“We didn’t want anything to distract from the voyage, but it just got too hard resisting the pull between us,” I added. “I saw my chance on Nésion to make her my bride, and I grabbed it with both hands.”
I noticed that the two bleary-eyed men with them were staring at Nina, which was probably such a regular occurrence for her that it didn’t even register.
ButInoticed. Even though she was my fake wife, I couldn’t help but feel protective of her. I cleared my throat loudly so they’d tear their eyes away and recognize that they were leering over another man’s wife.
Okay, maybe not exactly. But still. Their wives were literally right beside them, and it was rude to ogle.
“Wow,” the taller woman sighed. She shot a look at her husband to force him out of his trance, then smiled warmly at Nina. “That’s really romantic. You’re one lucky lady.”
Nina rested her head against my chest like she was a blushing bride. “Thanks. I happen to agree.”
“We should leave them alone,” one of the guys slurred. “It’s their honeymoon, they got important business to take care of. You know what I mean? The wink-wink, nudge-nudge stuff.” He paused. “I’m talking aboutbedroombusiness.”
“Oh my God, Michael, I can’t take you anywhere,” the woman groaned as she tried to pull him away. “Sorry about that. Go have fun, you two!”
We watched them stumble toward the theater doors.
“And so it begins,” Nina mused. “Our own little bit of theater.”
Absolutely. Because that was all it was—theater and nothing more. No matter how right it felt to have her in my arms.
13
NINA
Iknelt down in front of Noah to straighten his collar.
“You look very handsome,” I whispered to him. “Don’t worry, this silly meeting is going to be very quick. All we have to do is smile. That’s easy, right?”
Logan had accidentally gone a little too hard in talking up how important the post-voyage press conference was going to be, and Noah was nervous. Of course, Logan didn’t state outright that the world was going to be scrutinizing our surprise relationship, but I got the subtext. Unfortunately, all Noah heard was that there were going to be lots of people and cameras waiting for us when we docked in port.
He’d experienced a ton of positive changes during the voyage, but I could tell that the post-vacation hangover was right around the corner. I hoped it wouldn’t rear its ugly head until after the cameras were turned off.
Once the guests had all disembarked, we would make our grand exit as a picture-perfect family. I’d borrowed a pretty tangerine sundress from Ashley that was a little shorter than I would’veliked, and Noah was decked out in an adorable little blazer and golf shirt, a mini version of his bossman father.
Logan defied description, as usual. The handsomeness was almost ridiculous. I was happy I had the pretense of our fake relationship to cover for the fact that I couldn’t stop staring at him.
At least it seemed sort of mutual. The way he’d looked me up and down when we met up felt like an invitation. Of course, I knew better—but still. The man didn’t hide his appreciation of my body.
Logan strode back into the waiting room and clapped his hands to amp us up. “Are we ready, people?”
“Hey, Noah, are we ready?” I asked him playfully, poking him in the belly.
He nodded silently and reached for my hand, looking like he was headed for the dentist.
Uh-oh. Not the “happy, well-adjusted new family” vibe Logan was hoping to project.
I’d need to be Noah’s moat, providing a buffer between him and the journalists. Logan would be rightfully focused on fielding all of the questions, leaving me to worry about Noah’s state of mind.
Based on how pale he looked, it was going to be a tall order.
“Logan, have we, uh, ever experienced this sort of meeting before?” I hoped that he could understand that I was speaking in code. I did an exaggerated glance at Noah. “S-c-r-u-t-i-n-y by the p-r-e-s-s?”
As he picked up on what I meant, his face went pinched. “Yeah, now that you mention it, we have in a way. At an a-i-r-p-o-r-t, after the stuff with my brother Harrison. There was, uh, an attempt to get a statement from me while we were doing a v-i-s-i-t-a-t-i-o-n swap. A verypersistentattempt.”
Got it. So, Noah had been hounded by the press at his father’s side, which explained why he seemed to have a not-at-all-positive understanding about what we were about to go through.
“Understood.”
