Til Debt Do Us Part (Married At Midnight #4)

Chapter 23

Twenty-Three

Dare

I grunt and throw the stylus down next to my computer tablet. Looking at my watch, I find that three hours have passed. Not that I can really claim that I’m surprised or anything.

I drafted memos and read through a lot of the legalese about the specifics of paying for Morgan Drilling’s deep sea mining rights.

It’s familiar work, comfortable in its way. But now that I stand up and stretch, I have a strange feeling.

Usually, I embrace my work. I relish the fact that I’m the only one who can do what I do. But lately, I’ve had the sense that my other life, my quote-unquote "real life," is crowding in around the work life I’ve worked on creating for so long.

It’s odd, that feeling. The guilt that I ought to read just one more brief and write another memo sticks around with me like a speck of glitter that you just can’t manage to get off your skin three days after you visit the strip club.

And still, I am pulled toward the hallway. Curiosity is my main motivation. But if I were to be perfectly honest with myself, I would want to see the work I paid the glam squad to do.

I find Talia in the sunroom, sifting through the rack of clothing. She turns to me with a subtle smile on her face. My mouth opens, but I can’t seem to make my brain form a single whole word. Instead, I stare at her, my expression one of perfect surprise.

I left behind a sad, worried creature with a tendency toward snapping at my hands. But now I am looking at a petite, slender goddess with red hair and flashing blue eyes.

Her toned legs look ridiculously long in the silver minidress I picked out. Her perky tits and tiny waist astound me. She pushes a hand through her hair, which falls below her shoulders in a timeless, effortless-looking hairstyle.

She notices me gawking at her and blushes, but she doesn’t break eye contact. Instead, she turns to the right, posing like a model would at the very end of a runway.

"Holy shit," I exclaim. “I can’t believe you look that good."

She tosses her hair and gives me a pained look. "Gee, Dare. Way to flatter a girl."

My neck heats, but I suck in a breath and refuse to be shamed. "That’s not what I meant. What I meant…" I look her up and down again, more than a little caught off guard. "God damn . You are hot."

“I got a freaking haircut. Chill out.”

I look her up and down. “You are definitely a completely different person from the mousy little girl that I sent stylists in to fix.”

“I know what it is.” Something in her face tightens and shifts. “I think I look more like Daisy and all of the wealthy women you’ve dated than I did before.”

Pursing my lips, I shrug. “I don’t know what the problem is. I don’t see anything wrong with you looking more like women of my echelon.”

Talia snorts.

“I got a makeover to fool all the wealthy people in your orbit. But it seems like you just needed me to dress a certain way and wear my hair just so to think I’m worthy of you.” Her nose wrinkles. “It’s so shallow.”

“It’s shallow to want my fiancée to dress like she has two cents to rub together? Huh, I guess I am what you say I am then.”

She rolls her eyes and wanders closer. From this distance, I can now see that she’s wearing a thick coat of black eyeliner and a shimmery shade of eyeshadow that makes her eyes seem iridescent.

"I came to look for you, but you were working." She crosses her arms, cocking her head to the side as she approaches. "So? Do I pass the test? Am I acceptable to you now?"

Her words are certainly a dig at me. But I don’t even care. I slowly nod my head, smoothing down the front of my suit jacket.

"I don’t think I knew that that dress was so short. But it looks fantastic on you." I squint. "Why would you ever cover yourself up when you look like this?"

Her cheeks redden. But before she can say whatever catty thing comes to her, I hold up a hand. "Wait. Don’t answer that. Let’s just say that I feel much more comfortable presenting you to people as my wife-to-be. But more importantly, here’s the question. Will the glam squad pick out a whole wardrobe for you?"

She rolls her eyes but nods. "Yeah. They’ve already started to fill the closets here, and they’re ready to fill the closets back home too."

My gaze slips down to her breasts, which are accentuated by her tightly crossed arms. She notices my gaze and snaps her fingers, her voice sounding angry. "Hey. I’m up here."

I snort. "Am I not supposed to look? Because damn. If not, it’s going to be a very hard time. And I do mean hard."

I flick my gaze to hers, smirking just a little. She flushes and pulls up the material at her cleavage, looking away. "Get over yourself."

"What, I’m not allowed to compliment you?"

She gives a tiny laugh. "No. That’s not the deal. And I would know because you just made me sign it."

My eyes wander back to her tits and then to her hips.

"Listen, darling girl. My preference is that I usually date the heiresses and models that are looking for a man to spoil them in exchange for my quote, ‘unusual’ sexual needs."

Silently, she shakes her head. "No, no. I don’t want to know. Let’s just skip over that part. I am not the most experienced girl, but I know that I don’t ever want to be one of those women. Just forget it."

I cock my brow. "You know, I sleep naked. And you are going to share my bed. What are you going to do when I undress myself?"

Her chin juts out, and she has that spark in her eyes, rebellious and resistant as ever. "You have to be kidding me. I’m sure you have plenty of bedrooms everywhere you go."

"Yeah, I do. But I expect you to fully commit to the fraud that we are a real couple. I won’t force myself upon you, but if anyone goes sniffing around, they’re going to find us sleeping in the same bed together every night. Once more, we are going to spend the rest of the weekend getting used to touching each other. We’re going to rub each other and grope each other, because I want to prove to everyone in my family that you and I are in love with each other and obsessed with each other.”

She gives a surprised laugh.

I glare at her. "Laugh all you like. But we are going to touch, kiss, and sleep in the same bed. Hell, we might even have sex... As long as you can keep your feelings for me from getting messy and entangled."

"That’s crazy." She shakes her head and turns toward the doorway, moving past me.

I grab her, my hand moving as quick as lightning to grab her wrist. Hauling her around to face me, I grip her arm and pinch her chin between my fingers.

"Where are you going?" I grit out. "We are talking here."

"Having sex is what got me into this whole mess. I don’t ever intend to confuse things between us by having sex with you. No thanks."

I look deep into her eyes, loving the passion and fire that I see. "Okay, let me ask you a question." I raise a brow. "Do you intend to be celibate for our entire relationship?"

She shrugs, trying to slip out of my grip. I refuse to move or let go.

"I don’t know. But I do know one thing: having an affair is explicitly forbidden for both of us in our marriage contract. So, you had better figure something out or you are going to get really lonely."

I release her suddenly, and I glare at her. "What do you mean?"

She gives me a hearty smile. "If you had read the contract before you had me sign it, you would’ve seen that clause. It’s written there in pretty cut-and-dry language. Infidelity is a no-no. It’s one of the only reasons that I can pull out of our marriage without facing financial ruin.”

I sneer. "You know what I hate? Your know-it-all attitude."

"Oh, go ahead. Avoid the question entirely. But let’s not forget that I am carrying the child that will be the golden goose."

Damn. For a minute, I was so wrapped up in arguing with her that I forgot the whole reason we were here in the first place.

Talia is pregnant. I know it intellectually. But now this child, this unknown and unseen figment of my imagination, rises between us.

My gaze drops to her belly, which is currently flat as a pancake.

I have been so wrapped up in my goal to inherit the Morgan empire that I’ve never slowed down enough to think about the actual child. I still can’t quite get a grasp on the reality of the situation. It seems far away, like a problem for future Dare to solve.

Talia lays her palms against her flat stomach while she’s pursing her lips. "I haven’t really spent that much time thinking about the baby," she admits. "But I know that it is at the center of this whole plot."

"I really haven’t put that much thought into it. But I would marry anyone and hold anyone’s child and claim it as my own if it meant that I got a leg up in this competition with my brother."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, although I thought we were just admitting our feelings.

She glances at me, disapproval echoing in her eyes. And then she turns away and paces to the window. I expect some kind of snappy retort to be forthcoming. But Talia just stares out the window, three quarters of her face hidden from my view. The part of her face that I can see is smooth and without expression.

Checking the time on my watch, I see that there are still hours left in our day, so I decide to push on with my next objective.

Getting comfortable with Talia isn’t going to be easy. I don’t understand her on even the most basic level. And her obvious hatred of everything I stand for has been expressed aloud multiple times. But if I’m going to close this deal and win this inheritance race, I have to swallow and take my medicine.

"All right. Come on, turn around."

Talia looks at me, turning slowly around, her face puzzled. I gesture to her body, looking her up and down.

"Stand up straight," I say. "Like your parents raised you properly."

Her face turns as red as a beet. She glares at me, seeming humiliated.

"That’s not funny," she hisses.

"What’s not funny?"

She pushes out her tongue with her cheek; her hip jutting out, and she puts her arms across her chest. "The thing you just said about parents. That’s not funny. Some of us were raised without our parents. That’s literally why I am doing all of this. I must save my Aunt Minnie, her bungalow, and the children’s shelter where my mother dropped me off when I was a little kid."

For a second, I am so taken aback by her words that I find myself speechless. "You didn’t know your parents?"

"I didn’t say that. My mom is still around, somewhere. But she never knew who my father was, and she found being a parent pretty stressful, from what I’ve heard. She had some kind of psychiatric emergency where she couldn’t get ahold of her sister, my Aunt Minnie. So she dropped me off at Hope House. The people there called my Aunt Minnie, who rushed to pick me up. I haven’t seen my mother since."

I screw my face up, unconsciously asking, "How did I not know this about you? This could be a real problem."

"You didn’t know because you didn’t ask. You didn’t ask anything about me. Basically, all you know is that I slept with your brother once and that my womb is fertile."

Damn, she has got me there. I pause, my mind whirling. If Talia’s mother shows up out of the blue, as a poor relative who wants something to do with those that suddenly get rich, it could be a problem. She could demand money, at the very least.

I turn to her, my expression careful. "Talia, about your mother..."

She arches a brow and turns away from me, walking along the wall of windows and reaching out to trace the windowsill. "I don’t want to hear it unless it changes something between us; I don’t really care about me not having a mom. It’s not like I chose it for myself or anything."

I think about it for a long second. Does it actually change anything?

Talia is still pregnant with Burn’s baby. Soon to be my baby, if everything else goes to plan. In practical terms, that’s all that matters.

I suck in a deep breath and shake my head, entertaining her at last. "No, I don't think it makes a difference. This is the kind of thing that we need to know about each other, though. For instance, you should know that my mother is dead. You should know that my father is an alcoholic waste of space."

Talia reaches the end of the row of windows. She turns back, her other hand tracing the windowsill as she walks. "I didn’t know about your mom either. I’m sorry."

I huff, uncomfortable at her vulnerability. "It was a long time ago." As if that really mattered. As if it makes my mother less dead or fills in the hole she left in my life many years ago.

"I’m just telling you so that if anybody asks, you already know. Now stand up straight. Put your shoulders back and hold your head up high."

Her mouth turns down, but she walks out into the middle of the floor and sucks in a deep breath, adopting a formal posture. I walk over to her, my hand touching her shoulder and pulling it back a little more. Then I touch underneath her chin, lifting her head.

"There. This should be your resting posture when you are trying to impress people. Basically, any time that you’re around my family."

A flush creeps up from her chest to her neck. She looks at me but doesn’t move. I give her a small smile and touch her shoulder again. She shivers and pulls away.

Before she can protest, I shake my head and look at her sternly. "If this is going to work, we’re going to have to get very comfortable with each other. We are going to have to touch each other. We will have to kiss and do all the things that couples who are in love do. We don’t have a choice if we want people to believe us."

Talia looks me in the eyes, her gaze inquisitive. "So… what are we supposed to do? Practice?"

My neck heats, but I press on. I nod and slide my hand from her shoulder to the nape of her neck. "That’s exactly what we are supposed to do. That is what I brought you here for."

Her throat works as she swallows. I can smell the floral notes of her perfume. A tiny part of me wants to lean in close to her throat and get a better sniff. But I must restrain myself. Now is not the time or the place.

Instead, I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her close so she comes to me naturally, as partners do when they dance together.

Her hand touches my shoulder, smoothing the fabric that she finds there. I understand her feeling of trepidation. Her touch is so intimate. I look down into her big blue eyes, thinking for a moment that I need to escape this room and her gaze.

But no, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to man up, bear down, and get through this. It doesn’t matter that she feels so slight in my arms. It doesn’t matter that she smells good or that she is now dressed in a manner that would make my jaw drop under any other circumstances. It doesn’t matter at all that I find her skin silky smooth to the touch or that I am hyperaware of the faintest stirrings of attraction that I feel.

My heart beats faster as I bring my hands low around her waist, cupping her ass and pulling it into rough contact with my body.

Her eyes widen, and her nostrils flare. "Dare!" she protests.

I smirk at her and shake my head. "It’s better if we just dive in. We can take a ton of time to test the waters, or we can just submerge ourselves. Let’s do it and be done with it."

Her lips tremble. "What do you mean, do it?"

I grunt and release her, rolling my eyes. This is proving harder than I anticipated. I don’t feel the need to mention that my cock stirs when she says ‘do it’. As if I'm a thirteen-year-old boy, and she's casually mentioning sex.

It has been a long time since I’ve gotten hard from just a girl talking to me.

She steps back and covers her chest with her arms. The move is defensive, but it only draws attention to her cleavage. My gaze drops there, and she scowls at me.

"This is a terrible idea," she says. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah, well. If you hadn’t already gotten horizontal with my brother, maybe this could go a different way. We could take our time and get to know each other before we started fucking like rabbits. But unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be. You just happened to sleep with my twin and got pregnant before we even met. So that forces a certain timeframe on us, doesn’t it?"

She makes a soft sound of disgust and looks away, shaking her head.

I grab her by the hips, pulling her softly against my body and growling. "It does. So now you just have to deal with it. I’m about to kiss you, and you better get used to it. Don’t forget, I have you and your child’s entire future in my hand."

Talia looks up at me, her eyes wide. But she doesn’t protest or push back against my body. Instead, she gulps and slips her arms around my neck, looking frightened but determined.

Her lips part as her tongue darts out to wet them. I can’t help the animal instinct that takes over me at that point.

Pulling her against my waist, I bury my hands in her hair, my fingers pulling her head back. She exhales the tiniest gasp, and I realize that sound turns me on more than anything she’s done to this point. I angle her head and plunge my mouth down against hers, mercilessly kissing her.

Her whole body shudders as I grip her waist, and I take that as a compliment. Her body tenses up as her hands push gently at my chest. Her response only throws kerosene onto my already-lit fire. It makes me hungry. I wrap my arm around her waist and lift her off her feet as I plunder her mouth, pressing my tongue against hers.

In this moment, I have complete control, dominating her small body so completely. I can feel fury of my own satisfaction running through my veins.

I know that I should stop myself, that I should bring myself in, but I can’t. I am a feral beast, and Talia is my prey, locked into my deadly embrace.

My cock throbs and I thrust into her soft body, pulling back from her lips only long enough to let out a snarl.

God, Talia feels too good. I look down into her eyes and see terror written there, mixed with a note of pure desire. At least, that’s what I like to imagine.

She pushes against me again, her brow descending as her small body fights mine.

I relax my grip and release her. My dick is so hard that it hurts.

"Jesus, Dare!" She quickly takes a step back, her eyes contemptuous. She wipes her mouth and straightens her dress.

At some point in our scuffle, her hair grew slightly disheveled. She moves to smooth it out, fanning it out across her shoulders.

My fingers clench; the feeling of the silky copper strands is imprinted on them.

"We can’t do it like this," she says, looking shaken. "We can’t get comfortable with each other, I mean. It won’t work."

Wiping at my mouth, I drag in a stuttered breath. "Yes, we can."

"No!" Her eyes gleam as she stares at me. "I don’t think so."

"Listen to me." I flick my fingers out, beckoning her closer. "You are the mouthiest, most stuck-up, most stubborn girl I’ve ever met. But for some reason, I find it arousing when you surrender to me. And I think you like it when I take control." I scan her face. "You want me to dominate you. Am I right, darling girl?"

"No," Talia says, her voice coming out in a breathy whisper. "I don’t want you. I hate you."

"You might hate my personality. But you want me. You long for someone to show you how to be a good girl. Even now, as we stand here, your pussy is wet for me. I can tell."

Her breath leaves her in a scoff. She crosses her arms and rolls her eyes. The fragile moment between us passes, slipping away in that half a breath.

"I don’t know what you want from me, Dare."

With that, she turns and flees the room, leaving me feeling more than a little foolish. Did I just imagine the flicker of attraction that flowed and sparked between us when I kissed her?

I think not. But Talia obviously feels differently about it.

I adjust my cock in my trousers and stare at the empty hallway she disappeared down, debating whether I should give her the night off and try again tomorrow.

I will not give up over one little misstep. Talia and I will emerge from this weekend seeming as if we have been lovers for ages. I’ve decided that it will happen…

Regardless of whether she likes it or not.