The passion in his kiss couldn’t be faked, right? I hadn’t just been swept away, I’d been blown off my feet, hurled by the force of it.
His touch, his hands on my skin, his body coiling under my thighs had been the opposite of Jimmy’s reluctance every time I’d reached out to him, even to hold his hand.
It would be different this time, I told myself. Itwasdifferent.
Nicolai was different.
He was murmuring with Ueli out in the living room, the low beats of their serious tone but not their words carrying through the living area, past the couches, and into the bedroom where I waited.
Just a few deep, masculine lines, and then the suite’s front door clacked closed, and the locks rattled.
Footsteps, softened by the living room’s plush carpeting, plodded.
Nicolai leaned his shoulder against the doorframe. His head was only inches from the top, and his shoulders almost filled the width. He probably had to aim when he walked through doorways.
His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, biceps bulgingunder his closely fitted suit jacket. “You can’t kiss me like thateveragain.”
My knees slid in their sockets, and I grabbed the foot of the bed to keep from collapsing in a heap on the floor.“What?”
His frown deepened, and he stared at the carpeting under his feet. “Look, I’m an adult, but I’m not a robot. I can’t keep my hands off you when you do that. We have a deal. One year, no sex, then an annulment.”
Shit, this husband didn’t want me, either. “But—but Ithought?—”
His voice was tight, and he didn’t move his jaw. “That’s thedeal.”
“We don’t have a deal. We haven’t signed a contract yet,” I blurted, my fingers grasping the soft velvet of the comforter in my fist. “We can change the deal because we haven’t signed it.”
Nicolai sighed, dragging one hand through his dark hair. “We should have negotiated and signed the contract before the ceremony, or at least before we signed the marriage license this morning.” A deeper sigh, and his shoulders sagged. “My lawyers are going to kill me.”
“That’s not my problem.”
“Nevertheless, we haven’t consummated the marriage, and as such, we’re—” He stopped, frowning.
“We’rewhat?”
He frowned and clasped the hair on the top of his head like he was trying to yank it out. “If I remember right, you’re mybridebut not yet mywife.”
I whirled and flopped onto the bed, sitting on the side facing the couch and leather chair over by the window. The copper silk of my dress billowed around my ankles and settled. “That’s not what you told the whole Caesars Palace casino.”
“That was to piss off that fool. God, what an ass he is.” His growl sounded close toviolence.
“Whatever.”I was letting anger get the better of me. “It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
Nicolai walked into the room, tapping the door closed behind himself, but I didn’t watch him past the edge of my peripheral vision. His voice was softer, almost begging. “An annulment requires certain unusual circumstances. Lack of consummation is one of a few conditions they’ll accept.”
The bed bent on the other side, shifting me backward.
“So to be clear, we can’t have intimate relationsbecausewe’re married. But if we get an annulment, then it’s okay.”
I could practically feel Nicolai’s aura over there, his back turned toward mine, like warmth washing over my bare skin under the dress’s spaghetti straps.
Or maybe that was just temptation.
“It’s an odd situation, I’ll admit,” he said.
I wanted to feel the smooth skin of his cheek on my palm again, his lips on mine, and the strength of his body between my legs.
“You kissed me first,” I told him, staring at the dark-tinted glass of the window and the muted flashing lights of the Strip in the distance.
