Stop. Me, Trent Shepard, who’d never once in his adult life turned down a willing woman, had pulled away from her because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to keep any of the promises I’d made myself.
Part of me felt like a damn coward for leaving the bed this morning. The other part knew that if I’d stayed even one more minute, there wouldn’t have been a force on earth that could’ve kept me off her.
I wasn’t scared of her, of course, but I was a little worried about how she made me feel. There was a visceral edge to the need coursing through me. Worse, the places inside where her words had landed last night were so much deeper than they should’ve been.
My lawyer’s office was blessedly cold, enough that it forced the heat in my body to settle. I sat across from the man withmy boot tapping the floor while he flipped through paperwork as casually as if he wasn’t holding my entire future in his hands.
Finally, he looked up, sliding the marriage certificate from Vegas back toward me. “It’s legitimate. Fully binding. The officiant is licensed and the documentation has been filed correctly. This is a legal marriage.”
I let out a breath as relief slid through me. Alex had already said the same thing, but I’d needed to hear it from someone I paid a small fortune to catch loopholes. I’d needed to make sure there weren’t any.
“Alright,” I said, clearing my throat as my leg finally stopped bouncing. “Let’s get started on the rest.”
He nodded, moving efficiently through stacks of forms and contracts he pushed toward me. Access to my bank accounts, investment portfolios, the ranch holdings, and my emergency medical directives. Everything a wife was entitled to.
I initialed and signed each document, but the whole time, my mind kept drifting right back to Charlotte. To her soft gasp when I’d kissed her. To her hands gripping at my shoulders like she trusted me with her entire existence. To the way she’d looked up at me afterward, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide with something that had damn near stolen the air right out of the room.
I’d had to get out of that bed before the sun even came up. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have stopped at kissing, or touching, or anything else. As much as I wanted her, and I really fucking wanted her, I wasn’t sure what would happen to me if I let myself fall completely. Instinctively, I knew that taking the next step would put me precariously close to that edge.
When the lawyer left the room to make copies, I leaned back in my chair and scrubbed a hand over my face. My whole body was still thrumming from last night, memories of her mouth onmine and the way she’d screamed my name playing on repeat in my head.
If she asked for more,whenshe asked for more, I didn’t know if I would have the strength to pull back. As it was, I’d spent half the night after she’d fallen asleep in the shower, doing everything I could to be able to go back to that bed and not get completely taken over by pure, raw need.
It hadn’t helped as much as I’d been hoping.
The lawyer returned with a neat folder and set it down right in front of me. “Your accounts will reflect her authorization by tomorrow. She’ll be added to all relevant documents.”
“Good,” I said, standing up so fast it was like my ass was on fire. “Is there anything else?”
“No, Mr. Shepard. That covers it”
I nodded, shook his hand, and walked out into the blinding Texas sunshine, feeling steadier than I had in days. Charlotte and I were legally married, and instead of dread, all I felt was relief.
Like everything in my life had clicked into place the second Charlotte Westwood—Shepard—had laid her head on my chest last night and breathed in like she couldn’t get enough of me. I got into my truck, gripping the steering wheel tight and trying to calm the rush of anticipation crawling up my spine.
Sooner or later, she was going to ask for clarity about what last night had meant. What it’d changed and why I’d slammed on the brakes. Frankly, I didn’t know how to tell her I already felt deeper than I had any right to.
But I also knew that I wasn’t going to be able to keep denying her, or myself for that matter, for much longer. Maybe I never should’ve tried in the first place. I was just struggling with myself right now, my feelings about her being my wife clashing with the fact that she was still Alex’s sister too.
God, when I’d found out about Jameson and Sadie, I’d wanted to wring his neck with my bare hands. Alex had asked for my help with the situation with Charlotte, but I highly doubted he’d meant for that help to include burying myself balls deep in his baby sister every day for the rest of my life.
Yeah, but Alex didn’t ask you to marry her, either,a voice whispered at the back of my mind.She is your wife now, Trent. Because you wanted her to be.
With those thoughts churning through my brain, I swung by the club to grab lunch to go. Just a sandwich I could eat in the car while I was on my way back to Charlotte, but Rob caught me almost as soon as I stepped inside.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up,” he said, pointing at my hand like I’d shown up wearing a severed finger. “Is that aring?”
I looked down at it. “Yeah. Last I checked, that is what those looked like.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” His grin spread so wide, it practically swallowed his whole damn face. “You asshole. You could’ve invited us. Who’s the lucky woman?”
“Charlotte,” I said lightly.
“YoumarriedCharlotte Westwood?” Rob whooped so loudly that half the dining room turned, and he clapped me on the back. “Mabel is going to lose her mind. She loves Charlotte.”
My eyebrows shot up. “She does?”
“Oh yeah.” He laughed. “She said that Charlotte had enough backbone to handle you and I happen to agree with her. We should get together soon. Mabel volunteers at that youth program downtown, the kids’ literacy thing. Charlotte would love it. We’ll set up a lunch.”
