Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
I waited for him to elaborate or at least finish his lecture.
He pursed his lips, lifted and settled his hat back on his head, and then grinned. “Go back to your dollhouse and fuck that city boy, Mayor Fletcher. Take his goddamned car out and drive it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Really? You’re telling me to get laid? You coulda just said that, you know.”
He turned to leave, but before he reached the open doorway, he turned back around. “You know… if you plan on pulling this charade off, you two are going to need to get to know each other a little. JoJo Reynolds already stopped me in town and started asking questions about your new husband. It occurs to me that they’re going to be asking you those same questions. And you’re going to have to have some answers.”
As I watched him walk out of the shadows and into the late-afternoon sun, my stomach dropped.
Foster was right. I didn’t know a damned thing about the man I’d married.
And if we were going to pull off pretending to be a real couple, we were going to have to get to know each other for real.
And make it convincing.
I finished my chores as quickly as I could and raced back to the house. The more time I’d had to think about it, the more I’d convinced myself that someone in town—likely even someone from my family—would see right through us unless we spent a good amount of time tonight learning about each other.
And maybe it would be fun. We could turn it into a game or something. I actually looked forward to learning more about him. Silas was different from me. And different wasn’t something we saw around here often.
I parked next to his little rental just as my phone buzzed with a call from my little sister.
“I’m sorry,” I said as soon as the call connected. Out of habit, I headed to the river to make sure the call didn’t drop.
ZuZu’s voice held a fond exasperation that reminded me of my mom back in the early days, back before my father had worn her down and rubbed all the easy off her. “Sorry for marrying a hottie—by the way, that was Aunt Blake’s take, not mine—or sorry you somehow forgot to notify your actual family about it?”
I opened my mouth to say, “Both,” but for some reason, I couldn’t. Because part of me wondered if I was truly sorry for either one. Obviously, I shouldn’t have married a stranger, but… well… I was happy I’d had an excuse to see him again. And if we hadn’t gotten married…
“I should have told you before you found out from someone else,” I said. “It all kind of happened fast, and I—”
“When can I meet him? You gonna bring him to town tomorrow? Maybe you two can stop by the studio. I assume you don’t exactly want visitors tonight at your place.” Her laugh was carefree, which seemed impossible considering my situation.
“What do you mean?” I asked stupidly.
“Uh… newlyweds? I expected you two would be… busy?”
I glanced back at the house, as if Silas could somehow overhear my sister’s sexual implication from so far away. As I opened my mouth to stammer out a reply, however, I caught sight of someone through the large glass walls of my shower.
Someone completely naked and very, very wet.
“Uh.”
“Way?”
The early evening sun slanted over the mountains in the distance, laying out a warm golden stripe across the land between the river and my house, lighting up the glorious bare body of my new husband like he was the center of the goddamned universe, a gift from the gods themselves.
“Guh.”
I stepped closer to get a better look. Fluffy soap suds meandered down his back and the stark black tattoos scrawled across his arm—Good god. The buttoned-up city boy has tattoos everywhere?—until a clump of them stopped on the side of his ass. His muscles bunched and stretched as he scrubbed himself, setting the suds in motion again.
Something was wrong with the air around me. It didn’t work the same way it used to.
“Waylon? I think the connection is bad.”
“Nuh,” I breathed.
The sound of her grumble preceded the end of the call. I shoved the phone into my back pocket and reached for my uncomfortably crowded dick.
Which was exactly when the naked man in my shower looked up and caught me staring at him like some kind of Peeping Tom.
TWELVE
SILAS
I was already half-hard from imagining Way’s cowboy-lean body moving through ranch chores when the object of my fantasy appeared outside the shower windows. Instead of looking at me with a heated, seductive stare, however, he was gawping at me with comical bug eyes and an open mouth.
I had to bite back a laugh.
As soon as I lifted my hand in acknowledgment, he snapped his head to the side and raced out of my view like his ass was on fire. Unfortunately, I was no longer able to hold in the laugh, and it bellowed out of me, made stronger and harder to control as the events of the entire day tumbled through my memory.