Chapter 4
Noah
The next morning, I sighed, nestling into the warm, soft body laying beside me, still half asleep.
I skimmed my hand up the silky curve of a waist exposed between the waistband of her panties. Up, up, up I climbed until my knuckles grazed the hem of a shirt.
Then… I froze.
Wait .
There was a woman in my bed.
Was I still dreaming? I didn’t want to open my eyes to find out. She felt so good pressed against me.
As I skimmed my thumb beneath the hem of her shirt and circled the soft skin of her stomach, the dream girl moaned and pressed her ass against my growing erection.
Definitely not a dream.
I didn’t remember bringing a woman home last night. Then again, after my third shot, I didn’t remember much of anything.
I buried my nose in her hair and inhaled. God she smelled good.
Peppermint. Rosemary. And…
Wait . I knew that smell.
Oranges .
I immediately jerked back and opened my eyes.
Sure enough, Rosa’s dark coiled hair was fanned across the pillow beside me. The blankets were pulled up to about waist height, and her t-shirt… or rather, my t-shirt… was twisted and pulled up to almost breast height.
Did that mean she and I… that we…?
I sat upright way too quickly and my head which had only felt like it was slightly throbbing now felt as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it.
The covers slipped from my waist and revealed that even though I was shirtless, I was still in my dress pants from last night.
This was bad. So bad. I didn’t remember much of anything from last night. Not after we got the second round of shots while dancing in the rain.
So how did we go from that … to this . Half naked. In my bed.
This was not how this was supposed to happen. I was supposed to wine and dine Rosa. Convince her through my charm that we would be good together. And only after she consented and we had a gloriously romantic date, would she and I end up like this.
I tried to swallow, but my throat was so dry, it was like two sheets of sandpaper rubbing against each other.
I threw the covers to the side and stood up to head to the mini fridge for a bottle of water.
As soon as I did, my toes connected with several mini empty bottles of vodka.
Holy shit. How much did we drink last night?
I had the shitty beer. A couple sex on the beaches. Three shots. Or was it four? Plus, apparently, every bottle of flavored vodka that was in the mini fridge.
My trainer was going to have my ass for this when I got back.
I grabbed a bottle of water and cracked the cap, practically drinking the whole thing in one swig.
With my hand up, wrapped around the plastic bottle, a shimmer on my left ring finger caught my eye.
Slowly, I lowered the bottle from my lips and examined my outstretched hand.
A ring.
I was wearing a black and gold ring with what looked like onyx chips in the center.
Well, that’s weird as shit.
I’m not really a jewelry kind of guy.
On the table beside my side of the bed, my cell phone lit up with a message.
I leaned over and saw a text from my sister asking what time I’d arrive in Maple Grove for the wedding.
Scrubbing a hand down my face, I swallowed my curse and picked up my phone. It was eight a.m. I had to leave soon in order to make it in time to officiate Lex and Ronnie’s wedding.
On one hand, I should wake Rosa up. See what, if anything, she remembered of last night.
On the other hand, if she was half as hung over as I felt right now, then she needed her sleep.
You’re also terrified to hear what the answer is.
I grabbed my luggage and started packing what few things I’d brought with me for this week’s trip. Maybe she’d wake up when she heard me.
Then again, Hazel had said that Rosa slept like the dead. And if this morning was any indication, Hazel hadn’t exaggerated.
I picked up the empty bottles of vodka, a couple candy wrappers, also presumably from the mini bar, and Ronnie’s wedding invitation which was also on my nightstand and tossed them all into the trash can beside the bed.
It only took me about twenty minutes to shower, pack, brush my teeth, and get dressed.
And still, Rosa was passed out.
Her hair cascaded over the white Egyptian cotton sheets like a glistening river. Full pouty lips parted as air escaped every peaceful exhale while she slept. A fringe of black lashes fan over the tops of her cheeks.
My favorite Flaming Lips t-shirt covered her full, heavy breasts and my stomach clenched at the sight of a tantalizing sliver of her skin that peeked out between the shirt and the edge of her panties.
Every molecule in my body sparked to life at the sight of her. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Even now. Messy hair. Smeared makeup. Hungover. And fast asleep in my shirt.
My muscles clenched as my eyes fell to her hand, resting gently atop the pillow beside her cheek.
She was wearing a ring too.
On her left hand.
It matched mine. Except the black and gold was twisted and there were more of the stones.
They looked like… they looked like wedding rings.
What in the actual fuck was going on?
Ice trickled down my spine as my gaze shifted from her ring finger to a very official looking piece of paper resting on her nightstand next to her phone.
Certificate of Marriage was scrolled across the top in fancy script.
Why the hell did we have Hazel and Reid’s marriage certificate in my room?
When I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t Reid’s and Hazel’s names on the certificate. It was mine. And Rosa’s.
We were married?
Suddenly, flashes of last night came back to me. Drunken, half-pulled together memories of Rosa and me stumbling back to the same chapel where we had witnessed our best friends get married hours earlier. Buying rings off a dude who stood outside with a suitcase.
And me… kissing the bride.
Holy fuck. I remembered kissing Rosa.
We were married.
This was my wife sleeping in my bed right now.
And the scariest part of all… was that I didn’t feel any regret.
If anything, the thought of me and Rosa being married made me kind of happy .
How fucked up am I?
Hell, the only part I regretted about marrying Rosa was the fact that I couldn’t remember most of it.
Smiling, I bent to press a soft kiss to her forehead.
As I did, my heart sank. There was no way Rosa was going to be happy about this news. No way she was going to want to live in wedded bliss with me. Hell, not that I wanted that either… did I? But I wouldn’t have minded a date or two.
We had to annul the marriage. We didn’t consummate it… did we?
We were both still clothed. Or mostly clothed. I looked around the room, seeing her discarded black dress on a chair next to my dress pants. She was in panties. I was still in my dress pants… surely we wouldn’t have put clothes back on after sex, right?
Plus, there weren’t any used condoms around. No torn condom wrappers in the trash.
Fuck. What if we didn’t use a condom?
I shook the thought away and pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. We couldn’t have been that stupid. Even in my drunkest state, I always remembered to use a condom.
No. This had to be annulled. Immediately. Now.
My phone buzzed in my hand again and I looked down to see another message from Callie.
Callie:
Dude. Ronnie is freaking out. The wedding is in four hours. Please tell me you’re on your way!?
I swiped a hand down my face and across the morning stubble that I hadn’t bothered shaving this morning.
Crap. I needed to go.
I grabbed a notepad from the hotel room desk and scribbled a quick note to Rosa. I knew it wasn’t great leaving her here like this… with a marriage certificate, a ring on her finger, and a promise to annul. But I wasn’t sure what the hell else to do.
Then, I bent and pressed another gentle kiss to the top of her head, whispering, “I promise, this will be a quick and easy fix. I’m sorry.”