Page 60 of Rebound
Roman
Downstairs in the casino.
I show the message to Jules, and she nods, leading us down to the casino.
Except the hotel casino is huge and I’m one loud noise away from a panic attack. We’re never going to find him before he has to leave and then he’ll be gone for six days and I’ll remain married to him and what are my parents going to say when they find out and how is Drew going to react when he finds out and if this gets out I’ll be labelled a certain way because the world hates women and it hates successful women more than anything else and?—
“There you are, Mrs. Maddox.”
My thoughts slam into a wall and scatter. Roman is standing in front of me, a truly devastating smile on his face, his hair curling around his forehead.
Memories of last night flash before my eyes. Dancing with him in the club, pressed against a wall in a dark corner and riding his thigh as he whispered the dirtiest things in my ear, laughing about something as we walked down the strip, kissing him again and again, as if I had every right to.
Oh.
My heart slams against my chest, my palms growing sweaty. I start to smile back, and Jules pokes me in the side.
“Stay strong,” she whispers. Right. I’ve come for a reason and that reason is not to lose myself in Roman’s eyes.
“Why are you not panicking?” I demand. “We are literally,” I stop and look around to make sure we can’t be overheard, and whisper, “married. To each other.”
Roman holds out the cup holder in his hand on which he’s carrying three iced coffees. He’s also carrying a bag of something that smells delicious and is making my stomach rumble.
“I got coffee. Lavender and oat latte, right?”
I nod mutely, taking the cup from him. How did he know that? He remembered my favorite ice cream flavor from when we were children, but I can chalk that up to having a good memory. I’ve never ordered a coffee in front of him, that I can remember.
“How do you know what kind of coffee I like?” I ask.
Roman shrugs, his cheeks turning a faint pink as he looks at Jules and gives her one of the other coffees.
“I know what you like,” he says unhelpfully.
“Oh, of course. I was with my fiancé for two years and in all that time, he never got my coffee right, but you somehow know without having to ask me. Stalker.” I mumble the last part under my breath.
I know he follows me on social media but even if I posted my coffee order there, it wasn’t in the last eight months.
He pauses mid sip, holding my gaze. “What you’re saying is, we’ve been married for less than a day and I’m already a better partner than the man you were with for two years?”
“We’re not doing this right now.” I shake my head. “I’m hungover, I feel like I’m going to throw up, and waking up married is not all sunshine and flowers like I thought it would be.”
“You thought marriage to Josh was going to be sunshine and flowers? Did you even know him?”
I take a sip of my coffee, and the cold is enough to ease my headache a little. I choose to ignore Roman’s comment about knowing Josh because apparently, I clearly didn’t know him.
“How did this happen?” I wave my left hand in front of his face as I continue to sip my coffee.
I’m curious because I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember. While I remember having a great time with Roman, laughing and dancing,the orgasm,I can’t remember what led to us getting married. I can’t remember how we got black out drunk.
“You said you wanted to have fun because you were tired of being ‘boring and predictable’.” He doesn’t use air quotes, but I sense them. Jules is standing quietly next to us, listening to the discussion intensely.
“Yeah, I meant get a haircut, try a new ice cream flavor, have a one-night stand. Not get married!”
Roman raises a shoulder in a shrug, motioning around us. “This is Vegas, and you rolled the dice. You should have been clearer about what you wanted. It’s like a genie; you never know what you’re going to get when you make a wish.”
“Figures my genie is a man, and not Christina Aguilera.”
Jules snickers next to me.
