“Yeah.” Her left hand jutted out from under the covers, and she waggled her fingers. “Mine’s prettier.”
“Look, um—um—”Half-baked memories rolled in my head, but none took shape. “Miss.”
“Miss?”
“Yes, well?—”
She propped herself up on one elbow and stared straight at me. “You don’t remember my name, do you?”
“Of course I do.” I did not.“I’m not quite sure what transpired last night, but I assure you, I’m not the sort of person who spontaneously getsmarried.I’m not the kind of person who doesanythingspontaneously.”
“Oh, my gosh. You don’t remember my name. This is a story for the ages.”
“I do apologize?—”
“Lexi,” she said, still watching me with lovely, deep, dark eyes.
Her pink tongue licking her front teeth as she said the wordLexiwas fascinating. “I beg your pardon?”
“Lexi. That’s my name.”
Oh, thank God. I’d thought she was never going to tell me. “I knew that.”
“Right.Nico, sweetie, you just get showered and a little more sober, andthenI’ll bring you up to speed.”
Flashes of the previous evening slapped me around as they appeared in my head. “Are you Volkov’s daughter? Did he get me wasted and trick me into marrying you last night?”
Lexi,for that is what she had said her name was,Lexi,rolled in the bed, her mouth rounded into an O. “Were you trying to escape a shotgun wedding? Is that what last night was about, youknocked upsome poor girl and thenran outon her?”
“No oneis pregnant, and I wasnotrunning from a wedding.” An impending wedding, in any case. “So you arenotDemyan Volkov’s daughter,correct?”
“Iam Lexi Byrne, not Volkovanything,and I don’t know who Damian Volvo is.”
The tiny bit of strength lent to me by panic evaporated, and I turned and slid down the door frame to the thin carpeting. “All right, but we’re not really married, of course. Surely, one can’t do that even here.”
Her head bobbled from side to side. “Sort of.”
Dread gripped me. “That’s a joke we used to tell each other in high school. Being sort-of-married was like being a-little-pregnant or kind-of-dead. Either you are, or you aren’t.”
One side of her mouth bent up. “Welcome to the gray zone.”
“I cannot wait to hear this.”
She flopped on her back on the bed where I couldn’t see her face anymore. “Okay, I guess we’re doing this before you even shower and eat. The long and the short of it is that we got married because youreallywanted to and I couldn’t figure out any other way to keep you from getting yourself in even worse trouble.”
“There wasworsetrouble?”
“Oh yeah, but the good news is that we did not sign the marriage license. You kept going for it with a pen, but I playedkeep-away and literally jingled my car keys in front of your pretty blue eyes to distract you.”
That didn’t sound like me at all. “And thatworked?”
“I’m as surprised as you are. Anyway, we didn’t sign the marriage license and there wasn’t a notary public around after we got back to the hotel, so it isn’t legally binding. All we have to do is tear up the marriage license and walk away.”
Relief flushed through my entire body. This little sprite hadn’t taken advantage of me while I’d been deranged. “Lexi, you are a goddess in earthly clothing.”
From the bedclothes somewhere above me, a chuckle emanated. “Oh, a promotion from an angel to a goddess. If you keep talking like that, I might let you sign that stupid piece of paper.”
“So we aren’tlegallymarried?”
