Ian Wood stared at his brand new wife and couldn’t help but smile at how fucking smug he felt. For the longest time he’d wanted to avoid having a wife. Years spent listening to his mother constantly pester him. There was not a time he didn’t go home when she didn’t push woman after woman under his nose.

He didn’t want a wife, especially not one that his mother suggested.

They were always blond, beautiful, and sporting fake tits, which was fine but there was no way he’d ever allow his mother to pick a woman that he intended to be with for the rest of his life. To avoid her constant meddling, he’d heard about this very interesting site on the Internet that not only found you a wife to match what you needed, but took care of all the basics. Arranging the details of a contract, organizing the wedding, that sort of thing. With her legally bound to him, Lucy Redman was now his bride.

Nodding at the officiate, he placed his hand at the base of her back as they left the registry office. They’d not opted for a large church wedding, and he was pleased. He couldn’t wait to go home and to see the look of shock on his parents’ faces. At forty years old, he’d grown tired of trying to make excuses. Waving away the photographer that was stationed outside, he took his wife to his waiting limo.

Lucy still hadn’t said anything to him apart from her vows. From their first meeting, she’d stayed quiet, letting him do all the talking and arranging.

Once inside the limo, he leaned back with a sigh of contentment. “I hope you don’t mind, but we’re going straight to my parents’ house for lunch.” It was a Saturday but he didn’t want to miss a moment.

The Woods were a wealthy family and seeing as he ran his own company away from the family empire, he knew exactly how wealthy they were. In fact, his biggest competition was his own family. He’d never gotten along with his parents, and would probably never see them again, but he liked to rub it into their fake faces exactly how fucking well he’d done without them.

Maybe he was a little fucked up in the head, he didn’t know.

“Can I go home first, get into something more comfortable?” Lucy asked, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. At his request, she wore the white designer summer dress that he’d sent her, one that he knew probably wasn’t too comfortable, but looked incredible on her. The moment he saw it passing a shop three weeks ago he knew she had to wear it for their wedding, and of course for the lunch he knew he was going to have with his parents.

It really brought out the blue of her eyes. In his world he was used to women of experience and bitchiness, whereas Lucy didn’t display a single one of those traits. In fact, when he looked into her eyes, he only saw innocence, and she always seemed to be nervous around him.

“I want you to meet my family,” he said, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.

Lucy was a beautiful woman.

She had that glow that drew people to her, and a kindness that most tried to exploit. He’d recognized it on the first date they’d shared and she was the first woman he’d ever felt an overwhelming need to protect.

“I thought you didn’t have a good relationship with them,” she asked.

He sighed, running a hand down his face. They’d talked a little before the wedding about his family and hers, how life had been growing up, all the usual prerequisite things a “couple” would discuss. “I don’t.” He’d been open and honest with her from the start, letting her know without a doubt that the only reason he was marrying her was to rub it in his family’s face that he’d picked his bride. He’d told her how his mother pushed women on him, and how Lucy was very different than the females his family probably saw him with. “Look, I promise you I won’t let them hurt you or anything. We’re married now. That changes a lot of things.” He took her hand, locking their fingers together.

They still had to talk about their living arrangements and he needed her to quit her job so that she could live with him full time. He was a demanding man, and he always wanted all the attention.

Lucy pulled her hand out of his, and he sighed. She didn’t seem to be the most willing of brides and he found that infuriating.

Running his fingers through his hair, he pressed the button to give them some privacy. He didn’t trust the driver’s beady little eyes watching them.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. When they were alone he didn’t have to be the asshole that he liked to portray to the outside world.

He’d learned a long time ago that showing weakness allowed people to walk all over you, and he’d gotten his heart broken one time too many.

With Lucy, though, he wanted to make that effort. She turned toward him with a frown. “You confuse me.”

“We barely know each other. I imagine that’s confusing. We’re married.” He held up his hand that now had a ring. It was a simple gold band that he’d picked out but it also branded him as taken. Lifting up her hand so they were side by side, he smiled. He couldn’t help it.

Even though the marriage was a complete farce, he was fucking excited about it. Lucy seemed to fill with him with a hope of something amazing happening, and he didn’t want to lose that, not any of it.

She sighed. “It’s not that. Why do you want to hurt your parents? Why not let it go?”

“If I was willing to let it go, then I wouldn’t have married you. I told you everything on that first initial date. I haven’t fooled you into thinking this is a love match.”

“I know. You’ve been honest with me. It’s the one thing you promised you’d do and I appreciate that.”

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked. Stroking a finger down her arm, he tried to be comforting. Lucy stared down at his touch, holding her body stiff.

He didn’t like how closed off she always was. She was the first woman he actually had to encourage to talk to him.

****

Lucy couldn’t believe she was married, especially to a man who only wanted to rub it in his own family’s face. There were times Ian seemed cruel, but whenever he looked at her, that faded away, and he was nice to her.

Being on a mail ordered website was a joke, only it had been on her. She’d not known that she’d even been put up on the website until she received Ian’s first email. Some assholes from work had done it, thinking it would be funny to humiliate her.

And it was because of that bullshit that she quit, just gave her two weeks’ notice and said to hell with them. She’d had a little money saved up, her nest egg, her in-case-of-an-emergency fund. She didn’t have much, but it was enough to support her until she found something better, something that didn’t eat away at her daily.

And although she could have declined the proposal, deleted the account, and never looked back, this part of her had wanted to go through with it. Maybe it was because she was lonely, or because Ian, a rich, powerful, and darkly attractive man, actually showed interest in her. Maybe it was because she’d never had that kind of attention from a man in her life, or the fact she was still a virgin, with curves that a lot of people found unattractive.

And that’s how she felt most of the time … plain and unattractive.

And now she was married to a man she wasn’t even sure she liked, who was handsome and wealthy, but his personality was the opposite.

“It’s nothing,” she said.

Of course to him she’d been perfect. He’d told her she was the complete opposite of what all of his family wanted. But she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Yay.

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“I just don’t think I’d like to meet your parents on my wedding day.” She stared down at the white dress, wishing she wasn’t a virgin, and that today hadn’t made her feel sick. “It’s … been a really long day.” She gritted her teeth and stared out of the window.

“You’re right. Let’s head to my place. It’s best you see where you’re going to be moving into.”

“Moving into?”

“We’re going to be living together now. We’re married.”

“We didn’t discuss this.”

“I know, but I figured it was a given. You’re my wife, Lucy. I want to take care of you.” His hand moved across her shoulders, and she didn’t fight him.

She didn’t like him but her body did.

She wasn’t naïve in thinking she wouldn’t be staying with her husband, but with Ian this was a different situation. This was a marriage of convenience, so a part of her hoped that maybe he’d only want her around when his parents were involved, when he needed her on his arm to piss them off.

He was the first man in her life that ever made her ache the way she did now. Her body, in that moment, wasn’t her own. Ian took her hand and locked their fingers together. She noticed he seemed to touch her every single chance he got.

“I’m a wealthy man. I don’t want you living in that small apartment above a pizza place anymore. In fact, I hope you don’t mind but while we were at our wedding, I decided to get some moving men into your place. They’re putting your stuff in my home right now.”

“You just went ahead and did that without me?” she asked, shocked and slightly appalled at what he’d done.

She wasn’t happy.

That apartment belonged to her.

She didn’t have much in the world but her apartment meant everything to her. Growing up in foster care, she’d had nothing. Being passed around constantly, hoping a home would open up for her, she’d come to realize the few important things in life were a home and food.

The moment she left at eighteen, she’d found a job, settled down, and made a life for herself. She earned a living, rented that apartment with the sweat and tears of her hard work.

People were not to be trusted, even though Ian was nice to her.

He wanted something.

He was using her, and she had to keep remembering that.

While he wanted to rub his parents’ faces in the fact that she wasn’t perfect, she had to come up with a plan B.

The limo turned around and they headed into the city.

“We’re not going to your parents’?” Had he really listened to her?

“You’re right. Going to them on my wedding day is in really bad taste. I don’t know what I was thinking. We could stay home, have a quiet meal, enjoy each other. Learn everything there is to know about one another.”

She stared at him for a long time. “I thought you said we knew enough about each other.”

“I’m starting to think I talk trash.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek, and heat filled her entire body. “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Your parents? How come they didn’t appear at our wedding? In fact, I noticed that no one came to our wedding. Just people I knew who could act as witnesses.”

She licked her dry lips. “I don’t have any parents.”

“Come on, everyone has parents.”

“Mine left me in front of a church when I was a baby. It was freezing cold out, and I had a card placed on top of me asking for someone else to deal with me.” She still owned the card, which was now faded. Every time she had any doubt or started to trust anyone, she’d look at it, and realize there was no one in the world she could trust.

“Damn, shit, I’m so sorry. That’s fucking awful.”

“It’s fine.” From how much he hated his parents she didn’t want to know what it was like to grow up with them either.

They were both screwed up in their own ways but simply did different things to deal with it.

“You don’t have any family?”

“None.”

“You never thought to go looking for your parents when you were older?”

She shook her head. “There was no reason to. Not once while I was in the system did anyone come looking for me. They got rid of me when I was a baby, Ian. I’m not going to go looking for people who didn’t care.” She shrugged.

There was a time it would hurt.

She’d see other kids be taken to homes, be loved, while she remained in the foster care system. Now, years and years later, she was sitting in the back of a limo with a rich man. Maybe she’d gotten the better deal after all.