Page 40 of An Inconvenient Marriage
So why did it sound like her first time inside a nightclub?
I was about to ask when Javier returned from the bar and placed a bucket with champagne on the table, a server with three glasses not far behind him.
“We have much to celebrate, yes?” He popped the cork and started filling the glasses.
He’d just filled up the first one when Natalie gripped my arm so hard, I had no other choice than to turn to her. She’d moved closer, and when I faced her, my senses went into overdrive.
She’d trapped her lip between her teeth again, her eyes all big and wide. Shit. Did she even realize what that look could do to a man? How it called to the beast inside me, luring it out like a damn siren?
“Zach.”Mierda! When she said my name like that, all breathy and innocent, all my body could think was take, take, take.
“Zach, I don’t drink.”
Those were the words that came out of her mouth, but I was so fucking wired already, she might as well have said,“Zach, screw me, please.”
I was losing it. Never once in my life had my thoughts gotten this out of control. I had no handle on it. No way to reel it in.
Then her words sank in. Had I heard that right?
“You don’t drink? Alcohol?”
Her teeth dug deeper into her lip, and she shook her head.
How was it even possible? I’d seen multiple photos where she seemed to be severely intoxicated. There was no way I could have missed something like this.
“But I’ve seen—”
“Can I get something else, please?”
Well, if that interruption wasn’t suspicious.What the hell are you hiding?I would have loved to find out, but since I couldn’t do that without giving away this whole damn charade, I flagged down the waiter instead.
In the few seconds it took me to order another drink for Natalie, my brother had not only filled up the glasses but had placed them in front of us, too.
Proudly holding his flute in the air, he seemed ready and eager to make a toast.
I gritted my teeth. This wasn’t the time for toasts and best wishes or whatever the hell people drank to on joyous occasions. Ignoring him completely, I grabbed the champagne in front of me and knocked it back in one go, then did the same to Natalie’s.
I’d just set the second empty flute on the table when the server returned with Natalie’s lemon soda.
Javier’s gaze flitted between me and Natalie, then settled on me. Curving his mouth into a grin, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Natalie, who was in the process of taking her soda, froze instantly. Her back went ramrod straight, and I could tell she was holding her breath. Placing my hand just above her knee, I squeezed.
I hoped it was enough to silently tell her to calm the fuck down. To my brother, I simply said, “Not particularly, why?”
“Your wife is not drinking.” Javier’s voice was flat and matter of fact.
It took my brain a moment to catch on.
When it did, I shook my head and laughed to mask the sigh of relief that’d pushed past my lips. “You’re not becoming an uncle. Natalie just doesn’t drink alcohol.”
I still couldn’t believe I’d missed that. And honestly, it made no damn sense. She appeared drunk out of her mind in almost every single photo I’d seen of her in the tabloids.Could have been drugs, my brain provided.
But then why hadn’t I seen her use anything or seem high even once in the time we’d been together?
My mind was hurting with all the things I needed to figure out. Natalie being at the very top of that list.
“Why?” Javier’s question drew my thoughts back to the present.
