I never thought I’d turn one of my fucking guest rooms into a goddamn nursery, but here I am, staring at a crib.

Everly did an amazing job. I didn’t really expect her to get this room entirely set up in only two days, but she managed to pull it off. Now my daughter, assuming she’s my daughter at least, doesn’t have to sleep in a cardboard box. It was a nice box, but I think the crib will be better.

I lean up against the wall and just look at the room. It stands for something I didn’t know I wanted, and am definitely not ready for, but I have no other choice. I’m not the kind of man to turn my back on my responsibilities. If Alexa is my daughter, I’m going to raise her the best I possibly can. If she’s not, well, I’ll find someone that wants to adopt her and take care of her. Either way, this baby is going to be loved and taken care of.

Though that’s the long-term. In the short-term, I have Chester Winterfield and this land deal to agonize about. I can’t risk letting this fall through and potentially lose the entire project.

And so I’m doing something insane, something fucking stupid and crazy. I’m going to marry a girl I barely know, and I’m going to pay her a lot of money to pretend that Alexa is actually her baby. I don’t know what made me even think of this little plot, but I’m not going to turn away from it now.

“What are you thinking about?”

I half turn and catch Everly standing in the hallway, holding Alexa.

“Just how fast things can change.”

She smiles alittle. “No kidding.”

“In an hour, we’re going to be married. Are you scared?”

“Not really,” she says, shrugging. “I guess I’m resigned to it.”

I laugh and turn toward her. “Resigned isn’t the word I always dreamed my wife would use.”

“You dream about getting married?” She gives me a clever little smile.

“Maybe I do,” I say, stepping toward her. “In my dreams, my wife always had long, dark hair and these lips that are always pouting. She’s stubborn and tough, but she’s clever and beautiful.”

She blinks at me, a little taken off guard. “Yeah, and my dream husband is rich, handsome, and doesn’t have a kid.”

I have to laugh at that. “Let me take her.” I reach out and she hands me Alexa. The little baby squirms in my arms a little as I hold her. So far, Alexa is actually a really good baby.

“We should get going,” I say to Everly. “I have a driver downstairs waiting for us.”

“Okay,” she says, taking a deep breath.

“If you want to back out, now’s your chance,” I say. “No hard feelings.”

She hesitates but shakes her head. “No, I’m doing this.”

“Good.” I grin at her before heading into the other room.

We gather our things and meet the driver downstairs, Alexa in tow. I took off work today so that we could meet with Richard in his office. It’s our wedding day, and I figured I can miss a single work day for my own wedding.

Everly is quiet on the drive over. I figure she’s probably wondering how the hell she ended up following through with a crazy idea like this, and I can’t blame her. There’s nothing normal about what we’re about to do, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem so bad.

I study Everly’s face as she looks out the window. She has beautiful lips and wide eyes with dark eyelashes. She’s pretty in a gentle and unassuming way. My eyes travel down her body, and I can’t help but picture what it would be like to feel her skin underneath mine, to taste her lips as my hands roam down between her legs. I want to hear her breathing get heavy and deep as moans struggle to escape her lips. I want to feel her body shiver and push against mine as I make her feel something she’s never imagined before.

I’m supposed to keep this professional, or at least as professional as I can. This isn’t a real marriage. But just thinking about Everly’s body underneath mine as I take her tight little pussy makes me fucking hard as hell.

We pull up outside of Richard’s office and climb out. I carry Alexa’s car seat with me, her diaper bag slung over my shoulder, as Everly leads the way. I direct her toward the elevators after we check in with security at the front. We ride them up to Richard’s floor, and he meets us as we step out.

“Logan,” he says, grinning at me. He’s my age, broad shoulders, dark eyes, and a full head of dirty blond hair. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s a baby, asshole.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “I mean that bag.”

“Diaper bag,” I grumble.

“You really are a dad now, aren’t you?”

I sigh and shake my head. “We’ll see, won’t we?”

“I guess so.” He turns toward Everly. “And I assume you’re his bride-to-be?”

She blushes a little. “Everly. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” They quickly shake heads. “Come this way, guys.” We head down the hall, passing other offices on the way, before making it to Richard’s corner office.

He’s a senior partner in one of the biggest and most powerful law firms in the city, and possibly the country. He’s young and successful and a damn good litigator. Normally he does high-profile courtroom stuff, so he’s slumming it a bit here in helping me with this issue, but he knows I’d do the same for him.

I get Alexa set up and comfortable before we sit down. She fusses a little bit but calms down as soon as I pick her up from the seat.

“Okay, guy,” Richard says. “Let’s dive right into this, because I have a meeting in twenty minutes.” He pulls out a sheaf of papers and pushes them across his desk toward us. I take one copy and Everly gets the other one.

“This is a pretty standard contract. Essentially, it says that Everly will marry Logan and claim Alexa is her baby up until the land deal with Chester Winterfield is finished. At which point, Logan will give Everly $1 million and a promotion at work. It’s all there, but in legal jargon so that it would hold up in court if it comes to that, which I’m sure it won’t.” He proceeds to walk us through the contract, which is three pages long and pretty standard.

“One important feature to note,” Richard says, finishing up. “There’s a nondisclosure agreement, binding for both of you. Neither of you can speak of this arrangement in public or in private, ever. Logan, this means you, too. I’m sure Everly here doesn’t want the world to know about this, so you won’t be able to write it in your memoirs or some shit like that.”

I laugh and bounce Alexa in my arms. “Why would I write my memoirs?”

“I don’t know,” Richard says. “Just seems like an old rich guy thing to do.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t have any interest in writing my life down.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Everly says, grinning. “I could see it happening.”

“Am I really that self-centered?” I ask, shaking my head.

“Probably,” Richard answers, winking at Everly.

We finish going through the rest of the contract. When we’re done, Richard turns his copy toward us.

“Okay, time to sign,” he says. “Last chance to back out.”

I look at Everly but she doesn’t hesitate. “Let’s do it,” she says.

“Okay then.” Richard hands her a pen and she signs her name, dates it, and initials each page. When she’s done, I do the same thing.

“Good,” Richard says. “That was easy. Now, I have a nurse here that’s going to take some blood from Logan and Alexa, just to establish paternity. Is that okay with you, Logan?”

I nod my head. “Thanks for setting this up.”

“No problem.” He hits a buzzer on his phone. “Lucy, send her in.”

A minute later, a young woman in scrubs enters the room. She walks over and efficiently sets up her tools. It takes her less than five minutes to get a vial of blood from me, and another minute to get some from Alexa. Surprisingly, Alexa doesn’t cry, even though we’re ready for her to melt down.

When the nurse is done, we thank her and she leaves. Richard leans back in his chair and checks his watch.

“Shit, okay, we’re really moving here.”

Everly glances at me. “You okay?” she asks.

“Fine,” I say. “Just thinking about the results.”

She reaches out and squeezes my hand. “It’ll be fine,” she says. “Don’t worry.”

I nod at her, a little surprised at her reassuring smile.

“Last step here, folks,” Richard says. He hits the buzzer on his phone again. “Lucy, send him in.”

An older man comes into the room, dressed in a suit, but I know what this is almost immediately. He places his briefcase down on Richard’s desk, pops it open, and takes out some papers.

“I’m Judge Franklin,” he says. “I’m here to marry you two kids, is that right?”

I nod my head. “You sure are. Jesus, Richard, you’re efficient as hell, aren’t you?”

Richard laughs. “Figured we’d get this all done at once.”

I look over at Everly, and finally she looks a little nervous. I think I’d be worried if she didn’t even break a sweat through this whole process.

“This’ll be easy. Do you two want to get married of your own free will, free of threats or coercion?”

“Yes,” I say.

“I do,” Everly says.

I grin at her and take her hand again, this time offering the support.

“Well then, sign these papers, and it’s done,” the judge grumbles.

I take the paper and sign it before passing it to Everly. She hesitates but signs her name. The judge makes us sign a few more things, he stamps them, and finally collects everything up.

“Thanks so much, Judge,” Richard says.

“Anything for you, Richard, just don’t be a stranger now.” The judge packs up his things.

“Golf next Tuesday?” Richard asks as he walks the judge to the door.

I don’t hear the judge respond as he and Richard reach the door. I slip out a small box from my jacket pocket and turn toward Everly, Alexa still pressed against my chest.

“One more thing,” I say to her softly.

“Logan.” She stares at the box. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes.” I flip open the box with my thumb and show her the ring. The diamonds are large but tasteful. I spent a ton of money on it, since I want this to look real, and I had to do it all last minute.

She gasps a little. “That’s too much.”

“If I were marrying you for real, I’d give you something better. But this is good enough.”

She bites her lip and slowly takes the ring. I watch as she slides it onto her finger, and I feel a strange sense of satisfaction.

“Is this crazy?” she asks me softly.

“Absolutely.” I lean toward her. “But I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. You’re my wife now, Everly.”

She looks at me with surprise on her face. For a second, we’re inches apart, and the only thing I want in the world is to kiss those beautiful lips. I want to make this real, make her my actual wife, keep her in my apartment and fuck her when I please. I want to make her mine completely.

But Richard returns, making some joke about the judge, and the moment is gone. I pull back to my chair and Everly gathers herself, clearly a little flustered.

The rest of the meeting winds down from there. We’ll get the paternity results back as soon as possible, and there’s nothing else to do but figure out a way to announce this last-minute marriage to the world. That’ll be Everly’s job, of course, since she’s the marketing person.

But now it’s real. We’re really going to go through with this. We’re going to try and make it work. Everly is my wife, even if it’s fake by contract, though genuinely legal. Together, we’re going to try and pull off this crazy plan while taking care of an infant.

I don’t know why, but I’m excited as hell about it.