Chapter Eight
Aurelie smiled up at Jace, her hand in his palm, her fingers trembling as he slipped the diamond ring on her finger.
Not only did she not think to pick up anything to serve as a ring for Jace, but she’d been presented with a rock that could feed half of the children on Turks for a month.
As perfect, stunning, exquisite a piece of jewelry as she’d ever owned.
Then there was the man himself. Sure, he’d told her he didn’t want anything more than physical connection, but then he’d shared such thoughtful vows promising to protect her and make sure no harm came to her—foreign or domestic, he’d added, eliciting a gasp and thwack on his shoulder from her.
It was almost too much.
A ring that was so perfectly her or the ostentatious part of her that wished she could afford it?
Flowers.
Romance.
Luxury.
It was sexy as hell, sort of.
He was overwhelming her with the realness of it all, even though they couldn’t ever be anything close to real.
She’d worried when he told her earlier at her apartment that she’d want more, but if she was honest, what could she offer a man right now anyway, besides great sex, which she was looking forward to as soon as the ceremony was over.
She needed a distraction so she didn’t jump him the moment this thing ended.
To that end, she’d spent the better half of the justice’s speech ignoring what he said about love and fidelity, instead thinking up a list of all the information she didn’t know about Jace and would need to produce for an immigration judge.
His mom’s life and death.
Why he left Banberry the first time.
His fears.
The list went on and could have filled a bathtub. A royal bathtub. It wasn’t getting her anywhere but worked up—albeit in a different way than thinking of him naked in her bed—so she concentrated instead on what she did know.
He ate meat and quite a bit of it, as she recalled, but she hadn’t the faintest idea about any of his other culinary desires.
Thinking about his desires led her back down the rabbit hole of imagining how compatible they might be in bed, which made her skin feel as if someone had doused her in kerosene and lit a match.
It also brought up a whole host of other worries.
Did Jace expect her to go on birth control, or would he pony up for condoms? Did he like role play in the bedroom? Was he more vanilla and traditional? Would he wrap his fingers in her hair and pull—
She was spiraling, that much was obvious.
Especially when the justice stood there staring at her, clearly expecting an answer to a question she couldn’t remember him asking.
Jace swept in and whispered the question—did she have anything to offer him as a token of her love for him—kissing her on the neck before taking his place across from her again.
She faltered. Did she have anything to offer him other than a crazy family hell-bent on her destruction?
“I took care of it.” He pulled a small, velour bag from his other pocket and produced a simple silver band.
He really did think of everything, didn’t he? Aurelie felt even more like the freeloading impostor she was—like a remora who didn’t do anything to benefit the shark that let her coast along underneath him, safe from harm.
“No.”
“No?” he asked, fear creeping through that one word.
“I mean, I want you to wear that, but I want to offer something of mine, even if it isn’t as fancy as that.
” Aurelie pulled a thin, braided string from her shawl and tied it into a knot.
Her father, in his kinder years when Aurelie and her brothers were younger, had taught them all to tie sailor’s knots, arguing that they might need them while confined to life on an island.
Who could have foreseen that she’d use it to wed herself to a man to keep her father from roping her back home?
She slipped the ring around Jace’s ring finger, pleased with herself for assessing the size correctly.
“I love it,” he told her. “I’ll wear this one,” he added, placing the silver band on the same finger on his right hand.
“But I want this here.” He kissed her as softly as she’d ever been kissed.
Instead of it having the desired effect of weakening her knees and making her swoon, it riled her up from the center of her chest, all the way down to where she felt a dampness in her panties at his touch.
Lord, she wanted this man.
As soon as they said their I dos and kissed, Maddie seemed to sense the break in tension and woke, a soft mewl that made Aurelie’s heart flutter. She bent down to pick up the infant, but Jace swatted her hand away.
“I’ve got this.” Aurelie was stunned silent by the way he effortlessly scooped Maddie up and dug around for one of the premade bottles in the diaper bag, feeding her while he walked circles in the lobby.
“Hey there, little one. Do you know what you were just a part of? You were the witness to your aunt and me getting married. That means I’m your uncle now, that I’ll be there to protect you, too.
All of you. Man, you can eat. Where do you put it all? ”
Maddie giggled, eliciting a chuckle from Jace, who looked up, almost like he forgot where he was, or what they had just done.
“I know kids aren’t for me, but they’re pretty damn awesome, aren’t they?”
“This one, in particular.” He didn’t want kids or a relationship, and the tone in his voice when he mentioned both made her think they were connected.
What was the story there? Hopefully, she’d be out of danger and back on her own in time enough to still have a family of her own.
Her current husband may not want them, but Aurelie always had.
Jace smiled. “Aury, you wanna go home and practice what other people do to make cute kids like this?” She nodded and blushed. “Me, too. In fact, if we don’t start heading home in the next five minutes, I have a mind to take you right here in the lobby.”
He winked at her, and she swore her pulse quickened to double time. She wanted him badly, but she also needed to calm her racing mind regarding what the immigration officials would ask once they submitted the marriage certificate.
“How about we grab some late lunch first? I have a list of questions to ask you, actually.”
“I’ll bet you do. And sure. But don’t for a minute think I don’t see right through your ploy to keep me from stripping you naked right here.” He laughed and squeezed her hand with the one he wasn’t holding Maddie with. “It’ll be my treat. My fake wife won’t want for anything, got it?”
Again, Aurelie swallowed hard, the part of her that remembered what he’d said about no relationships warring an internal battle against the part of her that relished the romance of movies and storybooks. She wasn’t in love either, and the more she remembered that, the better off she’d be.
“Fine. This time, at least. Where should we go?”
“Well, that’s where I need your help. The only places I’ve been is the bar and Jules’s, and while the former was the best burger I’ve ever tasted, I think I’m gonna need to expand my palate a little here so my arteries don’t give out on me.”
“How about Joe’s other place?”
“Joe has more than one place?”
This time, it was Aurelie’s turn to laugh. “He owns a sandwich place, and I think you’ll like it.”
At the restaurant, Jace settled Maddie’s car seat next to him in a booth that could have sat four professional linebackers on each side. He patted the seat beside him.
“Come here, you.”
Aurelie obliged, sliding in close until their thighs were touching.
He put a hand on the bare skin just above her knee, and she inhaled sharply.
Would she ever get used to the way this man kept her nerve endings firing like they were on overdrive?
Maybe they should have gone home first, if only to screw this feeling out of her before it distracted her from anything else.
“So, what’s good here?” he asked.
Exhaling slower this time, pleased to have wandered into benign territory, she pointed out a couple of menu items she thought he’d enjoy, taking mental notes along the way about what his tastes included.
Miraculously, they weren’t too far off her own, though she did note with particular interest that he seemed to steer clear of anything with spice.
With how she liked to cook, she’d be altering almost all her recipes.
Would they eat meals together? She assumed so, but this was all so new, she couldn’t be sure of anything, could she?
They ordered, and Aurelie watched with burgeoning interest as Jace rocked Maddie’s seat until she fell into a peaceful slumber despite the bustle of the small restaurant.
“Okay, time to fire away with those questions, so we can move on to where I get to know you better my way.” Again, the wink he flung her direction sent flutters through her chest and stomach that wouldn’t settle.
“Well, I’m glad to know you eat meat. I think that would have been a deal breaker if you didn’t,” she began.
The way Jace’s mouth pulled up at the corners while he nodded told her he’d thought the same about her.
“And since you brought up kids, you should know I want them. I also don’t want to be my grandmother’s age when they graduate high school. You know, in case the agent asks.”
“I’ll remember to answer the same, then. How many do you want?” he asked.
“Maybe four or five. So, you and I have a short-lived thing here if I’m going to accomplish that before I’m sixty.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “What’s your middle name?” she asked, afraid to continue down the other line of questioning.
“You’re taking it easy on me, Mrs. Michaels. It’s William. Jace William Michaels. What’s yours?”