The Marriage Pact (6 page)

“Becky! You know he isn’t
my
man.”

“But you want him to be.”

I was still shaken from running into him, from the way butterflies had started in my stomach the minute I’d seen his familiar, penetrating eyes, the feeling of his hand on my arm. That was the reason—the
only
reason—that I didn’t reply right away.

Becky chose to take my silence as agreement, because she began to hoot. “I knew it! I knew it! Oh, man, let me tell you—”

“Shhh!” I hissed. “Could you
please
keep it down?”

“Hmm, let me think.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully for two seconds. “Uh,
no
. I want to shout it from the rooftops. I was ri-ght, I was ri-i-ight.”

I rolled my eyes at her little dance, which looked a lot like the hula mixed with some provocative gyrating. “Please, people are starting to stare.”

She stopped dancing long enough to give me a onceover, after which she grinned, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “Sure they are; that’s because I look
fine
in this dress.”

Some things never changed. And sadly… I glanced over in Brody’s direction and saw him handing a cup of punch to a tall, willowy blonde. Sadly, some things had to.

Though I couldn’t quite shake the sadness I felt seeing Brody so cozy with another woman, I managed to fake my way through it until I was managing to have a pretty good time. Thankfully, Tiffany had pretty good taste in music—even Becky agreed, albeit begrudgingly—and after three glasses of champagne Becky was about to coax me out on the dance floor. If there was one thing I’d always been self-conscious about, it was my dance moves. Or to be more accurate, lack thereof. But buzzed on the champagne, I forgot all about that and boogied just as hard as I did when I was home alone.

“You go, girl!” Becky enthused. “Just like in
Showgirls
!”

“Thanks!” After two beats I turned to face her. “Wait, is that that stripper movie?”

She shrugged casually. “Whatever.”

“So you’re saying I’m dancing like a—” Just then, the music shut off and I realized how loudly I was talking. I saw a few heads turn in my direction and I waved cheerfully, oblivious to the fact that I was more than a little tipsy.

“I like this side of you,” Becky commented. “Let’s have fun Shana out to play more often, shall we?”

I was about to reply when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around so quickly I started to sway in my high heels.

Brody reached forward and put a hand on my arm to steady me. “Twice in one night?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m fine,” I chirped brightly, suddenly wondering what I’d been so nervous about before.

“Yeah, OK. Listen, I was just wondering… would you like to dance?”

I frowned as I considered him. “I thought you were here with—”

“She’d love to,” Becky interjected, shoving me toward him. “I’ll work on getting that pole, Shan,” she said with a grin before she walked away.

I looked up at Brody, blinking. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

“No idea.” He smiled down at me. “You’ve had a little too much to drink, huh?”

I giggled. “Maybe.”

“You never could handle alcohol,” he said fondly. “Come on, dance with me. You can hold on as tight as you want.”

The small, sober part of my brain that remained told me that ordinarily, that would have made my belly tighten in lovely, hopeful knots. Fortunately, the rest of me was free of such inhibitions and I let him take my hand and lead me to the dance floor. He slipped his arms around my waist, holding me lightly and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

I took a deep breath, inhaling his clean, masculine scent that sent a thrill throughout my body, making my sex clench. “God, you smell so good. I’d almost forgotten.”

“You’re not too bad yourself,” he quipped.

“Brody, you’re not mad anymore, are you?”

He appraised me thoughtfully as we swayed back and forth. “You know what? I can’t say I am.”

“Is that because you’re seeing someone?”

He cleared his throat, looking abashed for the first time since this evening. “You heard about that, huh.”

“Small town.”

“Don’t I know it. Hell, there’s not a single one here who can keep their mouth shut.”

I tilted my head quizzically. “Are you sure she won’t mind you dancing with me?”

“Claire? No, she doesn’t mind much of anything.”

The way he said it made me curious, but I decided that talking about girlfriends could get uncomfortable for both of us, so I let it slide.

“And what about you?” he asked as he spun me around.

I broke into laughter at the motion and when he pulled me back to him I clutched his chest and hung on for dear life, feeling a bit dizzy. “What about me?”

“Are you seeing someone?”

“No, not at the moment.”

“I find that hard to believe. Beautiful girl like you…”

I could feel a blush creeping along my cheeks, awed by the intimacy of the moment. When his lips parted, all I could think about was kissing him. I wanted to kiss him until my lips were swollen and tired, until I couldn’t see straight from lack of air. I looked down, hoping that if I stopped staring, the feeling would go away, but no such luck.

“You know, every time I get an invitation in the mail… I keep thinking I’m going to be getting one for your wedding one of these days.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” I sighed, finally raising my head and meeting his eyes.

“Why’s that?”

“I’m too busy for romance,” I shrugged. “Besides, I’m doing clinicals now and most of the men who hit on me are patients, most of whom come in for drug overdose, actually. What does that say about me?”

Brody chuckled. “It says nothing about you, beautiful. It says a lot about the company you keep. You mean to tell me not one hot, rich doctor has tried to snag you up?”

I smiled at the easy way we’d slipped into our old banter, despite the subject matter. He used to call me ‘beautiful’ all the time, as though it was my name. “Maybe one or two. But I don’t want to marry a doctor.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m busy enough for the both of us.”

“I see.” The words were said stoically, but I imagined I could hear him passing judgment.

“You still think I should have stayed, don’t you?”

Before he answered, his eyes moved over my face as gentle as a caress as he studied me. It was strange how normal this seemed—almost as though time had rewound. In that moment, feeling so safe and loved in his arms, I didn’t ever want to go back again. “What I think is that for someone who is getting everything they ever dreamed of, you don’t seem very happy.”

I tried to laugh off his words, but it came out sounding hollow. “I’m not there yet. I still have another year before I’m a real doctor, remember.”

“Sure.” He dipped me and pulled me back up in his strong hands. “You know, Shan, I was thinking…”

“What?”

“This is going to sound crazy, but promise you’ll hear me out.”

“All right.” His firm, insistent stare almost made me laugh, but I swallowed it back. “I promise.”

“I was thinking… we should get married.”

The words struck me numb for one paralyzing moment. When I snapped out of it, I was torn between laughing and crying. How had we ended up here again?

“Not now,” he rushed to assure me, as though he could read my mind. “But, say, if we’re both thirty-five and we haven’t found anyone… say you’ll marry me.”

I sighed heavily. “Oh, Brody, I don’t know.”

“Why not?” he challenged. “Come on, what are the odds that
both
of us won’t be married in a decade?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but closed it again. It was a pretty good argument.

“Besides, would marrying me really be that terrible?” Those brown eyes pierced right through me and I knew I didn’t have a choice but to tell the truth.

“Of course not, Brody.”

“Then why not?” he persisted.

“Why thirty-five?” I countered.

“What?” he asked, blinking.

“Don’t most people agree on forty?”

“Oh, that. Well, that’s easy. Thirty-five gives me a few years to enjoy that rocking body of yours until things start to sag.”

“Brody!” I exclaimed in protest, reaching out to smack his chest.

Brody deftly caught my hand and trapped it inside his own, pressing it against his chest. I could feel the faint flutter of his heart. “Is that a yes?”

I nibbled at my lip, certain that I should say no but not really wanting to. “Just…”

“Shan, look at me.”

From the moment I raised my eyes to his face, I knew I’d already lost any argument I could have made. “OK. It’s a pact.”

“We should seal it with a kiss.” Before I could respond, he bent his head and brushed his lips against mine in a way that made a jolt of electricity strike through my body. When he straightened, he gave me a smile and echoed, “It’s a pact.”

I raised a hand to touch my lips where he’d kissed me. They felt scorched from even that brief contact. “You know, I better go. Becky’ll be looking for me.”

“Oh, I don’t know, she looks like she’s having a pretty good time to me.”

I craned my head to follow his stare and saw Becky chatting up a tall, cute redhead. Damn.

“But I need to go, too. Just one thing before I do, though.”

I turned back to look at him, secretly hoping he’d kiss me again and feeling like an idiot for wishing for it. He was with someone, and besides, I didn’t believe in long-distance relationships.

“I want you to promise me you’ll lay off the alcohol for the rest of the night.”

When his words registered, I blinked at him in surprise. Suddenly, his voice was charged with an authoritativeness that I’d never heard before. He looked different, all of a sudden, and it wasn’t just the seriousness in his eyes or the no-nonsense look on his face. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was there. “What?”

“You heard me,” he replied, his voice husky. “No. More. Alcohol. You’ve had enough and you know how you get. I don’t want to spend the whole night worrying about you.”

He worried about me? “But… I’m always careful,” I protested, not even sure why I was going through the motions. I really hadn’t planned on drinking anything else.

“Really? You’re
always
careful?”

“You can
not
keep bringing up that one—”

“The one? The
one
? Shan, there were a dirty dozen, at the very least. But that’s beside the point.”

“Oh, really? And what is the point?”

He arched a sandy brow. “Watch that tone.”

I was even more confused than before. What was with this whole macho act? Where had it come from? Maybe I was imagining it. Maybe I was still drunk. Had to be, because even though I was confused by the way my body responded to the dominant way he was talking to me, he was starting to look even hotter than before.

“Shan?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“No more alcohol. Right?”

“Um… right.”

“I wanna hear you say it.”

I furrowed my brow, squinting my eyes as I tried to figure out what was going on here. Since when did he tell me what to do? We weren’t even together. And to compound my confusion, my body was reacting in ways that made me think I secretly liked this new side of him. My panties were dampening so fast that I thought I might need to excuse myself soon to seek relief. “Fine. I won’t have any more drinks.”

“Good.” He rewarded me with a brief, heart-stopping smile. “Just to be sure, I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

I nodded briefly before I spun on my heel and fled. I marched up to Becky and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the guy she was chatting up.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?” she exclaimed, shaking me off. “We were really—”

“I need to leave.”

Her brow furrowed. “Leave? Why?”

“Because
he’s
here!” I hissed.

“What? But you two looked like you were having a good time.”

“We were,” I admitted begrudgingly, wondering how to tell her that that was just the thing I was worried about.

“See!” she crowed triumphantly, smacking her hands together. “I told you so! I
told
you so.”

“If you even think about doing that ridiculous little victory dance of yours in public again, I will disown you.”

She cut her eyes at me and scoffed. “
Well
. Someone’s in a bad mood. C’mon! I want all the juicy details of your star-crossed, unrequited love!”

I sighed heavily. “First of all—you know what? Never mind, I’m not gonna go there. It was nice. Let’s leave it at that, K?”

“
So
not OK. I need your life to sustain me, Shan. You know this. I’m just a pathetic townie with no prospects, no hope of a future. I’ll be running that little flower shop until I die and then they’ll bury me in it. You know I depend on you so that I can live vicariously. So stop being selfish and dish already!”

I couldn’t help it, I had to laugh.

Taking this as her sign that she’d won—Becky, for whatever else she might say, always won—she slid her arm in mine companionably and led me over to the buffet table. “So? Was it magic? Was everything just the same?”

“The same.” I allowed myself a sigh. “And different. He’s… he’s different, somehow. But you know, I think I like it.”

“Let’s have some more champagne, to celebrate!”

Remembering my promise, I looked back at the table, but Brody was gone. My eyes scanned the room, but I didn’t see him anywhere. “Sure, why not?”

Becky squealed and handed me a glass. We clinked them together and I was in mid-sip when I saw a hand snake around the stem of my glass. I let go of it and turned to see Brody shaking his head in disapproval. Where had he even
come
from?

He wagged his finger at me and tsked his tongue before saying, “You promised.” Then he let his hand fly against my bottom in a single, scorching swat that had me gasping and jumping up on my tiptoes. He didn’t give me a chance to say anything before he slipped away, taking my glass along with him.

Becky’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell was
that
about?”