Talon (Ashes & Embers Book 4) (7 page)

After walking through the rest of her apartment, I pull out my phone to look up the contact info of a Realtor some of the guys have used. "No way can we live here, Asia. My dick barely fits in this place. I'm finding us a house."

She shakes her head with a small look of disdain. "You seem to have a fixation on the size of things. Big trucks, big boobs, big dick, big place to live…"

Hmm. She has a point. "That's a
big
observation. Plus, I have too much expensive stuff to live in the ghetto."

"I figured. Thank God everything I own is worthless."

Sighing, I ignore her sarcastic comment and type out a quick text to Sandra, the Realtor.

"I just contacted a Realtor I know. I told her we need a fast close. In the meantime, why don't we stay in my grandmother's guesthouse?"

"Your grandmother has a guesthouse?"

"Yeah, it's just a little two-bedroom cottage on her property that she has for relatives to stay in when they visit. Last week when I talked to her about all this, she offered it to us until we figured this out."

She chews her lower lip and looks at me skeptically. "I don't know, Talon. I hate to impose on people I don't even know. I don't want your family to think badly of me, and so far, it seems like they don't have a very good opinion of me. First, you called your mom and told her I pretty much suck, then your brother is talking about sticky sheets…"

"Asia, come on. My mom understands our struggle. She writes fucking romance novels. Actually, I'm pretty sure she helped set us up just so she can get some good material out of us. And my brother is just an insensitive dick. Gram is the sweetest person ever; she wants to help. It makes her feel good. And she'll feed us."

She smiles and her shoulders relax a little. "All right, that's very sweet of her. And Pixie can come?"

The blogging, fan-mongering, dwarf cat is gonna be trouble, I can feel it. "Yes, but not wearing that thing on its head."

"Fine."

"Pack whatever you and the rodent need for a few days, and we'll come back for the rest of your stuff when we find our own place."

"Okay, I'll just need a few minutes."

I follow her down the narrow, dim hall to her bedroom. "Will your car be okay here for a few days? Or should we bring it to Gram's? You could follow me."

"Um…I don't have a car," she says from the closet.

"Oh. Did someone steal it already?" I joke, studying her bed, which is just a mattress on the floor with no box spring and no headboard. She's got a dark purple curtain hanging over the wall it's against like a mock window, which is actually pretty cool. I like how she puts something where there was nothing and creates her own little vision.

"Very funny." She comes out of the closet with some clothes and puts them into a suitcase. "Maybe I should just stay here and you go to your place until we can move in together? Maybe we need to de-stress a little and let this all sink in."

I lean against the doorframe and shake my head at her. "Yeah, I'd like to get away from you too, sugar, but we're supposed to stay together. That's the idea."

Frowning, she goes to a small dresser and pulls out some panties that my eyes zero in on before she quickly shoves them into the suitcase. "This just feels so…"

"Strange?" I offer.

"Yes."

"Fucked up?"

"Yeah, that too."

"Awkward?"

"Yup." She zips up the suitcase.

"Fake?" I add.

"Yeah…"

"Like a dream?"

She tilts her head and then nods. "Yeah."

"Well, of course. You're married to a rock star, baby. It's every girl's dream."

She sighs heavily. "Can you be serious?"

"I
am
serious."

"Okay, it wasn't my dream to be married to a rock star. You're out of my league. I wanted someone normal."

"That's fuckin' boring." I scoff, taking her suitcase from her. "Think of it as an adventure. That's what I'm doing."

"It kinda seems like you got the sucky end of the deal," she says, moving toward the door. "There is no adventure in being with me."

I block her from leaving the room. "I wouldn't mind having the
sucky
end of the deal at all, baby. In fact, that would totally make up for all the shit the team has messed up. I'd be willing to forget about all the other things I asked for if I could get a blow job every morning and every night. That's an adventure you can give me."

She punches me in the gut. "You're a pig," she says, pushing past me.

I clutch my stomach and watch her walk away, grinning to myself.

I deserved that.

And I kind of like that she put me in my place.

My girl's not a wuss. She's a little shy, maybe. A little sheltered. But she's got some bite in her.

You know what that means?

We're going to have some fucking awesome fight-sex someday.

I can't wait.

I give her a few minutes to calm down and then saunter back into the kitchen where she's now putting tiny cat stuff together into a box.

"Do you think you can get a house quickly? I thought it took weeks or months?" she asks suddenly.

"We'll be in our own place in a few days, even if we have to rent it for a few weeks first until we close. Don't worry."

She blinks at me as she absorbs what I'm saying. "So you're planning on actually buying a house for us to live in?"

"Yeah. Don't you want our own house?"

"Of course…but I don't have any money to contribute to a down payment. Or a mortgage, for that matter. I really don't make much with my sales. The clothing and soaps I make aren't in any stores or anything. I make just enough to pay my bills."

"Don't you have a website? To sell and advertise online?"

She shakes her head. "No, I can't afford that. I just use social media sites and word of mouth."

"I'll have our web guy build you a killer site."

She puts her hands up in front of her like she's stopping traffic. "Whoa. Talon, I can't let you do all this. And am I supposed to leave my apartment permanently? What if things don't work out? I may not be able to find a place I can afford again. I know this place isn't much, but it's all I can afford, and the landlord hasn't raised my rent in over three years."

A little vein in her temple is throbbing and her eyes are getting even bigger as her stress level ramps up. I really wasn't expecting to be the calm, rational one in this partnership, but it looks like, for the time being, that role is mine, whether I want it or not.

"Asia, take a deep breath. First, you need a good website if you want to sell your products. The guy who does our band site is great. Second, we can't go into every decision saying, 'What if it doesn't work?' Didn't you listen at all during any of the sessions with Dr. Hollister? We have to treat this like a real marriage."

"Of course I listened, but—"

I touch her lips with my finger. "No buts. I'm just as nervous as you are, trust me. I've been wanting to buy a house for a while, so now is the perfect time. I don't expect you to pay for half or any of it."

She looks up at the ceiling and blinks back what looks like the start of tears. "That's not fair for you. I don't feel good about that at all."

Crossing my arms and leaning back against her kitchen counter, I nail her down with my eyes. "Look, this isn't up for debate. If we had fallen in love and gotten married in the usual way, I'd be paying for everything. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I want to take care of my wife and kids. I love that you have your own business, but I do not in any way expect you to fork over a down payment or pay half the mortgage or the bills. That shit is not gonna fly with me."

"I don't want a free ride. This is why I wanted to be with someone normal and not famous."

"Why? So you could struggle financially together? That would have made you happier?"

She lets out a strained little laugh. "Yeah, I guess in some ways, it would."

"Well, instead, you got someone with a shit-ton of money who's willing to give you everything you want as long as you don't fuck me over."

She shakes her head and looks me right in the eye. "I would never do something like that. I don't use people."

"Come here."

"What?" Her bottom lip quivers nervously.

"Come here. You're too far away."

She crosses the room tentatively and stops a few inches in front of me. Frowning, I grab her waist and pull her closer so her hips are resting against me.

"That's better." I capture her gaze with mine and keep my hands on her waist. "I know this money stuff is going to be a hurdle for you, but you gotta let it go. I'm gonna try to trust you here and be honest, okay?" She nods slowly, her hands on my biceps, gently squeezing me. "Obviously, I have money. But it's more than just the band. A few years ago when my grandfather passed away, I inherited five million dollars. I really haven't spent any of it, except for the cars and guitars and stupid stuff. It's all in the bank, some of it invested. We can have a stable future, just like you wanted."

She sucks in a quick, surprised breath. "That's a lot of zeroes," she whispers in awe.

"Yeah, it fucking is. I can afford to get us a nice place to live and pay for everything, including a website for you. I have zero issue sharing with you, as long as you're good to me. We'll take things slow and figure the us part out. But I don't want you worrying about trying to find a place to live someday. If things don't work, I'll make sure you have a nice place to live. I will not ever let you live in a place like this again, no matter what. You have my word on that. I just can't deal with this 'what-if' shit every time we make a move. We can't be putting up speed bumps at every turn. That's not my style. If I want to do something, I do it."

Her fingers dig into my biceps, her arms trembling. "I don't know what to say." Her voice shakes with emotion, and I don't like how hearing it makes my stomach feel funny. "Thank you doesn't seem like enough."

"Well…I'm still open to sexual payments." I squeeze her waist tighter.

Grinning, she leans back a little to look up into my face. "Are you always going to ruin every decent move you make with a sarcastic one?"

"Probably."

Her laughter fills the room. "The backwardness of this entire situation is going to take getting used to," she says. "This whole cart before the horse idea is much harder than I thought it would be."

"Hopefully things will get easier when we get more comfortable around each other."

"I hope so."

Me too.

M
y brain is spinning
as I sit quietly in the passenger seat of the bouncy monster truck with Pixie's little carrier on my lap. Talon's been listening to music as he drives and seems lost in his own thoughts, as he's being unusually quiet.

So much is happening in such a short amount of time. Leaving my apartment to go stay in his family guesthouse, going house shopping in the near future, and the fact that I just unknowingly married a millionaire rock star is all leaving me a little shocked and shaken.

Talon's got me in a twist too. He's all over the place with the way he acts toward me. One minute he's acting like he doesn't like me, then the next he's coming on to me. And then telling me he's going to make sure I never live in a ghetto again, which is the sweetest, most generous thing anyone has ever said to me in my entire life.

"We're almost there," he says, breaking the silence.

We've driven way up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which is a gorgeous area I've only been to a few times even though I've lived in New Hampshire since I was born.

"Are we near the waterfalls?" I ask, having never been, but I've always wanted to go.

"Yeah, that's not too far from here," he says, turning the truck down a wooded street. "You like the falls?"

"I've always wanted to go but never had the chance." Kind of hard to go anywhere without a car.

"Then we'll go sometime. In the fall would be best, when the leaves turn."

"I would love that. I can never get enough of the color of the leaves."

"We'll take my camera and get some good pictures to frame and hang in the house."

I smile at him, loving that idea. "Oh, that would be cool."

"I thought so, given your decorating skills, which are much better than mine. I think I'll leave the decorating up to you."

"No, we'll do it together."

He nods as he pulls into a driveway and puts the truck in park. "Okay, together, but I'll leave the creative direction to you. And we're here."

Wow. The property is gorgeous, with perfect landscaping featuring a huge weeping willow tree on the front lawn surrounded by gorgeous flowers and shrubbery. The guesthouse is pretty big judging from the outside, and the main house it's set apart from is a huge, sprawling L-shaped brick ranch.

"Hang on and I'll come get you," he says, jumping out of the truck and coming around to open my door. I hand him Pixie in her carrier and then he holds my hand as I jump out. Getting out is much easier than getting in.

"We should really switch up the cars so you don't have to keep manually getting me in and out," I say, taking the cat carrier from him. Although, I kind of like him lifting me into the truck and being able to watch his arm muscles flex.

"Let's put your stuff inside and get the creature situated, then we'll walk over to Gram's and say hello."

"Do not call her 'creature.' You should address her as Princess Pixie or she will get very mad," I tease, peering at her in the small carrier. She doesn't look too happy about all this activity disturbing her usual daily naps.

He regards me with one of his smirks while he grabs some of my things from the back of the truck. "I will never refer to her as Princess anything. I kinda like the idea of you calling me Lord and Master, though."

Laughing, I follow him into the guesthouse and set up the litter box, food, water, scratch tree, and bed for the cat while he brings in the rest of my bags. I didn't bring much—just what I thought I would need for about a week as he suggested. I have some soap orders to fill, and I had to bring some of those supplies so I don't lose any customers. Right now, most of my customers are by word of mouth and referrals, so the last thing I want is for someone to get frustrated with a late order.

"She never goes outside," I advise while Princess Pixie timidly explores her new surroundings. "So please be very careful opening and closing the door. I don't want anything happening to her."

"No outside. Watch doors. Got it," he says. "Let's go to Gram's. I'm starving."

W
e follow
a stone pathway outlined with colorful flowers, leading to the main house. On impulse, I slip my hand into his at about the halfway mark, hoping it doesn't invite another of his sexual innuendos, but he surprises me by glancing down at me, winking, and squeezing my hand affectionately.

The front door swings open just as we approach and his Gram comes out, all smiles. I remember her from the wedding because she hugged me so tightly and held my hand in both of hers while she talked to me. She's the kind of grandmother we all dream of—sweet, accepting, and adorable.

"There you are!" she exclaims. Talon leans down and gives her a long hug, my heart practically exploding at the sight of this tall, long-haired guy covered in tattoos embracing this tiny elderly woman.

When he lets her go, I move in and give her a hug too.

"Come in, come in! I have lunch all ready for you."

"Thank God," Talon says as we go inside. "I'm starving, Gram. Asia's not feeding me."

I open my mouth to protest, but she beats me to it. "Tally, don't you start giving her a hard time already or you'll scare her away."

"I don't scare easily, thankfully." I smile at the two of them.

"This one is the brat of the family," Gram says as she leads us to the kitchen table. "Have a seat and I'll get everything."

"Can I help?" I offer, not wanting his grandmother to be slaving over us.

"No!" she protests. "You just sit and let me."

Talon pulls out a chair for me. "She loves to wait on people," he says. "And I'm not a brat." He flops into the chair next to me and stretches his long legs under the wooden table.

"He's the youngest boy and was very spoiled," Gram explains as she returns from the refrigerator with a small platter of assorted sandwiches, and then she goes back to get a large, fresh, garden salad. "He told me you don't eat meat, so I hope this salad and veggie wraps are okay?"

"They’re perfect. You didn't have to do all this!" I exclaim, not used to this sort of family treatment. "Thank you so much for going to all this trouble."

She waves her hand at me as she slowly sits in one of the chairs across from us. "I love to feed people. Dig in."

Talon does just that, piling several sandwiches on his place. "I don't know how you can be hungry after the huge breakfast you ate," I say playfully.

"He eats nonstop. He always has," Gram says.

"I have a voracious appetite for food. And other things," he hints, giving me the side-eye.

"Talon!" I can't believe he would hint at sex right in front of his grandmother. I can feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment.

Gram folds her hands on the table in front of us. "Speaking of, I see you decided to postpone your honeymoon. Are you two getting on okay?"

I nearly choke on my sandwich. Are we really sitting here discussing our non-sex life with his grandmother?

"Gram, this is the most fucked-up situation ever. I have no idea why they put us together. We don't have shit in common, and we're not even attracted to each other. Look at her. Does she look like my type to you?" He takes a bite of his sandwich. "And I'm not her type either," he adds with his mouth full.

She studies us for a few moments. "You know what, sweethearts? Sometimes what we think we
want
is not at all what we actually
need
."

Talon groans around his sandwich. "Gram, I need boobs, and apparently, she needs short hair and no ink."

I want to die right here at the table.

"Oh, poo! That's ridiculous."

I smile weakly at her. "I don't need those things," I explain. "I just wasn't expecting a man like him."

"I think, once you two stop thinking about what you were
expecting
, that you'll see what you were
given
is even better."

Ah. I could easily love this woman. "Now, that I like. I hope you're right, because I want us both to be happy together."

"She has a cat that wears a tiara," Talon announces. "I wasn't expecting or wanting that."

Gram takes a tiny bite of her sandwich as her eyes brighten. "Now,
that
is fascinating! I love cats. I always had cats, but my last one passed away two years ago at twenty years old and I'm just too old to get another."

"Well, it's over in the guesthouse if you want to see it," Talon offers. "You can cat-sit while we hunt for houses."

She smiles warmly at me. "I would love to come over tomorrow and visit your cat."

"She'll love you; she's very affectionate. And thank you for letting us stay in your beautiful guesthouse. It's very generous of you."

"You can stay as long as you need to. All my grandchildren practically live here. I would love it if you came over for dinner while you're staying here."

Talon pipes up. "We'll definitely take you up on that. I haven't had a chance to test out the wife's cooking yet, but I'm pretty sure she's going to try to poison me with tofurkey." He folds up his napkin and places it on the table. "I have some extra clothes in one of the bedrooms here. I'm gonna go grab some so I don't have to go back to the condo today and deal with Mikah's drunken idiocy."

As soon as he's out of earshot, his grandmother smiles broadly at me. "You're worried you made the biggest mistake of your life?" she asks. "It's okay, you can be honest."

"I'm not sure what to think yet," I answer truthfully. "We don't seem to be very well-matched."

"Give it time. I know he can be a handful, but behind his goofy, sarcastic front is actually a very deep, passionate young man. He just hides it well."

"Well, we're both committed to the process of trying to make this work, so that's a start. I'm hoping after we spend more time together, we'll start to have feelings for each other."

"Honey, I am positive you will. I practically raised all these kids, I know all of their hearts like my own."

That definitely sounds like a small glimmer of hope at the end of this strange tunnel.

A
fter our visit with Gram
, we walk back to the guesthouse so we can do our first video chat with Dr. Hollister, which we had to agree to in order to be selected for the experiment, in addition to keeping our written journals. Once a week, we have to meet via online video separately, and occasionally together, to discuss how things are progressing. After the first month, the chats are spaced out to every other week.

"There's a laptop here so we can just use that in the guest room," Talon suggests. "That'll give us each some privacy for the video chat."

"That sounds good," I agree. "Do you want to go first?"

He shakes his head as he digs the laptop out of a desk drawer and grabs the power cord for it. "No. I'll set it up, but you get to go first."

Great.

I close myself up in the guest bedroom with the laptop and connect to the video chat five minutes later than the scheduled time. Suddenly, I'm staring at Dr. Hollister's face on the screen.

"Asia! Nice to see you. How is everything going?"

I feel strange talking to a computer screen. It feels like I'm talking to a television.

"It's been interesting."

"Interesting?" she repeats, jotting something down on a notepad she's holding. "Can you tell me what you mean by that?"

"Well…we're both a little confused, because neither of us seem to have the qualities, or even the physical attributes, we described in the questionnaires and the meetings."

"I see. As we discussed during the interviews, we went to great lengths to match up partners we felt would complement each other and connect on a deep level."

"He's a millionaire rock star who's covered in tattoos. His hair is longer than mine. He drinks alcohol, he eats meat, he smokes, he drinks soda, and he seems to be preoccupied with sex and everything big. That being said, he's admitted he's not attracted to me, and he was boning all sorts of women right up until about four weeks before the wedding. Have you met me? None of that is what I wanted in a husband. I'm not exactly happy about any of this. This is worse than the dating disasters I was already experiencing."

Dr. Hollister is scribbling like a madwoman in her notebook. "And how do you feel about him?"

"I just went over that. He's nothing like what I expected or wanted, and he feels the same way toward me."

She peers at me over her glasses through the laptop. "I heard all of that, but I want to know, despite all that, do you like him? Are you attracted to him? Any sort of feelings happening?"

"I kinda like him. He's funny. And he has moments of extreme sweetness that are quick but notable. He seems to very generous, and I do like that. He let me have the bed last night, and he slept on the couch."

"So you didn't sleep together? Is it safe to assume you did not have sexual relations?"

Jesus. Why did I agree to this? This probing is embarrassing and unnatural and just so awkward.

"No. I don't feel comfortable having sex with him yet. I need there to be some feelings first. I thought there would be, but it's just not there right now."

"Understandable. And you opted to postpone the honeymoon?"

"Yes."

"There can be no more separate sleeping. You're married, not roommates. You can wait to have intercourse, but I'm going to insist you sleep in the same bed. It helps build a bond."

"Are you serious? That's going to be very awkward," I protest.

"I understand, but that's part of the experiment."

"Fine. I'll talk to him about it tonight."

She looks over her notes and then back up at the camera. "How about living arrangements?"

"Right now we are staying in his grandmother's guesthouse. He contacted a Realtor. He wants to actually buy a house."

"That's a positive step, and it shows he is taking this seriously. I can tell you're stressed out, Asia. Just try to relax and let things happen, okay? This is all part of the process. We really didn't expect the couples to fall in love at first sight."

Letting out a deep breath, I nod. "You're right. It's just harder than we thought."