Page 51 of Perfectly Wedded

Vale

“Surprise!” Jaz screams, holding her arms out and barreling into her sister with a hug.

“What are you doing here?” Sloan asks, trying to smooth her hair and pretend she’s not totally shaken by our encounter.

“Crashing your honeymoon,” Jaz says, like this is a sufficient and logical answer. Of course family members always show up unannounced at a couple’s honeymoon suite with no warning.

Brax steps out from behind her in the hall. “Hey, Vale.”

“You’re here too?” I gasp.Impeccable timing.

“You didn’t think I’d let my wife come without me on a beautiful tropical vacation?” Then he chuckles. “You’re shocked?”

“Shocked doesn’t even begin to describe it,” I say slowly, glancing at Sloan, who has a smile that looks drawn on by a preschooler with a Sharpie.

“Did we interrupt?” Jaz asks, then holds up her hands. “Wait. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know the answer.” She raises her eyebrows as she steps around Sloan. “Nice suite. Can’t wait to see ours.”

“Wait—what?” Sloan asks.

“We have a suite just like yours,” she says, crashing onto thecouch I was planning on using as my bed. This feels oddly familiar. Just like home, and yet, not.

“You’re stayinghere?” Sloan asks.

“Isn’t it great? When I booked your trip, I mentioned to Brax how much I’d like to go to Cancun. We hardly had time for a honeymoon since he was in the middle of hockey season, and we only got away for an extended weekend.” She makes a sad face, and Brax joins her on the couch.

“I suggested a second honeymoon to Jaz, and she was totally on board. Since they were making an exception for you, the boss had to approve my time off as well,” Brax says. “When we checked out the options, your honeymoon package was such a great deal, we booked two. One for you. And one for us.” He wraps his arm around Jaz’s shoulders and smiles. “A whole week of family bonding time!”

“Lucky us,” I mutter.

“All the earlier flights were booked,” Jaz says. “But yay us for making it happen!” She puts her arms in the air like a cheerleader, while Sloan shoots me a panicked look ofWhat are we going to do now?

Brax looks at me and reads my expression. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to interrupt or get in the way. If you want to do things together during the day, that’s fine. We’re not forcing ourselves into your honeymoon.”

“So we might see you or we might not. I can live with that.” I link my arm around Sloan’s waist and rub my thumb over the top of her hip. My hand warms from the feel of her body close to mine. “Because Sloan and I wanta lotof alone time together.”

Her body tenses.

Sloan turns to me. “It would be rude not to spend time with them,” she says, sweetly.

“No, it won’t,” I say. “Brax just told me as much.”

I know what her game is. She wants to hide behind her sister and avoid me. She’s using this surprise visit to throw a monkey wrench into my plans to woo her.

This was my week to convince her I’m not letting her leave this marriage without a fight. It was our chance to be together, without putting on an act. But that will be nearly impossible now.

That’s why I’m desperately hanging on to the rules we agreed to. And not just hanging on to them, but pushing them to their limits.Whatever it takes.

“Vale, they’re family,” she insists. “Of course we’ll spend time together. We can’t hang out in our room all day.”

I arch an eyebrow. “I’d like to prove that theory wrong.”

Sloan’s eyes widen.

Jaz snort-laughs. “Brax, maybe we should go . . .”

“No!” Sloan grabs her sister’s arm. “You want to hang out now? We weren’t doing anything important.”

“Sloan,” I warn wickedly. “We were in the middle of something I’d like to finish.”

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