Sinful Ever After - Vivian Wood Page 0,127

Owen, my mind spinning. Do I just hope that the wedding hoax works out and Madisyn never finds out? Or do I escalate things by asking Cate to move in with me for the duration?

I mean, it really wouldn’t be a big deal to have her move in. My place is huge. We could practically live together and never see each other. And Cate’s home life is… well, from what little I know of her situation, it seems like it’s chaotic at best.

Really, I would be doing Cate a favor. At least, that’s what I tell myself when I decide to ask her to move in.

Once I drop Owen back off at the bar and unload the groceries, I head to Cate’s place again. It’s a drive, way on the very outskirts of Seattle, in a big old house next to a set of railroad tracks. I pull up out front and walk around the vegetable garden growing in her front lawn.

A very old black lab watches me skeptically from a dog bed on the front porch when I pound on Cate’s front door. After a few seconds, I’m about to knock again.

The door is yanked open by Cate, wearing a bathrobe, a towel in her hair, and a face mask. “Yeah, yeah,” she starts. Then she sees me and stops. “What... what are you doing here, Luca?”

She pulls the edges of her robe closer together, as if I care about that. I clear my throat.

“Move in with me.”

The surprise on her face is clear. “What? Why?”

I shrug. “Because. You’re my wife for the next seven weeks. We should present a united front.” I look behind her, where three dogs are fighting over a rope toy. “Plus it would be your own space for a while. I doubt that this place can boast that.”

She sucks her lower lip into her mouth. “I don’t know, Luca. Won’t we be tripping over each other just the same at your house? At least here, I know I’m not… you know, unwelcome.”

Rolling my eyes, I challenge her. “I have a ton of space. And you’d be doing me a favor.”

Arching a brow, she crosses her arms. Her little pink bathrobe hitches up on one side, showing me more of her hip than she probably wants me to see. But I can be gentleman, and to prove it I keep my eyes raised.

“How much of a favor?” she demands to know. “Are we talking an extra bonus? Because I’m pretty comfortable here already.”

My nose wrinkles. “All right. Let’s say… eight thousand dollars, as opposed to five. At the end of the whole thing, for your signature on the annulment papers.”

“Ten,” she fires back. “And I get to bring my cat.”

Grinding my teeth, I pause for a second. The cat is no thing, but… is Madisyn not being able to find out that we’re not married really worth an extra five grand? Well, not married in the long term, anyway.

Blowing out a breath, I concede. “Fine. But you have to start moving in immediately.”

Cate narrows her gaze on my face, as if she knows that I’m up to something but can’t quite figure it out. She sticks her hand out, and I shake it briefly. Her hand is warm and soft in mine. When I lean closer, I get just a whiff of vanilla scent.

Mmmm, I think. It’s automatic, just enjoying the clean smell of a freshly showered Cate.

“I work tonight. You know what the boss can be like.” She smiles, pursing her lips. “Tomorrow I can move my stuff in, though. There isn’t much.”

“All right.” I glance at my watch. “I have to stop by my house and then go to work… I guess just call me when you’re ready to move tomorrow.”

“Okay.” She closes the door without ceremony.

I can’t be too worried about that, because I’m officially running out of time. Work is in less than two hours and I have to squeeze a shower in before then. After driving back to my side of town, I pull the car in the driveway of my three story white colonial and sprint up to the house.

I stop briefly to check the mail and then flip through it as I let myself into the house. It’s mainly junk, but there is a large padded envelope from someplace called Chapel of The Bells. I recognize that name; I tried to go there the morning after I woke up next to Cate, wretchedly hungover.

Setting the rest of the