Page 41 of After the Vows

She giggles. “You shouldn’t have let her drink so much coke.”

I offer her my hand to help her stand. I lead her to the living room where we sit on the sofa next to each other, facing each other.

“I didn’t let my daughter do anything. Your friends and Weston kept on giving her coke.”

She rolls her eyes. “They were trying to ruin our wedding night by making Natalia hyper.”

“Weston wasn’t trying to ruin our wedding night. He stuffed an extra-large package of condoms in my bag.”

Her eyes flare. “He did?”

I feel her pulse spike in her wrist and I realize I’m still holding her hand. I need to pull away. We agreed no sex. Sex will complicate our situation.

My focus should be on Natalia. I won’t let her suffer because her mom is a bitch.

With a growl, I manage to pull my hand away and stand. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Hurt flashes in her eyes but she blinks and it’s gone. I have a feeling Chloe doesn’t allow anyone to see when she’s hurting. And now I’m the cause of her hurt.

I don’t want to be an asshole. But this relationship isn’t real. Chloe knew it wasn’t real going into this marriage.

“The bed is huge. We can be adults and sleep in it together without having sex.”

Wrong. I can barely stop myself from ripping her clothes off of her as it is. If we sleep in the same bed, what little resistance I have left will crumble.

She lifts her eyebrows. “Or are you scared?”

I glare at her. “I’m not scared.”

“Good. Then, we can share this big bed and you don’t have to sleep on the sofa.”

“The sofa’s fine.”

She fists her hands on her hips. “Call me old fashioned but I’m not letting my husband sleep on the sofa the night of our wedding.”

Her husband? Those words slam into my heart and fill me with warmth. And fuck it all. I can’t deny Chloe what she wants. This does not bode well for me but I’m done fighting for this evening.

“Fine,” I grumble before marching to the opposite side of the bed.

Chloe climbs into bed next to me. “FYI. Being grumpy is not a turnoff.” She rolls to her side away from me. “Good night, hubby.”

I lay with my muscles locked until her breathing evens out and I know she’s asleep. She mumbles in her sleep. “Go away, bootlegger. The mermaid is mine.”

I bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing out loud and waking her. Even asleep Chloe is cute as hell. Good thing we aren’t sleeping in the same bed at home.

Resisting beautiful Chloe is hard enough. Knowing she’s cute as hell while she sleeps does not help the situation.

Chapter 15

Cooties – a disease that causes your fake husband to avoid you

Chloe

My alarm goes off and I slap my hand on the nightstand. At least, I try to slap my hand on the nightstand to end the infernal racket, but I meet air instead. What in the world? Where is my alarm clock?

I force my eyes open and glance around the room. I’m not in my bedroom at home. I’m in the guest bedroom at Lucas’s house.

I moved in yesterday after we returned home from our one-night honeymoon where I slept on my side of the bed and Lucas slept on his. There was literally no contact between us.

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