Tough Luck Hero. Maisey Yates
kind of guy. Colton was a planner. Colton had never set one foot out of line.
After his older brother had taken off and completely abandoned the family, it had been up to Colton to establish himself as the likely heir to his father’s business. It had been up to him to be the son his father needed. And he had taken that duty very seriously.
Hell, the wedding yesterday was a prime example of that.
The wedding that had originally been scheduled, not the wedding that had ultimately taken place.
This was a nightmare. Unacceptable in every way.
So take it back.
It was the only thing to do. Unlike his brother, who had run when he didn’t want to deal with his life, and unlike his father, who had buried his mistakes, Colton would meet his head-on.
He looked up from his phone at his scowling—he winced—wife.
“Well, I can honestly say this is the last situation I ever expected to find myself in,” he said.
“No way,” she said. “You do not get to look this annoyed about the situation. This is your fault.”
“How is this my fault?”
“Granted my memory is questionable, but if I remember right, we were drinking in Ace’s. Then you were the one who suggested we go somewhere. You were the one who said you had the time off and wanted an escape. You were the one that facilitated the car to take us to the airport and said we needed to get a nonstop flight to somewhere that would be fun. And lo, we boarded a plane to Vegas.”
“At no point did you say no,” he said, wishing he could remember the events a little bit clearer. Maybe she had been hesitant. Maybe she had said no and he’d talked her into it.
But he was going to bluff his way straight through, dammit.
She folded her arms across her chest, crinkling the ridiculous lavender fabric of the bridesmaid dress she was wearing. One of Natalie’s choices. And honestly, he hadn’t cared. Not about the entire spectacle that she had put together with his mother from top to bottom. It hadn’t concerned him at all. The only thing that mattered to him was that Natalie was an appropriate choice. She’d been raised in a family like his. Highly visible in the community, with a lot of concern given to appearances. There were expectations placed on her as the daughter of the long-term mayor, and they matched the expectations placed on him. Plus, he was attracted to her. He liked her. A lot.
He’d liked her more before the wedding plans had started to get really intense. But, ultimately he had been confident in her as his choice of bride. So, the wedding had seemed like an incidental detail to him. Something that would have to take place to appease his mother, Natalie’s family and the populace of Copper Ridge, before he could get on with his life.
He hadn’t paid attention to things like bridesmaid dresses. And now he wondered if he hadn’t paid enough attention to Natalie, either. Well, obviously, since she had left him standing there at the altar without anything other than a quick apology text.
Actually, it hadn’t even really been an apology.
One line, obliterating a relationship that he had spent two years building. A relationship that was supposed to shore up the foundation of his life. And she’d just knocked it all down.
I can’t do this.
That was all she’d said.
Fast-forward a little bit—through scenes he couldn’t even remember—and here they were.
He swung his legs down over the side of the bed, something beneath his foot crinkling as he did. He shifted it, groaning when he saw what was there. “You didn’t happen to wake up fully clothed, did you?” he asked Lydia.
Her mouth was a flat, angry line, which was par for the course with her. At least when he was talking to her. “No,” she said.
“Dammit,” he said, looking down at the condom wrapper that stood as pretty hard evidence as to what had happened after their hasty wedding. He couldn’t remember that portion of the evening any better than he could the hours before.
It had been...well, it had been a long damn time since he’d had sex. Something to do with Natalie wanting their wedding night to be special.
Well, his wedding night had certainly been something.
He just couldn’t remember what. And here he was, looking at a very rumpled, rather attractive woman, not having a clue in hell what had happened between them.
She shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze. “What?”
“I don’t suppose you remember last night?” he asked. “After we got here, I mean?”
“No,” she said, her voice tight.
That was very Lydia. Rigid. Tight. Determined and single-minded in ways that were designed to dig beneath your skin and keep digging until you crawled out of said skin and left it behind. Something about the way she was made him feel like he needed to take a step back from her. And even then, that space between them always felt alive. He didn’t like it.
“Maybe we used a condom to make balloon animals?” he suggested.
Her face turned bright red. He wasn’t entirely certain he had ever seen Lydia flustered, but that was the only word for what she was right now. And something about that grabbed him, hard and fast, low in his gut.
A memory of something. Or maybe just a fleeting reminder of fantasies he didn’t let himself have. Images that pushed at the back of his brain. That he never, ever let come forward.
Just what it would be like to see her lose all that control. To him.
He gritted his teeth, ignoring the fact that his dick was deciding to wake up. Ignoring those thoughts that he couldn’t afford to have. Not now. Not ever.
“Somehow, I doubt it,” she said, clipped. “Did you find...”
He bent over and picked up the wrapper, holding it up.
Lydia’s entire frame seemed to sag. She clutched her head, a low moan escaping her lips. “I don’t do things like this,” she said.
“You think I do?”
“No. But I really don’t do things like this. I am not spontaneous. I am not irresponsible. I do not...sleep with men that I don’t like.”
He snorted. “I don’t usually sleep with women with superiority complexes.”
And he’d ended up with Natalie how? But she didn’t ask that out loud because she thought it best not to poke that particular beehive. “Why? In case they conflict with yours?”
This was a return to form for her. Rumpled she might be, in yesterday’s dress, with her makeup drifting down her cheeks and her dark hair fluffier than usual, but she was buttoned-down inside. Completely. Thoroughly.
He’d damn well let her stay that way.
“Listen, I think it’s pretty easy to get an annulment,” he said. “Especially here.”
She looked stricken. “You can’t get an annulment if you...consummated, can you?”
“We don’t have to tell them that we consummated,” he said. “Hell, you don’t even remember. Maybe we didn’t.”
“There is a condom wrapper,” she said, her cheeks getting even redder. “And you are...you are naked.”
He looked down at the blanket that was covering his lap. He was suddenly very aware of how little was between them. No one was here. He wasn’t wearing clothes. And Natalie had run off, so he didn’t even have a fiancée as a buffer.
No, you have a wife now. Good job.
“Turn around,” he bit out.
She obeyed with no argument. He stood, holding the sheet