Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (summer beach reads txt) 📗

They were best friends. Alex tells him everything; like the first time we made love.

My stomach knots, and I feel sick, even if I should have expected it.

“Then don’t.” She shrugs, and pushes her hair behind her ear.

“Do you at least know where Deacon is?” I plead to her again. To give me anything. So maybe I won’t have to look over my shoulder every second again as I wait.

“Again, I don’t know anything,” she hisses. “Now stop trying to make me out to be the bad guy.”

“I’m not. He is.”

“No, you are.” She points her manicured finger at me. “Letting everyone else pay for what you have done. Especially, Alex. You should just go away, June. No one wants you here. I’m sure you’ll remember that soon.”

11ALEX

I prop up the three by five silver frame of the beauty with red hair, and amber eyes, smiling, gazing out into the distance, sitting on her favorite horse. She has no idea I took this picture of her genuine smile, begging to be captured and framed much less that I even have it as my screen saver.

As I lean back in my chair, it’s amazing how much has changed since just this picture was captured weeks ago. Seeing that studio opened my eyes in a way I hadn’t expected. She’d thought I would be angry. I’d thought I would be angry, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t be.

What right did I have to be?

That studio didn’t come from a place of guilt. It came from a place of love. I felt Kathleen in the walls, her spirit was there, with June. It overtook me. It still does.

As I’d looked at the pictures on the wall of the studio, I realized my hatred had kept me out of the loop. I could’ve been a part of it, shared in my sister’s dream, one that I didn’t even know about, if I had just let June back in my life and forgiven her sooner. I mean, Annabelle, Kat’s best friend, sure has, and Liz could, but me?

Did I ever hate her or just the mistake she made?

The question was the kick to my head.

And I always knew the answer deep down.

I hated that I lost her.

I’ve been fighting that she is a part of me for years. That she owns a piece of my heart that I locked up and iced over. I stayed away from the house because I knew the moment I lingered too long the essence of June would seep back in and capture me all over again. It’s what has happened now, but it’s what needed to happen. She’s my family and my connection to Kathleen. My other fucking half.

Mistakes have been made, but I know if I let her go again, I’ll lose everything.

And already the thought of losing her, not having her, brings me dread. So how can I not want to spend the rest of my days with the girl I have been drawn to since she was sixteen?

When I’d found her in the shower when I returned home, I’d needed to possess her. I hadn’t been ready to talk, I hadn’t been ready to feel anything but her. Later, after her nightmare, I wanted to give her everything, show her what words couldn’t about how I felt.

It hadn’t been until I heard her breathing grow even and she went limp in my arms that I confessed verbally that I was falling for her all over again. I don’t know if she heard me.

I twist my watch and realize I only have ten minutes until my next meeting with Peterson and my team. My computer chimes with an e-mail from Deacon. He’s replying to the email I sent him several weeks ago telling him who I married.

From Deacon Whitmore

To Alexander Wilks

 

Wow.

I can’t believe you and little June-bug got together. Mind blown. Wasn’t expecting that to be the name of your blushing bride, especially after, well you know. Listen, I’m going to be back from Spain in a couple of weeks. I think we should meet up. It’s been forever. I’m thinking of coming to town. Just don’t tell the wifey, I want to surprise her.

 

Why the fuck does he want to surprise June?

I’m about to hit reply when Adrian busts my door open like he’s training to be on the swat team.

“What the hell dude?” I bark. It’s not like him to come into my office like he’s on a co-op mission.

He holds up his hand as he closes the door behind him and makes his way to stand in front of my desk. He puts his hands on his hips, now all business and serious. “I have to ask you something and I need you to be real with me, is your wife okay?”

“What do you mean is my wife okay?”

“I just ran into her in the lobby and she was jumpy as hell. I touched her shoulder and she screamed. Like piercing. My ears are still ringing.” He rubs his ear and shakes his head. “So I ask again, is she okay?”

“She’s here?” I stand from my desk, and pick up my cell, not noticing any messages or calls from her.

“Yeah, she’s here. Dude, seriously, she seemed freaked the fuck out. And now with you avoiding my questioning I have to ask, what did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything.” Other than give her a couple of intense orgasms and admit I’m falling in love with her.

Adrian crosses his arms over his chest. “You sure about that? I know you were all in your feelings about her yesterday.”

“I’m sure, Adrian. I told you I figured them out.”

“I know, and that’s why I’m trying to understand. I guess you didn’t see