Page 12 of Colin (The Doherty Mafia)
His face and the vague faded memories of the previous night had distracted me from what made me scream. I remembered the balloons, the celebratory banner, the ring!
“Do you know what this is doing here?” I asked in a shrill panicky voice, pointing at the ring on my finger.
He groaned as he sat up in bed, like every muscle in his body ached. The sheet fell away from him and I saw more of his chiseled abs. Argh.
He lifted up his hand to examine his finger. He had a matching ring there too.
“Not a fucking clue,” he replied and his voice sort of calmed me.
Whatever madness this man had induced in me last night seemed to still have an effect on me today. I ignored it, shaking my head violently.
“I hope this is some kind of joke. Either way, I’m not laughing right now.” I could feel a film of sweat forming on my forehead as I looked around aimlessly. I didn’t even know what I was looking for. Maybe an escape route out of here. This had to be a bad dream. That was the only explanation.
“Okay, just calm down, just because we went out and bought a bunch of balloons and some rings from a gas station doesn’t mean we’re actually married.”
Married.
That word made me wince. I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of that.
But yeah, he was right. None of it meant there was any legal action taken. Right?
But then what were those memories about? Of walking down the aisle and the people standing at the end of it, waiting to get us married.
He got off the bed while I stood there, literally shaking.
He had a hard-on, and I hoped it was just an involuntary morning one, because there was nothing sexy about our situation here.
Thankfully, he barely looked at me so I didn’t have to get sucked into those deep green eyes.
“Come on, just help me look. Let’s see if we can find any other evidence that this wedding actually took place,” he said.
At least one of us knew what to do.
“Is this evidence enough for you?” I asked, holding the papers up.
They were marriage registration papers I’d found under the bed. It didn’t take long. Just a few minutes of searching around the room had yielded them.
He stood up straight, staring at the papers in my hand. He looked as upset by them as I felt, which was kind of insulting but I decided to ignore that.
It was bad. It was disastrous.
I wasn’t prepared to view it as a bad joke. Not yet. Right now there was nothing funny about it.
Getting drunk and marrying a random stranger wasn’t a life plan I had in mind.
What if someone at the precinct found out about it? Could I become any more of a laughing stock over there?
Maybe it was the hangover that intensified all my feelings—but in that moment, I felt like my life was over. I’d spent so many years making the right choices, doing the right thing, and in one night—I’d brought it all down around me like a wobbly house of cards.
My cheeks burned as I met his eyes.
Colin.
Yeah, that was his name.
His attention had drifted from the papers to my face now, but I didn’t know what he was thinking. Maybe he was trying to come up with a plan for getting rid of me. The quickest and surest way of making this all go away.
Well, at least I hoped he had a plan because I was panicking and losing control.
Still naked, and exuding strength and control—Colin stepped towards me. He caught my attention again.
“Hey, Marley, just relax, okay? I can take care of it. There’s no need to panic.”
I didn’t know why, but there was something about him that made me trust him.
I did my best to resist the feeling.
Eight
Colin
My head throbbed viciously like it had a personal vendetta against me. I could barely function, let alone try and make sense of what was really going on here.
To top it all off, this girl just wouldn’t sit still. She had taken it upon herself to pace around the hotel room like she was getting somewhere. It made me dizzy.
I covered my face with both hands and groaned behind them.
How did this happen? How could I have acted so irresponsibly?
She was hot as fuck. That much was obvious. Even despite her messy hair and the smudged makeup on her face, I knew why I would have lusted after her. She had a body with the kind of curves any chick would be jealous of.
But through my drunken haze, did that body seem good enough to marry? What was I thinking?
I smirked when I pulled my hands away. In a few days, or when I told my brothers about this—it would seem funny.
