Page 61 of Rebound
“If that’s the status quo, no wonder I don’t compare,” Roman says. “Wait, were you planning on having sex with me last night?”
I will myself not to blush. “Actually, I meant that guy who asked for my number on Fremont Street. He was cute.”
Roman legitimately growls at me.
“Oh, calm down. You’re a hockey player, not an alpha in an Omegaverse novel.”
Jules chokes on her coffee.
“If I was, I would have scent marked you by now,” Roman says.
Jules’s choking gets worse, and I thump her back as her face starts to turn red, tears streaming down her face. Roman quickly grabs a bottle of water from a passing stranger and uncaps it, handing it to Jules. I keep massaging her back until her breathing evens out and her face isn’t red anymore.
“Maybe we should get a move on,” Jules croaks.
“Right.” I swallow and turn to Roman. “We can get this marriage annulled and it’ll be like it never happened.” My voice squeaks over the word marriage and I clear my throat. I look at Jules for support and she nods.
“About that…” Roman trails off, titling his head slightly.
No, no, there’s noabout that.I’m trying really hard not to shut down and panic. My immediate response right now is to find out where I went wrong. What did I say or do last night that led to this? How did I mess up? I should have stopped drinking after we left the club. I should have listened to Drew and stayed put. Ugh, I can’t believe I’m actually agreeing with my brother.
This is all my fault and now I have to solve it without anyone finding out or I’ll have a lot of explaining to do. And I can’t think of an answer while standing in the middle of a casino with the constant noise from the slot machines and cacophony of people worsening my headache.
I don’t notice a large group walking by us and someone bumps into me. He continues walking but Roman reaches out an arm and grabs the back of his hoodie, yanking him back.
“Watch where you’re going,” Roman hisses. “That’s my wife you bumped into.”
The man, he can’t be older than 21 or 22, looks at me, and my cheeks flush. Why did Roman have to say it like that?
“I’m sorry,” the guy says hastily.
“Don’t worry about it.” I grab Roman’s arm and urge him to leave this random guy alone. The last thing he needs is to get into a fight off the ice and over something so miniscule.
Roman releases the hoodie and when the guy turns to look at him, his eyes widen slightly. “Hey, aren’t you?—?”
“No!” Roman snaps.
Taking my hand, he tugs in a different direction, and I go only because I don’t want an audience to our conversation. I look over my shoulder to make sure Jules is following us. The guy from before looks confused as he joins his friends, and I hope no one believes him when he says Roman Maddox called someone his wife.
“What were you thinking?” I ask. “If he tells someone it can be a big problem for us.”
“Right, about that,” he says again.
“Please stop saying that,” I request.
“There’s noabout that,” Jules adds. “You made a mistake. I’ve already found three lawyers back in Boston who can get this resolved ASAP.”
Roman looks at Jules and then me, expressionless. He’s not agreeing with Jules. Why isn’t he saying that we’ll get this marriage annulled?
“Roman, we agreed. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” I remind him.
“It’s Vegas, Vin, not an alternate universe,” Roman replies. “I guess I lied when I agreed to that because there’s no way one night with you was going to be enough.”
My heart flutters and the thing is, I don’t want to forget about us either. I thought when we go back to Boston, we can see what this thing is between us. But now we have wedding rings hanging over our heads and a marriage certificate burning a hole in my pocket.
I can’t be the girl who gets married in Las Vegas on a whim. My whole life I’ve done what everyone’s expected of me. My parents never received a complaint from my teachers or coaches.
I got good grades, I did my chores without complaint, I didn’t break curfew, I didn’t go to parties. If I tell someone I got drunk and married in Vegas, they’ll think it’s a joke. Not good little Lavinia Callahan fucking up.
