The woman at the counter was the opposite of the one he’d met at the florist.Sitting around eighty, she had no clue who Jace was, even going so far as to ask for his ID when he presented her with an unsigned credit card.She finally made the connection between him and his father, which added to the utter strangeness of his day.
He tucked the ring safely in his jeans pocket and tore off in his truck, breaking all the speed limit laws on his way back.Figuring Aurelie had taken Maddie back to her place so she could change reminded him he should probably do the same.Since renovation on his house was underway, Jace kept a set of almost everything in the back seat.He dug around until he found the pinpoint Oxford button-down and slacks in his portable wardrobe.Perfect.
Traipsing up the path to Aurelie’s apartment above the garage like a senior on prom night—flowers in his hands, condoms in his back pocket, his clothing over his forearm—nerves coursed through his veins.He hadn’t even been this wrecked when he’d been nominated for an Academy Award.
Why was he so on edge now?It’s not like this was a real marriage.Just two people attracted to each other, making a business arrangement.
He patted his pocket, the comfort of the ring box settling his racing heart, and rang the sea turtle doorbell.
While he waited for Aurelie to come down, he gazed out over Brad and Sophie’s property, surprised, not for the first time, to find it was still a working farm.Brad had, like him, gone a different route than taking over the family farm, or at least that’s what Jace heard as the Hollywood pipeline had touted him as the best thing to come from Montana since Jace.He’d laughed.If only people knew they’d grown up next to one another.Brad hadn’t left, it seemed, but still made his writing, ranching, and family work.A wave of respect for the man rolled off him with the light breeze that took off toward the peaks in the distance.
The door creaked open behind him, jarring him from his reverie.He spun back around and was greeted by the most stunning woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
Sweet damn Jesus.He groaned and swallowed back a stone-hard ball of lust.Aurelie stood in front of him in a white cotton sundress that came down to midcalf, her dark, shapely legs stemming out from underneath material light enough to be made of the sun itself.The cloth clung to her hips, her stomach, until it crested, and her two perfect breasts peeked out from the top.Her hair hung loose and wavy almost to her butt, a perfectly round and shapely curve Jace didn’t think truly existed in nature.He almost choked on his attempt to tell her how incredible she looked.
“Whoa.I mean, wow.Jesus, Aurelie, you look fantastic.”He wiped a thin line of sweat from his brow despite the chill in the air.Other than that, he was frozen in place.
“Are those for me?”
“Yeah, um, they are,” he was able to eke out, but still, his gaze ran up and down the soft curves of her body as if he’d never seen a beautiful woman before.In a way, he hadn’t.Not like her.He’d be humiliated at his incompetence if he could feel anything other than unbridled lust surging through his veins.Rather inconvenient for a fake marriage, but they’d already established there was a physical connection.
This feels like more than that, though.Maybe, but he couldn’t go there.That’s not what today was about.Not what this marriage was for.
He handed her the bouquet of both flowers, heat singeing his skin where her fingers grazed his.
“Gardenias.My other favorite.How did you know?”
“I guessed, honestly.At first, they caught my eye, and I knew you’d like them.But when the florist told me what they were called—so close to your last name—I knew you had to have them.”
Aurelie pressed her nose inside the delicate folds of the flower, inhaling deeply, and jealousy for that inanimate object of her affection crept up his spine.He wanted to be that flower, her lips and nose nuzzled against his skin.
Fuuuuck.This is not good.
“Thank you, Jace.They’re perfect.Come in.”She paused, the air thick with the scent of flowers and possibility before them.“So, how will this work?Do we just show up and someone will be there to, um, perform the ceremony?”Jace sensed the same trepidation he felt in Aurelie’s voice.She couldn’t even say the words out loud.
“Yep.We show them our license, and they sign off as witnesses.”
“I still can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said.
“Any last-minute change of mind?”
She shook her head.“No.We can help one another.At least there’s that.”
“Just let me change real quick, and we’ll be on our way, Mrs.Soon-to-be-Michaels.”
“Soon-to-be-Michaels, hmm?I think we should shorten it.None of our friends will be able to fit that on a Christmas card.”She laughed and led him up the stairs.Maybe this wasn’t so bad, after all.
Jace wasn’t sure what he was expecting—a small, sparsely decorated apartment like most above-garage spaces were, perhaps—but what he saw shocked the hell out of him.
Aurelie’s taste was exquisite.There was no other word for it.From the art hanging on the walls representing an array of styles and media, still somehow congruous, to the small decorative items that sat on the inlaid bookshelves in front of the most impressive library Jace had seen, every item there was perfectly placed and curated.While the amount of stuff in the limited space should have felt cluttered, instead, it felt cozy and elegant.Jace had seen some impressive collections and places in LA, but nothing as intimately reflective of the person as this.
The books in front of him gave him a wicked case of library envy.All the classics were proudly displayed between the carved elephant and the ceramic jaguar, but so were modern hits, both obscure and mainstream.He had the sudden urge to curl up in the overstuffed armchair he’d passed on the way in, Aurelie snuggled up beside him, both their noses tucked away in books.In his fleeting daydream, his hand slid under Aurelie’s shirt, playfully teasing her while she read.
He shook his head.That’s not part of the deal…
“Is all of this yours?”he asked.
She nodded.“I had most of it shipped by my cousin in Turks, and the rest of it came with me.I’ve never been accused of traveling lightly.”
