Page 33 of What If I See You

“And you’re really okay with this? Being married to me?”

He shrugs haphazardly. “Yeah. Sure. I guess. Better you than some stranger I don’t know, right?”

“Oh, and you know me?”

“I know you’re obsessed with me, remember?” he teases with a half-smile trying to make our situation a little lighter.

I roll my eyes. “Right. How could I forget.”

“Look, I know you’re a great person and from the handful of times we’ve met and worked together you’ve been remarkably professional and extremely impressive. So…yeah. I’m okay with it. You were planning to stay at my place anyway for the next week at least so this will give us time to talk things out and figure out a solid plan. And besides,” he says gesturing to me, “I’ve already seen you naked so…”

“Oh, my God!” I scoff, wrapping myself tighter in my blanket. My cheeks heat from embarrassment.

“Relax, Lake.” He cocks his head. “Can I call you Lake? Seems like a nickname I’d give my wife. For what it’s worth, you’re a beautiful woman. You have nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed of. And though we find ourselves in a bit of a pickle now, I don’t regret having a great time with you last night. Every minute was fun and light-hearted and maybe I needed the downtime as much as you did. So, what do you say?” He stands and faces me. “Will you do me the honor of being my wife for a yet to be determined length of time at which point we’ll figure out a way to amicably split?”

For as ridiculous as this morning has become, I can’t help but take note of the professional hockey player standing before me in nothing but a pair of bright blue boxer briefs asking me to be his wife.

“You know my parents are going to insist on meeting you,” I tell him with an ornery grin.

His smile mirrors mine. “Good. I’m great with parents.”

“Not my parents.”

“Ooh, challenge accepted. Don’t worry. I can play the part of the love-sick husband who is head over heels for his new wife. Do you think you can pretend to like me enough to pull this off?”

I huff out a quiet laugh and roll my eyes for the second time this morning. “Oh please. Twist my arm and tell me I have to be in love with the hot hockey player.”

“See?” He winks. “I knew you were obsessed with me.”

“What are we going to tell everyone back at the chateau. They know this will all be fake.”

He shrugs. “I think we tell them the truth and beg them to play along until we come up with a better answer. I can’t lie to the guys. They’re like family to me. Speaking of which, we should get over there. They’re worried enough that we didn’t come back last night and now that they’ve seen the article, I’m sure they’re chomping at the bit to find out what’s going on.”

“Walk of shame, here we come, I guess.”

“Hey.” He steps up to me and places his hands on my shoulders. Even through the blanket I can feel his strength and warmth. “Are you okay? I know this is a lot and I want to be here for you. Whatever you need.”

“Yeah. Thank you. I’m fine. I promise I’ll be okay.”

“I know you will.” He smiles. “Because your super-hot sexy husband will make sure of it.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I smirk. “Who the hell said anything about sexy? Or super?”

“Meh, don’t worry. I’ll change your mind.”

The minutewe walk in the door, we’re bombarded with questions shooting at us from all over the living room.

“Oh, my God, Layken! What the hell did you do?”

“Yeah, Griff, what the fuck man?”

“Are you okay?”

“Tell us this is not true.”

“Oh my God, you even have a ring?”

“Did you seriously get married? Like married, married?”

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