Kara Halloway fell down the rabbit hole of fiction in high school, and has been burrowing her way deeper into the warren of writing ever since.
Finding her niche in contemporary romantic suspense, Kara’s stories are a riot of sexual tension and heart-thumping intrigue featuring far-flung locations, twisted plots and characters who are very rarely honest with each other...let alone with themselves. So, buckle up, because when the rubber hits the road, the sparks are bound to fly — in more ways than one!
When Kara is not rushing to keep up with her characters, she can be found somewhere out in the wilderness with her family, enjoying the majesty of the Canadian Rockies.
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Warnings for this chapter: alludes to sex, probably some cursing
A/N: Ya’ll haven’t had anything new from me in a while, so I decided to take this out of my WIP folder (where it’s been sitting, completed, for quite some time now) and offer it up. I make no promises about when this will be continued, as I have so much going on right now in real life. But, here it is. Happy Sunday.
My other stuff: Master List.
Riley blinked her eyes against the glare of light slipping through the floor to ceiling curtains she was facing. Her eyes darted from the elegant brocade curtains to the plush carpeting on the floor. She sat upright in confusion.
This was not her hotel room.
Her room was on the first floor of a nondescript budget friendly hotel she had booked online.
Judging by the plush furnishings and the high quality art on the walls, she was in a five star hotel. Through the curtains, she caught a glimpse of the city. The view was pretty good, so she must be on the top floor.
A muffled groan and rustling of sheets caught her attention. She turned her head to discover the reason for her confusion. Stretched out next to her in the double king sized bed was a shirtless man with tousled blond hair and rippling muscles. She squeezed her eyes shut trying to remember his name.
It started with an L. Lee… Leon or Louie or something like that.
His blue eyes blinked open as she tried to ease out of the bed without waking him. “Hey, where you going?”
“You caught me. I was just going to slip out quietly and avoid the awkward morning after small talk.”
“Okay. But at least let me buy you breakfast first. I’m not a complete cad.”
It was tempting. Free food, hot guy. Morning sex wouldn’t be the end of the world. “Okay, just let me text my girlfriend so she knows I wasn’t kidnapped last night.”
“Hana, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, how’d you—” She froze as she caught sight of her left hand. Lifting it in the air, she examined the diamond ring that sparkled and glinted on her ring finger. “Um… what did we do last night, exactly?”
“The usual,” he smirked, “Got drunk, danced a lot, there was sex. Lots of it if memory serves.”
“Is that all?”
“Why? What else—” He sat straight up in the bed as one particular memory shoved its way to the forefront of his consciousness. “Shit!”
She turned toward him and thrust the ring in his face. “Please tell me this is a novelty ring!”
“I can’t tell you that because I’m pretty sure it’s not.”
Her head shook vigorously from side to side. “No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening! We did not get married!”
“Well…”
“How was there a jewelry store open in the middle of the night?”
“I know a guy—"
She flung the covers back and bolted out of the bed, scooping her clothes off the floor. “No, there’s no way we got married! Don’t you need your birth certificate for that? Don’t you have to get a marriage license first?”
“Generally, yes. But there’s a reason that wouldn’t be an issue for me.” He got up and rummaged around the room. Once he found what he was looking for, he presented it to her.
She clutched last night’s dress to her body with one hand while she took the paper from him with the other. She stared down at it in horror. It was a marriage certificate all right. Riley Brooks and Leo Rys, joined in holy matrimony. Her hands started to shake. “No, no, no, this isn’t happening!”
“I mean…. Would being married to me be the worst thing that—”
She glared at him. “I don’t even know you!”
“Well, okay.” He put his hands up in the air. “But we seemed pretty close last night.”
“This isn’t funny! Hana is going to kill me! I mean fucking murder me!” Riley and Hana were in an open relationship, but she was pretty sure that marrying a total stranger would be a deal breaker.
“It’s okay,” he assured her. “I can fix it.”
“How?”
“Just…. Get dressed. We have to go to the palace.”
“The palace?” She blinked at him as her sleep and alcohol laden brain tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Why?”
“My father can just grant an annulment.”
“Your father?”
“Yes, my father! The king. Remember, I told you last night—”
Her eyes widened as she sucked in a shocked gasp. “You were serious about that?”
“Yes. You thought I was lying?”
“Of course, I thought you were lying! Men will say any kind of shit to get a woman into bed!”
“So, you thought I was lying but you still slept with me?”
“I thought you were doing it ironically! It was such an obvious lie that no one would believe it, so you were saying it as a joke. You know, poking fun at ridiculous pickup lines. I thought it was funny and charming you fucking prick!”
“Hey now,” He held both hands up in front of him in the universal symbol of surrender. “It’s not my fault that I was honest with you and you chose not to believe me. Maybe you have some trust issues you should work on.”
“Of course, I have trust issues. Men do asinine shit like trick women they just met into marriage!”
“Oh, men do that, do they? This happens to you all the time? How many strange men have you married?”
“Fuck you.”
“You already did that. But I’m not averse to round two.”
“Oh, there is no way I’m sleeping with you again!”
Leo shrugged. “Your loss.”
She opened her mouth to say something rude when a memory from the night before broke through.
“…it’s an arranged marriage. I don’t see any way out of it, short of just…running away…”
“What if you married someone else?” she blurted out.
“What?” He laughed.
“I mean… you can’t marry her if you’re already married to someone else, right?”
“Right.”
She closed her eyes in mortification. The marriage had been her idea.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Concern laced his voice.
She was taken aback by how quickly he’d gone from cocky and flippant to kind and solicitous.
“Nothing… just…” she thrust her dirty clothes toward him. “Do you have a T-shirt and some sweats or something I can borrow? I can’t put these back on.”
“I… yeah, ok, go take a shower and I’ll make sure you have something that fits when you get out. And I’ll order breakfast.”
“I don’t think we have time to—”
“Come on. You have to eat.”
“Fine. Whatever.” She huffed as she slammed into the bathroom. Glaring at herself in the mirror, she tried to quell the panic rising in her throat. How the hell was she going to explain this to Hana?
Their epic summer abroad had just taken a disastrous turn.
