True for You(8)
“You heard what I told Everett, that I’m staying married to you, right?”
She tips her head back, pretty green eyes staring at me from behind her glasses, and frowns. “I don’t want you to stay married to me, because you’re rebelling against your dad.”
“We didn’t marry for love, Bliss. We got married because I was drunk and wanted to give my dad the biggest Fuck You possible.” She starts to draw away from me, but I hold her in place. “Hear me out, okay?”
She nods.
“We didn’t marry for love, or any other rational reason.” Or at least, not one I can remember.
“Love isn’t rational,” she points out.
I grunt. “We weren’t rational, but it doesn’t make us in love.”
She licks her lips. “What does it make us?”
“Two people desperate for one another, for a way out, for anything but how they’d been living.” I can’t believe I’m being so raw, so honest with her. “And I think… I think we should make this marriage official, or at least pretend it’s official.”
“For how long?”
I shrug. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“Thinking things through isn’t your strong point, is it?”
“You think you know everything about me?” I ask, irritated that she actually does.
“I’m good at reading people.” She says this without a hint of smugness. “And I’ve known you for a while.”
“You don’t know everything about me,” I point out. “I bet you have no idea what I’m thinking right now.”
She snorts. “You’d lose that bet.”
Her confidence makes me smile. I sit up a little, and she scoots away from, keeping the sheet wrapped around her body. “Do tell.”
She tilts her head to one side, the first playful smile I’ve seen on her face in a month making me smile in return. “You’re trying to think of a way to convince me that even though this marriage isn’t real, we should have sex anyway.”
“No, I’m not,” I lie. Of course I’m thinking about having sex with her. It’s all I’ve thought about since the first time I met her.
Instead of getting upset or even disgruntled, Bliss raises her brows. “So we’re not having sex?”
“Do you want to have sex?” There. Now the ball’s in her corner.
“Answer me first.” The sheet slips lower and, on purpose or not, my gaze is trained on the newly exposed tops of her breasts.
“Not fair.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” she says, and then hops out of bed, with the sheet wrapped around her. “If you don’t mind, I’d like a shower, and then we can talk more later.”
Without waiting for an answer, she darts into the bathroom, leaving me lying in bed and realizing that I still have no clue about two things:
One—why did she agree to marry me?
Two—what in the ever-loving hell made her scream like that?
Chapter Four
Bliss
As I soap up my hair, I realize I have no idea what Jackson and I will talk about later.
He’s intent on staying married, just to further his plans of getting out from under his father’s thumb.
I get that. I really do.
However, this isn’t a game for me, and maybe it’s not one to him, but I’m the one with the most to lose. If I leave, I have nowhere to go and not enough money to last me longer than a month, two if I sleep during the day and get a job waitressing at an all-night diner.
Over the years, a nice, warm library, especially the kid’s section with their comfy beanbags, is a great place to take a nap. It’s safe, has bathrooms, and I can actually comprehend the books in that section. Well, the ones for eight years old and under.
One day, I’d like to be able to read a play by Shakespeare or pick up a book of poetry and really get what the author means. For now, I’ll settle for Junie B. Jones.
In any case, I have two choices:
One—stay married to Jackson, and pray that he never finds out the truth.
Two—become homeless again, and pray I find a job so I can at least eat.
*** *** ***
Jackson
My buddy, Cameron Hurley, walks into my bedroom without knocking first, like he owns the place. I swear the guy needs to learn boundaries. “Jackson Morgan, what in the hell are you doing here?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” I mean, I’m in bed for crying out loud, and there are clothes strewn on the floor. For all intents and purposes, it looks like I got laid last night.
Of course, Bliss chooses that very moment to walk out of the bathroom, with a towel around her head, and my robe around her body. Her eyes go wide, and she freezes.