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However, he still couldn’t pinpoint thesomethingabout her, only describe everything around it. And he wanted to cherish it. Be next to it. Spend time with it. Argue with it. Put his hands all over it. Fall asleep inside it.
Delilah sighed. “Dr. S, normal people? You know, people who aren’t you or Raina? They would have ended this marriage thing already if they truly didn’t want to be together, but I suspect that’s not the case for either of you. I mean, did you look up the annulment requirements? At all?”
Sure, if a glance was considered “looking up.”
“As it stands, we don’t clearly enough meet the requirements for an annulment in the State of Nevada,” he said.
Delilah rubbed her brows, then smoothed them back into place. “With how often people get married there, it’s not just an online form?”
“We might be able to qualify under their ‘want of understanding’ clause if we can provide clear evidence that we were intoxicated at the time of the marriage.”
“And you can’t?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
He considered telling her the truth, but Delilah wasn’t precisely a vault. If she told Raina, Raina might feel like he violated her trust even though he didn’t have any nefarious reasons for marrying her. He didn’t plan to hurt her, but when presented with the opportunity to make her his, he’d had no other choice.
Hehadto take it.
Had she demanded that they get an annulment the following day, he would have given it to her without an issue, no matter what it took. Had she declined his offer to be part of her research in exchange for staying married to him, he would have still asked her on a date. But when presented with the opportunity to be with her the way they were now? It was a yes, all day and every day.
“I wouldn’t know how to prove we were intoxicated.”
“Didn’t you have witnesses?” Delilah flailed her arms above her head. “There are cameras all over Vegas. Maybe you can get footage of you two that clearly shows you were drunk? Or maybe a bartender who remembers that you two had a significant number of drinks?”
No one would remember them drinking too much because they’d had all their drinks in the privacy of his hotel room. Then, by the time they purchased the rings, he’d been more sober than a glass of water.
“I don’t…want to try,” he said.
She nodded. “I know. You’re really into her. But you’re always at each other’s throats.”
Anger was the quickest way he knew of to dilute sexual energy. Raina sucked necks, kissed jaws and fingers. It was all in fun for her, and she probably thought he was impervious to every touch, but it was the furthest thing from the truth.
“Daniels, I’m not a man who feels uncertain of himself, but your sister does that. Makes me feel that way. She makes me feel things.”
Things he hated.
Things he loved.
Things he could get addicted to.
“Why does she fight me?”
“Because you fight with her. Because she loves a challenge. That’s why I think she likes you. In the past, she dated older men, and in those relationships, she was,” Delilah grimaced, “docile.”
“Docile? Raina?”
Impossible.
“Raina struggles with perfection and imperfections,” Delilah went on. “The minute you put your heart on the line, it’s on the line. It’s out there to get broken. The way she grew up, the focus was always on her looks, and you can see why. Raina’s beautiful.”
Wildly beautiful.
She even gave his heart a slight flutter when he first sat down next to her in Athens, a man who’d felt zero wings in his chest or stomach since his high school girlfriend.
“She’s also dark-skinned,” Delilah added. “So, I think that’s why our folks focused so much on her beauty. Despite looks like hers, people will still call her ugly because of her complexion. People have.”
