Not-So Temporarily Married(19)

“That’s basically the whole damn week,” he grumbled as he climbed out of bed and pulled on a pair of pajama pants that hung low on his hips.

I picked up the matching shirt and tossed it over my head, following him down the hall and into the kitchen. When I caught up to him, he was staring into the fridge with an adorable pout on his face. I couldn’t help but take pity on him, not when his disappointment was due to his excitement about the possibility of building a family with me. His enthusiasm was starting to grow on me. “How about I make you some of my famous blueberry pancakes? I can whip some up before we head in to the office. Will that make you feel better?”

“Definitely not better,” he chuckled. “Because I’d end up in the emergency room since I’m allergic to blueberries.”

“I’ll have to keep that in mind,” I teased, pulling ingredients out as the doorbell rang. “Who could that be so early in the morning?”

“Get to work, woman. You’ve got a man to feed.” He dropped a quick kiss on the top of my head and gave me a soft slap on the ass on his way to the door.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I yelped.

“Dammit,” he cursed, right before he yanked open the door. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again quite so soon.”

“I did say I’d be in touch.” The reply was said by a voice I was hoping not to hear for a good, long while. “I just didn’t say when, since the unexpected tends to work well for me when I’m investigating a marriage that could result in one of the parties getting citizenship.”

I left the kitchen and steeled myself for what was going to come next as I spied Landon at the door with our visitor. “Mr. Teagan, what a nice surprise.”

“Please, call me Spencer.”

“Not dressed like that she won’t,” Landon growled. “Would you mind giving us a moment while my wife goes and puts on something more appropriate?”

Landon’s tone of voice made it more than clear that he couldn’t care less if Spencer minded. He didn’t even give him time to answer as he dragged me out of the kitchen and into our bedroom to dig in the dresser. He yanked out an old pair of sweats I hadn’t worn since about my freshman year of college and tossed them at me.

“What are we going to do?” I whispered, quickly changing clothes.

Landon wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, giving me the comfort I needed to calm down and stop being so freaked out by the immigration officer’s surprise visit.

“There’s nothing to worry about, baby,” he rumbled softly. “We don’t have anything to hide.”

“But we do,” I cried softly, thinking about the reason we decided to run off and get married in the first place. Things had changed drastically since then, but it would be hard to explain it away if the truth ever came out.

“No we don’t, Zoe. You’re my wife, and nothing’s going to change that. Nobody has the power to take you away from me.”

“That man out there does! He could deny my case if he thinks our marriage is a sham,” I insisted.

“It’s not going to happen,” he reassured me, opening the door and nudging me through it. “But if worse comes to worse, we’ll just move to Canada and I’ll apply for citizenship there.”

“But your business? Your family? They’re all here.”

He stopped at the end of the hallway, turned towards me and cupped my cheeks in his palms. “Don’t you get it, Zoe? Nothing else matters without you.”

“Ahem,” Spencer cleared his throat, drawing our attention to where he stood about ten feet away from us. “As I said, unexpected visits come in handy when I’m investigating a petition like yours. You learn a lot about a couple when you can see how they react under stress. It makes it easier to see who’s in love and who’s pretending.”

In love? Was he saying Landon and I looked like a couple in love with each other?

“There are still some additional steps in the process, but from what I’ve seen so far, I feel comfortable in telling you not to plan a move to Canada anytime soon.”

Yeah, that was exactly what he was saying. And the happiness filling me up inside made me wonder—was he right? Had I fallen in love with my husband as quickly and easily as I’d fallen into his bed?





Chapter 10


Landon


After Spencer left, Zoe was oddly quiet for the rest of the morning. I would have thought she’d be overjoyed that we were almost done with the immigration stuff. Was she second guessing it all now? Wanting out of the relationship as soon as her status was final?