Chapter Ten
Aurelie could barely concentrate on the tablet in front of her.
In theory, there were images and information that should rule out the patient’s worst fears: that her baby’s heart rate was slowing to an unsafe level.
But all Aurelie saw was the image of Cammie’s stricken face, as if she’d been slapped.
What had Jace done, giving up his career like that?
And he’d done it for her. Every new moment with this man was proving to be too much to take.
The way he’d proposed they solve her problems—literally? Too much.
The sex? Wayyyyy too much.
Giving up his agent and, therefore, possibly his career for her? More than she could possibly wrap her head around.
Because the simple fact remained: If this didn’t work, she would be heading home to a father hell-bent on her destruction.
Still, at every turn, Jace kept showing up for her, offering her heart’s desires on a silver platter.
And she had yet to give him so much as a glass of rum.
Well, come to think of it, she’d given him that, and that alone.
The inequities in her fake marriage were part of the reason she couldn’t concentrate.
The other parts were tied to his hands, or rather moments like last night, where he’d tied her hands over her head and used his own—along with his tongue—to bring her to the most intense orgasm of her life.
After the past five nights of sneaking back to her house after eating with Paige and Owen, each complete with similarly spectacular orgasms from her fake husband, it was safe to say she’d have to tell Paige what she’d done sooner or later.
She was hoping she could just get the paperwork from the embassy, cut ties with Jace, and pretend she’d never married a man within two days of meeting him, leaving her best friend out of the equation.
But…
There was a bigger problem than her visa occupying her heart and head. It was getting harder and harder to keep her emotional distance from a man who was caring for every one of her needs and even some she hadn’t known she had.
For example, when she got off work later, they were going to watch Maddie again so that Paige and Owen could go to dinner and drinks.
It had been Jace’s idea, which was fine, but after a week of working his dad’s land—his land now—he should have been exhausted.
Instead, he’d volunteered them to watch Maddie because he loved spending time with the squishy little thing.
How was she supposed to believe that the man didn’t want kids or that he didn’t want a relationship?
Maybe he just didn’t want her. That thought scared the hell out of her, but then the rest of the world would come careening into her periphery, and she’d be forced to forget about her unhealthy desire for her fake husband.
Like the immigration agent calling her to schedule an interview that week.
Or a letter from her brother saying their dad found out she was living in the States.
Or that Puckman had seized yet another failing property and was on his way to making it impossible for them to build the clinic where they’d been permitted for it, bringing it to the city and citing unsafe work conditions to have dangerous criminals next to his future hotel property.
Ugh. That last one was such a crock of hypocritical bullsh—
“Excuse me, Aurelie? Do you have those results?”
Aurelie shook herself free from the barrage of distractions, good and bad.
“Sorry, Dr. Connors.” She’d never called Paige by her first name at work, even though it was a casual enough hospital, she probably could have gotten away with it. “From what I can see, the patient’s baby is in the clear, but we may want to keep her for monitoring.”
Paige nodded as she went over the tablet herself. “Good. Get her set with magnesium sulfate and, yes, we’ll keep her overnight for monitoring.”
Aurelie nodded and sent in the prescription. Out in the hall, Paige stopped her.
“You okay, Aury? You seem off somehow.”
Aurelie smiled as broadly as she could, but it felt fake, forced.
“I’m great, thanks. Just tired.” That was an understatement. She’d been exhausted the past few days, between working more clinical shifts to capitalize on the end of her current visa, building the clinic while they waited on the judge’s ruling for their location, and spending nights with Jace.
“Okay, well, you don’t have to come over tonight. It was nice of Jace to offer, but it’s not like you’re beholden to his choices. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”
Aurelie’s cheeks felt like they’d erupted in flames.
“About what?” Could Paige see right through her? It’s not like she was wearing the ring in public, but she felt married to Jace. Was that weird when it was fake to begin with?
“Are you and Jace dating?”
Aurelie smiled, glad she could answer that one honestly. “Nope. We’re not.”
Paige’s eyes focused. Aurelie’s internal warning bells went off. “Are you sleeping together?”
Damn, getting caught on a technicality. She gave a curt little nod. It was better Paige knew about her in bed with Jace as opposed to wed to the man.
“I knew it!” Paige squealed, pulling Aurelie into an on-call room. “Tell me everything. He was a good kisser, as far as five-year-old me recalls. Is that still true?”
The heat on Aurelie’s cheeks became full-on flames now. She nodded again. “I’m not going to kiss and tell, but yes, he, um, gets the job done very nicely indeed.”
That, too, was an understatement.
“Ha! OMG, when I get back from drinks tonight, we’re spilling everything! Got it?”
Aurelie nodded, even though she had no intention of doing that. Tonight was her last evening off until a week from then, since she was scheduled for nights the last week of her visa. She and Jace would be on opposite schedules, and that…sucked.
She worked the rest of her shift in and out of focus, thankful that it was another slow day in the OB wing.
Too many cases were still being sent to Bozeman, something that would change if they could get this clinic off the ground.
It meant so much to her to make it happen, not just for the work that would be so much more active than what she currently did, but because it would be rewarding to help women like her mother, who’d been kept down physically and emotionally by the abusers in their lives.
When she walked in the door to her apartment a few hours later, she was greeted by an open bathroom door, steam coming out of it. Desire flooded her system, for a chance to shower off her day in an already-warm room, but to be naked with Jace, too.
In fact, that single desire led to her disrobing and opening the door to the shower in a matter of seconds.
“Mmmm,” Jace groaned with pleasure as she wrapped her arms around his warm body. He liked the shower the same way she did: practically scalding. Dirt covered the floor of the shower, meaning his day was either really good or really bad. “You feel good, wife.”
He’d been using that word a lot lately: wife. So much so that Aurelie lived in constant worry he’d slip up at Paige’s one of these evenings, but so far, he’d been the picture of stoicism.
She slipped a hand around his erection and squeezed his shaft.
“So do you, husband.” His groan turned into a feral growl, and when he flipped around to face her, she allowed his hardness to slide between her legs.
“I want you so fucking bad, Aury. How haven’t we gotten tired of this yet?”
She understood. Every time she thought that a particular round of lovemaking would sate her desire, she found it increased tenfold.
“I,” she said, peppering his chest with kisses, “don’t”—she moved down his abdomen, licking the moisture rolling off him. He growled again, pulled at her hair to keep it out of her way—“know.”
With that last word, she knelt in front of him, taking his length in her mouth and sucking hard while using her hand to cup him beneath his shaft.
His hands tightened in her hair.
“Goddammit, Aury. I’m not gonna last if you keep that up.” She sucked harder, pulled on him, swirled her tongue around his moist, salty tip until she felt him tense inside her mouth. “I’m so close, babe.”
That pet name drove her faster. She might not get to have Jace for more than a few more weeks, but she’d enjoy every last inch of him—sweet nothings included—until she couldn’t any more.
“Fuuuuck,” he cried out, pulling her head against his base.
She didn’t release him as he bucked beneath her, warm liquid filling her mouth. She swallowed it, still moving over his hardness until his knees buckled.
“Fuck, woman. What are you trying to do to me?” He lifted her off the ground and kissed her deeply. She wrapped a leg around him, pleased to find him still hard for her. He was a damn magician.
“Make you happy.” It was a small thing she could do, love him in this physical way to meet both their needs and show him how much he meant to her.
“You do that every day.” He slid inside her, pressing her back against the shower and rocking slowly in and out. “Now it’s my turn to repay the favor.”
She almost pulled back, those words like a fork on a metal plate, but then he was thrusting faster and deeper.
Her worries—that he thought he owed her anything when he’d given her everything—were drowned by desire.
Jace knew just how to touch her, how to rock into her with the top of his shaft to hit her clit just so, even though each time was different.
They were all the best sex of her life, something she’d hidden from Paige.
It would be too hard to explain why they went their separate ways when they inevitably did.
Jace braced himself on the bench in her shower, allowing him to plunge into her depths with a power that would have knocked her on her ass had he not somehow supported her weight as well.
Yep. Magician.
In less than ten thrusts, she was seizing around him, crying out his name and a few other words in her native French.