Sweet Texas Fire (12 page)

“Oh, how romantic. Show me your ring,” Meredith demanded.

Yep, she deserved an acting award. Charlotte held out her hand.

“Holy cow, that set is beautiful. It suits you perfectly. Did you pick it out yourself?”

“No, Gage did.”

“Girl, he has good taste. You’d better hang on to that man,” she finished wistfully. “Anyway, I’d better get back to my work. When you’ve got all the files together, can you please let me know? I’ll come get them.”

“Will do.”

But she was talking to a closed door. She sat back in her chair and looked at the rings on her finger. It still amazed her that Gage had picked out something that suited her so well.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She picked it up and saw Gage’s name before the screen faded to black.

Unlocking her phone, she pulled up the message.

I hope you’re having a good morning. I thought I’d pick you up from work and then we can go to your place and collect your stuff. Let me know if that works.

The trip to her place wasn’t necessary. She’d not collected too many extra things beyond what she’d brought with her when she moved overseas. She’d packed up her things last night after Gage had dropped her off at her apartment, and she currently had three suitcases and two boxes of belongings sitting in her car.

Kissing Gage on the balcony and almost falling under the spell he had created with all the special wedding day touches, meant she’d spent a sleepless wedding night knowing he was just a few feet away in a room by himself. Then their plane had been delayed out of Vegas, so she’d asked if she could spend the night at her place when they finally got home. She had expected Gage to put up a fight, but he’d agreed. Perhaps he needed a night to himself, as well.

She knew he wouldn’t have objected if she walked into his room in the hotel suite and climbed into bed with him. But getting involved with Gage in a sexual way would only complicate their arrangement. Still, though, she did want him. She’d have to be made of ice not to appreciate his good looks. His toned, hard body. The way he kissed.

And now she was moving into his condo.

She quickly typed a message back to let him know that she would meet him at his place.

Her phone buzzed again and a “K” showed up on the screen. A man of few words.

She answered a couple of e-mails before opening a web browser and pulling up the federal immigration’s website. She’d searched for a FAQ page but found nothing. It looked like she could start the process immediately by clicking on the big red button. She moved the mouse so the little arrow hovered over the box. She hesitated on depressing the left button on the mouse to start the process.

It seemed too easy.

She wanted to find a step-by-step instruction page, like a flowchart. She opened up another tab and Googled “How to get a green card through marriage”. A ton of references came up on the screen, many of them from law firms. Perhaps that’s what they should do, get a lawyer to do most of the hard work for them. She clicked on a random link and started to read.

The more she read, the more a ball of dread grew inside her.

Oh shit. No, this couldn’t be possible. But it was. Written right there in black and white, damning their decision with every word she read.

What the hell was Gage going to say when she told him what she’d found out?

What the hell were they going to do?

What the hell had she been thinking, agreeing to this marriage?

• • •

“You’re quiet—is everything okay?”

She and Gage were eating Chinese takeout at his kitchen table. All of her things were stored in a spare room. When Gage had opened the door to his penthouse condo, it hit Charlotte pretty quickly—just how wealthy her husband was. Oil had treated him well. The penthouse took up the whole floor of the building, more like a small house than an apartment. There were four bedrooms and five bathrooms, with each room decorated in tasteful colors and complementary accessories. Except it didn’t look lived in. It had no soul. There were three pictures on the mantle above the fireplace in the living room—high school graduation pictures, from the quick glance she’d given them when Gage showed her around.

“Red?” Gage’s hand landed on hers. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, sorry, just thinking about work and other stuff.”

“Is there a problem at work? I forgot to ask what they said when you told them you and I were married and now you could get a green card.”

“Well, Allen congratulated me about the wedding, but he was concerned about the fact that the person I’d married is a client of ours.”

“I don’t see how that would be a problem in our project dealings.”

“Gage, you give me a hard time with just about everything I suggest your company does to protect the environment, to ensure that the land can be reused when you’re done ripping the oil out. You make my job crazy some days.”

“Hey, I have my own business to run and employees to look out for. Their livelihood depends on me and the decisions I make. But how about this: I’ll consider your suggestions without being a bonehead about them from now on.”

“It doesn’t matter, because there won’t be a next time.”

“Are you saying they fired you? They can’t fire you because you married me. Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Stop, Gage. I didn’t get fired. What’s happened is, they’ve assigned your files to another person and now I’ve got his clients. I understand where the company is coming from, though. To be honest, with everything else going on in our lives, my working so closely with you on your rigs is probably not the best idea.”

“I guess that’s not so bad. What did they say when you told them about getting a green card?”

“I didn’t say anything. I just said I’ll being applying to stay in the States on a permanent basis. I didn’t really want to say, ‘Oh, hey, I’m married now and can get a green card.’ You know what everyone is going to think.”

“What?”

Charlotte rolled her eyes. Was he really so vague as to not get what she was hinting at? “The only reason we got married was so that I could become a permanent resident of the US. And even though that’s the truth, it’s really not a good idea to blab that out to everyone.”

“I suppose, but what difference does it make why we got married? It’s no one’s business but ours. Our lives are the ones affected by the marriage. Not your bosses.”

“It’s the business of the Immigration Department, though. I did some reading up online about what we have to do to get my permanent residency. They really scrutinize applications that are marriage-based. Seems they’ve found that a lot of the marriages are shams—done just to get a green card.”

“Wonder how long it took them to figure that one out,” Gage said. “What steps do we have to take to prove that we aren’t doing exactly what we’re really doing?”

“This is wrong.” She got up and started pacing around the kitchen. “This is all wrong!” she blurted out. “We shouldn’t be doing this. I don’t want to be deported or sent to jail for fraud. We shouldn’t have gotten married. We can just get an annulment and everything will be okay. I’ll go back to Australia, and when the year is up I’ll sell you the land. You can do whatever you want with it. Yes, that’s a good pl—”

Arms landed around her and her words were swallowed as Gage kissed her. His lips sipped at hers while his hands rubbed up and down her back in a soothing motion. She moaned as his teeth nipped at her bottom lip, encouraging her to open up for him. She couldn’t deny him because, with his kiss, she was forgetting everything that swirled around in her mind: the mess they’d landed themselves into and how they were going to get out of it. All she could think about was feeling his bare skin beneath her hands.

She tugged at his shirt, releasing it from his pants. Finally, she could touch him. His skin was smooth and hot beneath her fingertips. She moved a little closer to him, feeling the evidence of his desire for her.

“I want you, Charlotte. How can you say this is wrong?”

His words were like a bucket of cold water on her, and she pulled her mouth away from his. How had she almost lost her mind again?

“What am I thinking? We really shouldn’t be doing this, Gage.”

Everything overwhelmed her, and she needed space. Without saying another word, she turned and walked out of the room. She needed to think.

Gage, aroused and confused, watched Charlotte’s retreating back. There appeared to be something more going on than her not working with his company anymore. It looked like she was having regrets about the marriage.

Hell, he’d had a couple of moments that day when he’d seen the ring on his finger and he’d asked himself whether he’d lost his mind. But then he remembered the end prize, and he believed the end justified the means. He’d also expected her to come home bursting with news on how to go about getting her green card.

He took a seat on the couch in the living room. Immediately, Oil Slick jumped up on his lap and did a couple of circles before curling up and settling in. He rubbed her soft fur, surprised at how quickly he’d come to enjoy the cat’s company—not something he’d share just yet with Gavin.

“So, what do you think is up with Charlotte, Oil Slick? Should I go see what’s wrong, or should I give her some space?”

The cat looked up at him with what looked like a
Duh, of course you need to go talk to her
look on her face.

He shook his head. If Gavin or Grayson could see him now, they’d think he’d lost his mind. But Oil Slick did have a point. He needed to talk to Charlotte to get to the bottom of the issues going on within her.

He set the cat down on the couch and made his way toward the room Charlotte had taken for her own. He had wanted to suggest she share the master suite with him, but he didn’t think she’d like the idea, regardless of the fact that he’d seen the desire burning in her eyes on their wedding night. He knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Just like she’d wanted him not ten minutes ago.

He knocked on the door. “Charlotte, can I come in?”

“I want to be alone right now, Gage.”

He rested his head on the wooden door frame. Any sane man would walk away and leave her to her thoughts. That was what she wanted, after all.

To hell with it. This wouldn’t be his first insane decision. Throwing caution to the wind, he opened the door.

Charlotte sat in the middle of the bed, an open suitcase lying next to her. Gage didn’t know if she was packing or unpacking her things.

“I thought I told you I wanted to be alone.”

He walked over and sat down next to her, not touching her but close enough that he could if he wanted to. “I know, Red. But as you should know by now, I’m not that good at following instructions.”

He was pleased to see his comment brought out a smile on her face.

“This is true.”

The next instant a flash of black landed on the bed next to him. Oil Slick proceeded to walk across his legs until she was close enough to head-butt Charlotte for a pat.

He went to pick the cat up, but a hand halted his action.

“It’s fine. I don’t mind.”

He nodded and left the cat where it was. The silence stretched between them. He wanted to come right out and ask her about her visa, since it was a good bet that was the issue with Charlotte’s restlessness that evening. Instead, he let the quiet drag on until he couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Talk to me, Charlotte. Tell me what’s bothering you. A problem shared is a problem halved, as Dad would say.”

“Did you ever imagine yourself getting married?”

The question threw him. It was the last thing he expected to hear from her, but it highlighted his suspicion that she was having second thoughts about what they’d done over the weekend.

He needed to word his response carefully. “I thought one day I would get married. Even have kids.”

“But I’m guessing marrying someone so they could just get their permanent residency wasn’t really one of the ways of doing it.”

“It may not have been how I expected it to happen, but we’re married now. There’s no point in complaining about it. And don’t forget, I get something out of it, as well.”

“Maybe.”

Gage’s frustration level was growing higher with every passing second. Charlotte had never been wishy-washy in their dealings on a work level. She hadn’t even been wishy-washy last night or on their wedding night, when she’d flat-out told him she wanted some space to herself. So why now?

“For God’s sake, don’t go all soap-opera dramatic on me again. Give it to me straight.”

“Fine, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She took a deep breath while continuing to stroke Oil Slick, whose purring was a clear indication she was one happy cat. At least someone was. “It looks like I may be able to get a temporary green card.”

“That’s great. Why were you so worried about telling me that? It’s good news, isn’t it?”

“Sort of. After two years of marriage, I can then apply to replace the temporary one with a permanent card.”

“So what’s the big deal? Instead of being married for one year and then splitting up, we stay married another year and you get your card. Once it’s all sorted out, then we can split up.”

“Did you hear what I said, Gage? We have to be married for two years, not just one.”

Okay, so maybe that might not have been what they’d planned on, but it didn’t really matter to him.

“One year, two years. It’s all relative. We’ll be busy that second year with the land. Still doesn’t sound too difficult to me.”

“You’d think it would be that easy, wouldn’t you? Stay married for two years instead of one. But it’s not that simple, Gage. Our marriage is going to be scrutinized to ensure it’s not fake. That it’s not a marriage of convenience just to get a green card. But it is. That’s exactly what our marriage is. We are essentially committing fraud. If the Immigration Department finds out that we are lying, I’ll probably never be allowed back into the States again. And I’ve no idea what will happen to you. You may have to go to jail. I’m not sure that’s a risk I want to take—with you or me. We should get our marriage annulled like I said earlier. It will be easier for both of us.”