Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Maisey
Isober up in a second. The laughter on my lips has completely dried up.
The situation that only a moment ago had been a hilarious stunt to shove in Patty’s face that would also net me a way out of my financial shitstorm is, all of a sudden, anything but funny.
“We’re actually married?” I look up into the face of my husband.
Holy shit. That word makes the dance floor spin around me.
He nods once. His ridiculously handsome face is a mask of seriousness.
“For real? It’s not just pretend?”
He shakes his head. “We signed the contract. I assumed you knew.”
“I didn’t—”
“Are you happy now?”
The voice jars me.
There’s only one person who can make this situation any worse than it already is. And of course, she’s found me.
Travis tightens his hold on me, pulling me closer to him, a small action I’m beyond grateful for as Patty pushes her way through the crowd to us.
“You just had to get married before me, didn’t you?” she spits at me the moment I turn around to face her. “You couldn’t let me have this one thing.”
“What?” I blink hard. “Are you serious right now?”
Judging by the very pissed-off look on her face, she is very serious. Clearly, I was right; she hadn’t expected me to go through with her little stunt. Hell, she probably didn’t even expect anyone to volunteer to be the groom.
“You must be my new sister-in-law that Maisey has told me so much about?” My mouth falls open as Travis extends his hand to her like the chivalrous cowboy I’m starting to realize he truly is.
“She’s told you about me?” Patty blushes and presses her left hand to her chest so her diamond engagement ring sparkles in the flashing lights. My stomach clenches the way it always does when I see the ring Carter gave to her instead of me.
Travis squeezes me a little tighter as he flashes her a charming smile. “Just enough,” he says smoothly. “And I understand you’re the one responsible for our happy union.”
Her mouth falls even further before she can catch herself. “I…well, I…this isn’t real!” She points at me. “There’s no way this…cowboy actually married you.”
“Oh, it’s very real, darlin’.” He’s suddenly adopted a very thick drawl that gives me the urge to burst out laughing. Somehow, I manage to swallow it.
“No.” Patty crosses her arms. “You couldn’t even get Carter to marry you after two years,” she fires the thing she knows will hurt me the most. “Why would this…” She waves her hand up and down to encompass every sexy inch of my husband.
“Man, marry you? You’re nothing. You’re just a broke artist who wasted all her money on a useless art history degree and can’t do better than a job at a stupid neighborhood coffee shop slinging lattes while your bills pile up. ”
Just the way they always do, her words crack something inside me a little bit.
I should be used to it by now. The way she attacks me with her words to break me down, making me feel useless and insignificant.
She’s done it for most of our lives. And it only got worse when I started dating Carter.
I’d been so sure we were going to get married and live happily ever after.
I had no idea Patty was filling his head full of lies about me. And even truths, too. That’s what hurt the worst. She used who I really was against me, until finally, he broke up with me with a text message.
I don’t know what hurt more. The text. Or the fact that he only waited forty-eight hours before showing up on the doorstep of our family home with a bouquet of roses…for Patty.
Either way, I’d completely dodged a bullet because who really wanted to marry a man who’d so easily dump you for your vapid stepsister?
Not me.
Still, it stung.
Especially when she brought up the fact that he’d chosen her over me. It didn’t help that she was tall, thin, and blonde with big boobs while I was... well, the exact opposite.
I bite my tongue because saying anything to Patty only makes everything worse. Plus, then Dad would call and ask why I wasn’t being nice to my stepsister on her big, important weekend, and the one thing I hated more than Patty was upsetting Dad.
So, I swallow all the words on the tip of my tongue, take a deep breath, and I’m about to turn my back when Travis slides the hand he’s kept around my shoulders down my back to rest on my ass and, in a very fancy and unexpected move, spins me into him. Hard.
My boobs are pressed up against the wall of muscle he calls a chest, which has my half-tipsy body reacting in all kinds of ways I can’t fully explain. But, like, a lot.
“You must be joking right now,” Travis drawls, the words out slowly.
He’s speaking to Patty, but his eyes never leave mine.
“The way Maisey stood up on that stage, putting herself out there in such a vulnerable way.” He tips my chin up so I’m looking into his green eyes.
The way they’re sparkling and flashing has me completely hypnotized by him.
“Confidence is the sexiest thing in the world to a real man. And trust me, Darlin’,” he says, the word in such a way that it sounds like an insult.
I might have laughed if I weren’t so completely taken by him.
“I am most certainly a real man.” His lips curl up like he knows exactly what I’m thinking when he says it.
“But it’s more than that,” he continues.
“The moment I saw my sweet filly, I knew I had to have her.”
Something about the way he speaks makes me believe everything he says, like this isn’t an act for Patty’s sake. Even if it is, I don’t care.
“This untamed, gorgeous hair.” He pulls out the stupid veil and tosses it to the side as his hands smooth back my frizzy mane from my face, leaving his huge hands cradling my face.
“These eyes. They look like they hold the secrets of the universe.” He moves his thumbs in slow circles over my cheeks, holding me in place so I couldn’t look away even if I wanted to.
And I sure as hell don’t want to.
When his thumbs slow and methodically outline my lips as if he’s trying to memorize every detail of me, something inside me clenches low and tight.
But when he slips one thumb between my lips, just momentarily, I’m positive I’ll combust right there on the dance floor in front of everyone.
“And these lips,” his voice is little more than a murmur, his words just for me now.
“They’re positively, fucking delicious.”
And then he kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before.
It’s not like our first kiss, or even the one after that, when he kicked things up a notch for the crowd. This kiss is different.
It’s more.
It’s everything.
And it holds the promise of so much more.
My hands move up around his neck, so I, too, am holding him in place as he devours my mouth, claiming it for his own. His tongue tangles with mine, exploring every crevice of my mouth in a way that promises other, more intimate things he can do with it.
A moan escapes me, and I don’t even care as I press even closer to him, needing more of this man, my husband, touching me.
The rest of the room and the thousands of people around us fade away, leaving us in a cocoon that I never plan on leaving.
“Okay, okay.” Patty pushes her way between us. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for a stranger to accost my sister in a public place.” She spins on Travis and jabs a finger into his chest. “I should report you for assault.”
I can’t help it; despite how not funny this all is and the insane mess I’ve made by accidentally marrying the cowboy, I laugh.
“He’s not a stranger, Patty.” I sidestep her and take the hand Travis holds out for me.
His fingers twine with mine. “He’s my husband.
” I look up and offer him a smile that he readily returns.
“And if you’ll excuse us, we have a honeymoon suite to get to. ”
Travis
Maisey leads me out of the bar with her head held high, which in itself is incredible considering what a royal bitch her stepsister is.
I may have only known my wife for less than two hours, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to protect the hell out of her, especially from shitty family members.
We’re on the casino floor, the nightclub long behind us, before I tug on her hand to stop us. “We don’t have to do this,” I tell her, despite the semi I’ve had pressing against my jeans from the moment I first kissed her.
A situation that only got more intense with that last kiss.
If she’s half as good in bed as she is with that tongue of hers, I may never want to leave the honeymoon suite at all.
Which, to be honest, doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all.
Still. I’m a gentleman.
Well, maybe I haven’t always been. But Maisey is bringing out the need in me to be better. In all ways.
She turns and stares at me with innocent eyes. “Do what?”
“Go to the honeymoon suite,” I say. “I mean, I know that we’re—”
“Husband and wife, right?”
I nod. “We are that.”
“For better or worse?”
I nod again; this time, a sly smile creeps over my lips. I wasn’t kidding when I told that blonde bitch that confidence was sexy as hell, and my little filly has it in spades. Even when she’s trying to hide it, it’s there, hiding under the surface. And right now, she isn’t even trying to hide it.
“I have a feeling it will most definitely be for the better, sweetheart.” I reach for her, tugging her toward me by her waist.
“Well, that’s a good thing, because after your little speech back there, I don’t think Patty will be welcoming me back to our shared room tonight.” She shrugs but doesn’t look upset about it. “And to be honest, I don’t feel much like sleeping on that lumpy sofa bed for another night.”
My opinion of her stepsister takes another dive with that comment.
“That way in the morning we can figure out what to do about…” She waves her hand between us.
“Our marriage?”
“Yes. That.” She shakes her head, but she no longer looks as upset about the fact that she accidentally married me. “In the morning, we’ll get the annulment, share the prize money, and go our separate ways. Deal.”
I don’t like those terms at all.
I barely know her, but I already know I’m not going to want to watch her go.
I pretend to think about it for a second, as if there’s an actual choice.
There’s not. An annulment is the right thing to do. Hell, it’s the only thing to do.
“Okay,” I agree. “But that means that at least for tonight, we’re husband and wife.” I pull her closer and breathe in her sweet scent as I press my forehead to hers.
“We are.”
The urge to throw her over my shoulder and march her straight up to our marital bed is killing me. But I have to keep myself in check. Maisey’s different. I want different. I want her.
“Okay,” I tell her. “Let’s go enjoy our honeymoon suite.” I’m still trying my damnedest to be a gentleman, because she’s different from any other woman I’ve ever taken back to a hotel room. Ever. “But there’s no pressure, Maisey. I don’t expect anything to happen. I mean, not if you—”
She stops me with a finger to my lips. “Cowboy?”
I nod.
“Shut up and kiss me.”
“Abso-fuckin-lutely.” I capture her sweet face in my hands again and attack her with my tongue, until she’s melting in my hands.
She’s so responsive, giving just as much as she takes. Her hands slip to my ass, where they squeeze—hard—before giving me a slap. “Damn, you have an ass of steel.”
“Wait until you see what else feels like steel.”
She laughs, and I’m completely undone. “Why don’t we go check out our prize?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” She flutters her eyelashes in a way that’s beyond cute because I can tell it’s not something she does regularly. “And if you do other things with that tongue even half as well as you kiss, I think it just might be a fun wedding night.”
I take her hand in mine again and start leading her toward the elevator bank. I have my own room at this hotel because of my win, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to trade it for the honeymoon suite with Maisey. No matter how fucking fancy it is.
“I assure you, little filly,” I wink as I use the nickname I’m coming to like more and more. “Kissing is nowhere near the top of the list of the things I do well with my tongue.”