"You"re going to let Mr. Aleksandrov give me away? Just like that?" Tears threatened my eyes. "This cause we"re working towards, it"s never going to work, Eli."
He cautiously made his way over to me. "It"s going to work. It"s going to take a while, but it"ll work."
"But in the meantime you want me to marry someone else? To kiss and sleep in a bed with someone who isn"t you?"
A sad smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "No, but I don"t have a choice, this is for the greater good. You and I, we"re all about the greater good, we always have been, and when it"s over, we can be together."
I sagged into myself and he caught my chin in his hands, tilting it up to face him. "I will take you back, Ruby, I promise."
I shook my head. "Don"t make me go through with this. It"s not fair on any of us-especially him." Hunter loved me, like, loved me loved me, and this was going to affect him-especially when it"s all over and I go back to Eli.
"It"s not fair on anybody, but if we don"t do this, our love can"t survive. We"re going to suffocate and burn out. I need this to work." He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me softly. "I"m extremely close to burning this entire society to the ground and rebuilding it on my own terms, starting with you. Save me from doing that. Save me from putting everyone we love in danger just to have you."
I stepped closer to him and his warmth enveloped me. I felt my stance shifting, preparing itself to agree with whatever he wanted. "We"re going to hurt people."
"I know."
"There"s a good chance this is going to backfire on us,." I whispered, my lips grazing his.
"I know."
My gaze flicked to his and there was so much emotion in his eyes. They glistened and smoldered at the same time. "If not for love," I swallowed, looking back to his lips. "Then what else?"
It was a saying I kept at the back of my mind since first falling for Eli. What else did I have to fight for? My life? They could take it without a fight if it meant living without him.
No plans were made for two whole weeks and I spent most of my time in my room while Hunter was out and about, doing G.o.d knows what. Eli and Mila visited from time to time, but I didn"t really have much to say to them. I felt miserable daily and night time wasn"t any better. My nightmares had gotten worse-and seeing Tay made it worse. No one had told the council about Tay"s reanimation for fear of their involvement in it. Mr. Aleksandrov told us to forget about it and said it was an issue he would address after the wedding. To me, seeing someone who was meant to be dead alive was a much bigger issue. I resorted to calling Hunter into the bed, too. He was there to help me through most of my nightmares, waking me up when they got too dark and even holding me while I cried. I wanted Eli there with me, but that wasn"t an option. All I had was Hunter... and as the days progressed, my nightmares dimmed. I could wake myself up before I got in too deep and even managed to avoid waking Hunter most nights. Eli knew we now slept in the same bed and the look on his face when I told him would haunt me forever, but I couldn"t do this alone. I needed someone. I needed support. When I explained this to him, he came around a little, but not without a very serious, very threatening conversation with Hunter, who seemed to be more amused than intimidated. At the end of the day, Hunter and I needed to be careful. I wouldn"t hurt Eli like that, not in a million years, but Hunter was one to go after what he wanted, regardless of the outcome, and he"d risk getting seriously hurt by Eli to achieve it.
Since sharing a bed with Hunter, his morale was boosted. He woke up happy every day and went to sleep with the same smile on his face. He had his tricks every now and again that would irk me, but I expected nothing less from him. One night, he"d turned the heater on in the room and attempted to "sweat" me out of my clothing. I got down to a tank top and bed shorts before I finally caught on. When I shared my frustration with everyone else in the morning, they found it funny-even Eli chuckled, claiming it was clever. It most certainly was not. That night, I made him sleep on the couch and forbade him to touch anything with a switch. He still insisted it was worth it.
The next afternoon, I was strolling down the hallway back to my room from the courthouse. I picked out flowers, red and white roses. I liked roses, they were pretty and always smelled pleasant. I opened the door to my suite and naked flesh bombarded my senses. Hunter was half naked, wrapped around another female, who was also half naked. They froze and looked at me. I felt my skin burn with embarra.s.sment. I"d never walked in on people in such compromising positions before. I slammed the door shut and backed away. c.r.a.p. Somehow, I was going to have to act like a betrayed fiance. There was an angry feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn"t decipher and if I dug deep enough, I was sure I could feel jealousy, too.
The door was yanked open in front of me before I was able to get a grasp on my story. I smiled. Yep... I actually smiled at the pair of them as they stepped out into the hallway. She was pretty, at least, with her long blonde curls and big, green eyes.
"Hey." I exhaled, fighting the urge to face palm. What the h.e.l.l am I doing?
The fear in her face melted away and she quirked an eyebrow at me. "You"re not mad?"
"Mad?" I forced a laugh, making Hunter"s brows furrow. "I"m not mad. We have a special relationship, right, Honey?"
I ran my hand up Hunter"s warm chest and it felt wrong on so many levels.
"Okay..." She drew out the word, making me feel like a complete psycho. She backed away from us cautiously before whirling on her heel and fleeing the building.
"So that"s how we"re going to play this? We have an open relationship?"
I pushed past Hunter and into the room.
"That"s not love," he shouted, slamming the door behind him and making me spin around. "I felt you were mad, but you didn"t show it. What is wrong with you?"
I frowned at him, confused. "You"re upset because I didn"t show that I was mad? You brought another girl in here. I can"t exactly flip out and call the wedding off. An open relationship was the only way that I could save the situation. As long as you don"t do it again, we"ll be able to keep it under wraps."
He narrowed his stare and I felt my pretense crack.
"You want me to be mad? Fine! What the h.e.l.l were you thinking? We"re meant to be getting married! You can"t go around burying your tongue in random girls" mouths whenever you feel like it."
He smirked as he crossed the room and poured himself a gla.s.s of wine from the bar.
"You know what? I am mad. I"m mad because if words gets around that you"re banging all of the women around here, Cesare will see right through our plan. You and I are meant to be madly in love, remember?"
"Well, aren"t you so high and mighty?"
I folded my arms. "What"s that supposed to mean?"
"What, you think I didn"t know about his visits?"
He spat the word "his" like it was poison on his tongue and I gritted my teeth against the urge to comfort him. Why was I feeling guilty? I wasn"t actually with Hunter and he knew I loved Eli.
"His visits aren"t what you think. I need to talk to him, and besides, you know how it is between him and I."
Hunter scoffed, placing his gla.s.s on the bar. "Of course, the epic romance you two have got going on." He rolled his eyes. "Tell me, do you happen to spend most of the conversations on your back?"
I flinched. "What"s wrong with you?"
He shrugged.
"We haven"t been intimate in a while." My att.i.tude kicked in. "Unlike you, I have self-control."
His blue eyes darkened and suddenly I regretted my words. "I sleep in a bed with the girl of my dreams and haven"t pushed for anything. You know nothing about my self-control."
A gasp of air fell from my lips as he stormed past me and out the door. I started forward a few steps and dropped onto the couch. How"d this get so complicated? Hunter was confusing our fake relationship for a real one. It had been progressing by the day and I"d done nothing to stop it. I encouraged it... but in my defense, I didn"t have a choice. Or maybe I was making up excuses to dismiss my behaviour. Asking Hunter into my bed because I was scared? What was that? I needed to nip this in the bud. I needed to redefine the lines surrounding our relationship and I needed to do it as soon as possible.
I was awake when the door opened and Hunter stumbled in, hitting everything in his path. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled the blanket tighter over me when he collapsed onto the bed. A second later a warm arm wrapped around me, pulling me closer, and I could smell Bourbon, I think. It exuded from him. I wanted to talk to him and demand some kind of explanation for what he said to me, but the rational part of my brain was telling me to let it go.
"Hunter?" I asked, forgoing my attempt at feigning sleep.
"Mmm?"
"Have you been drinking?" Not that I needed an answer-I could smell it all over him.
"Just a little." The slur in his tone gave me a good estimate of exactly how much he"d drank.
I threw my blankets off. "C"mon. I"ll help you into the shower."
I could only imagine the smile on his face right now. With a loud sigh, he rolled away from me and climbed to his feet. He swayed momentarily and I quickly made my way over to him, wrapping an arm around his waist to keep him steady. We stumbled over to the bathroom and I turned the shower on. Hunter raised his hands above his head, making my brows knit together.
"What?" I asked.
He arched an eyebrow. "Now you undress me."
"No." I placed my hands on my hips. "You can do that yourself."
He lowered his hands and turned around. "Fine, then I"m going back to bed."
The thought of inhaling cigarettes and spirits all night disturbed me. "Okay, I"ll do it, but don"t get any funny ideas."
He mocked offense. "Me? I"d never."
Hunter lifted his arms and I pulled his shirt over his head, exposing a slim build with muscles carved out perfectly.
"Take a picture, it lasts longer."
I shoved him, embarra.s.sed that I"d been caught staring. "Don"t be a sleaze."
He smiled, sleepily. "Hey, you"re the one staring."
Hunter dropped his arms and glanced down at the b.u.t.tons to his jeans, suggestively.
I backed up a few steps. "Oh no, no way. You"re on your own there, pal."
He turned around with the intention of heading back to the bedroom. "Okay, fine!" I sighed, throwing my hands up.
He faced me again, smiling victoriously and his blue eyes studied my face as I hooked my fingers around the b.u.t.ton to his jeans.
"Can you not look at me while I"m doing this?"
He laughed once. "And miss this? Not a chance."
I squeezed my eyes shut as his pants fell around his ankles.
"Are we done here?"
"Open your eyes and see."
I extended my arms and pushed past him, my eyes shut so tightly they started to ache. I didn"t dare open them until my toe connected with the corner of the bed. When it did, my eyes shot open and I dived onto the bed, swearing and clenching what felt like a broken toe.
"Hey, Rubes!" Hunter called from the shower.
I swallowed hard, hoping it"d take down the angry tone with it. "What?"
"Can you get me a towel?"
I paused, not wanting to go back in there.
"Don"t worry, the hot water has fogged up the gla.s.s. You won"t see anything."
Reluctantly, I rolled off the bed and was relieved when it didn"t hurt to put additional pressure on my toe. I grabbed a fresh fluffy towel from the cupboard and took it into him.
What. A. Liar. My eyesight was bombarded with naked flesh... naked backside flesh to be specific.
"Hunter-Jesus Christ!" I shouted, holding the towel high to block his a.s.s from view. He looked over his shoulder at me and his lips curved into a smirk.
"Oops, did I forget to shut the door?"
I held the towel high enough to block his b.u.t.t cheeks from view. I wanted to throw his towel into the water and run but that wouldn"t achieve anything. He clearly had enough confidence to walk around the room naked if he really wanted to. He shut the shower off and turned toward me. I was thankful I had the towel positioned so it blocked everything that sat in the frontal region.
"To bed?" he slurred again, swaying slightly.
"First, put some clothes on, and second, you"re sleeping on the couch."
His c.o.c.ky facial expression straightened out and he seemed offended for the briefest moment before his smile fell back into place. "You sleep on the couch. I"m the one that"s mad at you."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "You"re mad at me? You were the one who fake-cheated on me, almost ruining our fake relationship."
"I stormed out." He stumbled forward and I raised my hands, ready to catch him if he fell. He didn"t. "So that makes me the angry one. You"re on the couch."
Drunk Hunter was irritating and probably inclined to be more dramatic when we argue. "Fine." I said. "I"ll have the couch."
I turned from the bathroom, s.n.a.t.c.hed my pillow from the bed, and dragged myself over to the couch. It wasn"t cold enough to use a blanket, so I propped the pillow and dropped onto the couch, stretching out like I had all of the room in the world. Not far from the couch, I heard Hunter drop onto the bed and sigh. I knew I had to talk to him, to tell him that I wasn"t as invested in this as he was, but now wasn"t the time. What was the point? He"d forget it all by morning, anyway. The time would come when I could clear the air between us. He needed to know that when this was over... I would go back to Eli and we would be together. Who knows, maybe we"d even get married. I smiled at the thought. After everything that we"ve been through, that would be a dream come true.
"I think grey is a better choice for him to wear," one curvy woman snapped at the other.
"Grey? Really? He"s getting married, not going to the office. A midnight navy will work best with his eyes."
Hunter and I sat at the table across from them just watching them bicker. One of them had yet to turn and ask Hunter what he wanted to wear to his own wedding. More and more people began to filter through the gates of the council"s city-people that were previously aware of the council and wanted to help with the wedding. Despite my first a.s.sumptions of having a small wedding in front of the council, it seemed it was going to be a h.e.l.l of a lot more complicated than that.
"How about a normal, plain black?" I suggested and the look they gave me scared the h.e.l.l out of me.
"Black?" They both began to laugh. "I don"t think so."
"No," Hunter said, nodding his head. "I like black. I want a black suit."
The two arguing women banded together and turned their frustrations on us. They looked similar and I wondered if they were sisters. Both had bright red hair, whipped up in elegant curls an inch from their skulls. "Black won"t work. We want a light shade, it"ll work best with your dark hair, bright eyes and light complexion."
Hunter shrugged. "The council might have hired you both to help us, but we can do this all on our own." They leaned away from us, almost as if they were poisoned by Hunter"s words. "If you want to be involved in this, then you will listen to what we want. Understand?"
They nodded, sadly. "Black, it is."
In a huff, they gathered all of their fabric samples that were laid out on the table and collected all of their strange shade palettes. Without a look in our direction, they left the room. I exhaled and collapsed on the table, dropping my head against my arms. "This wedding is going to be the death of me, I swear."
Hunter slapped my arm as he pushed up from his chair. "You"ve been through worse. A few more weeks and our part in this whole thing is over."
I glanced at him as he strolled across the room to the bar. "Do you think the others are doing anything?"