Page 32 of Captive Audience
“I’m sorry. I swear I never sleep this long.” I brushed hair back from my face and felt something strange on my finger. Something cold and solid.
I held my hand up, turning it slowly. A gold band with a massive emerald winked at me in the afternoon light.
Weird. Beyond weird, if I was honest, but there had to be some logical explanation for it.
“What’s this?”
His jaw flexed hard before he forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Glad you asked. That’s a wedding ring.”
“Thanks for the clarification.” I laced every word with sarcasm. “Let me rephrase my question. What’s it doing on my finger?”
“That’s where it goes when you get married. See”—he held up his hand—“I have a ring, too.”
“You’re married?”
“Aye. To you.”
I blinked, then rubbed sleep from my eyes. Any second now, he’d grin and sayGotcha!
But he didn’t. He just stared at me, his lips pressed thin as if he were waiting for my brain to catch up and explode.
This wasn’t a dream.
I tugged the sheets higher. “That’s not funny.”
“I know.”
“Did Beth and Daisy put you up to this?”
He shook his head.
My pulse kicked into overdrive. “Then is this some role-playing thing you’re into?”
Please let it be that, because the only alternative was that I’d spent the night having amazing sex with a legit crazy person.
“Let me make this simple. You and I were married in a brief ceremony this morning.”
His words dropped like stones in my gut. “Pretty sure I’d remember doing something as stupid as that.”
I yanked at the ring, twisting and tugging, but it wouldn’t move. My skin burned from the effort.
No, no, no.
The harder I tried to remove it, the more my sweaty hands shook. Why wouldn’t the damn thing budge?
Rook smiled, seeming pleased with himself.
What in the actual fuck?
“You won’t get that off,” he said.
“Yes, I will. It went on, so it can come off.” But no matter what I did, I couldn’t wriggle it over my knuckle. This ring was starting to feel less like a lavish piece of jewelry and more like a shackle.
Something was wrong.Verywrong.
“This will all go a lot smoother if you skip the panic attack and accept that our marriage is real.”
“Sorry. No can do.”
