Page 39 of Never Been Worse

God, I fucking love her saying that,my husband.

I use the grip on the chain to tug her in closer to me until our faces are just a few inches apart. “My initial looks mighty fine around your neck, little wife,” I say, fingers grazing her skin as I play with the necklace between us, so close, her nervous breaths graze my lips.

“I think I like having it there,” she whispers back.

FIFTEEN

HARPER

“Here we are,” Wes says as he opens the door to his house—my new house in Evergreen Park. I sort of remember him buying it a year or so ago and Ava talking about it, but I hadn’t actually seen much less been to it before the time I came here to kiss him.

The reminder of that sends a shiver down my spine that I force myself to forget.

I step in, looking around with wide eyes as he closes the door behind us, setting our bags next to the entryway. “Jesus, this place is huge. It’s just you here?” The last time I was here, it was dark, and my nerves were going haywire, so I didn’t take much of an opportunity to take the giant home in, but it’s just that: huge. This entryway alone could probably fit half of Jeremy’s house into it.

“My assistant, Laurel, has an office here, but it’s just me living here. And now you,” Wes says, nodding. “You’ve got your own room, so you don’t have to worry about bunking with me.”

I turn to him, smiling. “Two rooms, huh?” I let out a small laugh. “Just when I was getting used to sleeping with you.” It has to be the jetlag scrambling my brain, making me much more honest than I should be, but I can’t deny that the two nights I spent sleeping with Wes Holden were the best I ever had.

His hand moves to my lower back, a boyish smile on his lips as he pulls me into him, his chest flush to mine. We haven’t been this close since the absolute catastrophe in the hotel room after I made myself come, after he turned me down, and that has been intentional on my part. Because when I’m this close to Wes, common sense seems to abandon ship.

“If you want the real married experience, Harper, I’m more than willing to give it to you. You just have to say so,” he whispers against my lips.

My pulse pounds as I lick my lips, trying to calm my breaths. “The full experience?”

“Mm-hmm,” he murmurs against my lips. It vibrates against me, and the frequency of it must scramble my brain even further, because slowly, I lift my hand, wrapping it around his neck without the approval of common sense. That common sense has clearly fled the scene as I let my fingers twine into the hair at the back of his head.

“We already practiced this, Wes,” I whisper, referencing that first kiss in this foyer. My pulse is pounding, my breaths quickening at our mere proximity.

“Oh, this wouldn’t be practice, little wife,” he whispers just as quietly, then slowly starts to drop his head to my lips, as if he’s giving me the freedom to back away if I want to. I don’t, not in the least. Instead, I eagerly await his lips on mine.

But then the sound of heels on tile fills the room, and his body goes tight as a blonde walks into the house, a wide smile on her lips.

“Wes, I’m so glad you’re—home,” she finishes, her smile falling just a hair when she takes me in.

“Laurel, hey, how are you?” Wes asks, then steps away from me, a rush of cold making it feel like a loss as he steps to the woman and pulls her into a hug. It lasts for a moment before he steps back, leaving an arm around her shoulders, his smile wide as he looks at me. “Harper, this is my assistant, Laurel. Laurel, this is Harper. My wife.”

She gives me a tight smile before putting a hand out, and the shake she gives me is much too strong to be casual.

I do not like her, and I have no real reason not to, other than she’s looking at me like I’m competition, and suddenly I’m wondering if maybe Iamcompetition. Is there something here I don’t know about? I’d never heard of this woman before in my life, and he surely didn’t mention her the entire time we were away.

“Your fake wife,” she corrects, looking up at him with a smile like she’s in on some joke I’m left out of.

I stand there with an awkward, tight smile, feeling like I want to run, though I’m somewhat appeased when his look goes from happy to assessing, like he’s attempting to read her before correcting her.

“Mywife,” he says. “For all intents and purposes, Harper is my wife. Harp, if you need anything at all, Laurel is your girl. She handles everything around here—shopping, cleaning, my schedule. The whole nine.”

I give another tight smile and nod.

“I’ll try not to make your life too complicated,” I say, expecting her to wave it off and tell me it’s no big deal, but instead, she nods, turning away from me to Wes, whose arm has dropped from her frame when he stepped away, not that I was taking note.

Laurelclearly doesn’t miss that move, her face pulling into a sour look for just a moment before relaxing back into a serene smile.

“I made sure that all of her things were put into her room. Jaime was kind enough to come and help bring her things over.” Wes nods approvingly before she turns to me, that friendly look gone. It’s actually impressive how quickly she can change her face. “Mr. Wilde is the bodyguard for Atlas Oaks,” she says as if she’s filling me in on some information I’m unaware of.

My brows furrow, and I fight my jaw going tight. “Yes, I know,” I say tightly. “I was in his wedding. His wife is my best friend.”

Wes’s assistant cocks her head to the side and gives me the fakest smile known to man. “She is? What a small world. Wes, we have a few things to go over that you missed, and?—”

---