Page 11 of Colin (The Doherty Mafia)
Or maybe it was just her—she was the one making me act like I’d lost my mind.
Seven
Marley
I woke up to the jerking feeling like I was falling. Like I’d just been pushed over the edge of a cliff. I woke up, sitting in bed ramrod straight and trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes.
The room I was in was pitch-black, so I couldn’t tell if it was morning or still night. Then my eyes adjusted to the dark and I noticed narrow glimmers of light at the edges of the window. It was tightly shut off by shutters.
This wasn’t my room.
I looked around the bed and saw a male form at the edge, nearly falling over. His bare back was turned to me so I couldn’t see his face.
I rolled my eyes, knowing I had no idea who this man was.
This was turning into a habit. Every time I had a particularly bad day at work—I’d end up going out, getting drunk and finding a one night stand. It never felt good the next morning but still, I did it over and over again.
I’d already had four one-night stands since I arrived in Las Vegas and I hoped this was the last one. I didn’t want to form any unhealthy patterns.
As I slipped out of bed, I hoped I’d be able to leave the room—the apartment, without waking the guy. It was best to part ways without any final comments. I hated confrontations.
Silently, in the dark, I started collecting my clothes that seemed to be scattered all around the room. One by one, I found my lingerie, then my dress, but my purse and shoes were still missing.
I considered going into the bathroom and freshening up, but that would wake the guy up. I didn’t want that.
As I searched through the room for my shoes and purse, I came across some balloons swirling around on the floor. I blinked, trying to see clearly—what were those white and silver balloons doing there?
How random! I almost laughed.
I couldn’t remember what I got up to last night with this guy but I was sure we didn’t attend a birthday party!
Ignoring the balloons, I kept looking for my missing items until I saw a glittery banner lying on the floor near the door. At first, the words didn’t make sense to me. I thought my eyes were just playing tricks on me in the dark.
Did the banner really say—Just Married?
What the fuck?
That was when my heart started racing in my chest. Something didn’t feel right.
I was hungover, there was a pain at the back of my head, my vision seemed blurry because of how nauseous I felt. And then there were those flashing images in my head. I couldn’t ignore them anymore—now that I’d seen the banner along with the balloons.
Images of me walking down a garishly over-decorated aisle. Arm-in-arm with a man whose face I couldn’t see.
Three strangers stood at the end of that aisle with big smiles on their faces, dressed up like they were at a Halloween party.
I rubbed my face with my hands to get rid of those images. Then I felt the cold metal touch of a ring on my finger.
My wedding finger.
I parted my eyes, squinting like I was watching a horror film unfold.
Film?
Casablanca.
What was happening? My mind was spinning out of control.
I had a cheap metal ring on my wedding finger, staring innocently back at me.
Then I screamed.
The guy jumped up in bed, almost jumping out of his skin when my scream pierced the air.
“What the fuck is going on?” he growled, when he saw me standing in the middle of his room.
This wasn’t his apartment. This was a hotel room. The pieces of the puzzle were slowly falling into place now.
I ran to the windows and rolled up the shutters. Blinding bright sunlight streamed into the room. He held a hand up to shield his eyes.
Soft brown hair ruffled, a dark shadowy stubble covered his chin and cheeks. He had the most intense green eyes and a handsome chiseled face. He was naked in bed with dark tattoos covering his chest.
I recognized that face now, though I didn’t remember his name.
This was the guy who fucked me hard in the dark alleyway at the back of the bar last night. I remembered the way he pulled the other guy off me at the bar, and how wet my pussy was the moment my eyes landed on his perfect body.
I felt that shiver of desire again when I saw him now.
He was deliciously irresistible.
It almost hurt my hungover brain.
In silence, he eyed me up and down and it seemed like he was recalling all our experiences from the previous night too. He didn’t look pleased either.
Yeah, we had nothing to be pleased about.
We had behaved stupidly. We were strangers. I didn’t know anything about him. We drank too much and now we were going to pay the price for that.
