each other, I enjoyed his company. Just like at the bar, before we moved the party upstairs; Corey was entertaining, knew how to make me laugh and was complete man-candy. The intensity staring back at me from those killer blue eyes, told me he was dead serious about his offer and all I had to do was agree. At that point, yes, was the only answer I had, but I might as well try to get something out of it.
“What would you say to making a deal, if I let you join me for the consultation?” I moved my fingers to the side of his face, brushing along his strong cheekbones, jaw and down to his neck. He shuddered at my touch. There was something so sexy about making this testosterone-oozing man shudder.
His eyes narrowed, sensing the direction this was going; ignoring my flirtatious behavior as best as he could. “This is going to get expensive, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t help but smile, coyly shrugging my shoulders. “If they want wine and champagne, the Inn will do the ordering as usual. Except this time you split the cost in half with us.”
After contemplating for a minute, he held up a single finger. “On one condition.”
“Name it.” I let my fingers trail down the middle of his chest, over the ripples of his abdomen.
“You let me in on the ordering. There’s no way in hell I’m paying half if you order the entire warehouse, and only one bottle gets drunk.”
“Deal.” I extended my hand which wasn’t the easiest since we were so close. Corey rolled his eyes; with a devilish grin, leaned his head down and placed a sultry kiss at the nape of my neck. It was my turn for the body shuddering response. When he pulled away, the grin was still in place; I wanted nothing more than to push him back into the vacant room.
He let out a sigh, stepping away from me. “What have I just gotten myself into?” All I could do was smile.
Expectations
Corey followed, as I returned to my office to grab my wedding planning binder from a bookshelf. Before walking in to meet the happy couple, I looked at the small file the inn made for them. Their names and ages: Emily Kinds 22, and Benjamin Brown 24. They wanted to wed in a couple months. I let out a sigh without meaning too. What was it with couples rushing into things? Hell—those two were there because they wanted to make their relationship a permanent and ‘forever’ thing; if you wanted forever why make it start when you’re still so young?
“What’s wrong?” Corey stood, leaning against the doorjamb; his eyes watched me carefully as I sifted through the files.
“I don’t understand why people rush into things these days.”
He smiled at me. “What?” I snapped; unable to hold in my irritation.
“You do realize it only took a few hours for us to take the next step.”
“Oh jeez, that’s different—that was sex. This is marriage, a lifelong commitment of promising yourself to another.” Corey shrugged; not understanding my aversion to the concept.
“What’s so wrong with a couple in love, wanting to hurry into the next step, if that’s what they know they want?”
Before responding I took a minute to stare; giving him the opportunity to say he was only kidding. What kind of guy believed in the idea of marriage—especially one like Corey—one that saw no problem in random, casual sex? I expected the subject of a binding marital contract to be considered taboo to a modern man like him.
After I was tired of waiting, I asked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh come on, Corey. You can’t believe that couples will actually last forever. People get all blissed out and feel they need a piece of paper to prove the way they feel to the world. Then when it fails—because it always does— they go through hell to simply rip up that paper. They pay excessive amounts of money for a wedding, only so friends and family can eat their food and get blitzed out of their mind. How is that love?” The words came out with a bite and I couldn’t help but wonder where it was all coming from. I knew what happened with Vince had truly stung me, but maybe I’d never realized just how badly.
With the binder in hand I moved to leave the office, but Corey threw his arm out to trap me. “You don’t believe in marriage?” His expression reeked with doubt at my