Winter Wedding In Vegas. Janice Lynn
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that why the sex had been so good? Because they’d not had a rubber barrier between them? Because they’d been flesh to flesh? He didn’t think so. There had been something more, something special about kissing Taylor.
Besides, they’d used a condom the first time. It had been their subsequent trips to heaven that had been without one. He’d only had the one condom in his wallet and they’d still been high under the Las Vegas night air—or whatever foolishness had lowered their inhibitions.
“Do you?” she asked, sounding somewhere between terrified and hopeful his answer would be the right one.
“I haven’t specifically gone for testing recently.” There hadn’t been a need. He had never had sex without protection before her and didn’t engage in any other high-risk behaviors. “It’s been a year or so since my last checkup, but I do donate blood routinely and have always checked normal.”
His answer didn’t appease her and she eyed him suspiciously. “When was the last time you donated?”
“About two months ago.”
Relief washed over her face. “No letter telling you about any abnormal findings?”
He shook his head. “No such letter. What about you?”
Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. “I’ve only been with one man and that was years ago during medical school. I’ve been checked a couple of times since then. I’m clean.”
As unreasonable as it was since he was no saint and they were going to end their marriage as soon as possible, the thought of Taylor being with anyone else irked him. A surge of jealousy had his fingers flexing and his brain going on hiatus.
“He didn’t have to marry you to have sex with you?”
SLADE INSTANTLY REGRETTED his sarcastic question, especially when, with a pale face and watery eyes, Taylor glanced down at the plain gold band he’d put on her hand the night before.
“No, Kyle didn’t marry me, but I did believe he was going to spend the rest of his life loving me. Silly me.”
The fact that she’d been heartbroken by the jerk rankled Slade. Good thing she didn’t want this marriage any more than he did. He’d hate to think he’d hurt her like that fool had. Regardless of what the future held for them, he didn’t want to cause Taylor any pain. That much he knew. “What happened?”
She shrugged and the sheet slipped off one shoulder to drape mid-upper-arm. “He didn’t marry me or spend the rest of his life loving me. End of story.”
Hardly, but he wouldn’t push. Such sorrow laced her words that his chest squeezed tighter. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” Masking her emotions behind an indifferent expression he suspected she’d perfected over the years since her breakup with the guy, Taylor picked up a spoon and scooped up a mouthful of eggs. “He was an arrogant jerk.”
Her lips were wrapped around the spoon and another jolt of jealousy hit him as she slowly pulled the utensil from her mouth.
She picked up a strawberry and bit into the juicy fruit. “Mmm. That’s good.”
“Speaking of good...” He watched her pop the rest of the berry into her mouth and lick the juice from her fingers, and struggled with the desire to do some licking of his own. “Last night really was spectacular, apart from the whole getting-married thing.”
She met his gaze, nodded, then deflated. “Oh, Slade, what have we done?”
Hearing her say his name caused flashbacks from the night before. Until then, he’d never heard her say his first name. He liked the sound. “We got married, but we can correct that. We will correct that. As soon as legally possible.”
“It’s crazy that we got married. Why did we do that? We aren’t in love, barely know each other and I don’t even like you.”
He gave a wry grin. “All this time I just thought you were waiting on me to win you over to my way of thinking.”
“Professionally maybe, but not romantically.”
“Professionally, I’m a good oncologist.”
“You are.” She winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“Just that I always thought you were a flirt and didn’t take life seriously.”
“I take my job very seriously.” His work was the most important thing in his life and always would be. “I care a great deal for my patients and like to think I provide them the best care possible.”
“You do. It’s just that...” Her voice trailed off.
“It’s just what?”
“I guess I let your personal life influence how I viewed you professionally.”
“What do you know of my personal life?”
Her face reddened. “Not much. Just gossip really.”
“Not that you should believe gossip, but what do the gossips say?”
“That you date a lot of different women.”
“You think I shouldn’t?”
She sighed and looked somewhere between disgusted and desperate. “What I think about your personal life doesn’t matter. We’ll get a divorce and no one ever need know about any of this.”
Thankful that she was so practical about the whole thing, Slade nodded. “Agreed. We’ll figure the legalities out on Monday and end this as painlessly as possible.”
She eyed him, then gave a hopeful half smile. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and there’s some kind of ‘just kidding, I’ve changed my mind because I was stupid in Vegas clause.’”
* * *
Thank goodness Slade felt the same as she did. They’d made a horrible mistake, knew it and would make the best of a bad situation.
Not that she could believe he’d married her.
The man was gorgeous, amazing in bed, could have any woman he wanted and usually did, according to her female coworkers who loved to discuss the handsome oncologist’s love life latest. Why would he have married her? Taylor was admittedly a stick-in-the-mud, boring homebody. Her idea of fun was a good book while soaking in a bubble bath or playing with Gracie. Her ideal life would bore him to tears. No confetti and blow horns anywhere in her reality or her ideal future.
From what she knew about Slade, they couldn’t be more opposite.
Opposites attract.
She winced at the inner voice in her head playing devil’s advocate. Okay, so she’d admit she wanted to rip Slade’s towel off and have that encore performance. Not that she did anything more than wrap the sheet around her, grab the cup of coffee from the tray, and, head held high, strut into the bathroom to take her shower.
Of course, that only reminded her that his naked body had been under this hot stream earlier and had she wakened in time she could have joined him. Her husband.
What a joke.
But right now she had to get her act together, because they were presenting to a group of oncologists, pharmacists, marketing representatives and others on the benefits of a new cancer-fighting drug they’d been researching.
At some point today she should probably tell Slade that not only had he become a husband the night before, he’d also become the stepfather of a precious six-year-old little girl.
She winced.
Yeah, that might shock Slade enough to have him scrambling around in hopes