Chapter 10

“So, you agreed to marry me because some guy was using you for tutoring?” Yup, that’s the sentence that greeted me when I got back to the apartment I shared with my new husband.

“I see you’ve spoken to Wes and made some asinine assumptions based on whatever he had to say.”

“Well, considering the timing…” Tucker didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t add to what he was thinking. I just stared at him until he broke. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“If I wanted to talk about it, I would call my sister. Now, if you don’t mind, I really do need to get some studying done because I can’t fail another quiz. This is my last semester and I refuse to have to retake a class.” I glanced around the living room and noticed a few bags lying by the couch. “Is there a reason you’re not at work?”

He turned, to see what I had been looking at. “My grandfather is sending me to secure a deal in Finland.”

“Finland?”

Tucker nodded. “I should probably only be gone a week, but I’m hoping it won’t take that long.”

“What the hell is in Finland? Aren’t they like the little north pole or something? Are you guys trying to sell snow to the rest of the world?”

Tucker laughed. “No, we’re not buying snow or selling it. The long winters might have something to do with people being bored enough to create some new tech that we’d like to acquire though. We also happen to have a factory there.”

“Ah, okay, well have a good trip, I guess.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Tucker muttered as I turned to go to my room. I honestly didn’t know how to act around the man. My hormones demanded that we consummate our union. The damn hormones keep trying to persuade me that all would be well if I just bedded my husband. My brain tells me to fuck off with that hormonal noise, and if I needed any further proof of the horrible idea, I could just revert back to the gross display of me being used that was hashed out in the café earlier. My heart, well that bitch wished for things we could never have, and luckily, she was smart enough to remember what happened the last time I dared to wish for something. She remembered being crushed when I not only lost the man who I’d been fawning over, but every single friend I ever had too. She wasn’t ready to trust again. That was two out of three. My hormones could shut up, take a back seat, and be satisfied with the new vibrator I bought since I no longer had a fuck buddy to help take the edge off.

For the next couple hours, I really did study and work on the paper that was due by the end of the rapidly shortening week. Actually, by the time I pulled my bleary eyes away from the paper, it was well past dinner time. The kitchen was calling my name since the last thing I’d eaten had been the partial breakfast I managed at Louis’ that morning before I had been so rudely interrupted.