Chapter Three
Esther
When did her head get this heavy? Esther groaned as she flung an arm over her eyes. The light was blinding. Her head felt like somebody had danced the rumba with a jackhammer on her brain. She shifted slightly, as there was something hard digging into her back. There was something heavy over her chest, and she realized that the something hard and heavy was another person. A man.
Her heart jumped into her throat as she whirled away from him, dragging half the blankets with her. Bryant moaned in his sleep and rolled onto his back. Esther stared at him with horror. He looked even more handsome in the early morning light, with his blond hair mussed up and the hard lines of his face relaxed into a slight smile.
But his handsomeness aside, this was not the situation she wanted to be in. Though she strained at her memory, she couldn’t remember what happened last night. She said she’d sleep with him if they were married, they kissed, they drank…. And now they were here. At least she was fully dressed and she didn’t feel… different down there.
Esther swung her legs off the bed. She hiked up her skirt, then froze.
She had been wearing slacks the previous night. Now she was in a cheap, ill-fitted white dress. White. Dress. And there was one of those giant diamond-shaped candy rings stuck onto her pinky. She stared for a long moment before she blinked, rubbed her eyes and checked again. Still wearing the cheapo wedding dress. Still wearing the big ring… the big diamond ring.
The pit of her stomach dropped out and she was very tempted to just fall back and let herself pass out again. She hiked the skirt out of the way and patted between her legs. Still wearing panties. It all felt very dry and comfortable. So that meant that nothing happened, right?
Her movement finally woke Brant. He stretched his back and flexed his legs and ankles. When he rolled over, he blinked in surprise. Esther froze, her hand still between her legs. His eyes widened and she could feel the blood draining from her face. The dragon’s gaze moved down her dress, lingered on the candy diamond, and finally lit on where her other hand was hidden up her skirt.
He yawned. “You must not think much of my talents.”
Esther snatched her hand away, color rushing to her cheeks. “That’s not what I was doing.”
“We seemed to have done some sort of roleplaying last night…” He frowned. “I must have drunk a lot. Like a crazy amount. Dragons don’t usually get drunk, but I’m definitely having a bit of a hangover here. Why a bride, though?”
Esther smoothed the skirt over her legs.
“Right. You said you were saving yourself for marriage.”
Tears flooded her eyes. “And after all these years, I’ve gone and thrown it away.”
“I don’t think we had sex.”
She turned her face away as the tears kept coming.
“Usually after a night of passion I’m naked,” Bryant said, standing. He grimaced and shook his head. “Nah, that’s not true. Usually after a night of passion, I’m in my home waking up fully dressed. And there is never a girl with me. I never do this.”
Esther gaped at him. He almost sounded… embarrassed. Not because he got drunk and possibly slept with a girl he’d just met, but because he woke up with her. Of course. It shouldn’t surprise her that he was a grade-A player. She wiped her tears away and checked between her legs again.
“I’d be sore and… sticky if we had, right?”
“Tender, yes. Sticky? Probably.” Bryant glanced at her exposed knees. “Want me to check?”
She glared at him. “I don’t think we had sex.”
“Which is what I said.”
Esther smoothed the skirt down again, relieved that they were both in agreement. And the physical evidence supported that theory, so there was no reason to think that something had happened other than what they already thought. So that was that and there was no point in fretting about it anymore. She should have known better than to think that she’d throw away her virginity on a drunken night.
“What do you remember from last night?” Bryant asked, rubbing his shoulder. “I think…” He rolled up his sleeve. Her name was tattooed in cursive script on his shoulder. “Yup. Stings like hell.”
“I might remember that.” Esther furrowed her brow. “You said you wanted to make sure that you never forgot me… And then we went to buy the dress?”
Bryant cast a glance at her. “A poofy princess dress.”
“An ugly, cheap, polyester dress. And a big candy diamond. I look like a costume shop blew up.”
“You look hot.”
Esther stood, blushing. “Shut up.”
The dragon leapt over the bed and fastened his hands on her hips. He ground at her from behind as she let out a strangled noise or protest. Even as she did so, however, a flare of heat rose up in her. He had moves. That was clear. With a groan she let herself fall back against him.
“We can continue whatever roleplaying game we were playing last night,” he whispered in her ear. “Now that we’re both sober…”
Esther was tempted. The heat flared hotter as she imagined their bodies grinding and twining, the cheap fabric being ripped from her body… and then she was disgusted. With herself, mostly, for even considering it. She elbowed him in the sternum and pulled away.
“I was just almost in tears because I thought we’d slept together and now you want to go ahead and do it for real?”
He grinned. “Why not?”
“Why not?” Esther grumbled under her breath as she looked around to find her glasses. She remembered taking her contacts out before she got too drunk. As she shoved the glasses on, her gaze fell on a piece of paper on the nightstand. “Oh, no.”
“What is it?”
She looked up at him with terrified eyes. “Our marriage certificate.”
***
Two hours of pouring over the document and calling chapels and law buildings, Esther was positive of two things. She was never going to drink again, and she was married to Bryant Chandler. She didn’t even know his last name before reading it on their certificate and yet here they were. Married. She thought that it took longer than that. Licenses and blood tests and all that jazz. But no! They were married.
She was married. To a complete stranger. And a playboy at that. What was she going to tell her mother? Dominique? Her rabbi?
Esther pushed her glasses up her nose again. She nodded rapidly as she came to a decision. “Nobody has to find out about this. Nobody. We can just annul this marriage and then pretend like it never happened.”
“Annul it? After I bought you that big diamond ring?”
She pulled the candy off her finger and threw it at him. “You can have it back. This isn’t a joke, getting drunk married isn’t something I want on my resume. We’re not even in Vegas, people don’t get drunk married when they’re not in Vegas. We just quietly annul it and then presto! We’re all—”
“No.”
She stopped. Bryant turned the candy diamond over in his hands, not looking at her. An awful dread filled her chest. If he was going to say that he’d found a mate in her, what could she do? She didn’t know much about dragons but she did know that these things happened sometimes. They just met the person they were meant to be with and everything else fell away. But he’d already had a mate, according to Dominque. Surely that meant that he wasn’t in the market for a new one?
“We’re getting an annulment,” she said.
“No.”
“Why not?” Her voice was breathless. If he said what she was fearing… or maybe hoping… “We didn’t sleep together, which means the marriage is unconsummated. Which means we can just quietly annul the marriage and nobody will be the wiser.”
The stubborn dragon shook his head.
“Look.” Esther’s heart pounded against her ribs. Her voice cracked on her dry throat. “You don’t want to be married to me.” Did he? “I don’t want to be married to you.” Do I? “Besides which, you can’t be. According to that Emperor’s Guard oath thing. You can’t be married. So, we need to—”
Bryant held up his hands. “That oath is precisely why we can’t get an annulment.”
Okay. That made no sense whatsoever. Esther stared at him, trying to get a better idea of what the heck he was talking about.
“If it was discovered that I went out and drunk-married some random woman—”
“I am not random,” Esther protested.
Bryant continued, ignoring her, “—then I’d be kicked out of the Emperor’s Guard before you can say doe ray me. Regardless of getting an annulment the next morning, marrying you shows a severe lack of judgment and—” He cut off, staring at her.
“What?”
“That look on your face. You’re mad at me for saying that marrying you shows a lack of judgment.”
Esther turned away, flushed. “No! I’m mad at you for talking all this gibberish. You can say that it was all a joke if they found out that we’re married. Which they’ll only do if we stay married. So, it’ll be far worse for you if we don’t annul. Besides which, wouldn’t it be worse for you if they found out you were married, rather than if they found out you had a drunk marriage annulled?”
“If they find out about this at all, I’m screwed.” Bryant shook his head. “If they already know that we’re married, then it’s over. If they don’t, then there is no reason for them to find out. But if we go through more legal proceedings then there will be a greater chance that they’ll find out what happened.”
There was some logic in what he was saying. Esther chewed her lip as she considered him. It wasn’t like she had any other prospects at the moment. If she did find someone, it’d be just as easy to annul the marriage later as it would be right away, wouldn’t it? But still, running around being secretly married to someone she barely knew didn’t seem like the best idea.
“What will you do when someone digs up our marriage?”
“They won’t. As long as you and I go our separate ways and never speak about this again.”
“But what if they do?”
Bryant shrugged. “Then they’d dig it up whether we were still married or not. I know it’s an awful lot to ask of you…” His green eyes captured her, smoldering like the ruins of an old castle. “But being part of the Emperor’s Guard means more to me than anything else. Please. Please, Esther…”
She couldn’t believe what she was about to say. She sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll stay married.”
“Good. Thanks.” He kissed her cheek. “So, if you ever feel like not being a virgin anymore—”
“Out!” She pointed at the door, glaring at him.