Bedded Bliss (Found in Oblivion #1) - Cari Quinn Page 0,65
both parties remember every last detail.” He circled his finger on the rug and tilted his head. “We should work on that, don’t you think?”
“No.” Her breathing sped up audibly. “Why? What does it matter?”
“We can figure out what happened and what went wrong. You know, for next time. In my case, for the next time I see a woman in the audience and get so turned on by her that I have to marry her.”
A faint smile played around her lips. “You didn’t marry me because you were turned on. If we really are even married. I have my doubts it’s all real.”
Of course she did, because she hadn’t seen the marriage license yet. Instead of showing it to her and probably ruining her night before she had to go work, he scooted across the rug and reached for her left hand.
She gasped as if he’d gone for a tit grab. “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking at the ring I bought my wife. My prerogative, I think.” Belatedly, he realized he couldn’t look at what she wasn’t wearing.
He should’ve checked out her hand before, surreptitiously. Then maybe he wouldn’t have gotten yet another short-armed punch to the chest at holding her hand and finding it bare.
So what if he still had his on? He just was the chump who’d forgotten to take it off. That was all.
“Never mind.” He let her hand drop. “Guess I’m too late.”
“I don’t wear it. Why should I? It wasn’t a real marriage.” She darted a glance at his hand and made a soft noise in her throat before lifting her gaze to his. “Why? Why are you still wearing it?”
He went with the easiest reason, since trying to decipher the truth was a lot harder. “Getting married to you is the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
Her throat worked before she shifted her focus to her now sleeping son. He’d flopped over facedown and had his bottle tucked under his arm. “I have to put him down.”
“Looks like he already did that for himself.”
“He should be in bed, since Lori said he didn’t get much of a nap this afternoon.”
It was probably starvation and sex deprivation—if I couldn’t remember doing it, it was almost as if I hadn’t—that made him open his mouth. “I can do it. Probably. Where’s his room?”
“Hold up. You can’t put my son to sleep.”
“He already is. See, exhibit A.”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean carting him down the hall and tucking him in and reading him a story—”
“Which is his favorite?”
“Right now, The Spider and The Fly, but it changes every week. That’s beside the point. We aren’t playing house, Michael.”
“True. Since you won’t move in with me, although we’re virtual prisoners in here now.” He jerked a thumb toward the curtains she’d made sure were drawn tightly the moment they’d entered the apartment.
“Right. Like it’s not the same at The Pussy Palace.”
“I don’t have groupies in my home.”
Of course that begged the question how he could have ever consumed enough to give Tabitha a key, but he’d also thought marriage was a fine idea while he was inebriated. Guess nothing was off the table when he started tossing them back.
Nope, he was never drinking again.
“Handy, since you want to move in me and my son,” Chloe muttered.
“No, I mean they’ve never been in my home.” Loosely, he grasped her wrist when she started to turn away. “I’ve never had a woman spend the night at my place.”
He’d played it off to Lila that it didn’t make sense he’d mess up a hotel room when he was in town, but that had been a misdirection. He didn’t bring women to his apartment. Ever.
Except now he wanted to move a woman in. The woman. Somehow Chloe had already climbed several levels in status past any woman who had come before.
She shook off his hold. “And I suppose you always use a condom too.”
“Always.” That was sterling truth. “I won’t have sex without one.”
“Am I supposed to believe you?”
He tapped the heavy gold ring on his finger. “I took a vow. That means I can’t lie to you.”
Her lips trembled before she firmed them. “So a wedding ring is like truth serum?”
“Suppose so.” He shrugged and glanced toward Axl, who’d brought his chubby hand up to his mouth in sleep. “Let me put him to bed while you keep an eye out for your dad.”
“You mean so I can usher him inside in a hurry? They’re relentless out