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Prologue
(Just in case you need a reminder of where we left off…)
“I can’t believe we did it,” he said, pulling into a spot on the freshly paved parking lot of the newly refinished Strawberry Manor.
“And one week ahead of schedule, too,” Rory said, beaming with excitement as she looked at the beautiful new hotel. He had to admit that it was beautiful, but that wasn’t what he’d meant.
He chuckled as he threw the truck in park. “I meant, I can’t believe that we’re married.”
“Well, I really wasn’t left with much of a choice,” Rory reminded him, smiling that pleased little smile that she’d been wearing since the nervous Justice of the Peace had announced them husband and wife about an hour ago.
After the initial shock, the Justice of the Peace decided that they needed a little fatherly advice and explained that he believed that they were making a mistake and that perhaps they needed to take some time and come back on December 2nd. At first, Connor had been pissed that he was interfering, but by the time the JP mentioned December 2nd for the third time, it became clear that the man had placed a bet that they would get married on December 2nd. Once the J.P. resigned himself to losing two hundred dollars, he’d married them, scowling at them the entire time until the deed was done and he could storm off.
“You didn’t have a choice, huh?” he mused, reaching for his wife as she unclipped her seatbelt and moved to straddle his lap.
“No, not at all,” she readily agreed with an impish smile that had him wishing that they could skip the final inspection and start their wedding night early.
“And how’s that?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.
“I had to do it for our deal of course,” she said solemnly, looking so damn serious that he couldn’t help but laugh.
“For our deal, huh?” he asked with a chuckle, leaning in and stealing a kiss.
“Mmmhmm,” she murmured, returning the kiss.
Before he could deepen the kiss, Rory opened his door. She pulled away and climbed out of the truck, laughing and jumping back when he reached for her.
“We need to clear the site so that we can start that insanely expensive honeymoon that you promised me,” she said, heading for the manor.
“That wasn’t part of our deal,” he pointed out as he climbed out of the truck.
“It is now,” she said, sounding happy.
“Do I get a veto?” he asked, following after her.
“Sorry. You’re a married man now, Connor. Your job is to fulfill each and every one of my needs,” she explained, throwing him a wink over her shoulder.
“And you need an insanely expensive honeymoon?” he asked, chuckling as he veered off to the right towards her trailer.
“I really do,” she said, sounding happy, really happy and for a moment he was content with just watching her as she made her way inside the manor.
How had he gotten so lucky? he couldn’t help but wonder as he turned around, hoping to get this done quickly so that he could move onto the insanely expensive honeymoon that his beautiful wife was demanding when he realized that he had one last problem that he had to handle before it bit him in the ass.
“I heard you tell Andrew that this was all a game,” Jacob, the surly assistant from hell, said numbly as he looked at Connor with what could only be described as disgust. “I kept my mouth shut, because I thought Rory could handle herself, but apparently I was wrong.”
“It’s not what you think, Jacob,” Connor said, taking a step towards the man only to have him take two steps back.
“Then you didn’t just marry Rory so that you could take over her company?” Jacob demanded.
Connor opened his mouth to tell him that he had it all wrong, that it wasn’t like that anymore when he realized that this simple misunderstanding had just blown up into a huge fuck up in under sixty seconds.
“Married?” Johnny repeated, sharing a confused look with his brothers as they quickened their pace as they headed towards him, looking pissed. As he watched the five large men make their way towards him, he realized that there was no way that he could explain any of this without landing in a body cast. They wouldn’t believe him, not that he really cared, but he did care if his wife believed him. As he watched them approach and listened as Jacob ratted his ass out, he realized something very important. He was out of options. So he did the only thing that he could think of.
He made a run for it.
“Get back here!” Johnny yelled as Connor shoved past several men and ran inside the manor and into the beautiful lobby.
“Where’s Rory?” he asked Andrew when he spotted his friend sitting on the couch, going over paperwork and looking better than he had in months.
“In the ballroom. Why?” Andrew asked, but Connor didn’t have time to answer him, not with five seriously pissed off James brothers after him.
“You have some explaining to do!” Reese, one of the Bradford twins and a fucking cop, shouted, drawing his attention.
Scratch that, he had five James brothers, a little prick bastard and two seriously pissed off looking Bradfords after him and he probably only had seconds to convince Rory that he loved her and wasn’t after her company before they beat the shit out of him. Not wanting to waste another minute, he made a run for the ballroom, shoving men aside as he ran down the long hallway. The entire way he heard the sounds from the very large men chasing after him, and he’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t a little wary of the ass whooping that he was about to receive, but he was more concerned about losing Rory.
He was just about to run through the open doorway of the ballroom when Rory stepped out, looking down at the clipboard in her hands and unaware of all the men barreling down on her. She’d barely looked up when he grabbed her arm and gave it a pull towards the elevators. He didn’t have a plan, but he hoped like hell that this would at least buy him a few minutes.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rory demanded as he yanked her into the elevator, pushing her behind him as he slammed his finger against the “Close Door” button just as her brothers and cousins abruptly turned and headed for them.
“Come on, come on, come on!” he muttered, panicking as the door started to close, but not fast enough.
Her brothers were getting closer and closer until all they had to do was put their arms out to stop the doors from closing, taking away his only chance to make this right. Just when he resigned himself to a trip to the hospital and losing Rory, something unexpected happened. The two Bradford twins reached out and grabbed Craig and Johnny just as they reached out to stop the elevator doors and yanked them back, allowing the doors to close.
“What the hell is going on?” Rory demanded.
“First things first,” he mumbled as he reached out and pulled the emergency elevator button. The elevator shook hard once as it came to a complete stop. When the alarm began to blare, he flicked it off, took a deep breath and turned around to face the woman that he loved.
“I love you,” he said, needing her to know that. “I’ve always loved you and no matter what happens, I will always love you.”
“You son of a bitch!” Bryce shouted, reminding Connor that it probably wouldn’t take the brothers long to crack those doors open and kill him.
“I love you too, Connor, but what the hell is going on?” Rory asked, shooting a nervous look past him at the closed doors.
“I need to tell you something,” he said, cringing when the banging behind him started.
“Yeah, looks that way,” Rory mused, shifting her gaze right back on him.
“Did I mention that I love you?” he asked, shooting her a nervous smile as he tried to figure out how exactly to explain the whole fucked
up deal he’d come up without Rory going for his balls.
“Start talking, Connor,” Rory said, arching an expectant brow as she folded her arms over her chest.
Since time was a serious factor, he decided to get right to the point. “I fucked up.”
“And…..”
“There was more to the deal than I let on,” he said in a rush. “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning, because once I realized that I was still in love with you, I didn’t want it any longer.”
