Chapter Six

Blake

 

I was awake, but I couldn’t open my eyes. My head pounded to a strange beat, and my skin was clammy. Memories of the day flooded my mind: the wedding, Aiden, and suddenly my finger felt trapped with the gold ring squeezing around it. The night’s events were foggy; the last thing I remembered was sitting at the resort bar with Aiden. We were laughing, drinking, but I couldn’t remember leaving, coming back to the room, being here, in bed.

My feet kicked at the blankets, uncovering my hot skin. I pushed myself up against the headboard, opening my eyes to Aiden. His chest was bare, the sheet dangling around his hips, clinging on to his indented pelvis. I looked down, realizing that I was wearing only my tank top and panties. What did we do?

I wanted to wake him, to shake him and demand he admit to taking advantage of me, but I couldn’t remember anything. My mind was blank, dark, empty. What if I came onto him? I had a crush on him for years, and this wedding, this stupid fucking marriage was my big, bright idea.

My eyes wandered down the ripples of his abs, fixating on the indents at his pelvis, and then moved down. The sheet was thin, allowing the shape of his cock to display proudly. Even limp, it was still impressive.

Arousal slicked between my legs as I stared at his manhood, wondering if he had in fact, fucked me last night.

No! I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel that attraction towards Aiden, not now. This was a marriage of convenience, and this room, this place, it messed it up. It was too romantic, too real. Aiden probably set it up himself, just acting as if Luke had planned it as a gift. Why would Luke give us a gift at all, knowing it wasn’t a real wedding?

I looked down at my ring. It was real, alright. I was legally married to Aiden. Fake reasons or not, this marriage was real, and as I look back at his beautiful, bare, dark skin, it may have been consummated as well.

I felt sick. Maybe from the alcohol, maybe from the stress, but I wanted to puke. My blood was boiling, creating an even more intense heat on my skin, and I just kept feeling like I’d made a huge mistake.

“Good morning, Mrs. Lopez,” Aiden grumbled as he stirred awake.

Mrs. Lopez… oh God, what had I done?

“Marriage of convenience?” I snapped before I could filter my mouth.

Aiden slipped up in the bed, the sheet still clinging at his hips, and stared at me with confusion.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

I nodded towards his bare chest, offering a tight-lipped smirk in his direction.

He blushed as he looked down, and then looked towards me, wearing just a tank top.

“I thought you were gonna sleep on the couch,” I hissed, gripping a pillow tightly in my hand and flinging it towards his head.

“Whoa,” he snapped back, grabbing the pillow, jerking it from my clutches before I could hit him again.

“You had this planned, this room, the alcohol,” I scorned, grabbing the pillow behind me, and lunging it in his direction.

He pulled out of the way, causing the pillow to just miss him. He reacted with a swing towards me, the pillow he stole from me now slamming into my face.

His eyes were wide and filled with fear as I stared in his direction. I couldn’t believe he just hit me with a pillow. I let out a roar, unleashing the anger that I’d buried all morning, and slammed the last pillow I could reach into his head.

He fell over onto his back, his arm already stretching towards me with the pillow he gripped. Before I could get out of the way, it hit me again, knocking me onto my back.

Aiden pounced onto me, his arms pinning me on either side.

“What makes you think this is my fault?” he questioned.

How dare he insinuate that I was the one who initiated this, even though that thought had crossed my own mind?

I groaned and released a soft chuckle at the thought.

His grin was delicious, his lips so close to mine, even now, angered, I wanted to reach up and kiss them.

“I don’t remember anything from last night,” I admitted.

“Neither do I,” Aiden concurred.

“Yeah, right,” I rolled my eyes.

“Are you going to stop hitting me with pillows if I let you up?” he quizzed.

My blood was still boiling, and I knew I couldn’t make any promises, but I did anyway.

“Yes,” I agreed.

He lifted from me, releasing me. I had a strong urge to reach for the pillow, and with the tension, along with his eyes filled with warning, I started to giggle uncontrollably.

“Don’t do it, Blake,” he scolded.

I couldn’t help myself. I reached beside me, gripping the pillow in my hand, and slammed it into the side of his head.

I laughed, loudly, all the tension rolling from me like waves from the shore. He looked annoyed at first, but his smile quickly appeared, and then his laughter joined mine.

“Well, I doubt we had sex,” he announced, sliding from the sheets and standing by the bed.

My cheeks blushed at the anticipation of seeing his cock in the flesh, not just outlined in the thin sheet. My eyes fixated on a pair of blue boxer briefs, still outlining his manhood, but covering it from view.

“What does that prove?” I sassed, sliding up against the headboard.

“I don’t think we’d get dressed afterward, especially if we were so drunk neither of us remembered even coming to bed,” he declared.

I wanted to believe him, but a part of me didn’t want to believe him. He walked around the room, his ass like two boulders smashed into the blue material of his briefs.

“I don’t see a condom,” he announced with a smile.

“Oh God,” I sighed, fearing that we not only had sex, but unprotected sex.

He let out a laugh.

“Okay, so if we did have sex, and by chance, got dressed afterward, and there’s no condom, how do you feel down there? Couldn’t you tell if we did, if I did?” he stammered.

The arousal from earlier was still slick between my legs, but I didn’t want to accuse that as his. I jumped up from the bed and moved into the bathroom, realizing there still was no privacy with the glass doors.

“Turn around,” I demanded.

When Aiden turned, I slid my panties down and sat on the toilet. I wiped away the small amount of arousal left from earlier and didn’t feel anything else. We hadn’t had sex.

I returned to the main room, smiling with embarrassment.

“So, we didn’t?” he questioned nervously.

I shook my head.

“See, you got all worked up over nothing,” he grinned.

“We still ended up in the bed together, half-naked,” I insisted, certain something had to have happened, even though it was certainly not everything.

He shook his head.

“Blake, I think I can be trusted to sleep in a bed with you,” he smirked.

I didn’t like the way that sounded. Why could he sleep next to me with no urges?

“I mean, when we get back to my house, we’re gonna have to figure something out about the sleeping arrangements,” he informed.

“Why? You have three bedrooms, right?” I asked.

“I do, but only one is furnished with a bed,” he confessed.

When was he going to tell me this?

“So, I’ll sleep on the couch until I buy a bed,” I pointed out quickly.

“Yeah, and my mom or abuela drops by and finds you on the couch, us as newlyweds, how’s that going to look?” he questioned.

I imagined his abuela, Anna-Maria, clinging her chest, having a heart attack in the living room as she cried to God that she couldn’t believe she’d never be a great abuela. Ugh.

“So, you’ll make a pad on the floor in your room, and I’ll sleep in the bed,” I smiled sternly.

“I’m not sleeping on my floor,” Aiden growled, grabbing his jeans and sliding them on. As soon as his chiseled abs were covered with the t-shirt he slid on, I missed them.

“What, do you suggest that I sleep on the floor?” I snapped.

Aiden grinned in my direction, a mischievous grin that made him look much younger than he was.

“We are both adults; we can share a bed. I think we proved that,” he insisted.

My heart raced at the thought of sleeping next to Aiden every night. Last night, I hadn’t remembered, but how would I handle the rest of the nights, the sober nights?

“Until we get you a bed,” he added.

“Okay,” I agreed, happy to hear a compromise was in the works at least.

“I’m starving,” Aiden changed the topic, and I was appreciative.

My stomach grumbled at the thought of food. I didn’t remember eating anything last night and assumed we probably hadn’t.

I dressed quickly, and Aiden and I found a table at the restaurant where we were away from other patrons. We talked about how we would handle delivering the news to everyone back home.

Aiden’s mother and abuela would be ecstatic, but Liam, I feared, would be infuriated, even knowing it wasn’t a real marriage.

“The only thing that will save me from not having a wedding is the fact it’s you,” Aiden commented.

I knew he meant because I didn’t have my parents here, no father to give me away, but he didn’t add any details to his comment.

“Liam is gonna freak out,” I admitted.

“It was partly his idea,” Aiden scoffed.

“Yeah, but not to marry his sister,” I smirked.

It was obvious my point had gotten across to Aiden. He was pretty quiet during breakfast, shoving food into his mouth, smiling oddly in my direction from time to time. The drive back into town wasn’t much better. As we got closer and closer to town, my heart raced, Aiden’s fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly, and the tension in the truck could be cut with a knife.

I was beginning to realize what a mistake we’d made. This was going to be a mess.