18. Cassandra Walker
Ilet out an embarrassingly loud yelp as my phone began to ring immediately after sending that mortifying text to Theo.
Shit. She was calling me!?
Oh fuck.
Shit.
Crap.
“Hello?” I squeaked, wondering vaguely why my voice freaking sounded like that.
Theo was out of breath, and the thick, heavy rasp of her voice made things tighten low in my gut. I crossed my legs tightly from where I sat on the couch, fighting off the unbidden image of Theo sweaty and out of breath in some dark, gritty gym somewhere.
Her taped knuckles were probably bloody from pounding the shit out of a bag… or even hotter, someone’s face.
The violence of it just did something for me, and my nipples tightened beneath the lace of my bra.
Fuck. This was such a bad idea.
“Wanna say that again, princess?” she rumbled in that delicious rasp of hers, and I swallowed so hard I was sure she heard it.
“Wh-what? Can you not read?”
She let out a loud, dark chuckle, and all the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I squeezed my thighs tighter together.
“Oh, I can read, baby girl. I just wasn’t expecting to be proposed to today. Especially not over text.”
“I wasn’t proposing to you!” I protested, but this only seemed to amuse Theo more.
“What would you call it then? You just asked me to marry you, Cassandra.”
My face flushed with heat, and I squirmed uncomfortably on my couch.
These feelings were foreign and annoying, and I hated them.
“It’s a favor. We have a new client who won’t work with me because I’m too hot and single, apparently. So… I might have sorta… told the partners I was engaged. And now I need to get married by the end of the week, or they’re going to know I lied.”
There was a long beat of silence, and I held my breath.
My face was so hot it felt like it was literally going to melt off.
“Can you say something?” I whispered, hating how vulnerable and unsure I was suddenly feeling.
Why did it feel like she was judging me?
Why did I care?
Finally, Theo spoke, but to my surprise, there wasn’t a single trace of judgment in her tone.
“Cassandra. You shouldn’t have to marry someone to be taken seriously at work. That’s the most bullshit thing I’ve ever heard.”
She almost sounded angry, and I swallowed again. A thrilling rush of something humming through my body at the rough gravel in her tone.
“Yeah, well, that’s what I said, but… I kind of screwed myself here. I don’t know what I was thinking. But I told them I was engaged, and I can’t really go back on it now.”
Theo sighed, and I heard what sounded like a shower turning on in the background.
Jesus, was she… going to shower?! With me on the phone?
An image of a sopping wet and naked Theodora Fairview standing under a hot stream of water flickered across my mind’s eye, causing me to blush even harder.
“Are you taking a fucking shower right now?” I snapped
“I’m about to. Just waiting for the water to warm up. Why? Wanna switch to FaceTime? I look amazing naked, Princess.”
“Shut up.”
“If we’re getting married, you might as well get used to it. I sleep in the nude.”
“Theodora!”
She snickered, and I wriggled uncomfortably in my seat again.
“Can you be serious, please? I need an answer. For real. Because if it’s a no, I’m going to have to find someone else.”
This seemed to work. Theo could tease me all she wanted, but I knew how she felt about me. She may think fake marrying me was ridiculous, but I knew she would hate the idea of me fake marrying someone else even more.
There was a long pause where all I could hear was the water running in the background, and I tried as hard as I could not to imagine her standing outside the shower in nothing but a towel, waiting for the water to heat up.
“Ask me properly, and I’ll consider it,” she finally said. Her voice was soft and firm, and there wasn’t a trace of teasing in her tone now.
She was serious. She wanted me to propose to her.
My face grew several degrees hotter, and I couldn’t tell if it was from anger or humiliation. But I needed this, so I swallowed my pride and gave her what she wanted.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
“Hurry up, princess, before I run out of hot water over here.”
“Ugh. You’re the worst.”
“Mmm. Yeah. I’m so horrible you want to marry my ass. Now say it, or I’m hanging up.”
I let out a frustrated huff and then blurted it out as quickly as I could.
“TheodoraFairviewWillYouPleaseFakeMarryMe?”
She let out an amused chuckle, and it rolled through the phone directly to my core.
“I suppose that’ll have to do for now. Though next time I see you, I might make you get down on one knee,” she rumbled, and I scowled.
“Is that a yes?” I gritted out, and she laughed.
“It’s a maybe… I’m going to need more information before I agree to legally bind myself to you for life, Cassandra.”
“It won’t be for life! It’s just until the case is over, then we can get it annulled or whatever.”
Another long pause.
“Even still. I think we need to talk more before we rush into something like this. Let me shower, then I’ll swing by your place so we can discuss what exactly this arrangement entails.”
“What?” My voice was doing that high-pitched squeaky thing again. “There’s no need to come all the way over here! I can just email you or something.”
Theo just laughed again.
“See you soon, princess.”
The rest of my protests were met with a dead line.
She fucking hung up on me!
I screeched in frustration and literally threw my phone across the room, crossing my arms petulantly over my chest.
She was impossible!
After allowing myself a moment to pout, I got up and busied myself with tidying up a few things, since apparently I was having yet another uninvited guest.
I ignored the slickness that seemed to have gathered between my thighs during that awkward, yet weirdly sexually charged conversation.
What was I doing!?
Making poor choices. That was what I was doing.
But, as I cleaned up my empty wine glass and put my laptop away, I realized that, as much as this was probably the stupidest, most ridiculous thing I’d ever done, it was a great way to keep tabs on Theo, at least for the immediate future.
If we were fake married, she would have to fake live with me–to keep up appearances, of course.
It would be much more difficult for her to disappear on me again if she lived here.
My lip curled up at the thought of living with Theo again.
As much as I’d made a fuss about living in her guest house, she had never been the problem. Her lack of closet space had been the biggest ick for me.
My poor shoes had lived in such squalor.
Aside from the fact that my belongings had suffered heinous storage conditions, it had actually been nice to have someone to share a space with for once.
After spending weeks with Theo’s easy smiles and infuriatingly thoughtful acts of service, I hadn’t realized just how lonely living alone could be until I’d moved back into my condo.
It would be even better if we were living together in a space that I actually felt comfortable in.
Yeah.
Maybe this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, after all.