I finally convinced him that we’re married, and he’s worried about losing his job.

I could have rolled my eyes, but then I reminded myself I wasn’t someone who’d ever had to worry about money before. When you didn’t have to do that, it was easy to dismiss things that seemed relatively simple.

“We have to figure this out,” I said. “I mean, your boss will understand, right?”

He gave me a tight look and shot another glance at his phone – checking the time. He swore and shoved it into his pocket. “Too late now. The bus leaves in two minutes. I’ll never make it.” A scowl twisted his features and he spun away, swearing under his breath.

I took a step forward, only to stop myself. I’d been about to comfort him.

I didn’t even know this guy, and I wanted to make him feel better.

“How in the hell did this happen?” he demanded, still facing away from us.

“Well…” Astra laughed a little, as she gave him a nervous look.

I had a bad feeling we might have just messed up his life even more than mine. Judging by the look she gave me, Astra was thinking the same thing.

“It’s pretty funny, really. We were all drinking. You were at the bar, and you were cute, so I dragged Piety over to sit down and talk with you. We all got to talking, and we told you about how Piety’s parents are serious control freaks and that they’re pushing her toward this guy who is so fucking lame. He gets excited talking about spreadsheets.” She paused as the stranger – Kaleb, I reminded myself – turned around. “Spreadsheets!”

“I’m still waiting to hear how talking about spreadsheets got two strangers married.”

“Yeah. Me too.” I rubbed a hand over my belly because I was still feeling seriously nauseated and my head was spinning. Feeling his eyes on me, I glanced his way and stopped rubbing, reaching up to clutch at the neck of my robe instead. He wasn’t gawking at me or anything, but there was something about the way he watched me that was unsettling at best. “Seriously, I don’t get how I could have thought this was a good idea, drunk or not.”

“But you did.” Astra grabbed my shoulders and shook me a little. I groaned, batting her hands away.

“Stop it.” I sat down on the edge of the couch and glanced from him to her. “Explain why I thought this was a good idea.”

“I did–”

“Astra.” Giving her a hard look, I waited.

“Fine.” She huffed out a breath and then gave the hottie from Down Under a brilliant smile. “See, her parents are the most uptight people you’ve ever met, and they are constantly pushing her toward somebody who could be a clone of her dad. In character, not physically, because that could be gross. But he is a stuffed shirt and so uptight. They keep nagging her–”

Kaleb held up a hand, and Astra went politely quiet. She beamed at him, and he returned the smile, although his was a lot less…excited. “Look, this is all fascinating, and I assume I should know something about my…wife’s family. But none of this is answering anything.”

“It is,” Astra said emphatically. “Just give me a moment. “See, that’s why we’re here. They were driving her crazy, and after they tried to set her up on some sort of crazy couples thing with this killjoy, we knew we had to get away for a while.”

“And we came here,” I said, sighing. “Astra, you’re not exactly explaining.” I took a deep breath. “I remember going down to the bar for drinks. Then…nothing until this morning when I opened my eyes and saw this ring. So explain this part of things.”

“You thought it would be funny.” Astra sighed and moved over to sit beside me. She took my hand and then looked over to Kaleb. “You were on the stool next to us. There was a woman…she was flirting with you and pushing really hard. Piety could tell you weren’t into it, so she told her to lay off.”

Kaleb shook his head as if trying to shake the memory back into it. “What happened next?”

“Well, the woman got pissy and asked her what the problem was. Piety said you were her fiancé. You laughed about it. When she got up and stormed off, we asked you to join us.” Astra shrugged. “We got to talking and…well, Piety said it was too bad her dad hadn’t been there. If he’d heard her telling some chick that you two were engaged, even though it was just a joke, he’d have a heart attack. And I told you guys you should do it – marry him. I’d videotape it, and we could upload it to YouTube.”

I rubbed my forehead, feeling a pounding headache that had nothing to do with alcohol.

“Why, oh, why would I think this was a good idea?” I muttered.

“Because we were drunk and stupid, and you were pissed off.” Astra looked over at Kaleb. “You were pissed off about something too. I don’t know what because you wouldn’t say. But you loosened up a bit, and we all got to laughing and having a good time.”

Kaleb raised an eyebrow. “A good time still doesn't equal getting married.”

“I…” I grimaced and then looked at Astra before meeting Kaleb’s eyes again. “My dad is a senator. Silas Van Allan from Philadelphia. He’s planning on running for president, and my mom…well, she’s already mentally redecorating the White House. They’ve got ideas for how their lives will be, and they’re doing everything they can to make sure I do everything I can to help expedite his career and improve his image.”

“Come on, they can’t be all that bad,” he said, crooking a smile at me.

My belly flipped at the sight of it. A dimple, one that deepened into a wider groove as his smile grew, caused my heart to stutter a few beats. Dimples. That smile. That accent. Well, if I was going to go and marry a stranger, I sure as hell picked a hot one.

Then my brain locked in on what he said.

“Oh, they’re worse.” Heaving out a sigh, I looked over toward the window, not seeing anything around me but the life they were trying to force me into. “They hate my job, hate the things I enjoy. Sometimes I think they only had me because they thought about all the photo ops I’d present them with. That and everybody knows that a family man is much more trustworthy.”

Rolling my eyes, I managed to smile at him.

“And that’s it. Somehow my shitty mood translated into hey, let’s do something stupid. We’re in Vegas, after all. Right, Kaleb?” I hesitated before asking, “It is Kaleb?”

He gave me a short nod, still looking distracted. He pulled out his phone again, checked it.

“Look, this job…I’ll call you a cab, pay for it. We can discuss this again later?” I hated how much he was stressing over this job. And I could tell he was. He’d only checked his phone like…oh, ten times in the past five minutes.

“No such luck, Piety.” His accent gave my name a sharper sound, but I liked it. His smile was sharp too, full of edges that might cut. “The bus I needed to catch was leaving the city. They’re gone by now.”

“Oh.” My belly dropped a little more, and I rubbed my temple. “Okay, I’ll find some other way to get you where you need to go. We’ll rent a car or something. Just what is it you do?”

“I’m with Flames Down Under.” He said it calmly, staring me straight in the face, but there was a daring glint in his eye.

I couldn’t understand why. That meant nothing to me. “And just what is Flames Down Under?”

“Oh…oh!” Astra squealed and started to laugh, clapping. “This is perfect. Piety, it’s perfect. Really!”

She laughed even harder, all but bent over now.

“What’s so funny?” I glared at her while Kaleb moved over to the window and stared outside. Probably searching for his bus.

“Flames Down Under. Honey, he’s a stripper! Flames Down Under is kinda…well, they are almost like the Chippendales, but from Australia…and way hotter, if you ask me.”

Oh, shit.

My face went hot, and I shoved upright, glaring at Astra. “You think this is funny? My dad is going to freak. Dammit, Astra, stop laughing! I married a stripper! My parents are going to kill me!”