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“Are we done?” he asks the officiant.
“Absolutely,” she replies, checking her watch. Oh god, did Riva get her out of bed? The poor woman. “I’ll finish the paperwork and Janice can get it up to you.”
“Perfect,” West murmurs. Then he looks at me. “Ready?”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Probably because I can still feel his lips against mine. Why does he have to be such a good kisser?
Why are my thighs still trembling?
“Yes,” I say softly. His eyes flash.
“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Abbott,” Janice says. “Eden, I’ll send you the video. It’s just so… beautiful.”
West tips his head. “Can I see it now?” he asks.
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
He takes the phone, and for a second I can’t figure out why he wants to watch this whole mess again. But then, his eyes widen in mock panic. He presses once, then twice on the phone.
“Oh dear,” he says. “I think I pressed the wrong thing. I deleted it.”
“What?” Janice snatches the phone from him. “It’s okay,” she says quickly. “It should be in the recently deleted folder.”
I glance at him. For a second he looks so stupidly smug it makes my eyes widen. Did he do that on purpose? To get rid of the evidence?
“It’s not there,” Janice wails. “Oh my god. This is awful. I’m so, so sorry.”
I roll my eyes at West. God, he’s so good at this. And by this, I mean lying.
“It was absolutely my fault,” he says smoothly. “But we’ll always have our memories, won’t we, darling?” He shoots an unapologetic look at Janice. “And we really should go. We have a marriage to consummate.”
My mouth drops open. Surely… No, he wouldn’t.Would he?
“Oh of course. No worries, I’ll find a way of getting it back.” Janice looks desolate.
West puts his arm around my waist. “She won’t,” he murmurs confidently. Then louder, “Come on, Mrs. Abbott, let’s get you to bed.”
“I thought we agreed on Fitzgerald,” I reply louder still. “For both of us.”
He laughs softly, like I just told the best joke. “My wife loves to tease me,” he says to Janice, who still looks like somebody stole her favorite teddy bear.
But all I hear is ‘My wife’.The words send a shiver down my spine. He says it so easily, like it means nothing at all. And as he leads me out of the chapel, his palm firmly pressing againstthe dip of my spine, I start to wonder if I would have been safer staying in that jail cell.
WEST
Eden is snoring softly on the oversized bed, her dark curls tumbling over the thousand thread-count pillowcase, the skirt of her billowy white dress bunched up to her thighs.
She still has one shoe on her foot. The other has fallen off onto the thick, carpeted floor. She looks like Cinderella, assuming Cinderella spent half the day in jail, married the wrong prince, and collapsed asleep before the first light of dawn.
She lets out a sigh, and my gaze dips to her mouth. For a second, all I can think of was how perfectly her lips molded against mine. How hard I got when we kissed.
How I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and carry her to bed even though we were in the middle of a sham wedding.
I sigh, grabbing my phone to walk into the living area of the suite, tapping out a message to my lawyer.
I need annulment paperwork drafted as soon as you get to the office. Nevada jurisdiction. I’ll send the details in an email. – Abbott
I hit send and watch the lights flicker across the strip. There’s a line of light starting to form right above the distant mountains. The last twelve hours have been… trying.