Page 5 of Vegas Baby

“We got a marriage license?” she asked, taking a healthy bite of pancake smothered in butter and syrup. She moaned in the back of her throat, pointing at the food with her fork and nodding her head.

He shifted in his seat, curious if she was aware of the erotic sounds: sounds that echoed inside his head. “Sadly yes.”

Raina had been dogged in her determination to win this bet. Had he been of the mind to share his insight, he could have told her the outcome. Howler played the game long enough to know when he’d snared a client. He prided himself on being able to read people, except Raina proved an enigma. “You picked my pocket and stole my I.D. while trying to wrangle Veer and Anaya back into the car. Then you wouldn’t get in the car until I signed it.”

She lowered her fork, and swallowed, taking a drink of water. “And you signed it? Why would you?”

Howler ran his finger around the rim of his cup, embarrassed to look at her. He wasn’t proud of how easily she’d manipulated him; a rookie mistake he’d never make again. “Because it was a stupid marriage license. It’s not like we intended to use it. Besides, neither of us signed our real names.” Yet he’d been uncomfortable even signing the document in jest. A fake marriage wasn’t any less scary then a real marriage.

“Can I see it?” she asked, pushing her plate away, the wrinkle on her forehead back in play.

Exhaling through his teeth, he indicated her purse. The license was her thing, not his. He’d indulged her because the laughing, flirtatious woman had been unlike Raina, he’d wanted to see where it went. What happened after they climbed into the car and before the hotel room still remained a blur. “I have no clue where it is. Probably in your purse.”

Raina dug into her bag and produced a stack of folded papers. She studied the writing and swallowed. Panic brightened her blue eyes. “This is my real name.”

Her statement sent chills up his back and he leaned in, his head resting next to hers. He’d signed his name merely as Howler, not his real name and hers read Raina Miller. “You’re Raina Ashton.”

“No, I’m Raina Ashton Miller. Ashton is my mother’s name. Miller is my father’s name. I don’t use it because I don’t want people to treat me differently.”

Howler felt like he swallowed a stack of pancakes whole. He stared down at her tense profile, a faint flush to her high cheeks. “Miller is your father? Miller, as in the Pioneers owner Miller? Holy shit. How come I didn’t know that?” She was bullshitting him, she had to be.

Her lips turned down at the edges and she nodded, not glancing up from the paper. “He doesn’t go around broadcasting his mistakes. My mother wasn’t exactly part of his social circle.”

His pulse pounded and not in a good way. The entire evening was a fiasco, one he couldn’t wait to put past him. “Regardless of your name, mine isn’t legit. My last name isn’t Howler. It’s Hamilton.”

“The only discernable thing about your signature is the H. I would have never known unless you’d pointed it out. The certificate says Xavier Hamilton and as a legal document, it goes by your legal name.”

She flipped the page and his earlier chill turned into an artic freeze. There on a square of parchment, in big, bold letters were the words Certificate of Marriage. And on the bottom right was his signature next to hers.

Chapter Three

XH: We need to talk.

The text came over Raina’s phone that sat on the bathroom vanity in her hotel room. Her stomach roiled from the carb overload at breakfast. It had been years since she’d allowed herself to binge-eat, adding yet another item to her long list of Vegas screw ups.

He wanted to talk. Bile burned her throat and she curled her bare toes into the thick bathroom mat. After leaving the restaurant, Howler had given her space, the perfect gentleman. Well, as perfect as he could get.

Her phone chimed a second time, flashing the same message. The dull throbbing in her temples increased. What she really wanted to do was head back to Seattle, file for divorce, and pretend this never happened. Coward. There was no getting around the fact she’d married Howler then slept with him. To get to Veer. Perhaps she was more like her manipulative father than she’d cared to admit. Using her knuckle, she typed, Okay.

Raina removed the towel wrapped around her chest and hung it on the towel rack. She still had no memory of the night before, nor did she fully understand the logistics of the bet she made with Veer. Oh Lord, she had to face Veer after her embarrassing behavior. She always strove to be a professional and she’d ruined it in one night. Huffing out a breath, she looked into the mirror. It was fogged from her shower but she didn’t bother wiping it off. She couldn’t look at herself without a wave of disgust.

XH: I’m outside your door.

Reading the text, she brought her hand to her mouth, her pulse increasing. Slow your roll, it’s just Howler. Stubborn, opinionated, and sexy Howler, the man she’d slept with, who’d seen her naked.

Oh God. She raised shaking fingers, hovering them over the keyboard once more. She just stepped out of a long, long, shower. Vain Raina wanted to tell him to come back later and give her the opportunity to be at her best, but she had no reason to impress him. And she wanted to get this over with. To put this debacle behind her and move on with her life.

After the divorce.

Fudge.

Okay. Raina slipped on her underwear and a black tank top before donning her robe. The shockingly pink terry cloth material was patterned with neon red lipstick tubes and high-heeled shoes, a gift on her sixteenth birthday. Ugly yes, a security blanket of sorts, and she never traveled without it, nor had she needed its comfort more.

Shoulders back, she exited the bathroom and opened the outer door.

Howler’s inquisitive eyes swept her body from the tip of her bare toes to her hair still wrapped in the white towel. Impeccably dressed in a navy suit and tie, she was used to this man, not the sensual man who she’d woken up next to earlier that morning. Lucky for her, the professional barrier neutralized his appeal the tiniest bit, enough for Raina to get her head in the game and out of the sheets.

“Nice robe,” he said.

---