“Right. Okay. Yeah, I can see what you’re saying.” Atlas turned to me. “Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, you know I’m delighted that you wanna go wet your dick in some pussy that isn’t Cadence’s, but this is a bit extreme.”
My cheeks flamed. “I’m not … I just want to help her, and this is the most expedient way to do it. It’s purely for show.”
Atlas smirked knowingly. “Sure it is. I’d be willing to bet my entire fortune that once you’ve tied the knot with your little Russian Bride, it’ll only be a matter of time before you’re hitting that.”
“Leave him the fuck alone,” Lucian warned. “Go sit in your office, and I’ll meet you there in five. I wasn’t lying about needing to go over your security detail.”
Atlas rolled his eyes as he headed for the door.
“She’s Romanian,” I muttered mutinously before he was out of earshot.
“Keep telling yourself this is just for show, Chewy. I think you’ve got it bad for this one.” Atlas slapped the door frame, chuckling. “Henry marrying a porn star wasnoton my bingo card this year.”
Lucian blew out a long, slow breath. “Are you out of your mind, Bax?”
“Quite possibly. But I’m not changing my mind. Now, go and have whatever conversation you need to with Atlas.”
“Have you forgotten that she broke into your bedroom just over a week ago and that we have no idea why?”
“We do have an idea. It’s exactly what she said—she needed somewhere to remove an uncomfortable item of clothing. That’s all.”
“And you believe her?” he barked.
“I do. I also believe that she’s trying to escape a bad situation with her family back home, and if I can help her with that, I will.”
“You’re interested in her.”
Face burning, I sat at my desk, avoiding any eye contact. “I know enough about her to feel comfortable trusting her. Don’t worry, I’ll have a prenup drawn up.”
“Jesus, Bax, that’s not what I’m concerned about! Well, not entirely, anyway.” Lucian sighed. “I just worry that you’ll get yourself in too deep with her, and you’ll come out the other side of this a broken man.”
“And I would like to think that of everyone who knows about this, you are the one person who would trust my judgement enough to know that I can make this decision. Now, go reprimand Atlas some more. We’ll talk tonight.”
The room was silent for a long moment, and then his heavy footsteps retreated. I didn’t think that was the end of it, but hopefully I’d given him something to think about.
Pulling up the links Liv had sent me, I perused the application information. We needed a marriage certificate number to be able to apply for the partner visa. I grabbed some gum, chewing vigorously to try and assuage the anxiety churning in my gut. There were so many moving parts to this process, and I couldn’t control all of them.
Priorities, Baxter. Handle the marriage certificate first, then worry about the rest.
I dug deeper into the hidden workings of the site. Government websites were notoriously terrible for security, and in a matter of minutes, I was inside their system. Now all I had to do was fill in the form and lodge that data showing an appropriate application date, and when we complained that our form had gone missing, it would suddenly appear in their archives.
If I could convince them that the delay in getting our marriage certificate was the reason we had missed the cut off for the visa application, that might be enough to get us to that next step. But now that the application was in, we needed to get to the actual marriage.
And I needed to convince a celebrant to join our little scheme.
I sat opposite River Riley and explained the situation to him. I may have exaggerated a romantic connection between Irina and me—I needed him to buy into us as a couple in love who just wanted to stay together and were just a little disorganised with our timing.
“So, you see, we need to fudge things, just a little, so that our marriage is dated a month ago—before Irina’s visa expired. All I need you to do is sign your name on the dotted line, I’ll do the rest. It would mean so much to me … and to my fiancée.”
My stomach swirled with a maelstrom of emotions saying that out loud.
River leaned back in his chair, scratching his head. “Bloody oath, that’s quite a story! Look, I have to admit, it does sound more than a little dodgy.”
My heart stopped.
“But I have a proposal to put to you too. Perhaps we can scratch each other’s backs, and everyone comes out a winner!” He beamed at me, and my heart juddered back into a frantic rhythm, even as my mind conjured up an absurd image of River and me hugging, dragging our nails down each other’s backs. I shook the silly picture away.
“What’s your proposal?” I asked, sliding my shaking hands to my knees and squeezing. I wished I had my vape with me—today was much too overwhelming already—but it was back in my drawer on theGirl on Fire.
