Page 40 of Doctored Vows

“You got it on your clothes, so I helped you change them.”

“You helped me change them?” When he nods nonchalantly, I squeal, “You saw me naked? Like naked naked, not the little preview you had in the washroom.”

He smiles in wolfish satisfaction before he dips his chin. “Yes.”

I curse my lack of confidence to hell when I mumble, “And you’re still here?”

Maksim’s smirk does wicked things to my insides when he drags his eyes down my body before he repeats, “Yes.” He returns them to my face. They’re more heated now. “Does that bother you?”

“No,” I answer far too quickly.

“Good.” His reply flips my stomach in a way I’m not anticipating, but it is pushed aside for confusion when he adds, “Because it would have been awkward if you’d changed your mind after we’d made things official.”

Official? What is he talking about? He’s acting as if I couldn’t get rid of him even if I wanted to.

I realize that is precisely what he’s implying when the high-hanging sun streaming through the curtains of my room reflects off a giant rock on my left hand.

“What the hell is that?” I shoot my eyes to Zoya, panting and with a crinkled nose. “You let me get married!” I don’t give her the chance to answer. “You let me get married to a man who hates me?”

“I don’t hate you.”

My breathing announces I’m on the verge of a panic attack even while delighted by Maksim’s comment, so Zoya sets to work on trying to calm me. “I tried to stop you.” She gives Maksim a sympathetic look before moving closer to my bedside. “But by the time I returned to our suite, you had already decided. You were so determined to go through with it that you organized a late-night visit from a local minister.”

“No. I wouldn’t do that. I went to the foyer for a room key and watched you shake your ass, and then I… I… I…” When my memories are nothing but black pools of despair, I bring my eyes back to meet with Maksim’s and murmur, “I married you.”

His grin is the most arrogant to date. “You did.”

“Because…?” I know there’s more to this. Strangers don’t marry strangers unless they’re in Vegas, and they wouldn’t tie the knot with someone they don’t like. Maksim dislikes me so much he walked out when my pants were huddled around my knees and my pussy was exposed.

When I say that to Maksim, he says, “I didn’t?—”

“Want to miss out on a big inheritance.”

That didn’t come from Zoya or me. It came from Aleena, who’s entering my room, looking more presentable than the bear-with-a-sore-head guise I’m working.

Maksim’s, Zoya’s, and my eyes snap to her in sync. Maksim appears as confused as Zoya and I do, but he hides it better with an angry scowl.

Aleena takes his narrowed glare in stride like this isn’t the first time she’s been at its mercy. “When I accidentally let slip to Maksim about your excessive student loans, he mentioned an inheritance he’d never see if he didn’t wed. Putting two and two together, I realized how ideal this could be.” She waves her hand between Maksim and me while saying “this.” “You need money, and Maksim needs a wife to get it. This”—her hand is back between us—“fixes both dilemmas.”

Nothing she says makes any sense. “Zoya just said I had already decided before either of you had returned to our suite.” She nods, unwillingly inching toward the trap I’m laying out for her. “But now you’re saying you helped cook up a scheme that would have me believing marrying a stranger was a good idea?”

“No, that isn’t what happened,” Zoya jumps in. “She… I… I brought you coffee.”

She shoves a takeaway cup into my chest so fast I either grab it or wear it.

I grab it, almost exposing my breasts at the same time.

“Shit. Sorry.”

When Maksim’s low growl rumbles through Zoya’s chest, her mouth falls open as her loved-up eyes shift to Maksim. “You loathe that too?” She backhands his chest like there won’t be a single consequence for her action. “Aleena is right. You are a perfect match.”

“Z!”

Her eyes are back on me, full of mischief. “What? Don’t act like you can’t feel the sparks. You’ve been panting like a dog in heat since we got here.”

“And you thought he was married, so you should have muzzled my mouth.”

When Maksim bounces his eyes between Zoya and me, his brows crinkling more the longer he stares, she discloses, “The blonde.”

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