Page 47 of Something Borrowed

I’ve done stupid things. Sure.Plenty.

ButI’m only twenty-three years old.I can’t be married.

The bed shifts under his weight as he moves to help me sit up.

“Drink this. I promise it will help. I think you might have had an entire bottle of vodka by yourself last night.”

I groan in protest as he sits me up against the pillow and forces a bottle of still water into my hands.

“Open.” He demands. I open my mouth and he drops two pills onto my tongue.

“Now drink.”

The first tip of water is like rain in the desert. My throat grabs at it and my body begs for more.

The second sip of water is like someone punching me in the stomach. Nausea leaps forward and I have to press my lips together to stop if from coming back up.

“Ugh.” I groan again, because it’s all I seem to do.

“Sleep a bit more, vixen. I’m right here with you. Give the headache tables some time to kick in.”

He doesn’t have to ask me twice.

I snuggle back down into the bed and close my eyes.

Restless, pain filled sleep steals me away for a while longer.

My dreams are vivid and confusing. The silky sheets are unfamiliar against my skin.

When I open my eyes, the second time the painkillers have helped. My head doesn’t weight a ton and my eyes aren’t aching as much. The nausea is down to a dull annoyance.

I drag myself into a sitting position. Rufino is next to me on the bed, reading news articles on his phone.

“I got you a fresh coffee.” He grins at me.

“You are amazing. How are you not as hungover as me?” I sigh, picking it up and taking a sip of the heavenly dark liquid.

“I think you drank enough for three people.”

I sit quietly for a moment trying to piece my thoughts together. We were both drunk last night otherwise we would never have done something so stupid.

Looking down at my hand I wiggle the finger wearing the beautiful pink ring. It’s so pretty.

But I don’t want to be married.

I’m sure he doesn’t either.

“Rufino - we are going to stop at the chapel and get the wedding annulled right?” I say firmly.

“What?” he snarls at me, his eyes darkening.

“I - I mean - I don’t want to break up with you - but marriage is - it’s so severe.” I stammer, nervous of his intense reaction.

He gets off the bed, standing alongside it and glaring down at me.

“No. We will not be annulling the wedding, Verity. You are my wife. You are mine. There is no fucking way I’ll be letting you go.”

“Rufino Ihaveto go. My father will kill us both. I need to be back home before he knows any of this happened. And Ican’t be married.”

---