Page 26 of A Package Deal

Pip hooted. I dug in my heels, but Warrick was stronger, shoving me in the house and shutting the door with a slam. All those feelings of being off-kilter burned to the ground as anger swept in. I folded my arms across my chest and whirled around.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Dick? That’s my employee and I say we keep working.”

Warrick folded his own arms across his chest and I tried not to acknowledge the vision he created so easily. The man was built, I’d give him that. He also had access to the finest clothes money could buy, but it was more about the swagger that underlined all those superficial characteristics. The man was a vision in a white button-down shirt, tan forearms on display, long legs in dress pants, and a face settled into a smirk that both turned me on and pissed me off. I’d always preferred a blue-collar man, but Warrick had awakened a new kind of preference.

“It’s our wedding day.”

“Fake,” I interrupted.

His smirk only grew. “Not fake. The marriage license is very real.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Not fake. But temporary. And for business purposes only.”

He shrugged as if those details were inconsequential. “Do you have plans to get married at some point in your life? After this business deal of ours is over?”

I didn’t understand why he wanted to know, but I also knew I preferred to tell the truth. “No. Georgia is my number one priority. Always.”

His arms dropped and he took a step toward me. “Then I’ll say it again. This is your wedding day. And while certain traditions won’t be honored…” His eyes sparkled with a heat that had my insides twisting again. “I want my wife to remember this day fondly. Especially since you don’t plan to have another wedding day.”

Before I could swallow down the want that had sprung up out of nowhere—okay, it wasn’t nowhere…I’d been fighting it ever since the first day I’d met this man—he walked right past me and disappeared down the hallway.

I let out a long whoosh of air, realizing I hadn’t been breathing full inhales since before we left to go to the courthouse. My shoulders sagged without the ever-present stare from Warrick. Even my feet barked at me that they were done. I shifted and sank onto the couch in the corner of the room, leaning down to take off my heels. Tossing them aside, I wiggled my toes back to life and tried to remember what I needed to do on the house this afternoon. Now that Pip wasn’t here, thanks to Warrick, I’d have to tackle the floor staining on my own.

“It’s all ready for you.”

My head snapped up to see Warrick poking his head around the corner, still in his dress shirt.

“What?”

He sighed as if he was disappointed in me and fully appeared, leaning against the wall. “You think I haven’t noticed how sore you’ve been every morning, trying to get this house done on time? You rub your shoulder when you’re thinking. You wince when you squat down.”

“I—”

He lifted an eyebrow, daring me to argue. I snapped my mouth shut. I was sore. Ridiculously sore all over, but the job had to be completed. I’d rest later.

“I’ve got the bath filled, Epsom salts added. Come on.”

My jaw dropped. Warrick groaned and marched over. “Jesus Christ. Don’t tell me no one has ever drawn you a simple bath.” He reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet. “Your ex was a dickhead.”

I definitely wouldn’t argue about that.

Warrick didn’t let go of my hand until we were standing together in the bathroom he hadn’t hired me to remodel. A white porcelain clawfoot tub, full of bubbles and steaming water, greeted me. A white fluffy towel lay folded on the edge of the pedestal sink. It was too much. All of this was too much.

“I’ll let you get settled. Towel’s there. I’ll get clothes for you.” I felt Warrick leave, taking his heat and intoxicating scent with him.

I spun around. “I don’t?—”

“Emmerleigh?” he interrupted, not turning around, but freezing there in the doorway. His spine practically crackled with irritation. “Get in the fucking tub.”

I glared at his back. “I was just going to say I don’t know where to hang up my dress.” I absolutely was not going to say that, but I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of knowing I was about to argue.

He turned around at that, his wary eyes telling me he didn’t buy my lie. Not one bit. “Leave it on the floor. I’ll hang it up. All your things are in the guest bedroom, along with Georgia’s.”

I fiddled with the new ring on my finger, wanting it off. His gaze dropped to the ring. “And you can keep that on.”

I huffed, tugging it off. “Not in the water. I don’t want it to tarnish.”

He lunged, quicker than a cat, stilling my hands and shoving the ring back on my finger. “It won’t tarnish, Em.”

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