Saving the Bride: An Accidental Marriage Romance Read online

  “What?” she asked without looking up from her work.

  “What?”

  “You’re staring at me,” she said.

  “I can’t help it,” I replied. “You look good enough to eat.”

  She stalled mid-chop and cut the rest of the mushroom totally skew. Her grip trembled on the knife, and she turned her head slightly, looking at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Good enough to eat?”

  “Yes,” I said and walked up behind her. I couldn’t take it a second longer. I couldn’t watch her work that knife, leaning ever so slightly forward, her one foot tucked behind the other, toes resting on the tiles.

  I stood behind her and pressed my weight into her, my rock hard cock nestling between her ass cheeks, the tip grazing the small of her back. The bottom of the shirt lifted a little, exposing more of her thighs.

  “Oh god,” she moaned.

  “No,” I said, and took hold of her chin, tilting it to one side. “Logan.” I kissed her cheek, sucked a little of it into my mouth then released it again, moving on to the line of her chin. She turned her face toward me, breaths rushing from between those plush, pillow lips.

  What would they look like wrapped around my dick? How would she sound choking on it? Fuck, I had to know. But not now. Now, I had to be inside her, watching them quiver as she came.

  “Logan,” she said.

  “That’s right.” I kissed her and ground my cock into her ass.

  Her grip on the knife loosened, and it clattered to the countertop. Katie moaned and circled her hips, shaking, desperate. “Please,” she said, against my mouth.

  “I love it when you beg for me,” I growled, and nipped her bottom lip. Another second of this and I’d break. I dragged my shirt up and over her juicy ass, then spanked her left cheek once.

  Katie cried out and lurched forward, bracing her arms on either side of the chopping board.

  “You drive me wild, woman. You have no idea what you do to me, or what I’m going to do to you. You want to know? I’m going to use your body for my pleasure, and I’m going to give you more than you know how to handle. You’re going to come so hard you’ll go cross-eyed.”

  “Fuck,” she whispered, trembling beneath my grip.

  I smoothed my hands down her body, around to the front and pinched her nipples, hard.

  “Fuck!” Katie repeated. “Tell me what else you’re going to do to me.”

  “You want to know?”

  “Yes, please. Please, Logan. Tell me and I’m yours.”

  “You’re already mine,” I replied, and moved my hands to her bare ass again. I parted the cheeks slightly and dipped my finger in between, tracing that puckered, tight little asshole.

  She tensed against me and I chuckled. “Not that, yet.”

  “But someday?” she asked, and the hope in her voice had me right on the edge in an instant.

  “Sooner than someday,” I replied, and lowered myself to my knees behind her.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Spanking you.” And I followed through with a sharp slap on her ass. The meat jiggled and I traced the red welt with kisses, wet and warm. She was delicious, her skin clean and lightly fragrant from the soap she’d used in the shower.

  “And then?”

  “Greedy,” I said and dragged a finger between her swollen pussy lips. “I like that about you. Next, I’m going to play with your clit.” I did exactly that, popping my fingers against it, then circling it again.

  Katie whined and moved her ass in time with my flicks, my teasing.

  She had the perfect inner thigh gap, a heart-shaped ass. “Now, I’m going to eat your sweet, hot cunt. Run my tongue between those dripping lips and drink you up. Fucking devour you, Jinx.”

  “Oh god.” She arched her back.

  “Then I’m going to slip my tongue deep inside you and fuck you with it, slow at first, then faster, and faster, while I toy with your clit.”

  Katie was speechless now, and pressed her ass backward, demanding what I’d promised her.

  I buried my face between those ass cheeks, right in her pussy, and did exactly what I’d dreamed of doing since the minute I’d first met her. I wet my nose, my lips, circled her clit with my thumb, fucked her tight hole with my tongue. She was totally flavorless, clean and fucking delicious.

  Her pussy was my new paradise, and I never wanted to leave. I tongue-fucked her until she screamed through her first orgasm, her walls tightening around my tongue, more of her cum flooding it. She was totally ready for me now, as ready as I should’ve made her the first time I’d taken her.

  I waited for her to come down from the orgasm, then rose behind her, unbuttoning my pants. My dick was so fucking ready it dripped for her. I ran it over her ass cheeks, placed my hand on her back, and forced her flat on the counter. The knife slid over the edge and clanged onto the tiles on the other side.

  “What next?” she breathed.

  “I’m going to fill you with every inch of my dick, Jinx,” I whispered, voice thick with desire. “I’m going to fuck you until you come again, and then I’m going to pump you full of my hot cum.”

  She shifted her hands and gripped the edge of the counter, the ring on her left hand glinting. If anything, the fact that we were “married” made this hotter. My cock grew thicker still.

  “Is that what you want?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “That’s what I want.”

  I rested my tip between her lips, wiped her juices across my head and just fucking groaned. She was a furnace down there. And so damn wet. Christ, I needed to make her come again before this was through, but plunging into her now would surely be my undoing.

  Instead, I reached around and played with her pink pearl again, flicked it and circled it. She moaned and backed onto me, catching me at exactly the right angle. My head slipped inside.

  “Shit,” I growled. “Shit, Katie, slow down or I’ll blow my load inside you right now.”

  “No,” she said. “I want it. I want it all.” She worked her hips back and took more of me. I could do nothing but play with her, watch as her pussy swallowed my cock whole. She stretched to accommodate my girth and made good on her promise.

  She took it all, right to the base, which was a first for me. That’d never happened with anyone before. We fit together perfectly, like a key in the right lock. Once the door opened, fuck, there was only pleasure and satisfaction.

  Katie hesitated, speared as she was on my length, then shifted forward again. I let her take control—another first for me—watching as she moved back and forth, slowly at first, then faster and faster, until the wet slap of our flesh meeting was the only noise in the kitchen.

  “Fuck, fuck, more, more, more,” she shrieked.

  I circled her clit, faster and faster. My balls drew tight against my body. “Baby, I’m going to come. Stop or I’ll come.”

  Katie picked up the pace, taking more, faster. “Yes,” she moaned. “I want your cum. I want it! Oh, fuck, oh, fuck! I’m coming. I’m coming, Logan!”

  My name on her lips was the final straw. I burst over the edge and came inside her throbbing cunt, filled her as she’d asked for, drawing myself in and out as I did. The pressure was too much, my dick too big for her, and some of our juices squirted out of her as I thrust back in.

  I held myself inside her, pressed both hands to the small of her back while I let the cum soak in. “Fuck,” I muttered. “You’re unbelievable.”

  Katie groaned and her forehead hit the counter. She was spent.

  The hiss and spit of water hitting the hot stove brought me back from my post-sex reverie. The pot of water had boiled over.

  Chapter 11

  Katie

  All through breakfast, which was delicious of course, and another hot, steamy shower, I oscillated between satisfaction and downright fear. I hadn’t had the opportunity to get away from Logan to phone my mother and check in on her. And Marino? God, I’d received two more missed calls from unknown nu
mbers in the interim.

  I dressed quickly in one of Logan’s shirts, inhaling his sharp and spicy cologne as I did, then crept to the bathroom door, opened it, and peeked out into the hall.

  It was all clear. Logan clanked pots and pans in the kitchen, cleaning up after our meal. He’d insisted I take a bath and relax, that he’d handle calling the hotel and finding out what was going on, but I’d opted for a shower and snuck my phone out of sight.

  I clutched it in my fist, breathing hard.

  If he caught me… what then? He’d be suspicious. He’d ask questions, and I was inches from breaking and telling him everything because I couldn’t keep it in anymore. And Logan, well, he was good people. The best.

  I had a nose for folks—it served me well as a journalist—and he didn’t smell bad. Not in the slightest, though there was still a hint of mystery about him. But that wasn’t an odor I couldn’t place.

  “Come on, let’s do this,” I whispered, then slipped out of the bathroom door and hurried down the long hall and into the living room. I slipped the sliding door open, scooched out, and made my break for it.

  The sand was warm underfoot from a day under the sun, which was now an orange hazy ball in the sky. It was nearly dusk, not quite there yet, which meant I didn’t have much time. I opened the short gate which let out onto the beach proper and separated Logan’s bungalow from the common property, and hurried toward the water.

  A line of palms guarded it, and I hovered beneath them, the cracks and rustles behind me loud in my ears.

  I rested my back against a trunk, peered back up at the bungalow, then finally loosened my grip on my now sweat-covered cell and unlocked the screen.

  “It’s okay. She’s fine. If she wasn’t fine she would have left you a voicemail and she didn’t, so it’s all okay. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.” Even as the words left my mouth, dread settled in my stomach.

  But what if she isn’t?

  Another noise sounded behind me, and I whipped around, peering between the failing light in the trees, my brow creased. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. No person waiting in the darkness.

  Logan had said it was dangerous, and I didn’t doubt him for a second. Marino had an emissary out here, according to the phone conversation I’d overheard, and the crime kingpin likely didn’t hire adorable puppies or cupcake bakers as emissaries.

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, then lifted the cellphone and tapped through to my contacts. Mom’s number was one of the only ones on my phone, apart from Samantha—my best friend who just so happened to be climbing Mount Everest this very minute—and a couple of work contacts and sources.

  My thumb trembled. I steadied it and dialed.

  The ringing was painful, and the knot in my stomach tightened and tightened until it was entirely unbearable.

  “Hello?” My mother’s voice came across the line, softly, and I sank to my butt in the sand. My knees hit my chest and I exhaled fast. “Hello? Jinxie, is that you?”

  “Mom,” I said, not whispering, but not speaking at the usual volume lest I attract attention. “It’s me. Thank god, I was so worried about you.”

  “Worried about me? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you since this morning. Are you okay? What happened?”

  What’d happened? I’d gotten married in an alcohol or drug-induced state, for one. And for two? I’d started falling for my mark. In short, this was impossible and a disaster all rolled into one.

  “Katie? Are you there?”

  “I’m here, Mom,” I said. “Sorry, things are just a little complicated right now.”

  “Complicated how?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I just need to know that you’re all right. That you’re safe. I won’t be able to focus on anything but that until I do.”

  A gravid pause followed.

  Somewhere between the trees, a bird called. Animals rustled in the grass.

  “Mom?”

  “I’m fine,” she said, but the strain in her voice told otherwise. I’d never known her to show her strain. This had to be serious.

  “Mom, tell me the truth. What’s going on? Did they contact you?”

  “Katie, it’s all right. I can handle things in New York while you’re busy out there. There’s no need to stress. You just concentrate on getting that information about Wright. That’s your task.”

  “Mom! Just tell me what happened.”

  “Butch went missing,” she said, and her voice cracked.

  “What?! They took— No!”

  “Don’t worry, he’s back now,” she said. “He went missing last night after we spoke on the phone, but he came back this afternoon, not an hour ago.”

  “Oh my god, where was he?”

  “They had him,” Mom said, and I didn’t have to ask who she meant. “Katie, he came back to the house with a note attached to his collar.”

  “What did it say?”

  “I have it right here,” she replied. “I can read it to you.”

  I waited, my heart in my throat and sweat trickling down my spine. “Go on, Mom.”

  “Next time, the dog won’t come back. He wants the information by tonight at 8 p.m.” Mom cut off and inhaled sharply, the hiss of her breath in my ear the scariest thing I’d heard so far. “Katie, are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “There’s an email address written on it too. I think they want you to send the information to it, instead of to the address they provided before,” she continued. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry about this. I should’ve gone instead of you.”

  “No,” I said, firmly, shaking my head and scraping my hair against the rough bark of the tree behind me. The beauty of the setting sun on the horizon, the reflection of it on the pale waters, was lost on me. “Mom, this doesn’t make any sense. Why are they changing the rules now? They told us we had seven days to get them the information. It’s been two! This is— It’s impossible.”

  “You don’t have anything on him?” Mom asked.

  That was beside the point. Perhaps they could use the information about his deep sea fishing or his past in prison against him. Perhaps they could threaten to out his history with his ex and his best friend. God knew what use they’d find for it, but it would mean handing over information about a man I genuinely cared for now.

  It’s been two days. This is your mother. Your mother and Butch and the business. It’s your goddamn family on the line!

  “I have enough,” I said. “But he’s always watching, and I don’t have my laptop to type any of this up.”

  “Huh?! I thought you were at your hotel.”

  “Let’s just say, I followed your advice, Mom. I’m sticking really, really close to him.” So close that I’d added another layer of complication to this. I could hardly leave this island still married to this man, but if I didn’t get the information about him to Marino by 8 p.m, and then skip out afterward, my mother would be in worse danger than she was now.

  “Honey, I know you can do this,” Mom said. “I’m so sorry all of this has happened.”

  “It’s no one’s fault, Mom,” I replied. “What should we have done? Been less successful as journalists so that sleazebag Marino wouldn’t contact us to do the job? No, this is not our fault.”

  “Are you going to be okay to do this, honey? Are you safe? I’ll catch a flight and come out there. I’ll—”

  “No! Please, stay there. Look after Butch. Actually, Mom, can you do me a huge favor?”

  “What, honey? Anything.”

  “Can you go stay with Uncle Freddie for a while? Take Butch with you. Just for tonight?”

  “Oh, Jinxie, you know that won’t make a difference. That will only endanger your Uncle Freddie and I can’t do that.” Mom was right, of course. She’d always been pragmatic that way. “I’ll batten down the hatches here, and that’s the best I can do.”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, squeezed my eyes shut, and let air out of my nostrils. So, this was it. I had to do this. I had to send
the information to Marino, no matter how I felt about it or about Logan.

  I’d do anything for my mother. Anything for our little family. She’d been there for me through thick and thin. She’d worked two jobs, freelanced at night, and built our little unit up until she could afford to purchase the premises for the magazine and start hiring for the publication.

  My mother had sacrificed everything to make sure I’d have a good life. I would do anything for her in return, even if it meant throwing the only man I’d ever felt something real for under the bus.

  “Katie, are you all right?”

  “Fine,” I managed.

  “There’s something you’re not telling me. Spill it.”

  “I’m fine, Mom, I promise. I’ve got to go, okay. Just send me Marino’s contact email and I’ll send the information as requested. I love you.”

  “I love you too, honey,” Mom said, the words spilling over with sadness. “Butchie loves you too. We’ll see you soon. Think of it this way. The sooner you send the email, the sooner this will all be over.”

  “You’re right,” I said, though my heart dropped right through my body and into the sand at the thought. “You’re right, of course. Stay safe.”

  “You too.”

  I hung up and held the phone in my palm, staring at it instead of the sand. This shouldn’t have been difficult. Apart from the fact that this entire “job” compromised my journalistic integrity, this shouldn’t have eaten at me like this. I shouldn’t have cared this much for a man I barely knew—a man who’d saved me from thugs, who’d cooked dinner for me, and made me feel things I hadn’t thought possible.

  “Fuck,” I whispered, just as the text message pinged through on my phone. The email for the deadline, tonight.

  God, it was already a quarter past six. I had less than two hours to type up what I knew and send it to Marino. I’d do it on my phone if I had to, since borrowing Logan’s computer or laptop or whatever he had was clearly out of the question.

  I can probably do it right here. Type the words and send them off without Logan ever knowing. Then I can go to the front desk and ask them to call me a taxi.