Page 26 of The Hockey Contract

"By the power vested in me by the State of Washington, I now pronounce you husband and wife." The judge smiled benevolently. "You may kiss the bride."

Jax turned toward me, his expression inscrutable. We hadn't discussed this part. In all our careful planning, we'd somehow overlooked the kiss that would seal our fraudulent union.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then lowered his head toward mine. I expected a perfunctory peck—a business transaction kiss to match our business transaction marriage.

What I got instead stopped my breath.

His lips met mine tentatively at first, a gentle pressure that was almost a question. Then, as if something shifted between us, the kiss deepened. His hand came up to cup my cheek, thumb brushing my skin with surprising tenderness. For a moment that stretched into eternity, I forgot about our audience, forgot about our arrangement, forgot about everything except the unexpected heat of his mouth on mine.

It was brief—a few seconds at most—but when he pulled away, I felt dizzy, off-balance. I met his eyes and saw a flash of something that mirrored my own confusion before he quickly masked it.

"Perfect!" Olivia's voice broke the moment. "Marcus, did you get that?"

The photographer nodded, snapping a few more photos as we signed the marriage certificate. My hand trembled slightly as I wrote my name, officially becoming Sienna Harrison—at least on paper.

Outside City Hall, we posed for more photos, Jax's hand resting possessively on my lower back. It felt warm through the thin material of the simple blue dress I'd changed into, a constant reminder of his physical presence.

"Sienna, a moment?" Aunt Carol pulled me aside while Jax spoke with his teammates. Her expression was troubled. "Honey, are you sure about this? It all seems so... hasty."

I forced a smile. "I know it seems sudden, but I'm happy, Aunt Carol. Really."

"You always were a terrible liar." She squeezed my hands. "Does this have something to do with the bakery? Because if you need money—"

"It's not about money," I interrupted, the lie burning my throat. "I love him." Three simple words that felt like a betrayal of everything I believed about love.

Aunt Carol studied my face for a long moment, then sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Before I could respond, she turned and walked directly to Jax, who was saying goodbye to Finn and Anders. To my horror, she enveloped him in a warm hug.

"Welcome to the family, Jax," she said, loud enough for me to hear. "Take care of my girl. She's the only Sienna I've got."

Jax looked startled by the genuine affection, his body stiffening briefly before he awkwardly returned the hug. Over my aunt's shoulder, his eyes met mine, and I saw something flicker in their depths—discomfort, certainly, but also a trace of guilt.

As we drove away from City Hall—now in Jax's sleek sports car—I stared out the window, my new rings feeling impossibly heavy on my finger. I'd just legally bound myself to a stranger for the sake of my bakery.

Grandma Rose had passed the bakery to me with pride in her eyes. "You're the future of our family tradition," she'd said.

I wondered what she'd think of the tradition I'd just begun.

Chapter 10: Jax

The silence in the car was deafening. Sienna sat beside me, staring out the window, absently turning her wedding band with her thumb—a nervous gesture I'd noticed during the ceremony. Neither of us had spoken since we'd pulled away from City Hall, leaving behind the performance we'd put on for her aunt and my teammates.

I cleared my throat. "Your aunt seems nice."

Sienna kept her gaze fixed on the passing scenery. "She is. That's why lying to her feels awful."

Her bluntness caught me off guard. Most people in my world—agents, managers, teammates—cushioned difficult truths with platitudes. Sienna just stated facts, uncomfortable as they might be.

"I'm sorry about that," I said, surprising myself with the sincerity in my voice. "I didn't expect we'd have to involve family so soon."

She finally turned to look at me. "There are a lot of things we didn't anticipate, aren't there?"

Like that kiss. The unspoken thought hung between us. I hadn't planned to really kiss her—just a quick peck for appearance's sake. But something had happened when I'd leaned in, some inexplicable pull that had made me linger, made me want to taste her properly.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. "We should establish some ground rules. For living together."

"Fine," she agreed. "Rule one: this is temporary. Three months, then we go our separate ways."

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