Page 108 of Insta Bride

“Sounds like a lot of effort.”

“I know! I know!” I’d flung myself back into the lounge while Jess tried to clean the carpet—muttering about payback for all the times I’d cleaned up after her drinking sessions—only to jolt up as the door opened.

No man could look sexier than my husband when he was dressed to impress. Thin black tie loosened on a pale pink shirt over black trousers. His suit jacket slung over his shoulder, he strode in, barely stopping to acknowledge our guests before pulling me to my feet.

“Fuck, I’ve missed you.” Words he rarely spoke, but the dramatic dip and kiss could have been for our audience. Too bad, if he wanted them to believe, then I needed to. I opened for his kiss, challenging his tongue for supremacy. Feeling all my nerves come alive as I wanted nothing more than to send my friends off to their homes and drag my husband to bed.

“Wow.” Luckily, Kye caught me before I stumbled backwards onto the coffee table and threatened the remaining slices of pizza. “What did I do to deserve that?”

“How about I take you to bed and you let me count the ways.”

“Um, you have guests,” Olivia joked. “Hi, Kye. After last night, you’re owed a good cock-block.”

“The word sounds sexier coming out of the mouth of my wife. No offence, Liv.”

“Hunter missed out on some serious action last night, because of you.”

“Then let Elena and I invite you both out for dinner. My treat.”

“And how is a double date going to make up for what I missed out on?”

“Because I’ll be charming, all night. I’ll make Hunter laugh and you smile. By the time we send you home in a cab—”

“That you pay for?”

“Sure. As I was saying, by the time you get home Hunter will be carrying you over any threshold you desire.”

“And me?” I asked, waiting to know what I’d get out of a double date. “Or is this all for show. Do I get a new tagline?”

“We go back to Pedros, but I’ll get one of the back tables where they don’t allow cameras or publicity. I’ll wear any damn hat you want, plus glasses.”

“A beanie. I want you to wear one of the Breast Cancer research beanies.”

“Bright pink isn’t going to be inconspicuous.”

“No, but if we get photographed, the beanie will be the story, not us.”

“Can you see why I married this woman?” Kye spun me in his arms until I could feel his erection edging between my cheeks. My friends were oblivious, but I could tell his charm was slowly wearing them down. When I wrapped my arms around my waist, he found my hands. Interlacing our fingers, while his thumb slowly circled my palm.

I was truly putty in his hands. Kye wasn’t anyone’s 2.0 anything. Kye was the alpha version of himself, I sighed. Tonight, he could be my anything he wanted. Olivia wasn’t the only woman with needs.

“Because she was the only woman on the island you were allowed to date?” Jess hadn’t been completely won over.

“Because she is the only woman off the island I want to be with. Those photos are fake. I didn’t know her ex was the dude from Softli. I didn’t know it was a set up.”

“How and why should we believe you?” Again, Jess had my back even when I didn’t.

“Because, that’s not who I am.”

“And here we were, thinking you were a lying, cheating asshole.” Jess smiled, smelling victory. But Kye wasn’t done.

“I’ve never lied to any of you, or Elena. If you’re talking about lying to other women in my past, then I didn’t lie to them, either. I never told them I was looking for a relationship—because I wasn’t. I never promised them a second date or even a second hour. I never cheated, because I never had a girlfriend—before Elena.”

“And the asshole?”

“Oh, I’m an asshole. I’m jealous, inconsiderate, opinionated and judgemental. I can be selfish and self-centred.

“Those things make me an asshole. But not even at my peak assholeness have I been, or am I cruel. If I’d known about Elena’s ex, and set up last night just for sound bites and hashtags, that would have been cruel.”

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