Alessia

Waking up in bed with Alec the second time around wasn’t quite as startling as the first. Or maybe it was, but in a completely different way.

Yesterday morning, he was still pretty much a stranger to me. The hot guy I’d met and only had fuzzy recollections of the time we’d spent together. The wedding ring had been a shocker, but it was still a situation I could have walked away from without too much trouble since getting a divorce in Vegas was almost as easy as getting married there.

But the contentment I felt from being held securely in his arms wasn’t easy to walk away from. Not after spending an entire day with him. Not with how thoughtful he’d been. Breakfast delivered to the room. Beautiful dresses. What had to be a ridiculously expensive ring. Showing me off to his friends and family. Solving my problems which had seemed impossible to handle only a day and a half before. And then there was the sex.

Holy crap, it’d been incredible. A small part of me wanted to rationalize it away as being due to how long it’d been since I’d slept with someone. But I would have been lying to myself. I didn’t have a lot of experience with sex, but even if I’d still been a virgin I would have known the orgasms Alec had given me were amazing. That my reaction to him wasn’t normal. And that I was lucky to have found someone with whom I had such insane chemistry.

Slowly turning in his arms, I was struck again by how insanely hot Alec was. My fingers itched to play with his dark hair. The gentling of his face in sleep didn’t take away from the masculine line of his square jaw. His firm lips were relaxed and slightly parted. Heck, he even smelled gorgeous. Then his low-lidded blue eyes met mine, and my breath caught in my throat.

“Morning.”

His raspy greeting sent shivers down my spine, and the small uptick in the corner of his lips told me he knew exactly how potent my reaction to him was.

“Good morning,” I echoed.

His arms tightened around me. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Yeah, better than okay. I slept like a rock.”

His blue eyes twinkled with mischief. “Probably because of that second orgasm I gave you.”

“Or maybe it was just the wine I drank at dinner.”

“We could always run an experiment,” he suggested. “I could give you another pair of orgasms tonight, without the wine, and then we’ll see how you sleep.”

I liked how he talked about us spending another night together, probably a little too much. “Or I could just drink some wine tonight, pass out at my place, and tell you about how well I slept over the phone in the morning.”

“No can do, beautiful,” he chuckled. The cocky bastard definitely knew the effect he had on me. “I’m already obsessed with giving you orgasms, and there isn’t an addicts anonymous program in the world that’ll make me kick the habit.”

“You’re impossible,” I sighed.

“C’mon, you can’t possibly be angry with me for wanting to give you orgasms,” he cajoled with a grin.

I huffed out a breath, even as I snuggled into his arms.

“There’s another flaw in your plan. You want to drink wine tonight? Go ahead. You want to skip out on the sex? I’ll do without. But if you sleep at your apartment tonight, then I’m there with you. Wives are supposed to sleep with their husbands.”

“Your wife who you’ve only known for a day and a half? The one who lives in Vegas when you’re from Chicago?”

“I can’t argue that we’ve only known each other for less than two days,” he conceded. “But I’ve decided to toss the conservative three hour per date estimate out the window and go with the two-hour version instead. So the brunch I’m about to order us will be our twentieth date. And I’m sure there are tons of happy couples out there who moved in with each other after twenty dates.”

“I can’t.” I held up my hand when his lips parted. Odds were good he’d come up with a way to refute any argument I came up with. It was no wonder he’d made it onto a pro hockey team since he seemed relentless when there was something he wanted. “I need coffee before I’ll be able to deal with you. Lots of it.”

“I’m going to take that as a yes to our twentieth date.” I sputtered and yanked a pillow over my face to scream into it as he rolled off the mattress, laughing.

I peeked over the pillow, and watched the muscles in his tight ass flex and bunch while he walked into the bathroom. When he shut the door behind him, I rolled over and grabbed my cell off the bedside table. Opening the camera app, I switched it to selfie mode. Using the screen like a mirror, I swiped my fingertips under my eyes and ran my hands through my hair so it wasn’t completely tangled.

“It’s completely unfair that Alec can roll out of bed looking totally hot, while I’m a mess,” I grumbled.

“You think I’m hot?”

My head jerked up, and I found Alec leaning against the bathroom doorframe. His blue eyes were on me, lazily drifting up my body with a long pause at my breasts that had me grabbing the sheet and yanking it up to cover myself.

“You can hide behind that sheet all you want. It isn’t going to change the fact that I already know how perfect your tits are.” He grinned wolfishly. “Or that I’ve left my mark on them already.”

I held the ultra-soft material away from my body and groaned when I saw the trail of love bites he’d left there the night before. “Remind me not to wear anything too low cut today.”

“Mission accomplished.”

“Ugh.” I flopped back down and yanked the covers over my head again. “Coffee. Lots of it.”

“Whatever you want, wifey.”

I listened while he called for room service. He ordered three carafes this time, along with waffles with strawberries and extra whipped cream for me and an egg white vegetable omelette for him, with a side of fruit plus a glass of orange juice. I stayed under the sheet, grinning like a love-struck school girl while he moved around the room. I heard a couple of drawers open and close and then the sound of running water in the bathroom. I assumed Alec was brushing his teeth and had started to drift off a bit when warm hands crept under the bottom of the sheet and slid up my legs.

“Alec!” I yelped. “It won’t be long before room service is here.”

“Long enough for you to enjoy the bath I’m drawing for you.”

I whipped the sheet off and dropped it onto the floor beside the bed. “A bath?” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d indulged myself in one. The water bill for three women was already high, so I limited myself to quick showers since my mom and sister took forever when they were in there.

“With bubbles.”

I crawled off the mattress, forgetting I was naked until I was almost all the way to the bathroom. Since Alec had already gotten an eyeful, I decided to brazen it out and added some extra swing into my step. It earned me a wolf whistle, and I found Alec’s gaze locked on my ass when I glanced over my shoulder. Laughing, I hustled the rest of the way and leaned against the door after I shut it behind me.

“I’m in over my head with that man,” I mumbled. It wasn’t the first time I’d thought it, but it wasn’t as scary this morning than it had been before. Between my good night’s sleep—which was most definitely due to the orgasms I’d had—and the prospect of a bubble bath in a huge tub, I didn’t think much could bother me.

I dropped one of the fluffy, folded towels onto the floor next to the tub and set my phone on top of it. Then I grabbed another towel and rolled it up to use as a pillow. As I slid into the warm water, I let out a satisfied sigh. Leaning my head against the towel, I closed my eyes and stretched out my legs until they touched the other side. I wasn’t sure how long I stayed like that before my phone rang, but the water had slightly cooled and the bubbles had mostly dissipated.

Reaching down, I wiped my damp hand against the towel on the floor before I grabbed my cell and accepted my sister’s call. “You’ll never guess what I’m doing right now.”

“Are you marrying a hot guy you just met? No wait! You couldn’t possibly be doing that because you already did on Friday night,” she joked.

“Yeah, and whose bright idea was that?”

“Mine!”

I shook my head at how proud she sounded about it, without a hint of apology. “Lucky for you, I’m too happy about the bubble bath I’m taking to want to kick your butt for it.”

“Ooh, a bubble bath in a fancy hotel. Seriously, I’m calling dibs on the next super-hot, nice guy I meet in a club. While you’re having fun with Alec, I’ve pulled an extra shift and packed up most of our clothes and personal items.”

“Crap, Ariana. I’m sorry I’ve stuck you with everything to do while I’ve been off having fun.” I hit the speakerphone button and set my phone back on the floor to stand and reach for a towel on the rack to dry myself off. “I’m a horrible sister. I should have called you last night to let you know I found us a temporary place to live.”

“First of all, shut up. You’re the furthest thing from a horrible sister. If anyone deserves to be called that, it’s me. Somewhere along the way, I forgot I was the big sister. I should’ve been the one taking care of you, not the other way around. And I’m sorry for it.”

“Ariana, no.” My eyes filled with tears. They were caused by a mixture of relief at knowing I wasn’t going to be left alone to carry the burden anymore—although Alec had already done a heck of a job of lifting the current problems from my shoulders, my mom was bound to create new ones in the future—and sadness because I didn’t want my sister to have to deal with it either. “You don’t need to apologize.”

“I do,” she disagreed softly, but with enough steel in her tone for me to know she meant it. “So take all the bubble baths you want. I’m on duty now. Since you’ve managed to land yourself a white knight for a hubby, I found myself a place to stay in case I’m on my own. One of my co-workers has an extra room. She’s never rented it out before, but she said she’d make an exception since it’s me and because she could use the cash. It isn’t ideal, but it’ll work in a pinch if you want to give things a go with Alec.”

“Actually,” I drawled, a huge grin spreading across my lips as I moved towards the counter to grab my brush and run it through my hair. “That temporary place I mentioned? It’ll work for just you, too.”

“Will I be able to afford it on my own if you aren’t living there with me?”

“Yup.”

“I can hear your shit-eating grin from all the way over here. What the hell is going on?” If I’d been able to see my sister, I was certain her green eyes would have been narrowed on my face while she crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at me suspiciously.

It made me giggle before I answered, “The white knight nickname you gave Alec? If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were psychic.”

“What does Alec being a white knight have to do with me finding a place to live?”

“Well, his friend that got married yesterday? His parents own the hotel where the wedding was held.”

“Holy shit,” she gasped. “I figured Alec was flush, but I didn’t think he had that kind of money.”

“He doesn’t”—and as crazy as it sounded, if he had I probably would have run screaming from the hotel because it was hard enough to wrap my head around the kind of life he lived—“but his friend’s mom heard about what happened with me at work and the apartment situation. Since they keep an owner’s suite at the hotel that doesn’t get used unless someone from the family is in town or they have friends visiting, it stays empty most of the time. And they’re going to leave tomorrow morning.”

“And she wants you to use it while she’s gone?” Ariana’s voice was whisper soft, almost like she was afraid someone would hear her and rip the opportunity out of our hands.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure she’d rather you just stayed there because she seemed to be rooting for Alec and me as a couple.” Everyone at the wedding had been.

“I like her already, and not just because she wants to offer us a free place to live.”

I laughed, shaking my head at the reminder that my sister was included in that ‘everyone’ who was hoping Alec and I stayed together. Who’d have known my party-girl sister would turn into such a sap? “I hope you don’t mind that Alec told her we’d take it.”

“A luxurious suite instead of a spare room in a crappy apartment with a woman who doesn’t really want me there? Yeah, I’m not gonna be the least bit angry at your husband for that.”

“So that’s one problem solved, at least for now.” I dug through my bag for shorts and a T-shirt to pull on. “Why is all the stuff you packed for me from your closet?”

“Because the contents of yours is too depressing for words.”

I rolled my eyes at the insult, but I didn’t bother trying to refute it. While my sister had been spending money on clothes, I’d been using mine to help pay for the necessities in life since our mom couldn’t be bothered to worry about them on a regular basis. Speaking of which... “What’re we going to do about Mom?”

“I haven’t heard back from her, have you?”

“No,” I sighed. “And it’s worrying me. I know the messages we left for her were tough, but even at her worst she’s never disappeared on us for days on end without at least checking in. Do you think we should call the police?”

“And what? Fill out a missing person’s report? The cops won’t look too hard for a gambling addict who took off with her daughter’s rent money. Not when it was handed over willingly. But if you want to say she stole it, maybe they’d take us seriously,” she suggested.

“Nope. No way,” I refused. “I’m not going to lie to the cops. And even if what Mom did could be considered a crime, I’m not going to press charges against her. I just couldn’t do it.”

“And that’s why you’re the nice sister and I’m the mean one. Because if it was my money, you can be damn sure I wouldn’t feel bad about tossing Mom in jail for stealing it from me.”

“Ariana,” I sighed, shaking my head even though she couldn’t see it. “You say that now, but if it came down to it we both know you’d protect Mom too.”

“Maybe,” she begrudgingly agreed. “But that doesn’t help us decide what to do about her.”

“You know what? I think I’m going to take a page from your playbook and worry about it later. Alec is supposed to fly home this afternoon, and I want to spend the day with him.”

“Shit, he’s leaving that soon?”

I lowered my voice, even though the bathroom door was closed, because I didn’t want Alec to be able to hear what I was saying. “That’s what he told me yesterday, but he hasn’t mentioned it again.”

“Have you asked him about it?”

“No. He’s been...amazing. And I’m afraid of what his answer is going to be. That all his talk about husbands and wives belonging together was just a line to get me in bed, and now that he has he’s going to hop on a plane and let me be the one to handle our quickie divorce.”

“There’s so much wrong with that, I almost don’t know where to begin. But I did just say I was going to start taking my big sister duties seriously, so here goes.” She paused, and I heard her take a deep breath. “You got blind drunk when I took you out on your twenty-first birthday, but you didn’t so much as kiss a guy that night. But you married Alec, and I don’t think it was just because you were drunk. You also slept with him. And now you’re so upset about the possibility of him leaving, that you can’t even ask him a simple question.”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Here’s the sisterly advice part: pull up your big-girl panties and let the guy know that you aren’t interested in a quickie divorce. I think you’ll be surprised by his answer. Remember, he’s not a dipshit like our father. He’s your white knight.”

That was my big sister for you. She didn’t pussy-foot around. She got right to the heart of things, and she knew me well. I had daddy issues, and it was up to me if I was willing to let them ruin what I might be able to build with Alec. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.”

“Now it’s your turn to shut up.” I nodded at myself in the mirror, my eyes filling with determination. “I’ll talk to Alec today, and I’ll see you later. Either by myself today because he decided to get on that plane to Chicago, or with Alec tomorrow because he stayed behind for me.”

“Okie dokie. I’ll see you and the hubby tomorrow.”

Once again, she didn’t give me the chance to have the last word. Instead, she left me with a grin on my face as I opened the bathroom door to join Alec.