Page 7

AMbrOSE

W e’re barely out of the chapel, and Piper is digging through her bag. “Where’s my phone? There’s probably a flight that leaves in two hours, but I don’t think we’ll make it back to the airport in time.”

Dropping my hands to her shoulders, I turn her to face me. “Your phone is at the bottom of an urn at my house.”

“Oh. Right. Um. Do you want to check?” Her blue eyes are wide as saucers as she looks up at me. Her red hair sparks like fire in the sunlight, and everything is warm and perfect for this one moment in time.

“I need to sleep. And shower. Let’s get a hotel. We can get back on the plane tomorrow.”

Her eyebrows lift. “Oh, I thought…” her brow creases, and she looks back at the chapel, as though there’s something she left inside.

“You thought?” I prompt, wondering what just went through her mind. Right before we got married, she dropped a bomb, and I’m not sure if I heard her correctly. Is that what she’s thinking about?

She tugs at the collar of her shirt, huffing as she drops her bag and pulls off her sweatshirt.

She’s surprisingly delectable in a pair of loose pants and Odie’s Michigan t-shirt.

Piper’s breasts press against the fabric in a way that Odie’s don’t.

The woman is my friend, and she’s basically a sister to me, but I have eyes.

Odie has never filled out a shirt the way Piper does.

Piper inhales, only making her chest heave, and I tear my gaze away. “I guess, after that kiss, or whatever, this was probably a mistake.”

Mistake. The word jabs at a part of me I don’t want to identify. I hate it. And want to scrub the word from her mouth, from her memory.

It dawns on me she has no idea what my curse is. Why would she? We don’t go around advertising that kind of information in Mystic Hollows.

I probably should have told her before we got married. Guess there’s no time like the present. “Piper. I don’t kiss.”

She frowns at me. “It’s none of my business.”

“As my wife, I think it is your business. I don’t kiss on the mouth,” I say simply, with a small shrug.

Piper blinks up at me, her blue eyes shrewd as she searches my face. “Like Pretty Woman ?”

“I’m not a prostitute, if that’s what you’re asking.” I chuckle. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being a sex worker.”

Piper blushes, her neck and face turning bright red. “That’s not what I meant.”

I clasp her chin in my fingers. I want to make sure she’s looking at me when I tell her what my curse is. “My kiss is my curse.”

“How?” Her eyes drop to my lips, like she’s even more tempted to kiss me now that she knows it’s off limits.

“When I kiss someone, they instantly become infatuated with me. They think it’s a love more powerful than sonnets, and stronger than a fated bond.

They don’t realize it’s all because of magic.

They’re desperate to see me, to touch me.

It drives them insane.” I swallow thickly.

My curse might not be considered the worst by the standards of what the others have had to go through, but I’ve seen the damage it’s wrought.

It’s ruined lives and changed me irrevocably.

“Oh.”

I nod. What more is there to say?

I flag down a cab and open the door for Piper.

“Where to?” The cabbie, who is not nearly as friendly as Big Jim, asks.

“We just got married. Take us to the nicest hotel in town.”

The driver pulls up in front of The Palms and someone’s there to open our cab door before we’ve fully stopped.

“I’m underdressed.” Piper frowns down at her t-shirt.

“You look beautiful.” She tosses me an unhappy look, but I just grin. “Come on. Let’s get a room.”

The lobby is dark, with neon lighting providing illumination.

It’s crowded with tourists and loud with music and the nearby clang of slot machines.

I book a suite, marveling at our luck that there’s one available on such short notice.

Piper is wilting the longer we stand in the lobby, but she’s still on high alert.

Whatever set off this expedition is still bothering her.

“Thank you.” I take the key from the front desk clerk, and we make our way to the bank of elevators. “We can order some food when we get to the room.”

Piper nods, dragging her hand through her hair and wincing when it gets tangled.

The suite is on the top floor, and the elevator opens directly into the space. It’s modern and decorated loudly with purples and teal. There’s a wall of windows that looks out over the strip.

“This was not necessary.” Piper gapes at the massive room.

“It’s our wedding day.” I shrug, as though this is all a joke, but something tingles under my skin.

Piper drops her bag on the floor and turns to face me. She tangles her fingers together and twists them nervously. “There’s something else we need to do.”

“Ah, yes, consummate the wedding?” I lift my brows and give her a sly smile. “Piper, has this all been a ruse to get in my pants? While I appreciate the effort, you didn’t need to go to this extent.” I wink at her.

Piper huffs out an angry breath. “No. Can you be serious for one minute, Ambrose?”

Piper isn’t a laid-back person. I wouldn’t say she’s high strung, but she’s constantly on edge. Yet the clip of her tone surprises me.

“Can we at least sit down and maybe have some champagne?”

There’s a basket of goodies sitting on a low geometric table in the sunken living room. It’s full of romantic items like massage oil, bath products, and chocolates.

“It’s not even noon.” Piper’s face screws up in the most adorable frown, like she’s afraid of getting in trouble.

“It’s vacation rules. Who cares what day or time it is? There are no rules except the ones we make for ourselves.”

Piper stares at the bottle of champagne for a long second. “Yeah, fine, whatever. Make my glass extra full.”

She flops onto the couch, looking exhausted, but also somehow like an elegant lady plucked out of time.

Her red hair drapes over the back of the white couch, offering a stunning contrast. When I pop the champagne, she jumps, but takes her full glass without protest. I fill up my own and clink our glasses together. She looks at me warily.

“Congratulations, Mrs. Roth.”

Piper’s mouth snaps open and then shuts. “We don’t have to… I don’t need to take your name.”

“I would never force it. You can keep your name.” I’m saying the right thing, but there’s a sense of wrongness to the words. She’s my wife, for whatever damn reason, and I want her to have my name. Maiden knows it’s done me no good.

“I would love to get rid of my last name. That’s not what I mean.”

I sit down on the couch across from Piper, sensing she needs space as she downs half of her champagne.

They didn’t exactly have a meal on the plane, and I’m starting to wonder when the last time she ate was.

There’s a tablet on the table. I pull up the menu and send an order in for a selection of sandwiches and breakfast foods, because why not?

“Are you ready to tell me what this is all about?” I sip my champagne much more slowly. I don’t actually like champagne, but the bottle is open, and I don’t feel like getting up to find something else.

Piper fills up her glass again and drinks it down before she unsteadily sets the empty flute on the glass tabletop. She rubs her hands over her thighs and gnaws on the corner of her mouth.

“I can’t tell you yet.” Her cheeks flame red. She inhales deeply, cringing as she spits out a rapid-fire stream of words. “I need you to have sex with me so that we can finalize the wedding.”

A surprising burst of heat lances through my gut. Piper is a beautiful woman, for all her timidness. “We’re not in Regency England, Piper. No one’s going to force us to annul our marriage if we don’t prove that we’ve slept together.”

Piper covers her eyes with her hand, her thumb and middle finger pressing into her temples.

“It’s the ownership piece of things. Like a transfer of…

” Piper abruptly stops talking, bending at the waist and groaning.

I don’t bother walking around the table.

I step right over the top, setting my drink aside and dropping to my knees in front of her.

“What is it? Is this your curse?” I don’t know what Piper’s curse is. She could sneeze out butterflies for all I know, but something about this is not natural.

“No,” she rasps out. “But I can’t tell you yet. We have to complete the binding of this union. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you before I brought you all the way out here, before I had you marry me.” Tears swim in Piper’s eyes as she looks at me, pain contorting her face.

I stroke her hair, and she leans into the touch.

“It’s not a hardship, Piper, but I don’t like that you feel forced to do this.”

“You’re the one being forced,” she says through gritted teeth.

I laugh. “Trust me, this is not a problem.”

Her teeth sink into her bottom lip, and her eyes search my face for the lie, but I’m telling the truth.

Piper is beautiful, soft, and lush. I’ve thought about her naked more than once.

The only reason I’ve stayed away is because our friends have bonded for eternity.

Besides, I’m not really boyfriend material.

I’m not husband material either, but here we are.

In the past, I never stuck around after I slept with someone.

That put Piper in the off-limits category.

Whatever is going on with her now, though, puts everything right back on the table.

I slide my hand from her knee up her thigh. Piper swallows, her pale throat bobbing with the motion.

“You can still say no. Get out of this,” Piper murmurs.

“Thank you for checking for consent, but we’re good here, Piper.” I stand up and hold out my hand. “You can say no, too. Whatever this is, I’ll protect you, whether we’re married or not.”