Kristo
Fuck.
That was the first thought when I opened my eyes. It was hard to peel them apart, as though somebody had sealed them with superglue while I’d been sleeping. As soon as the light from the window began filtering through my vision, I slammed them shut again. Nope. That was way too much.
I lifted my head from the pillow and rubbed my temples, eyes still shut. Shit. How long had it been since I’d last had a hangover? I couldn’t remember. I stretched my mind back over the night before and tried to put the pieces together, but the last thing I remembered was leading that woman out of the party and heading back to my room. Beyond that, nothing. I knew the party had gone all right before that, but nothing was sticking out to me.
That’s when I heard a snuffle and felt a shift in the weight of someone in the bed next to me, and my heart dropped. I had assumed that even hella-drunk me would have figured out I should kick out my hookup at the end of our night together. There was nothing worse than having to explain to a woman why I wasn’t going to take her out for breakfast while the two of us were both busy fighting off a hangover.
I turned slowly, opened my eyes again, and found myself looking at the woman I’d taken out of the party last night, her dress cast aside on the floor next to her along with her shoes and panties. Her hair was a mess, and she had makeup smudged beneath her eyes, but even still, she looked cute.
I slowly clambered out of bed, heading to grab a glass of water to take the edge off the worst of this. I couldn’t help grinning when I saw a couple of bottles of champagne cast around the room, empty. The door out to the balcony was thrown open, and I could see a pair of shoes and my suit pants discarded out there. Well, at least the two of us had some fun last night, even if I felt as though I’d been wrecked waking up this morning.
I grabbed a glass of water and looked at myself in the enormous mirror in the bathroom. I could have used a little less detail, if I was being honest, because I didn’t look my best. My hair was a mess, my face was crumpled from the pillow, and I had a couple of lipstick stains on my neck and shoulders that I had a feeling were going to be pretty stubborn in coming off.
Still. I wasn’t exactly going to complain about the reminder that she’d been all over me, even if I couldn’t remember the details. I traced my fingers over the pink marks on my skin, cocking an eyebrow as I imagined her putting them there, and then I saw something glinting in the mirror. I pulled my hand away and looked down at my fingers. A ring glinting on my finger.
“What the fuck?” I murmured to myself, squinting down at the circle of silver on the fourth finger of my left hand. I didn’t remember going to sleep with that on. Hell, I didn’t remember doing anything that would have landed me a ring like this one. Sometimes, fancy galas like the one we’d both been at would hand out ridiculous freebies, but I would have gotten this at the start of the night, and the only thing I remembered noticing was her.
I downed the glass of water and tried not to think about the ring as I headed back through to the bedroom. I was sure it was nothing to get hung up on. It had just been a fun night with a hot girl, and now I needed to scrub the worst of this hangover out from under my skin and get home. Any other day and I would have taken off already. But when I went back into the bedroom and saw that she had tossed the covers back in her sleep, flipping over on to her front and drawing a line down from the top of her spine to her ass that I wanted to trace my fingers along, I decided to stay. I wasn’t feeling that bad. I reached out to touch her as I sat down on the bed, but before my hand could find her body, I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks.
On her hand, the one that was flung out over the spot I had just climbed out of, was a ring. Same kind as mine. I was sure she hadn’t been wearing it the night before. If she had, I’d liked it so much, I had decided to grab one for myself as well. The silver shone in the morning sunlight, glimmering like the sequins on her dress below me, and I stared at it for a long, long moment. No. No way. No way could this be what I thought this was.
I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should just get out of there and pretend whatever had happened the night before was best left in the past. But I had to know. The curiosity was killing me. I laid a hand on her back, gently at first, and shook her lightly. She groaned and pulled the pillow over her head.
“Hey, wake up,” I demanded. I wished I could remember her name, but nothing came to mind. In my head, she had just been assigned “the hot one,” but that wouldn’t do in the light of day.
She groaned again and turned over, reaching down to pull the covers up over herself. Her hand moved, and the ring caught the light again. Panic moved through my system. I had to know what was going on. I shook her again, this time impatient.
“Hey, I need you to wake up,” I told her again. It was hard not to get distracted by her body. I wasn’t sure whether it was memories or imaginings of it that flashed through my brain as I saw her outline squirm beneath the sheets. But I knew I needed to stay focused, pull my shit together and get this under control.
“Wake up.” I spoke louder this time, and finally, she peeled open her eyes and looked at me, clearly feeling as rough as I did.
“What the fuck?” she demanded, pushing herself up off the bed and then instantly letting herself sink back down again as the hangover hit. “Holy shit, how much did we drink last night?”
“A lot,” I filled in the gaps, pulling the pillow up behind her so she could sit up. This was urgent.
Kristo“I don’t remember anything about last night,” she sighed, flashing me a playful smile. Any other time, I might have taken that as an invitation to slide beneath the covers with her and see if we could spark any memories, but I didn’t have time for that. I lifted my hand in front of her, spreading my fingers, and showed her the ring.“You know anything about this?” I asked, and her eyes widened.“You didn’t tell me you were married,” she protested, and I reached down to pick up her hand and show her she had the exact same one on. Her face dropped.“What the fuck?” she asked again, but this time there was a little more panic in her voice. That was more like it.“You don’t remember anything?” I pressed her, and she shook her head once more.“Just, like, fuzzy memories,” she frowned. “I remember leaving the party with you and that was it…”She lay for a moment, looking like a movie star surrounded by the luxurious pillows and the comforter, as though she’d been dropped into a cloud
AmayaMy head was pounding as I watched him move around the room, and I tried not to think about the nightmare we’d just caught ourselves up in. I couldn’t handle this. My body was aching all over, the ring on my finger feeling as though it was cutting off circulation and about to send my finger straight tumbling to the ground. The covers of the bed felt oppressive, but there was no way I was going to take them off knowing I was naked beneath them and he could get another free show. I flushed at the thought of it. Where was the Amaya of the night before, the one who had slipped away from the party with a stranger, the one who had gotten up to god knows what all over this room, the one who had …I looked down at my finger again, and my stomach clenched. Then, I noticed he had come to a halt and had slowly turned to look at me.“What is it?” I demanded. “Did you find something?”He shook his head, and I once again strained my memory to try and come up with what had happened the night be
AmayaI thought of Jolene, who was probably at home wondering where the heck I was right now, and my stomach twisted. A few thousand dollars alone would make her life a hell of a lot easier. And I would have done anything to assure my sister’s life was a little less difficult.It had been so hard for both of us since Mom and Dad had passed away. Every time I thought of them, I still felt that twist deep in my stomach. A car accident had robbed both me and my sister of our family when she had been nothing more than a few years old. And, in the midst of the grief and working on my undergraduate degree, I’d had to move back home to step up and take care of my sister. Jolene had been born with severe physical disabilities that had required basically full-time care around the clock to keep her functioning, and when Mom and Dad had died, I’d been the only one who knew her well enough to step in and take care of my sister. I loved her, I did, and so I moved back home from the dorm rooms wher
KristoI slipped my arm around her waist and guided her up the steps of the company jet, glancing around to make sure no one was watching or following us. If some of the tabloids caught wind of what was going on, they would get to break the news to my family before I did, and that would defeat the point of this whole scheme. She smiled at me gratefully as I opened the door for her, and the two of us stepped inside the jet together.“I’ve never been in a private plane before,” she confessed as she looked around, eyes wide while she took everything in.“Well, get used to it.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to be seeing a lot of it these the next few months.”“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she murmured, mostly to herself. She looked down at the ring on her finger once more, the one that matched mine, and then back at me, a playful smile on her face.“You know, you’ll need to get me something a little more impressive if you really want to sell this,” she remarked. I grinned.
KristoHow long had my family been getting on me to get married? Longer than I could remember. And things had taken a major uptick as soon as I had stepped up to take over the business. They thought it would look better to our investors and everyone involved with us if I could project this image of a settled-down family man, someone who could prove he was consistent and reliable and trustworthy. It had gotten to the point now that every time I flew over to Greece to see my grandparents, my grandmother would have zeroed in on some other helpless young girl she was sure would make a perfect wife for me. The woman would be dragged along to some family gathering while pretty much every one of my relatives spent the entire evening trying to push us together, and I would have to politely explain at the end of the night that I wasn’t looking for a relationship like that. And it would play out over and over again as though they were just waiting to find the right woman and thought that as soo
AmayaAs the car pulled into the spot outside my condo, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. What the hell was this guy going to make of my tiny little place?Jolene was staying at the home, had been for the couple of days I was out of town, so at least I wouldn’t have to explain her presence there to him, which was a relief. Still, this guy had more money than anyone I’d ever met before in my life. He was going to think I lived in a hovel compared to whatever palace he stayed in.He hadn’t even blinked when I’d named my price for going through with this. It was enough to pay off all my debt as well as comfortably cover a full year’s worth of bills and living expenses for me and Jolene. It would give me the chance to get ahead, to climb out from beneath the pile of debt that had been near-crushing me the last six months or so. The thought of my future opening up like that in front of me was dazzling in a way I couldn’t put into words, as though the sky had spread wide before me to show
Amaya“Toby!” I headed over to his cage, and he came scuttling up to the bars. It was clear he had missed me. One of my neighbors had agreed to come in and feed him, but Toby was a social little ferret, and he always liked attention where he could get it. I’d be leaving this place for a year, and there was no way in hell I could leave him behind. I was going to bring him with me, and Kristo was just going to have to deal with it.I gathered all my stuff up and scooped up Toby’s cage as well, heading back through to meet Kristo in the living room. He hadn’t moved, as though he had no idea how to interact with a place like this.“Who have you got there?” He nodded to the cage, and I giggled as Toby sat up on his hind legs and glared at Kristo. He was often possessive and liked to make it known he was the most important man in my life. Kristo leaned down to look him in the eye, and the two of them looked so funny staring each other down like that, I found myself dissolving into a mess of
KristoI woke up on the couch, feeling almost as bad as I had when I’d come to the night before. Fuck, how long had it been since I’d slept the night anywhere but a bed? As I peeled myself upright, rubbing my eyes and stretching out my crunched-up muscles, I remembered why. Because couches weren’t built for sleeping, and I was too old to pretend I could still pull this off.By the time we’d arrived at my place the night before, it had been so late that both of us had wanted nothing more than to just get some sleep.“We should get to bed.” I’d yawned as soon as we’d taken her stuff out of the car and dumped it in the living room. She was swaying slightly on her feet, clearly so exhausted, she could hardly think.“Do you mind …” She fell silent for a moment, clearly trying to think of the best way to phrase whatever was about to come out of her mouth.“Mind what?” I prompted her. I was too tired to play games, to mess around and tease it out of her.“Could I sleep in the bed by myself?”