Page 16 of The Marriage Negotiation

Zaq stilled for a moment. I worried that I might have pushed him too far until he looked up at me with a grin on his face. "I should probably report my credit card as stolen, too, since Peter has it."

I snickered just imagining how pissed Peter was going to be when he had to pay for everything out of his own pocket. "I say go for it. Cancel the honeymoon and report your credit card stolen. Let Peter deal with it."

It would serve him right to get the bill.

While Zaq started calling to cancel the honeymoon and report his credit card as stolen, I grabbed what little of his was in the room and put it into his overnight bag.

If Peter was already in Hawaii with his mistress then we had a limited amount of time to get to New York City before he came back. I'd rather Zaq not have to deal with my brother if we could help it.

"Did you pay for the airline tickets?"

Zaq's eyes rolled and he started making another phone call, which told me he had. I wasn't sure he'd get any refund on those, especially since the flight to Hawaii had already been used, but he might be able to cancel the flight back. That would delay Peter's return just a little longer.

I should have been shocked that Peter had the gall to use the honeymoon Zaq had paid for to take his mistress on vacation, but I wasn't. This was just the sort of self serving shit my brother liked to pull.

One of the main reasons I couldn't stand the guy.

"So, here's how I see things right now," I said once Zaq hung up and put his cell phone away. "We can stick around here and visit with all these people we don't know or we can tell everyonewe're leaving for our honeymoon, go back to your place to grab your stuff, and get out of here."

Zaq winced. "I have a lot of stuff."

"How much stuff?" I asked. "Would it fit into the back of a moving van?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Not a problem then. I still have to pick up my stuff in Texas so we could just rent a moving van, pack your stuff in it, drive to my place to get my stuff, and then head to New York."

"Honeymoon road trip?"

I snickered. "Yeah, I guess so, but only for now. I'll take you on a real honeymoon once we get settled."

"I don't need it. I'd be perfectly happy staying at home and just spending time together. We have a lot of years to make up for and a lot of life experience to talk about. Spending time together is more important than going someplace fancy."

"Why not do both then?" I asked. "We'll use this road trip to get to know each other and then once we get settled, we can go on a honeymoon someplace fancy."

"Not too fancy," Zaq countered. "I'm actually a pretty low-key kind of guy. My idea of a good time is curling in front of an open fire with a glass of wine and the latest medical journal."

I grabbed Zaq and crushed him against my chest. "Now, I know you're perfect."

"Not too nerdy?"

"I'm a nerd, so no."

Zaq rested his head against my shoulder for a moment before pushing away. "I say we make a run for it. I don't even want to tell our parents we're leaving. We'll have one of the waiters do it after we're gone."

I was in full support of this idea.

I grabbed Zaq's overnight bag with one hand and his arm with the other. "Let's go."

We couldn't get out of there fast enough for my liking.

Chapter Five

~ Zaq ~

We'd been on the road for two days. We weren't in any big hurry once we left California, but there was still a bit of anxiety. Patrick swore that Peter had no idea where he lived now, but his parents did. The quicker we got him packed up and we left Texas, the better. We were currently somewhere outside Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We had a ways to go yet.

---