Chapter Eight
Brooks stood with Leah in front of a guy in a courthouse and repeated vows he had no intention of keeping.
Well, that wasn’t totally true. He’d keep them for a while. Maybe it was more accurate to say he had no intention of keeping them permanently. Cole handed him a ring and he slipped it on Leah’s finger. Her hand trembled slightly in his, and a wave of tenderness washed over him. Okay, if he was ever tempted to do the whole marriage thing for real, Leah would be the one to tempt him. He gave her hand a squeeze and she rewarded him with a shy smile as she slipped on his own ring.
He still wanted to find a way to get her a big, fat rock. Once the marriage was dissolved she could sell it. Stash away a nice little nest egg. An easy and unobtrusive way of getting some money into her pocket without handing her a wad of cash since she kept flat-out refusing that, too. What ex-wife didn’t want alimony? He needed to get the stubborn woman to stop refusing everything.
Not that it should matter. The wedding was fake. The relationship was fake. But Leah in that white dress…very, very real. In fact, the more they continued, the more real everything felt.
He’d been half convinced he should call it off until the moment Leah had walked into the room. There were other ways to deal with her problems. If she was too stubborn to take his money outright—and judging by the way she insisted they sign the ironclad prenup Cole had drawn up stating she got nothing no matter why the marriage ended, he was sure he wouldn’t be able to convince her to take it any other way—then he could always find her a job. Set up anonymous donations or scholarships for the kid. Enlist Kiersten’s help in making the woman see reason.
But then she’d walked into that courthouse room, in a white lacy dress that floated around her knees, her hair pulled back with a simple silver headband that left her brunette waves free to fall to her shoulders, and he’d shut down any other thought in his head but making her his. It wouldn’t be forever. It shouldn’t be forever, for her sake. But for a little while he could pretend that a woman like her would marry a man like him under circumstances other than extreme duress with her fingers crossed behind her back.
“You may kiss your bride.”
All other thoughts evaporated. This was the part of the ceremony he’d been looking forward to. She didn’t seem nearly as eager, glancing around at their friends who’d been able to make it to a last-minute wedding with a bright blush staining her cheeks. He took her chin in his hands and drew her gaze back to him. She smiled and his heart exploded. He barely knew this woman and he’d willingly lay the world at her feet for one more of those smiles.
He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips, reining in the urge to do much, much more. It would embarrass her and the day was hard enough for her as it was. But later, when they were alone…they still needed to renegotiate some terms. It was their wedding night after all.
“Congratulations,” the officiant said. He handed them some paperwork and looked behind them for the next couple who waited their turn.
Kiersten gave him a quick hug, standing on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “I realize this isn’t supposed to be real, but there is obviously something going on between you two. If you hurt her…”
“That is the last thing I intend to do,” he said.
“Good.” She dropped back down and smiled up at him. “Well then…” She wrapped her arm around Leah and led her out while Cole clapped him on the shoulder.
“You just won me a ton of money,” he said with a grin.
Brooks raised an eyebrow. “And how did I do that? More importantly, where’s my share?”
Cole chuckled and nodded back at Harrison and Chris who were pulling up the rear. “Harrison bet that you’d never go through with it.”
“You bet I would?” Brooks snorted. “I’d have bet with Harrison.”
“Naw. I have a feeling about you two.” He nodded up at Leah who was climbing into the limo behind Kiersten.
“Don’t go getting all attached,” Brooks said. “This is only temporary.”
Cole nodded, a smug smile of monogamous wisdom plastered to his face that had Brooks itching to knock it off.
“Oh, before I forget,” Cole said. “Here. The boys and I got you a wedding present.”
He slapped a string of condoms into Brooks’s hand. “Probably not necessary, I know, but hey, we have high hopes for you, buddy.”
“You guys are dicks.”
“Yeah, that’s why you love us.”
“Nothing is happening tonight. The last thing we want is to complicate an already complicated relationship.”
“Why? You might enjoy being married.”
“Not everyone is cut out for marriage, you know.”
Cole laughed outright at that. “Says the guy who just got married.”
“That’s…it’s not…shut up.”
He jumped into the car before Cole could say anything else.
The dinner their friends graciously treated them to seemed never-ending. He appreciated the gesture, but the whole situation was weird. Celebrating something that had literally been set up to be broken. But hey, free dinner. No complaints on his part. His eyes, though, strayed often to Leah. Better yet, her eyes strayed often to him.
By the end of dinner, he felt like they’d been playing footsy all night, only it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the real thing because they’d never actually touched each other. And he wanted to touch her more than he’d ever wanted anything. That was saying something. He was a greedy guy. There were a lot of things he wanted.
And he’d give them all for one night with her.