Insane.

It didn’t even come close.

And I wasn’t any better.

Hands braced against the shower wall, I stared down at the floor. Water dripped into my face and eyes, ran down my cheekbones and chin, then along my nose before falling to my feet.

Water pounded into me from five different angles, the pressure so high, I almost felt like I was getting a top rate massage.

There was one thing to be said for this set-up so far – the shower was top-notch.

I could stay in here for another week.

Or at least another hour or so. If I could do that, maybe things would start making sense.

Somehow between last night and now, I’d gotten married to one of the most elegant, beautiful women I’d ever met. Not to mention, she was funny and determined. And that was just from the little bit of time I'd spent with her.

And her shower…

Groaning, I angled my back so that one of the jets hit it full on, pounding away stress that felt like it had been building for years. Now, if I could just stay in here long enough to figure out what the hell I'd gotten myself into.

But that wasn’t likely. How was I supposed to figure out how I’d ended up married to Piety Van Allan?

I still needed to make some phone calls. I had to call my boss for one. Even though the bus had already left, I owed it to him – and the rest of the guys – to let them know I wouldn’t be in. Not today, not any other day in the near future.

I felt like a piece of shit leaving him hanging, but even if I could get to the next tour stop, the bottom line was that Piety was offering more money. Once I’d heard her friend, Astra, out Piety had disappeared, and in less than twenty minutes, she’d returned with cash as promised.

But it hadn’t been fifteen hundred.

It was two thousand, and she said if I helped her out, she’d pay me five times that.

Ten grand. The exact amount I needed.

I’d spent the time while she was gone researching her. She was exactly who she said she was. It wasn’t hard to find information about her. She was a bit of a do-gooder, and her parents look like they had a pair of matching sticks shoved up their asses. If they were as bad as she was letting on…

But even as the idea formed in my mind, I pushed it away. My parents were gone. It was hard to think about doing something just to piss them off although I knew I’d done it a time or two. This, well this was a bit more extreme than anything I could've thought up. Still...

Shoving away from the wall, I reached for the shampoo. I couldn’t stay in here forever, as much as I was tempted. Even the toiletries smelled like money and the scent hit me hard. It reminded me of how her hair smelled.

Just that tease was enough to have my prick going hard, and I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut. I didn’t need to be thinking about how damn sexy she was.

It can’t hurt…you’re married.

I ignored the taunting voice and focused on scrubbing my hair.

Piety and I were not married – not really. Whatever bogus marriage that had been performed between us was a sham, one that would be annulled once Piety had done whatever she needed to do to convince her parents to leave her alone.

Moving under the spray, I rinsed my hair, still trying to pretend I wasn’t acutely aware of how it seemed like the scent of her surrounded me. She smelled so damn good.

Don’t think about it.

Hard not to though. She smelled good, felt good. I bet she tasted even better.

I was already doing a cockstand, and with a vicious swear, I turned the water to cold as I finished scrubbing up. I was shivering by the time I climbed out of the shower, but at least I wasn’t about to walk out of there looking like I was ready to jump…Piety.

My wife had come to mind first.

“Focus, Kaleb.”

Eyes closed, I pushed aside thoughts of the tempting Piety Van Allan and thought about what I needed to get done. Get my stuff from the hotel, call my boss, check in. It didn’t really seem like all that much, but I still felt like the world was spinning around me.

“One thing at a time.”

Once I was dressed, I reached for my phone and leaned against the marble countertop, staring at the shower stall in front of me.

I’d call my boss – or should I say former boss – first.

He would be pissed off, probably argumentative. And still, it was the easier call.

Another stab of guilt rose up, but I grabbed it and throttled it, shoving it deep inside a dark closet. I excelled at that. Guilt had been my best friend for a while now – a very one-sided friendship. He visited me daily, and I ignored him, pretending the little shit didn’t exist and everything was fine.

On the other side of the bathroom door, I heard a bright, happy spate of laughter. That would be Astra. It suited her, that wild laugh, the name. Piety’s laugh was calmer, more subtle. No reason for such a smooth, easy sound to hit me right in the gut, but it did.

Looking around the bathroom, I figured I had as much privacy now as I was going to get, so I dialed the number and waited.

“You tell me one good reason I shouldn’t fire your ass,” Sam Romo snapped, his smoke-roughened voice harsher than normal. He paused, taking yet another drag of his cigarette. Cancer would bypass his mean ass, looking for more fertile ground. “Come on, I’m waiting.”

“I can’t,” I said calmly. There was no point in beating around the bush and leaving him hanging. “Something’s come up, and it will be pretty much impossible for me to keep the job.”

There was a faint pause, followed by a not so faint explosion. “What in the hell do you mean you’re quitting? This is the thanks I get after giving you this job?” He paused to suck in a breath. “You ungrateful piece of shit. You had no talent, no skill, but I took you on anyway. Now you’re leaving me hanging.”

“I’m sorry.” Reaching up, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can’t say anything more than that. I didn’t plan to leave you hanging, but there’s nothing I can do. Something’s come up.”

I wasn’t about to tell him the truth. I was already coming off like an ass. I didn’t need to make it worse by telling him it'd been a bad combination of alcohol and a woman.

“Fine,” he bit off. “You do whatever the hell you want, pretty boy. But don’t think you can come back. I’m done with you.”

The phone went dead. Lowering it, I closed my eyes. That had gone about as well as I'd expected, and I'd deserved every bit of it. Still, it was nothing compared to what I had to do next.

Eying the phone narrowly, I picked it up and swallowed the bile that had been rising up my throat ever since I woke up – and not all of it because of the hangover.

“Just get it over with,” I muttered to myself.

I dialed the number and waited. One ring. Two. Three.

It went to voicemail, and I gritted my teeth, swearing silently as her voice came on the line.

“This is Camry. You know the drill!”

I didn’t bother leaving a message.

She hadn’t called back the last few times I’d left one, and I didn't really have anything new to say.

A wild hoot of laughter came from beyond the door, drawing my attention to the women waiting in the main part of the suite. Despite myself, I was drawn to the levity between the two of them. Drawn to her. I’d like to hear her laugh, and maybe see her smile again – not that caustic one that had flashed across her face when she spoke about her parents.

I wanted to see a real smile.

And damn what I would've given to have met her under different circumstances. Shoving away from the counter, I moved to the door and opened it. Time to face the music...

Silence fell, the conversation between them falling to a complete stop.

Two gorgeous women looked over at me, and I had another fleeting thought about how crazy my life had become. Not just in the past twelve hours, but in the past few weeks, the past few months.

A year ago, it had been almost boring. I surfed. I went swimming. I worked. A nice, boring routine.

That was it.

Now, I was staring at a woman I had somehow married, and I decided this was about as awkward as it had been the first time I’d gone out on stage. Well, maybe not quite that bad. But it was damn close.

“So…” I shoved my hands into the front pockets of my worn, faded jeans. “What do we do now?”

Piety got to her feet, her wide, sexy mouth curled into a smile that made me wish I could remember anything from last night. “Today, we’re going to have fun.”

“Fun?” I repeated. Running my tongue across my teeth, I debated whether or not I should say anything, but then I decided what the hell. “You’ve already paid me two thousand dollars. You’re paying me another eight–”

“Actually, another ten. I said I’d give you five times that. That’s ten.”

She’d changed and showered, her hair a little damp. Her pale blue sundress showed off her long legs, and offered just enough cleavage to be tempting but not enough to be scandalous. She looked tired, but I’d be hard pressed to tell that she was suffering the same hangover I was. If I hadn’t seen her earlier, I never would have guessed she'd been black-out drunk less than twelve hours ago.

Distracted by everything about her, it took me a moment to catch up with what she said. “Wait – what? You’re paying me twelve-thousand dollars?”

“Yes.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”

“Yes!” Without realizing it, I’d half-yelled and lowered my voice. “No. It’s just…why in the hell does this matter so much to you?”

“Wait until you meet my parents, and you’ll get it.” She glanced over at Astra before moving toward me. “Anyway, I figure you have clothes to pick up. You need to check out of your hotel, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” She was dressed similarly to me, in jeans and a t-shirt, her amazing subtle curves making my cock take notice. “Then we’ll take care of that, spend the day getting to know each other before we leave.”

“We’re leaving?” I rubbed my neck, the headache that had been threatening edging closer and closer. “Where are we going?”

“Philadelphia. My family reunion.” She pushed her hair back from her face and shrugged. “I’ve already bought your plane ticket – hope you don’t mind. I…um…well, I checked your wallet while you were showering and took care of the arrangements.”

“Oh. Okay.” Wow. She was…efficient. Efficient. Confident. Capable. Sexy. Man, was she sexy. I realized I was staring at her mouth and jerked my attention back to her eyes. “Okay, so let’s go to…well, my hotel first, right?”

She nodded, and we moved to the door.

Behind us, Astra called out. “Have fun, you two! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, PS!”

“Yeah.” Piety snorted. “That probably covers murder and dismemberment. I don’t think there’s much else.”

I was smiling as we left. Once the door closed behind us, I looked over at her. “PS? Why'd she say that?”

“Because she’s weird.” Piety rolled her eyes. “My middle name is Sabine. The whole name is a mouthful – Piety Sabine Van Allan. PS. Also, I told her more than once that I think my folks had me as an afterthought to help my dad’s career. Afterthought…PS.”

She glanced up at me and shrugged. If I hadn't been staring at her, I probably would've missed the flash of pain that moved across her eyes, then disappeared. I didn't need to know much about her to understand what had prompted that look.

I shook my head. “I don’t see how anybody could think of you as an afterthought, Piety Van Allen.”