Page 14 of The One Night Match

But what would you know, the vet nurses gushed about what a sweet boy he was for them.

I’m honestly starting to think he’s the reincarnation of someone I really fucked over in a past life, because that’s the only way I can think that I would end up with the world’s biggest dick of a cat.

I drop a few treats into his bowl, which seems to distract him from his hatred toward me for long enough to escape to my bedroom.

It’s only once I have the door closed behind me and I lean against it that I realize I’m covered in the scent of the woman from the club. Instead of dropping the suit into the hamper as I normally would, I lay it over the back of the chair in the corner, unable to part with my kitten just yet.

Tomorrow, I marry a woman I’ve never met, but tonight I’ll fall asleep thinking about the one that got away, even if it’s just for one night.

SEVEN

RILEY

Hiding the bruises on my neck and shoulders from my one-night stand on my wedding day was not on my bingo card.

But neither was fucking the sinfully hot tattooed stranger in his office and then fleeing like my ass was on fire.

I ran for three blocks before I realized he wasn’t chasing me, and I won’t even go into how disappointed I was by that fact.

Why would he?

I was just a random hookup to pass the time.

And why do I care at all?

I shake off that question because right now I have bigger issues than analyzing why I give a single fuck about a man I’ll never see again.

I’m surrounded by white.

There’s literally a sea of it in the dressing room of the church, and it’s starting to make me a bit dizzy.

Unlike my sisters, who have always gone for more neutral tones, I like bright colors.

If you ask my mother, she’ll tell you I’ve been this way since I was a baby, but I think she’s probably just trying to reassureherself that she didn’t fail in the Mafia wife training she put me and my sisters through.

I always thought I’d be walking down the aisle in a pink or even a purple dress, but instead, it’s nothing but white tulle that itches every time I move.

“You look beautiful, honey,” Mom gushes, and she quickly wipes the tears from her eyes.

I know I’ve been pretty critical of my parents up to this point, but they’re not bad people. Well, my dad kind of is, but not to his family.

They’ve always shown us an unlimited amount of love, always supported us, and, for the most part, given us the freedom to make our own way in life.

Apart from this wedding.

And even this hasn’t been a direct attack on me and my freedom as much as I would like to think it is. My sisters and all the other single women in the family have been fed into the Mafia Matchmaker algorithm. I was just the unlucky one who got a match.

They’ve paused the rest of the profiles while they wait to see how successful my marriage is before putting any of the other women through it.

So I guess I just drew the short straw…again.

“Thanks, Mom.” I force my lips up into a smile, but my chest aches with every second that passes.

After today, my parents will go back to San Francisco, and I’ll be here with a bunch of strangers and a husband who may or may not expect me to fall at his feet every time he opens his mouth.

I haven’t allowed myself to think too much about the potential life that could be awaiting me at the other end of the aisle, because after my first meltdown, I packed my shit and almost ran away from home in a panic.

But my desperate need to make my parents proud made me turn my car around when I was barely outside the city.