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He nods and trails a lazy hand down my back, the kind that isn’t territory marking or possessive – obviously – but leaves my skin tingling for more. As I weave my way through people enjoying reception drinks and chatting in groups, waving and acknowledging familiar faces as I go, I mostly slip into business mode. I’m here as part of a deal. I have to remember that my goal is to get my own company up and running, to somehow find a way to stay in New York, for work… isn’t it?
Not even the candles and extravagant table decorations, or the wildly fancy outfits of some of the stars and supremely wealthy, can distract me from turning back across my shoulder for one more glimpse of Jax.
When I do, his eyes are already fixed on me, so disarming that I walk right into—
“Flip, sorry, Lauren, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Oh you were,” she says, steadying herself, then leaning in for a hug. “Just not to me.”
She holds me at arm’s length and I forget my painted lips for a second as I dig my teeth into them, reading her silent question. Have you fallen for your husband?
“Yeah.” I nod. “I’ve got it bad, Lauren.”
“As if we didn’t see this coming,” Mitch says, sweeping a flute of champagne from a waiter’s tray and handing it to me. “I was mostly focused on not dying in Las Vegas and even I knew how this marriage of minions was going to end.”
“You did?” I ask, genuinely surprised.
“We all did,” they say like they’ve had twenty years of rehearsing lines together.
The three of us turn to watch Jax, clearly trying to extract himself from his conversation, though more people have now joined and formed what looks like a frankly harassing group around him.
“I mean, it’s crazy, right? We haven’t even kissed properly,” I tell them, hearing my own words but knowing that I am already in so deep I’m risking heartache.
“Oh, you kissed a lot properly in Las Vegas,” Lauren says.
“We did?” I feel every crease of my brow.
“Yeah,” she confirms. As Mitch says, “We couldn’t have talked you two out of getting married any more than we could have prized you apart. And God knows what went down in that chapel bathroom before the officiator kicked you out.”
I gasp, hands over mouth, sitcom style. “I haven’t been imagining things?”
Lauren smirks. “We weren’t in there with the pair of you but you sure came out looking flushed.”
“Oh my God! I’m mortified!”
Because as hilarious as Mitch and Lauren find this… I’m near certain I let Jax go down on me in the bathroom of a chapel.
“Life’s for living, Sienna,” Mitch says. “I know that more than ever lately.”
Lauren adds, “Plus, sex acts in public places are a must do to keep marriages interesting.”
Now I am chuckling with them, shaking my head and digging my teeth into my lip.
I really wish I could remember everything that happened in Vegas. Maybe that’s why I sigh, or maybe it’s the relief of telling my friends that, in an unlikely twist on our faux marriage, I am head over these extremely high heels for my husband.
“What am I going to do?” I ask them, or myself, or the universe. “My visa expires in five and a half weeks. In any event, Jax is like… the forever bachelor.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure these days,” Lauren says.
“Come on, a leopard doesn’t change his spots in a month and a half of accidental marriage, Lauren. Technically, we haven’t even dated.” Though as I say the words, I have that killer feeling of hopefulness. Hopeful that Jax might have developed real feelings for me, that I can by some miracle stay in New York and we can date, that the unrealistic expectation of having it all and it all being great is a possibility.
“Maybe… And I hate myself for saying this, even as I do, but maybe, Sienna, you could focus on one thing at a time,” Lauren says as I watch Jax talking in his group and occasionally glancing my way.
“How do you mean?” I ask.
Mitch says, “You’re so focused on setting up a new business but would it be so bad if you took a beat?”
“Be a kept woman?” I ask, aghast.
