Page 10 of Monster Mistake

“We got married,” she whispered in horror.

In answer, he held up his own left hand, drawing her gaze to the plain platinum band onhisring finger.

Justine spun on her heel and barely made it to the toilet before spewing twelve hours’ worth of tequila (and most of her dignity) into the bowl.

Khill let out a sigh so deep it sounded like it came from the depths of his soul as he leaned down and gathered her hair for her. “Perfect,” he muttered.

CHAPTER 6

In retrospect, Khill would admit that taking an already tipsy Justine to Vegas and letting her ingest more alcohol hadn’t been one of his brighter ideas.

She’d just looked so defeated that he couldn’t stand it. She was too good to feel like that. All he’d wanted was to cheer her up. Make her understand she was fun and smart and gorgeous and way too good for a dickwad like old what’s-his-face.

The wedding hadnotbeen part of that plan.

But, in the moment, with her looking at him like he was her savior, it’d just happened. And it felt right, somehow. The moment when she agreed to love, honor, and cherish him until death parted them had been the best moment of his life.

The worst moment was this morning when she couldn’t remember most of it and was puking up everything she’d ingested since birth.

Not exactly the way he’d hoped to begin their first day together as a married couple.

And now, as he sat across from her at the 50s-style diner with a greasy spread of breakfast foods between them, he knew he should’ve put a stop to the wedding, no matter how right it’d felt at the time. “It’s not really that big of a deal,” he told her.

With one hand on her coffee cup and the other on her forehead, she glanced at him over the tops of the sunglasses he’d picked up for her in the hotel’s gift shop. “How ismarriednot a big deal?”

He shrugged. “I mean, I’m not a lawyer, but I assume we can get an annulment if you want one.”

Khill did his best to ignore the gnawing feeling in his gut the thought of annulling their marriage caused. That had to be a holdover from his upbringing. There was no such thing as annulment in orc marriages. If an orc wanted out of marriage, they had to murder their spouse—which was legal in cases of abuse or fraud.

Justine frowned. “I don’t know much about it, either. But if TV and movies can be believed, the fact that the marriage wasn’t, um, consummated means we can probably get an annulment.”

He didn’t mention that he would’ve consummated thefuckout of their marriage if she’d been sober. But while he apparently had no problemmarryingher while she was drunk, he most definitely would never take advantage of her physically without sober consent.

The fact that she’d triedreallyhard to convince him that drunk consent was sufficient was another fact he’d take to his grave. She was already embarrassed enough without that knowledge. No need to make things worse for her. “I’m sorry.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t blame you for any of this. You were drunk, too. I know none of this was your fault.”

Well, that wasn’t necessarily true. But again, he saw no need to point that out. They were, in fact, married. Thewhyof it wasn’t important at this moment.

That was his story, and he was sticking to it.

“So, I guess the right move now is to get a lawyer when we go home,” he suggested.

Justine poked at the hashbrowns on her plate, grimaced, and set her fork down. “My cousin is a lawyer. I’ll call her.”

There was that gnawing in his gut again. He’d already eaten his body weight in pancakes, bacon, and eggs. It couldn’t be hunger. Justine clearly regretted their hasty marriage. Getting the annulment was the right thing to do.

And still he couldn’t shake the feeling that itwasn’tright. Which was why he had to ask, “You’re sure, right? That you want the annulment?”

She glanced at him over the tops of her sunglasses with wide eyes. Those eyes never failed to gut-punch him. Did she have any idea how beautiful she was? “Why? Don’tyouwant the annulment?”

Shit. He’d been too distracted by her pretty eyes to think of how he’d answer the same question. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I want…what you want.” Then he shrugged and added, “But it’s not often I find someone who matches my level of grumpy. I could certainly do worse for a wife.”

What a stupid fucking thing to say! Why don’t you just tell her you love her and want to be her husband? Why did you have to make it fucking weird?

But the shy smile she rewarded him with made him stop mentally castigating himself. “I could certainly do worse for a husband, too. But even though I was never one of those girls who dreamed of her wedding day, a drunken Vegas ceremony I can barely remember isn’t ideal.”

His takeaway from that was she wasn’tnecessarilysaying she didn’t want to be married tohim, just that the way they got married was less than optimal. Which was fair. Totally fair. He’d prefer his bride to remember the ceremony, too, if he was being honest. “Well, that settles it. We’ll talk to the lawyer, yeah?”

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