Note: So, email alerts still aren't working...at least not on my side of things. Sorry about that but nothing I can do until FFN fixes it (Ugh!). Please check my page for updates and/or my tumblr under the tag "my fanfics." I also updated Code Name Lunar Gift last week when the glitch was still happening. Hope you enjoy this chapter! - LLC
Thorne could count on one hand the number of times he had been truly uncomfortable in his life. But as he stared down at the silver wedding band on his ring finger, he didn't think any of those times could compare to this.
Very carefully, he pried Cress's hand off his chest and inspected her ring finger. A weight dropped into his stomach at the sight of the diamond ring sitting there. Upon closer scrutinyi, he found it was not a real diamond. But it was there on her ring finger just the same.
No.
No way.
They had just decided to buy each other rings, that had to be it. No, better: they had bought themselves rings. Won them in one of those arcade games. No big deal.
With shaky hands, he awkwardly placed her hand at her side and rolled away from her as quietly as he could. The room reeked of sex, booze, and leftover food. Light seeped through the curtains of the hotel window—too much light. He had to hold his hand in front of his eyes as he sat up.
The room swayed. Sparks dotted his vision. His forehead pounded.
Aces. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so hung over.
He also couldn't remember where his clothes were.
He glanced back at Cress to make sure she was still sleeping. While her hair had been cute yesterday, it now resembled a magpie nest that had been mauled to death by a cheetah. Drool leaked out of her mouth. A purplish-blue bruise was sporting at her jawline. Had he really given her a hickey? How embarrassing. He remembered both of them getting a little carried away, but—
Focus.
Thorne got to his feet, every muscle in his legs aching as much as his head. He had to put his hand on the wall to steady himself as he stumbled about the room looking for his clothes. Stars did he need a coffee.
He stepped on something sharp and almost cried out, muffling his voice just in the nick of time. He snatched the offending object off the floor. Cress's moon antenna headband. He placed it on the nightstand and tiptoed around the utter mess that was his hotel room. There were open bottles and food containers and articles of clothing scattered everywhere.
But at least there was no wedding dress.
He found his boxers on the mini fridge—the hell?—and his pants not far away from them. He fished inside his pockets. In the first pocket was his cell phone.
JANUARY 1, 2018. 12:47 P.M.
2 new messages.
Thorne did a double-take. 12:47 PM?
He ignored his messages and reached into the other pocket. His hand closed around his wallet and a crinkled piece of paper. The weight in his stomach grew exponentially. He pulled out the paper, his heart thumping against his sternum. He unfolded it very, very slowly.
His heart nearly stopped.
CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE
This is to Certify that
Crescent Moon Darnel And Carswell Thorne
Thorne couldn't read any more of it. His eyes snagged on his signature on the bottom—clearly his scrawl. He stuffed the crumpled marriage certificate back in his pants and swore, then bit down on his tongue to not wake up Cress. Picking up his pants, he made his way to the bathroom, pulling at the ring until it came off. Looking at it was making him dizzy.
He tripped over a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries, squashing one of them with his foot in an attempt to stay quiet and sending two half-eaten ones rolling across the floor. He hopped on one foot into the bathroom.
Had they ordered room service? Brought food back? He didn't remember that part. He remembered coming back to his hotel room, eager to seal the deal with Cress. He remembered most of that part. They weren't married then. Why had they left the room again? Why hadn't he just fallen asleep like after every other one night stand? Why had he gotten married?
He closed his eyes, trying to remember anything, but his head pounded at his temples. He eyed the shower eagerly—that could make him feel better. He sniffed his armpits. And smell better. But Cress could wake any minute, especially from the noise of the shower.
He was not ready for this conversation.
Thorne dipped his head toward the basin of the sink and splashed some water on his face. Cress had been fun, sure, but marriage? A wave of nausea rolled over him as he vaguely remembered something tangled in with the throes of passion. Something about epic love and connection and why didn't they do this every night and if they could only vow to always love each other—
"Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit."
He stuck his entire face under the faucet until the nausea passed.
But his stomach churned with unease as he wiped his face dry. What if Cress woke up excited to be married? Aces, what if she thought she loved him?
He scrambled to zip up his pants and left the hotel room immediately. He didn't even bother going back into the room to find his shirt. He could buy one in the souvenir shop.
First he needed coffee.
And then he needed reinforcement.
Maybe both at the same time.
He pulled out his phone. Thorne was already in the elevator by the time Kai answered.
"Kai! I need your help. I'm in trouble."
There was a pause at the other end while Kai said something to whoever he was with.
"Are you in jail?"
"Aces, no. Not trouble like that."
"Well, thank the stars for that. I—"
"Listen, are you in the hotel?"
"Yes, I—"
"I need you to meet me. Can you come down to the restaurant?"
"I've just had a nice brunch."
"So don't eat. Just get down here."
"I'm actually with someone—"
"I'll see you in five minutes," Thorne said. "Don't bring whoever you're with."
Kai wouldn't stop laughing at him.
"Frankly, I'm a little offended you didn't invite me to your nuptials."
"Shut up."
"I still can't believe you got married. Can you imagine telling your parents? They'll think you knocked her up!"
Thorne scowled. "That's not funny. Not at all. If I was drunk enough to get married, I was drunk enough to be irresponsible."
Kai's smile faltered into alarm. "Were you? Do you remember? Serious question."
Thorne stabbed at his sausage patty, his face growing warm. But it was something he was still slightly worried about himself. "The room was a mess. So much so that there was…evidence…to suggest we're good on that front."
Kai patted him on the back. "That's a relief. Kids are a lot harder to undo than marriages."
"Would you stop joking about this?" He pointed at the marriage certificate. "You're a lawyer. Can I just burn this document and pretend it never existed? Obviously neither of us meant to get married. Who's to know if we never tell anyone?"
"Uh…the government. The IRS. Your parole officer."
"Ex-parole officer."
Kai took the document from him and smoothed it out on the table. "This is a legally binding document. The only option you have right now is to talk to your wife and annul the marriage. Unless you want to go for divorce, which means your wife could claim some of your financial assets. I doubt you want that, despite what little you have."
"Don't call her my wife. And, for your information, we won $50,000 playing Royals last night. She's not getting a penny more than her half. Annul this. Now."
Kai shook his head. "You usually have to do in the state where you're from with a judge. Is she from California too?"
He chewed a piece of bacon in thought. "I think so. She's friends with Winter."
"Wait." Kai's brow crinkled. "Which friend?"
"Her name is Cress. Actually, 'Crescent Moon.' It says it right there." He pointed at her name on the marriage certificate.
Kai's eyes widened. "Crescent Moon is Cress?"
Thorne raised an eyebrow. "Yes. She was the blonde girl I accompanied outside so you could hit on Cinder." He pointed his fork at Kai. "This is all your fault. I only came to Vegas because of your friends. And if I hadn't been trying to help you get some, I wouldn't be in this situation right now. Please tell me you got some."
"We did spend the night together, but not like that."
"Not like what?"
"We didn't hook up. We talked in the VIP lounge until it closed, then we went on a walk, and then we went back to her room. But we just stayed up talking all night. We had brunch together this morning too. Best night of my life, really." He beamed.
Thorne groaned. "Are you telling me that I got married to a complete stranger so that you could spend the night talking with a woman?"
"She's an incredible woman." The tips of his ears turned pink. "I mean, we kissed. But Cinder made it clear what her expectations were of the night and I respected that." When he saw the look on Thorne's face, he said quickly, "Anyway, I need to call her. She and her friends were really worried about Cress. Cinder called her so many times while we were together. Cress texted at one point that she'd met someone and was planning on spending her evening with him. But then she didn't respond anymore. They all thought that maybe she'd been drugged or abducted or something."
"Do her friends even know her? She likes to party. And she was clearly too busy to answer her phone." Thorne downed his second cup of coffee and shook his head. "I may not remember everything about last night, but I do remember that we were both into each other. I mean, we were both wasted, looking back on it now, but I didn't force anyone to do anything, if that's what you—"
But Kai was already picking up his phone and dialing someone. "Hey, you." Kai broke into a dopey smile. "I'm good, how are you?" He laughed. "I know, I know, it's only been thirty minutes since we saw each other…Ha, well, you wouldn't be wrong. After last night, I can't stop thinking about—" He caught Thorne's look and cleared his throat. "Listen, I'm actually calling for a different reason. Remember how I said that Thorne had an emergency so I had to go meet him? Well, I'm here with him now and, uh, I figured out where Cress is. She's okay, first of all."
Thorne drew his butter knife across his throat in a mock cut. Kai nodded, seeming to get the delicacy of the situation, which made Thorne wonder if Cinder had mentioned him at all during their late-night chats.
"Yes, see the thing is, she was actually with Thorne last night. All night it seems."
"WHAT!?"
Kai had to hold the phone away from his ear as Cinder shrieked. Thorne cringed. He had forgotten about Cinder's friendship with Cress. She was going to be as thrilled with his matrimony as he was.
"No," Kai said, "she's not with us at the restaurant. She's still in his room. Thorne left while she was sleeping."
There was more yelling from Cinder, but her words were less distinguishable this time.
"Hey." Thorne scowled at Kai. "Don't make it sound so heartless. I was in distress."
Kai put his hand over the mouthpiece. "She wants to know your room number."
"Doesn't she want to know which hotel?" he muttered.
"We're staying at the same hotel. Jacin booked our rooms here so he could be near Winter."
Thorne rolled his eyes. "I'm on the 56th floor. Room 17B. But I really doubt she wants to go in there."
Kai repeated the information and Cinder promptly hung up.
"Cinder is so amazing," Kai said after a time. "I can't believe you didn't introduce us earlier."
"When was I supposed to do that? I haven't seen her in years."
"How do you two know each other?"
"She didn't mention me?" Come on.
Kai laughed. "We had better things to talk about than you."
"Or she didn't want to talk about me because we met in prison."
Thorne smirked as Kai choked on his water. "Cinder was in prison?"
"Maybe you don't know your dream girl as well as you think."
The tips of Kai's ears turned red again. "I really like her, Thorne. I'm going to see if she wants to meet up again when we're both back in California."
"Can we focus on me? I need to get out of a marriage that I don't want to be in. What if Cress wants to stay in it? What if she tricked me into getting married while I was drunk? What if she's after my half of the $50,000?"
But as Kai started talking lawyer-speak, Thorne could barely pay attention. His temples still pounded, despite the coffee and water he was copiously drinking. The fatty bacon was doing nothing for his hangover either.
He couldn't believe this. Just last night, he had believed himself to be one of the luckiest SOBs out there. $50,000. Sure, he knew he have to split it halfway, but twenty-five grand was still a ton of money for him to win. And now he'd possibly been seduced by a money-grubbing gold digger.
But that was easier to sort out than someone who had wanted to marry him for real.
He rubbed his finger nervously against the ring in his pocket.
Now that Cinder was involved, he knew it wouldn't take long before she showed up at the restaurant with Cress. Which meant he'd have to face her — along with his mistakes — before he even had a clear mind.
One thing was for certain: he had to handle this delicately. What did he really know about this girl, after all? After last night, he felt he knew her quite well, at least in certain ways. But everything he could remember clearly was before they had tied the knot.
He just had to play it cool and be his smooth, charming self.
And by this time next week, he would once again be a single man.
A single man who was $25,000 richer.
Please review.
