted my head, glancing at my closed door, and my mood shifted again. This was going to be a hard conversation and I had no idea how to navigate things without turning my mother against my wife.
“I want to tell you something but I need you to promise you’ll trust me on this and not jump to judgment.”
The line was quiet for a minute before she agreed. “I trust you, but even if I don’t, you’ve been a man for a long time, Rival. There’s not much I can say about your life that will matter in the grand scheme of things.”
Shit. She’s already thinking the worst.
And this was technically the worst, or at least it would be in her eyes. Her only son married a woman she doesn’t know and she wasn’t invited.
“That’s not exactly true. I value your advice, Ma. You know I do.”
“I’m aware.”
Her tone was level and I almost laughed. She was attempting to remain neutral.
“I’m married,” I stated calmly.
“To who?”
Too calm.
“Sailor Addison. I mentioned her once, I think. The woman with the penthouse apartment I was doing a job for.”
“The attorney?”
“Yes, that’s her.”
“Is she pregnant?”
“What? No, she’s not pregnant.”
“I don’t know her.”
Okay, let the games begin. “You’ve never mentioned her aside from the wall unit you were building. Not even about a date or that you were interested in the woman. What else should I assume since you’re telling me you married her?”
“Spontaneous marriages are not always about pregnancies and that’s not even a thing anymore. Women don’t give a damn about being single mothers and men don’t care about preserving a woman’s honor. That’s a dated concept.”
“Is she an illegal?”
Straight from pregnancy to green card…
“Ma, no…” I chuckled.
“Did you commit a crime that she needs to protect you from?”
“Ma…”
“What? I’m simply trying to make sense of my only son being married to a woman I don’t know and without so much as a plane ticket to fly me out to be there or a phone call to introduce the woman.”
“I can’t really explain it but I do ask that you trust me.”
“You sure she’s not pregnant? As dated as the concept may be, you’re a good man, Rival. You would try to do the right thing by marrying the mother of your child if that’s what she demanded of you.”
“She’s not demanding anything of me. She doesn’t even want to be married to me.” I mumbled the last part but my mother didn’t miss it.
“If she doesn’t want to be married to you, then why are you married?”
“I’ll explain, eventually. Can you just trust that I know what I’m doing and it will all work out?”
“I trust you . I don’t know her to trust this woman. Are you sure she’s not…”
“She’s not pregnant, and I’m the one pushing for this, not Sail. I just need you to accept her as my wife because that’s not changing…”
For the next year and hopefully forever.
“Okay.”
“Okay, that’s it. You’re going to play nice.”
“I’m going to trust that my son. It’s what you asked, right?”
I grinned. She wasn’t happy about this, at all.
“Yeah, Ma, that’s what I’m asking.”
“Then yes, okay is all I have right now. When can I meet her?”
“I’ll let you know.”
“Alright then. I love you, Rival, and I pray you love yourself enough not to do anything stupid, but I fear it’s too late.”
I chuckled. “I love you too, Ma, and I promise I’m good just…”
“Trust you.”
“Yeah, trust me. I’ll call you soon.”
After I ended the call with my mother, I tossed my phone on the bed and headed to the bathroom to shower. By the time I was done, my mind was made up to talk to Sailor so we could navigate this thing with her family in a civil way. As a man, I didn’t function from a space of immaturity and wouldn’t start now. Not with the woman who was now my wife, my support system, and the person I would have to rely on for peace and security.
We weren’t there, might never get to that space, but I would move with immaturity and pursuit as if we already existed in a solid, healthy marriage. One thing my mother taught me was to live the life you wanted, adopting the mindset of the person you want to be. So I was going to think and move like a husband who wanted a successful marriage, which meant shutting Sailor out wasn’t an option.
When I reentered my bedroom, I was a bit surprised to find the woman in question sitting at the foot of my bed. She was dressed in an oversized T-shirt that stopped mid-thigh so I couldn’t see what was beneath it. Navy fuzzy socks were on her feet and her hair was in two, loose french braids. She wore glasses, which meant she had removed her contacts for the evening, and fuck if this version of her wasn’t my favorite. Relaxed, unguarded, and comfortable in her own skin. This was the Sailor that hid from the world in labels and makeup.
“What’s up, Sail?”
She lifted from the bed and crossed the room until she was close enough to take my hand in hers and lead me back to where she had been.
“Have a seat…” I arched my brow and she huffed a sigh.
“Please, Rival. Sit down.”
I decided to see where this was going so I settled onto the foot of the bed and expected her to fill the space next to me. Instead, she kneeled between my legs, yanked my towel open, and went right for my dick.
“What are you doing?”
I was made aware of her plan when she positioned her hand at the base of my dick. My eyes lowered to our connection.
“Attempting to fix my fuck up.”
“You used marriage to manipulate me into having sex without and now you’re using sex to manipulate me into not being angry with you.”
“Mhm.” She added her other hand and began stroking me slowly in a circular motion, moving from the base of my dick toward the crown. I thickened and grew hard in a matter of seconds, smiling down at my wife.
No argument about me blatantly calling her out on the manipulation. Interesting.
“Sex doesn’t fix problems, Sail.”
“I know, but according to my brother-in-law, it’s a really good start.”
I stilled and grabbed her chin, lifting her eyes to mine. “You had sex with your brother-in-law?”
I had no idea the dynamics of their family, only that her sister Skylar was happily married to Gray. She only had one sister so that meant she was speaking of Gray. Maybe she’d met him first, or hell, cheated, but why the fuck would she openly admit that to me right before she put my dick in her mouth?
She smiled, sinfully slow. “Mmm, I knew the jealous thing would be fun, and no, I didn’t have sex with Gray. I was talking to Sky about what happened tonight and she told me to give you amazing head or fuck the anger out of you. Gray was minding our business and said sex didn’t fix problems but it was a great start.” She paused, curled her tongue over the crown of my dick, then added. “He was advising from a male perspective.”
“I see but I would rather talk. I don’t want you using sex…” Oh fuck. She deep throated me, while using her hands to accommodate for what she couldn’t fit after several deep dives. My dick slipped from her mouth and Sailor smiled.
“You’d rather talk than let me finish or would you like for me to finish then we can talk?”
She didn’t wait for me to respond and took my dick in her mouth once more.
Sailor’s mouth was hot, wet, and fuck if she didn’t know exactly what she was doing. Her lips wrapped around the head of my dick, tongue swirling, teasing. I groaned, head dropping back as she hollowed her cheeks and took me deeper.
The sight of her between my legs, knees sinking into the plush carpet, was damn near enough to have me coming undone right then and there. But I wanted to make this last. Wanted to see how far she was willing to take this particular apology.
“You’re playing dirty,” I rasped, threading my fingers into her hair, gripping at the loose braids that framed her face. “You think this is going to fix things?”
Sailor hummed around my dick, the vibrations shooting straight through my spine. She pulled off just enough to run her tongue along the underside, her fingers working my shaft in long, slow strokes. “It’s a start.”
“Fuck, Sail?—”
She took me deep, her throat tightening around me as she swallowed. My thighs tensed, my hands fisting in her hair as I fought the urge to fuck her mouth. She looked up at me then, eyes dark and full of something I wasn’t sure I wanted to name.
Sailor wasn’t just doing this to distract me. She was making a statement.
Mine . She wanted me to remember exactly who I belonged to.
I could feel my control slipping. My hips jerked, pushing deeper into her mouth. Her nails bit into my thighs as she encouraged me. Fuck, this goddamn woman who tested me in every way possible then reminded me exactly why I didn’t stand a chance against her.
“Just like that,” I groaned, my voice thick with need.
She moaned in response, her pace quickening, sucking me down like she was determined to ruin me and she was. She fucking was.
I was unraveling, my muscles locked up, my release barreling toward me fast. “Sailor—” I warned but she didn’t pull back or stop. She wanted it all.
I came hard, a shudder ripping through me as she swallowed every last drop. And when she finally pulled away, licking her lips with a satisfied little smirk, I knew exactly what she was doing.
She was staking her claim.
“ I apologize for not properly introducing you to my father.”
“You already apologized.” My heated gaze landed on Sailor. When her eyes lowered to the crotch of my sweats, I groaned deep in my throat. “In the car, not when you had my dick in your mouth, Sail. What you just did wasn’t an apology. That was desperation.”
She shrugged. “A desperate apology because I was wrong.”
“You weren’t necessarily wrong but you weren’t necessarily right either. Regardless, I’ll admit we’re in a pretty fucked up situation with our families. You will have to tell yours the truth at some point.”
“Teej and Sky know.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“My parents, I know. And what about yours? You’ll have to tell them too.”
“My father passed when I was eight and I told my mother.”
Her eyes widened. “You told her? When?”
“After we got home. I was fucking pissed about how things played out with your father, but I also understood I couldn’t rightly ask you to do something I wasn’t willing to do. So I called my mother and told her I was married.”
“Shit, what did she say?”
“She asked if you were in need of a green card, if you were pregnant, or if I committed a crime.” Her brows pinched briefly then she smiled after the reasoning for all processed.
“I think we should start working on the baby then.”
“You’re barely wearing that ring and now you want to have kids with me?”
“If being pregnant means avoiding telling your mother the truth about why we’re married, then yep, put a baby in me.”
“Be careful what you ask for,” I warned. I planned on being in this for the long haul and I was approaching my fortieth birthday. I wouldn’t mind starting a family.
“Did you tell her?”
“That you married me for sex,” I stated smugly.
“That you’re accusing me of marrying you for sex.” The attorney showed up and refused to allow her to admit guilt. However, too late, she already had.
“When I clarified that you used marriage to get sex then used sex to manipulate me into no longer being angry you agreed.”
“I had your dick in my mouth. I’m more than positive I could argue the difference and you did not receive a firm yes from me.”
“We’ll table that for now. I have more pressing matters to deal with.”
She nodded begrudgingly. “I’m going to tell my parents. I just need a plan on how to ease them into accepting this.”
“This or me?” I countered.
“This, the marriage. Not you. They’re not like that. They wouldn’t care about that kind of stuff…”
That kind of stuff meaning whether or not I was worthy of their daughter. I glared and she asserted, “They really don’t. If I’m happy, they’ll be happy.”
“I want to believe the possibility of them accepting me and won’t lean too heavily into my thoughts on the matter, but for now, let’s just deal with where we are.”
“And we are?”
“Two people who bypassed a traditional union but now we need to switch gears a bit.”
“That sounds very ominous.”
I laughed so fucking hard I almost choked on the amusement.
“Ominous is a very specific word, which is not the vibe for what I’m proposing. I only want us to know each other better. More intimately…” Her smile surfaced in a matter of seconds. “Intimate details which don’t include exploring body parts, Sail. Please focus.”
Her eyes traveled over my body. “Oh, I’m very focused.”
When I offered a visual warning to stay on track, she shrugged. “Okay fine, explain.”
“We do a speed round of good old fashioned communication. I’d like to talk.”
The way her expression dropped let me know this was not what she had in mind. I did not care. I needed all the help I could get to learn about my wife and for her to learn about me. Doing so was the only way this was going to work, and I needed us to work, so let the games begin.