CANT FAKE IT

UNSTOPPABLE ALPHAS BOOK 2

JENNA ROSE

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About the book

I thought I could do it.
I thought I could pretend the curvy beauty wasn’t
really mine.
Fifty thousand to pretend to be my wife.
But what started of as just an arrangement, has
become something much more…
I just can’t fake it.
And neither can she.
And I won’t stop until I make her mine for real.

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CONTENTS

Tanner

“Come on, man, you’ll like her. Aren’t you tired of
living like a monk?”

I look up from under the hood of the Bronco

I’m doing a head gasket replacement on and glance
over at Nate, who’s grinning at me from the door of
the shop. He’s covered in grease, and clearly done
with the brake job on the Mustang.

“I’m not a monk,” I tell him. “I’m a smart guy

who’s learned from his mistakes.”

“Are you still caught up on that bitch, man?

Come on, you gotta move on. There’s a million fish
in the sea!”

“I don’t want a million fish,” I reply. “I want

one fish…the perfect fish.”

“Doesn’t exist, man,” he chuckles. “But if you

wanna find her, you gotta get back out there.”

Pete has a point; ever since my ex-wife ran off

with my best friend and best man seven years ago,
I’ve been basically celibate, focusing on my job and
staying clear of the dating scene. I have what
psychiatrists would call a “fear of commitment,”
but that’s just a fancy, bullshit term for saying that I
don’t want to get fucked over again.

Anna was the one; I was sure of it…at the time.

We met when I was working at another garage
across town and the sparks were instantaneous. I
asked her out that same night, and within a month
we were living together.

Two months later we were engaged, and then a

week before the wedding I dropped by John’s
house unexpectedly to return his mower I
borrowed, and found him balls deep in my soon-to-
be bride. We’d been friends since high school. I’m
a tough guy, but I’ll admit that it stung.

She tried to tell me it was all a big mistake, that

they’d both been drinking. Hell, she even tried to
say he’d taken advantage of her, but I knew it was
all a big lie. He tried to tell me she’d told them we
were already broken up and he would never do that
to me.

Fucking liars. They’re made for each other.
They’re still together last I heard—living in a

studio apartment outside Boston or something. I
wonder how John will take it when he comes home
to find her with another man. Or maybe he’s into
that sort of thing, who knows?

Since then, I’ve kept my head down and stayed

focused on my work. I own my own shop now; I do
simple repairs—oil changes, brake jobs, coolant—
and I also do restorations. Armchair shrinks (aka.
friends) like to tell me that I fix cars because I can’t
fix myself. I like to tell them to fuck off.

But Pete does have a point about me needing a

girl—just not for the reasons he thinks.

My dad is the founder and CEO of a large

manufacturing company, and he’s retiring this year.
Control of the company should go to me, but my
dad told me six months ago that if I didn’t find
myself a wife, he’d find someone else to take over.
See, he thinks I’m just out partying and having a
new girl every night, when in fact, the complete
opposite is true. It would kill me if the company
went to someone outside the family, but I’ve got
three days left before my dad cuts me off, and I’m
still no closer to finding a bride than I was when we
last spoke.

“Tell you what, Pete,” I smirk as I head to the

sink and start to scrub my hands. “Why don’t you
just lend me Audrey for the weekend? I’ll pass her
off as my wife; she knows how to be one.”

“The day I lend you my wife, boss, is the day I

open my own tap-dance studio!”

I chuckle, grab a rag and do my best on my

hands, but they’re still pretty dirty. Just one of the
hazards of the job I guess.

“Tell you what, Pete. Let’s call it a day. I gotta

go pick up some flowers for mom. Don’t want to be
late.”

“What a good son you are,” he jokes as we lock

up. “Now if you could just find a woman to make
an honest man out of you.”

“I think it’s more likely that aliens will come

abduct me than for that to happen, Petey,” I laugh.
We say goodbye and I get in my truck and head
into town. Mom loves lilacs so I head to the only
flower shop in town, Poppy Petals, a place I’ve
only been once, seven years ago.

When I park, I notice a Porsche parked out

front with out of state plates. It’s a new model and
has been wrapped in bright-green vinyl. Looks
terrible to be honest, which doesn’t surprise me,
because when I step inside the shop I easily spot
the owner, who is clearly a douchebag.

“This is not what I ordered?! I ordered white

roses, not pink!”

He’s snapping at the poor girl behind the

counter, who looks like she’s on the verge of tears.
And holy shit is she a looker.

Something about the way she looks reminds me

of those gorgeous 1950s housewives you always
see in old movies. She’s got killer curves that her
floral-print dress does nothing to hide, and a thick
heap of curls draping down across her shoulders.
Her lips are plump, and I feel myself starting to
stiffen up.

“I’m sorry, sir, but they are white roses—”
They clearly are. Even I can see that, and I

don’t know shit about flowers.

“Are you fucking blind?” the man snaps. He’s

right up in her face. “They’re fucking pink!”

“I’m sorry—”
“Don’t you say sorry again! Don’t you dare say

sorry one more fucking time!”

The man is practically spitting all over her, and

she’s on the verge of tears. It’s time to step in.

“If you say sorry once more—”
“Hey, asshole!” I bark. The prick stiffens and

turns around to face me. He’s wearing slacks and a
button-up; he’s clearly not a working man and
clearly not from around here. He works out, but
I’ve got about thirty pounds of muscle on him, and
at least six inches of height—and probably
something else too.

“Hey, man,” he replies, doing his best to sound

tough. “Stay out of this all right?”

“Two choices,” I tell him. “Take your fucking

white roses, pay the girl and leave, or stay and get
your teeth knocked out. Your choice.”

The poor girl’s hands are trembling. People

around here don’t behave like this; she’s not used
to it. It also looks like she just works here and
probably isn’t the one who should be dealing with
pricks like this.

“Hey, man—”
“You’ve got three seconds,” I tell him. “I’m

gonna start counting, and if you haven’t either paid
or left by the time I’m done, I’ll pick an option for
you. Can you guess which?”

I’m sure wherever this guy works, he’s

considered a badass. Probably somebody’s boss
who he likes to push around. But today, he’s taking
orders from me. He opens his mouth like he wants
to respond, but I start counting.

“Three…”
The prick glances at the counter girl, then at the

roses.

“Two…”
He looks at me and balls his fist. Does he really

want this?

“One!”
“Okay!” he blurts out. He reaches quickly for

his wallet and holds out his hand like that could
possibly stop me. The girl takes his card, swipes it
and gives him the roses while I glare at him. I keep
my eyes on him all the way out to his Porsche, then
I turn back to the gorgeous girl who is wiping her
eyes with a tissue.

“Fucking prick,” I smirk to her, trying to lighten

the mood. God, she’s gorgeous.

“Colorblind prick,” she says softly, with an

attempt at a laugh.

“What’s your name?” I ask her.
“Hope,” she replies. I smile. Hope. As in, I hope

she tastes as good as she looks.

I can’t explain what comes over me when I

look at her. It’s not only her innocent beauty and
her unbelievable curves; it’s just something about
her that I can’t quite put my finger on. But I like it.

“I’m Tanner,” I tell her. “I run the garage over

on Winter Street.”

She nods and throws the tissue away.
“Well thank you, Tanner. Can I help you with

something?”

“Yeah, I need a lilac bouquet for my mom. Do

you have one?”

“Ummm…” she looks around the display cases.

I spot one right away, but she’s clearly still flustered
and looks right past it.

“This one will do,” I say, pointing to it. “How

much?”

“Oh!” she exclaims as she pulls it from the

case. “This is fifty dollars”

“Tell me, Hope. Do you have a boyfriend?”
She looks back at me with surprise, then slowly

frowns.

“I…I don’t know why that matters?”
She doesn’t. If she did, she would have said yes

already.

“Tell you what,” I say as I reach into my wallet

and pull out a grand. “Here’s fifty for the flowers,
and another nine-fifty for you.”

“For—for me?” she asks, retracting her hand

from the stack of bills like it might bite her.

“Hope,” I say slowly. “I need you to marry

me.”

Hope

Did I just hear him right? My jaw is hanging open
as I stare at the man in front of me, who is holding
out a wad of cash like something a gangster might
have in a crime movie.

He must be joking. My heart is already kind of

racing from the encounter with the last customer,
but as I stare at Tanner, it starts pounding. No man
has ever had an effect on me like this before. Sure,
maybe the customer was just a prick raising his
voice to me, but it feels like Tanner just swooped in
and saved me from something awful. Despite how
confused I am, looking at the stack of bills he’s
trying to hand me, I’m insanely turned on.

“Okay, ha-ha!” I laugh, taking three twenties

carefully from the pile. “You’re funny. Do you
want this wrapped up or boxed or anything?”

“Did you not hear me?” he asks.
“I heard you, I heard you,” I reply, waving my

hand in the air as I go to the case and pick up the
lilac bouquet. “And you know what, I really could
use that money right now.”

“Really? Why’s that? Are you in school?”
“No, my car,” I reply as I start to write up his

order. “Someone hit it and my insurance doesn’t
want to pay for it because the other driver is saying
it’s my fault.”

“You didn’t call the cops when they hit you?”
“No,” I shake my head. “I didn’t want a big

scene.”

“Always call the cops,” he chuckles. “It’s either

a big scene now or a big loss later.”

“Tell me about it,” I reply.
I can feel his eyes on me as I find a small box to

put the bouquet in. He looks completely out of
place in the store. He’s tall, at least six-feet, and
broad and thick with heavy, rough hands. He looks
like he’d be more at home up on a mountain
somewhere with an axe, chopping down trees and
splitting the wood for the Winter.

“So?” he asks. I look up at him.
“So…?”
“Don’t you want the rest of the money? That

could go a long way to fixing up your car.”

“Sure, I’d love it,” I laugh. “And all I have to

do is marry you? No problem! Call the church!”

I smile at Tanner, but he’s not laughing. Is he

being serious?

“Look, Hope, I know this is strange, random

and probably semi-creepy,” he says. “My poor
mom has been begging me to get married for a long
time now. She’s so stressed out about it that it’s
giving her high blood pressure. I’m supposed to go

see her this weekend and I want to make her happy.
Will you help me make my mom happy?”

I have to laugh. If only Tanner knew how

ridiculous this was to ask me of all people. The last
thing on my mind right now is marriage; I still have
to go to school, get my degree and build a life for
myself. Then, maybe, I’ll meet a man and settle
down. I don’t want to make the same mistake my
mom did and get married too young, only to get
divorced a few years later.

But wait, what am I thinking? I shake my head.

He’s asking me for a fake marriage! Not a real
one!

“Fake marriage…” I say slowly. “This sounds

like the premise of a bad film.”

“We could film it if you want,” he says with a

wink. I roll my eyes.

“Sorry, stud. No thanks.”
I ring him up. The register dings and the drawer

pops open. I grab his change and go to hand it to
him, but as I do, I see he’s holding even more
money in his hand.

“Ten grand,” he says. “And we go to the

courthouse and get it done.”

It’s more money than I’ve ever seen in my life

and he’s holding it out to me like it’s nothing. Isn’t
he just a mechanic?

“You’re crazy,” I reply. “There’s got to be

something you’re not telling me.”

“You don’t have to live with me. You don’t

have to kiss me. You just have to marry me and the
money’s yours.”

Am I being Punk’d? I glance outside, half

expecting to see a camera crew barging through the
door.

“Ten grand to marry you?” I ask. Let’s find out

if he’s serious. “This must be pretty important. Call
it fifty and we have a deal.”

“Deal,” he says without hesitation. He takes my

hand and puts the ten grand in it. It’s more money
than I’ve ever had in my life.

“That’s ten,” he says. “We go to the bank now

and I get you the other forty. Then we go to the
courthouse.”

My heart flutters. This is really happening. Am I

out of my mind? He is devastatingly gorgeous…

“I—I have to finish work,” I stammer. Sure, I

just agreed to his proposal, but I feel like I have
whiplash and need a second to get my feet on the
ground.

“Just lock up,” he laughs. “I just paid you a

year’s worth of wages at this place. Let them fire
you.”

He has a point. I’ve always been a model

employee here, but with fifty-thousand dollars, am
I really going to come back to work next week?

There’s something thrilling about what’s

happening, and I’m trying not to smile as I box up

his mom’s flowers and follow him outside. I lock up
and leave the keys in the drop box, wondering if
I’ve just hit it big or if I’m making a huge, dumb
mistake. But fifty-thousand would not only get me
a new car, but would also cover two years of school
completely. But as I follow him out into the parking
lot, I see him heading toward an old beat up truck,
and a thought occurs to me:

What is a guy with this much money doing

driving that piece of junk?

“Uh, Tanner?” I say, stopping. “I’m going to

call my mom first, okay? And tell her where I’m
going.”

“That’s fine,” he replies. “I’d skip the whole

marriage part though.”

“Right. Where…should I say I’m going?”
“My parents live out on Old Mill road.”
“Seriously?”
Old Mill is a road out in the country, filled

exclusively with enormous mansions with lots of
land. Tanner just nods. I pull out my phone and dial
my mom.

“Hey, sweetie,” she says. “What’s up?”
I explain to her where I’m going and make up a

story about being invited to do a floral arrangement
for an event. She buys it and I hang up.

“Ready, my love?” Tanner asks, sending a

shiver through me. Under any other circumstances,
that comment would be creepy as Hell. But he

looks like he’s joking, so I decide to joke back.

“Yes, my dear. Marry me!”
I follow Tanner into his beat-up truck; the door

squeals as I open and close it, and it smells like a
garage. I’m trying to put all the pieces together
about who this mysterious, handsome man might be
when we pull up to the bank.

“Wait here,” he says. I watch him get out of the

truck and head inside. Who is he!?

There was a good chance he was some kind of

criminal, which makes what I’m doing even
dumber, but what kind of criminal keeps his cash in
a bank? His garage seems to always be pretty busy,
but that still seems like a lot of money for working
on cars. There’s definitely something mysterious
about Tanner, which is just adding to my interest in
him.

When he comes out of the bank, I can’t help

but let my eyes drag over him. He is built, and I
catch a couple of college girls glance over at him as
gets gets back into the truck, and feel instantly—
and possibly irrationally—possessive of him. I glare
at one of them and she just gives me a dirty look
back.

“Here you go,” he says, tossing me a thick

envelope. “Count if if you want. It’ll take some
time.”

“No,” I tell him, feeling the weight of the

package. “I trust you.”

“Trust,” he smiles. “The foundation of any

good relationship. Come on, honey, let’s go get
hitched.”

Tanner

Hope may not know it, but even if the marriage is a
sham, she’s still mine.

The ceremony was short and sweet, with no

rings and some quick signatures, but as we drive
toward my parent’s house, all I want to do is pull
the truck over, throw her in the back and claim her
sweet, intoxicating curves as mine.

It cost me fifty-G’s to get her to agree to this,

which lets me know she’s not a dummy, but I would
have paid any amount to get her to come with me.
Her beauty has me falling all over myself, aching to
have her.

As I glance over at her, sitting so pretty next to

me in the truck, I start to wonder if I’ve found the
woman who will finally be able to sort me out.

Fear of commitment? Not anymore. She may

think this is a fake marriage, but as far as I’m
concerned, she’s mine.

Just thinking about the way that guy talked to

her back at the shop makes me see red.

I glance over at her; her floral dress is riding up

slightly, showing me a glimpse of her sweet thighs
that are smooth and pale like sweet cream. All I

want to do is pull her into my lap and run my
fingers up between her legs and discover her secret.

I saw the looks the clerk gave us at the

courthouse. Me, twice Hope’s size and looking like
I just crawled out from under a truck, and her, so
clean and sweet like a porcelain doll. We may not
look like a stereotypical couple, but I can already
tell we’re going to fit perfectly.

My eyes drag hungrily up her body, scouring

the lines of her hips, the curves of her waist and her
plump breasts. My cock throbs beneath my jeans—

“Look out!” she cries out. I whip my head back

to the road and realize there’s a car braking quickly
in front of me. I slam on the brakes and put my arm
across Hope’s chest to keep her from slamming
forward.

“Son of a bitch!” I growl as I turn to her. “Are

you all right?”

Her hair has fallen in front of her face, and I

brush it away with the other hand to reveal her
scared face.

“Y—yea,” she replies slowly. I breath a sigh of

relief and glare at the car in front of us; it’s some
prick on his cell phone who hasn’t even noticed we
almost just hit him. Without hesitating, I get out of
the truck. I hear Hope call after me, but I just stride
right up to his window and knock with my fist on
the glass.

“Hey, asshole!” I shout. He glances up from his

phone and looks at me like he has no idea what just
happened. “Get off your fucking phone! You trying
to get someone killed?”

The son of a bitch has the nerve to flip me the

bird, and I’m two seconds away from tearing him
out of the car, but when I look back at Hope I can
see that she’s already upset. I don’t need to make
things worse. So I just give him a look and get back
in the truck.

“Sorry about that,” I tell her as I pull around the

idiot who’s still texting. “If he’d ended up getting
you hurt…”

I don’t finish my sentence, and Hope doesn’t

respond. We leave my point unspoken and I keep
driving. Before long I’m pulling up the long drive to
my parents’ house. I was hoping (foolishly) that my
dad wouldn’t be here. But I see his Range Rover
parked beside mom’s Mercedes. I park my beater
next to them.

I can tell Hope wants to say something about

the house as we step out and walk to the front door,
but she stays silent. It is a ridiculous house, like
Wayne Manor or something. I could never picture
myself living there—when I was single at least.

We stop at the door and I reach out for the

handle when Hope stops me.

“Wait,” she says. “Shouldn’t we get our stories

straight?”

“Stories?”

“Yeah,” she smiles. “How we met, what we like

to do together, my favorite flowers. That sort of
thing?”

I grin and nod. “Smart. Okay. We met when you

brought your car to my shop to see if insurance
would fix it. You like roses—”

“Chrysanthemums.”
“You like Chrysanthemums,” I correct myself.

“And we like to fuck all the time.”

Hope’s jaw drops and she quickly puts a hand

over her mouth, causing her tits to jiggle and my
cock to ache again. Fuck, I want to skip this whole
thing and take her back to my place.

“We can’t tell your parents that!”
“Okay,” I chuckle. “We watch Netflix, we bowl

sometimes and I help you with your…school stuff.”

“I’m not in school yet, Tanner,” she smiles.

“And even if I was, you would help me with my
drawing?”

“Drawing?” I ask. “There’s school for that?”
“Ever heard of art school?” she laughs.
“Is that like auto school?” I reply, feeling

suddenly stupid.

“You like to watch me draw,” she says. “But

you don’t help me with it. Sound good?”

“Yes, ma’am.”
Hope has spunk. I like that. She seems to have

also lost whatever reservations she had earlier and
is fully on board with my plan. I just hope she can

handle my folks.

I reach out for the handle again, but before I

can, Hope grabs my hands and scolds me with her
eyes.

“What?” I ask.
“You’re really going to go see your momma

with hands like this?” she asks, eyeing the grime I
didn’t manage to clean off at the shop.

“Eh, it is what it is,” I tell her. “I’m a mechanic.

She knows that.”

“No,” she says firmly. “As your new bride, I

refuse to let you go see your mother with your
hands looking like you just finished doing an lube
job or whatever.”

Lube job? I think. No, won’t need any lube,

baby.

She glances around and spots the hose spigot by

the garage. With her soft hand on my wrist, she
leads me over to it and turns it on.

“Get your hands wet,” she tells me as she heads

back to the truck. She grabs something from her
purse and comes back. “Now, give me them.”

Smiling even more, I present my hands to her

and she goes to work on them with a packet of wet
wipes. A new, unfamiliar feeling runs through me as
I watch her. She’s taking care of me; no one’s done
that for me in a long time. I keep my eyes on her
and don’t look down until she tells me she’s done.

To my surprise, my hands are basically

completely clean. There’s still a few spots by my
nails, but they’re way better than they were

“I’ve never had anyone…clean me before,” I

tell her.

“No? Never showered with your ex?” she asks

as she crumples up the wipes.

“A long time ago,” I reply. “But she never

cleaned me or anything.”

“Well, consider yourself lucky,” she teases.

“Because you have a new wife who will do things
like that for you.”

She turns away from me and bounces back to

the front door. Was that a Freudian slip or is she
just damn good at playing along with our
arrangement?

My cock is pulsing between my thighs, but I

fight back the urge to take her as I know I’m about
to see my parents. I step up beside her, and before I
can open the door, it swings open to reveal my
mom’s smiling face.

Her eyes go to me first, and she’s about to say

something, but then she notices Hope by my side.

“I—hello!?” she says quite happily. “And who

are you?”

“Hi, Mrs.—uh, my name’s Hope,” she replies,

taking my mom’s hand. “I’m tanner’s….wife.”

Hope

Tanner’s mom’s mouth hangs open for a long time.
It’s an uncomfortable silence and I try not to
squirm as she looks back and forth from me to him.
Finally, she laughs and throws her arms around her
son.

“Oh, why didn’t you tell me!?” she exclaims.

“You’re married!? Oh, I’m so happy—hey, what
about the ceremony!? You didn’t invite your
parents?”

“We’ll have a real ceremony another time,”

Tanner replies. “I just wanted to make things
official. You know—for him.”

Him? What’s he talking about?
“That was smart,” his mom says with a wink.

“But what are we doing standing here on the steps?
Come in! Come in!”

Tanner’s parents’ house is even more amazing

than I’d imagined. It’s not modern, but more like an
old manor that I would picture in the English
countryside. Am I Elizabeth Bennet right now?

It’s hard to picture Tanner as Mr. Darcy, but

then again it’s hard to picture him coming from a
family who could afford this house either. What’s

he doing driving around that old crappy truck and
working in a garage when he comes from this? Did
he piss his parents off and get thrown out of the
house or something?

“Nice place,” I whisper to him, drawing a

smirk-frown from him as his mom leads us from the
foyer to the kitchen.

“Thank you, Tina,” she says to a girl cleaning

the counters. Yup, they have live-in help. His mom
goes over to a pitcher of freshly made limeade and
starts pouring us glasses. “We just made this today,
fresh from the lime tree out back. Try it!”

I like her already.
“Thank you…” I say, but as I take the glass, I

realize I don’t even know her name.

“Of course, dear,” she says sweetly. I raise the

glass to my mouth and use it to hide my lips as I
whisper to Tanner.

“Her name!? What’s your mom’s name?”
Realizing his mistake, Tanner leans over and

wraps his arm around me and pulls me close. Then,
he kisses me on the cheek, and a flood of emotions
I was not expecting fizz through my body. Whoa.

“Sue,” he whispers, his voice a warm tickle in

my ear. My first kiss (even though it’s not on the
lips) and it happened just like that – without any
warning, from a man I barely know.

Yeah, my first kiss. So I’m not that experienced

with guys, okay? After my parents split up, I lost all

faith in relationships—before I’d even had one of
my own. I sort of dated a boy named Ryan Linquist
during my Sophomore year, but he came on way
too fast and I quickly realized he didn’t really like
me. I think he watched too much porn.

“Thank you, Sue,” I say with a smile as I take a

sip of the limeade. It’s delicious—fresh, not too
sour, not too sweet.

“How is it?” she asks.
“Really good! I haven’t had limeade in a long

time!”

“My mom just likes to be fancy,” Tanner

chuckles as he downs his entire glass and sets it
down.

“My son likes to be the opposite,” she laughs.

“As you can see by his truck.”

I laugh and glance over at him—my husband.

“Oh, you should have seen his dirty hands when we
came over here; I had to clean them outside before
we came in!”

Sue smiles and looks over at her son with a

raised eyebrow. “Oh, I do like her, Tanner.”

“Stop,” he scoffs.
“A good woman to straighten out my son,” she

smirks, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder. “I
already like you!”

A pit starts to form in my stomach as I realize

that I genuinely really like Tanner’s mom. She has
me feeling at home already, like I am already part

of the family. What’s going to happen when all this
is over?

“So, where’s dad?” Tanner asks. “I want to

introduce him.”

“Oh, your father’s out,” Sue replies, rolling her

eyes. “He and Timothy went bass fishing. They
won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Tanner sighs, filling his glass

again. “Always on his schedule.”

“You know your father,” Sue replies. “Why

don’t I show Hope around the rest of the house?”

Tanner glances over at me as if to say, “Is that

okay?” I appreciate it, but I’m actually excited to
spend some time with his mom. Is that weird?

“I’d love to,” I tell her. I slip out from under

Tanner’s arm and follow Sue from the kitchen. I
glance back over my shoulder and catch him
checking out my ass as I leave. He looks quickly
towards the back, trying to pretend like he wasn’t
doing what he was just doing, but I know. And I
like it.

“So, the house is quite old,” Sue tells me as she

leads me around. “It was restored several times; it’s
been in the family for decades.”

I follow her as she shows me a library, which I

am hoping hides a secret entrance to the bat cave,
her husband’s study, her husband’s lounge room for
entertaining guests, and his smaller office. The
house even has a ground floor sauna and bathroom

with an enormous walk-in shower, a billiard room,
an enormous dining room and two living rooms, one
more familial and one with a projection screen for
watching movies.

The upstairs is even more elaborate, with eight

bedrooms, three baths and a balcony that overlooks
a back yard that takes my breath away. Landscaped
hedges, double rows of trees flanking a huge pool
and fountain and what looks like a horse barn in the
distance.

It’s gorgeous, but I still can’t get over the fact

that this is where Tanner-the-grease- ball comes
from.

I really, really like Sue, and wouldn’t mind

spending an entire day just hanging out with her.
My mom did her best—I guess—but after the
divorce, was more like a friend than a mother. Their
split was the main reason I started pursuing art, so I
could have a way to channel the things I was
feeling.

My mom never seemed comfortable talking to

me about the relationship or what happened, and
she talked badly about my dad which I didn’t want
to hear. I don’t think any girl wants to hear bad
things about her father.

We come back downstairs and I find Tanner

waiting in the foyer shirtless, wearing a short
bathing suit with a white towel around his neck.

Oh. My. God.

I could tell he was built before, but now I get

the full picture. If someone was to sculpt his body
out of marble, it wouldn’t look out of place in a
museum. Even his muscles seem to have more
muscles on top of them. He has abs I could do my
laundry on, and bulging biceps that have me feeling
all fuzzy inside.

“Care for a dip?” he asks with a grin. I feel Sue

glance over at me.

“I’m gonna go read in my room,” she says,

before heading back upstairs.

“Isn’t it a bit late?” I ask, glancing at the sun

fading over the horizon. “Won’t it be cold?”

“Pool’s heated,” he laughs, and takes my hand

in his. It’s twice the size of mine, which makes me
feel even smaller beside him as he leads me out the
back.

“I—I don’t have a suit,” I tell him. He looks me

up and down and nods. If any other man did that to
me I’d feel so uncomfortable.

“True,” he replies. “Well, I guess we’ll have to

go skinny dipping.”

“Tanner, I can’t—”
Before I can finish my sentence, Tanner drops

his trunks and tosses his towel, leaving himself
standing completely naked before me.

“Oh!” I gasp. Automatically, I spin around and

hide my blushing face from him. I barely got a
glimpse of…it…but it was huge. Oh, and on top of

that, it’s the first dick I’ve ever seen.

Two firsts in one day—three if you count my

“marriage.”

“Don’t be shy,” I hear Tanner say as he steps

softly up behind me. I feel his hands on my hips
and my whole body quivers in response. He hushes
me quietly and begins to pull my dress up. “You’re
my wife now, Hope. And as your husband, I intend
to claim what’s mine.”

Tanner

My wife is trembling as I lift the hem of her floral
print dress up over her luscious hips to expose her
beautiful, plump, curvaceous ass. She’s wearing a
red thong, but you can barely see it. She’s so thick
the slim line of string is practically swallowed up
between her cheeks. My mouth waters. I want to
bury my face between them.

“Tanner—”
“It’s okay, baby. You’re in good hands.”
My voice is soft as I keep raising her dress, up

past her waist. She lifts her arms for me and I pull it
all the way off and toss it onto one of the chair.
She’s nervous, and doesn’t turn around to face me
right away, so I just step up behind her and wrap
my arms around her.

My hard-on presses up against her body,

causing me to groan. I widen my stance and slip it
between her legs, spreading her ass slightly to make
room. Her soft skin grips my swollen cock and I
start slowly thrusting as if I’m fucking her. I’m
dripping pre-cum, but it’s her wetness that starts to
coat the tip of my dick.

“I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you,”

I whisper. “Looking so fucking beautiful.”

She lets out a soft sigh and turns her head

slightly. I reach up and cup one of her breasts with
my hand and squeeze, hard enough to make her
gasp. Her tits are firm and plump, heavy in my hand
and I spin her to me and seal my lips to hers.

Her lips are soft, sweet, wet and make me go

even crazier for her. No girl has ever had a hold on
me like this before, and I can’t believe just how
quickly she took hold of me.

I can feel the hunger in her kisses, and I

respond by exploring her body with my hands. I
trace her curves down to her ass and grab hard and
pull her to me. My cock slides between her legs –
all that’s separating us is the thin layer of fabric of
her wet panties. But when I reach my fingers into
their hem, she pulls away.

“I thought you wanted to swim, mister?” she

asks coyly, taking a step back. She’s nervous; that’s
okay.

“I did. But you distracted me.”
“Oh, I did?” she giggles as she meanders over

to the edge of the pool. “How ever did I do that?”

“I think you know,” I tell her. “Those curves

drive me wild.”

She can’t hide her blush. Not only is she

insanely sexy, but she’s also cute. This time, I don’t
even try to hide my gaze as it lingers on every inch
of her body. My cock is hard as a rock, and she’s

doing a great job stopping herself from looking. But
I know she wants to.

“Heated?” she asks, dipping a toe in the water.

“That’s fancy.”

Before I can respond, she’s diving into the

water. When she comes up, with her hair wet and
draped back over her head, she looks like a
goddess. I want her more than ever, and waste no
time jumping in beside her.

The last of the sun vanishes over the horizon

and the outdoor lights click on, bathing the patio
and pool in a warm, amber glow that reflects off the
water. Her eyes glow with all the questions she has
for me.

“This house…it’s quite the place.”
“Yeah. Like Bruce Wayne’s manor,” I smirk.
“Does that make you Batman?”
“Nah,” I shrug. “I don’t fight crime.”
I swim closer to her but she drifts away.
“You’re an enigma, Tanner. I don’t know

anything about you.”

“I don’t know anything about you either,” I

reply. “How long have you worked at the flower
shop?”

“A few months,” she replies. “Just to make

some money. I need it now more than ever.”

“Not anymore,” I grin, reminding her. It takes

her a second, and then she catches on.

“Yeah, how does a mechanic have that much

money to just give away?”

“I told you,” I chuckle. “I’m Bruce Wayne.”
“Seriously though, Tanner. This—this doesn’t

make sense.”

“It’s my family,” I tell her. “They’re wealthy.”
“So you paid me with your family’s money…”
“Not exactly.”
I want to tell her everything, but is it the right

time? I want her more than anything, but I’ve been
burned once before. My heart is telling me to open
up, but my life’s experience is telling me the
opposite.

“Do you really want to talk right now?” I ask,

swimming closer to her.

“Do you really want to swim?” she counters.
“No,” I whisper as I close in. “I just wanted to

get you naked.”

“Well I’m not naked,” she reminds me. I glance

down and see the red of her thong through the
water.

“Well then I need to fix that.”
“You are a fixer, aren’t you?” she whispers.
I move right in like I’m going to kiss her. Her

mouth opens to accept it, but I let my lips drift past
and find the soft skin of her neck. My delicate kiss
causes her to shiver and press her body against
mine. I find the band of her thong with my fingers
and pull it off.

Her eyes sparkle. She likes to play, and I like

that. Taking her hips, I pull her to me, spreading her
legs with my own and sliding my cock against her
inviting slit. I feel the warmth and let out a groan.

“T—Tanner,” she whispers as I rub my cock

back and forth against her.

“Yes, baby.”
“I…I’ve never done this before.”
By the look on her face, I guess she thought I’d

be upset or something. But her words simply
enflame me more.

A virgin…unclaimed territory.
The desire to claim her threatens to overwhelm

me. My smile slowly melts the hesitation on her
face and I press my lips to hers. I kiss her long and
deep, close my eyes and take in the moment,
solidifying it in my memory. When I pull back, I see
pure innocence and desire in her eyes.

“That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever heard,

baby,” I tell her.

“R—really?”
“Yes. I’m going to claim that little virgin pussy

of yours and make it mine. Make you mine. You are
my wife, after all.”

Hope

Every inch of my body is tingling. It’s like I’m
humming with electric energy that’s radiating from
deep down in my core. And when Tanner slides his
fingers between my legs, everything seems to glow.

Automatically, my hand goes to his cock. I’ve

never felt one before, but I know enough to realize
his is enormous; I can barely even get my fingers
around its thick shaft.

I’m going crazy with desire as he runs his hand

over my body while he plays with my pussy. His
fingers gently spread me open and a moan falls
from my lips when he finds my clit. My legs quiver
like they’re going to give out from under me, but
Tanner’s strong arm holds me up as he pleasures
me.

I don’t know how I feel so comfortable with

him; I just met him! But it feels so right.

His lips press against my neck and a jolt of

pleasure races through my body as I feel my climax
starting to blaze within me. His finger moves in
gentle circles around my clit; that’s all it takes. I
come harder than I ever thought possible and slump
forward onto him, panting heavily.

“You’re so beautiful, Hope,” he whispers. “I

could make you come all day and be happy. But
now I’m going to claim your little virgin pussy. Are
you ready?”

I want to respond, but I can’t; I’m

dumbfounded from what just happened. But
Tanner’s no dummy; he knows I want it, and the
next thing I know I’m on my back on the patio
chair with my legs spread.

The golden light seems to make his body glow,

and I trace the lines of his muscles with my eyes as
he positions himself between my legs. I look down
at his thick, swollen hard-on and wonder just how
it’s going to fit inside me. But before I can get
caught up in that thought process, he’s sliding
inside me.

“Oh!” I squeal, biting my lip as a sharp pain hits

me. I brace my hands against his rock-hard thighs
and he pauses, holding his dick inside me while I
get used to it. It doesn’t take long, and then he’s
pushing deeper.

I don’t know how many inches he has, but he

gives me them all. I feel his thick head against my
cervix and let out a deep groan as he starts to fuck
me.

“That’s it,” he purrs. “That’s where it’s

supposed to go.”

“You’re so big!”
“And your little virgin cunt is tighter than a

fist,” he growls. His words enflame me. “I’m
stretching you to my fit, baby.”

A lot of nonsensical moans that I wish could be

words fall out of my mouth as my husband fucks
me. I can’t think. I can’t speak. All I can do is take
his enormous cock, and before I know it, a roaring
orgasmic wave slaps into me and knocks all thought
from my mind.

I slump back on the chair, quivering while my

lips shake. Tanner is growling; I’ve never felt like a
woman before…until now.

Next thing I know, I’m on my knees and he’s

taking me from behind. His strong hands hold my
hips like he owns me—like he’s known he owned
me since the moment he walked into the shop—and
his cock thrusts furiously inside me like he’s trying
to hollow me out.

He’s so big. So thick.
Somehow, I’m already racing toward another

climax, and when Tanner grabs a fistful of my hair
and pulls it back, I go over the edge. His hand grabs
my breast, and as I come, so does he.

His thick cock jerks inside me, flexes and

stretches me even more. And then I feel it; a warm
rush of cum floods my pussy, splashing violently
inside me as he fills me with his seed. A brief flash
of realization hits me; I’m not on birth control. But
I shrug it away.

I don’t care.

No, that’s not true; I do care. I love it.
Harder and harder, my orgasmic waves crash

over me until Tanner slumps forward, pinning me
beneath his bulk. I gasp for air as his lips hang open
on the back of my neck. I don’t know how long we
lie there together, but I can say it’s the best moment
of my life.

“You’re staying here tonight,” he tells me.
“Yeah? I thought you just wanted me to meet

your mom?”

I’m just teasing. I do want to stay with him.
“I may have told you this was fake, Hope. But

you’re the realest thing in my life now.”

His words cause my heart to tremor. This is all

happening so fast; I just gave my virginity to a guy I
barely know, and I let him come inside me. I know
it’s insane, but it feels so right.

“O—okay,” I finally reply.
The next thing I know, I’m hoisted over

Tanner’s shoulder as he carries me inside. I quickly
put a hand between my legs to keep too much of
him from spilling out of me. Up the stairs and then
we’re in his bedroom.

My orgasm is still buzzing inside me, and I

quickly wrap myself in the comforter. Tanner slides
into bed beside me and wraps his big, strong arm
around me. I’ve never felt more safe.

This makes no sense, I think as I start to drift

off to sleep. But maybe that’s why I should trust it;

I’ve spent most of my life making rational decisions
based on what I know; I avoided relationships
because of what happened with my parents, but it
would be stupid now to listen to my brain and not
my heart.

I really did think that I could pull this off

without getting attached, but little did I know that
Tanner would end up having this kind of hold on
me. When his lips gently peck my neck, I give up
even trying to think about what’s going on; I
surrender to the moment. I surrender to him.

Hope

I wake up from the best sleep of my life, smile and
roll over, hoping to find Tanner in bed next to me
with a nice hard-on that I can start the day with. I
want to try and see what it’s like being on top, but
to my sad surprise, I find his half of the bed empty.

I sit up and look around and notice a small note

folded up on the side table. It’s from Tanner:

Hey, baby. Didn’t want to wake you. Had to go
meet with my dad. Grab a shower or some food
from the kitchen. I’ll find you when we’re done.

That was sweet of him, rather than just letting me
sit here and wonder where he was or when he’d be
back. I’d prefer to shower with him of course, but I
hop out of bed and head to the bathroom.

The shower is insane, with all kinds of nozzles,

including a rain nozzle, and room for at least five
people if you wanted to get crazy (which of course
I don’t). I clean up and wrap myself in a towel,
only to realize that my dress is gone, probably still
outside from when Tanner took it off me last night.

Thankfully, Tanner has a walk-in closet the size

of my bedroom, and I find a t-shirt that fits me like
a dress, and a pair of his athletic shorts that I
manage to roll five times to get them to sort of fit
me.

My stomach growls. I guess after all that

exercise I got last night, I worked up an appetite. So
I take my husband’s advice and head downstairs to
the kitchen to find something to eat. But just as I’m
coming down the stairs, I hear the sound of raised
voices coming from one of the rooms on my right.

I stop and listen; one of them is Tanner’s, but

the other I don’t recognize. It must be his father,
and he sounds pissed. Even though I know I
shouldn’t be a snoop, my curiosity takes over and I
slowly walk over to the door where their voices are
coming from.

“Can you give it a rest!?” Tanner groans loudly.

“You got what you wanted.”

“I wanted you to have a real marriage!” his dad

booms back. “Not some sham certificate from the
courthouse!”

“You wanted me to get married; I got married.

End of story. You can’t legally shut me out of the
company anymore. That was the deal right? Get
married or lose my inheritance?”

An icy hand grips my heart and a cold sweat

breaks out across my body.

“All these years of fucking around with

countless women and you couldn’t find one good

one to settle down with?”

Cracks form in my heart. His father’s words are

like acid in my ears. This is what you get, Hope.
This is what you get for not thinking.

“First of all, dad, I haven’t been fucking around

with countless women—”

“Oh, right!”
“And second of all—”
I don’t even wait to hear the rest of it.

Forgetting my dress, I race through the front door
and outside as tears begin to stream from my eyes.

I should have known better! What are the

chances that the guy who offered me fifty-thousand
dollars for a fake marriage actually cares about me?

I race over to his truck and grab my purse. At

least the money’s still there. I start to head down
the driveway, but realize just how far from home I
am. I turn back. There’s three cars in the driveway;
he can get back to town in one of them!

Jumping into the driver’s seat, I turn the truck

on, slam it into drive, and floor it. The tires squeal
and the truck lurches forward. I almost hit the
Mercedes but turn hard and end up cutting across
the lawn to avoid it. And then I’m speeding away,
leaving the stupidest decision of my life in the rear-
view mirror.

* * *

I leave Tanner’s truck in a public parking lot in the
center of town and walk the rest of the way home;
he’ll be able to find it there. I try to not look too
much like a girl whose fake marriage just collapsed
and left her feeling like she just got dumped from a
real marriage, but by the time I get home, I think
I’ve cried every tear out of my body.

My mom’s sitting in the living room when I get

home.

“Hey, sweetie. Shouldn’t you be at work?”
I ignore her, head straight up stairs and slam my

door shut. After a few seconds, I hear her come up
the stairs.

“Are you all right, Hope?” she asks.
“Fine,” I lie.
“You didn’t get fired, did you?”
“No.” No, something much worse than that.

“I’m fine, mom.”

There’s a pause.
“Can I come in?” she asks. Normally, I

wouldn’t want to talk to her about this; what could
she possibly know about relationships that could
help me? I also don’t know how I’ll be able to
explain this all to her. But honestly, I really need
someone to talk to right now.

“Fine,” I say again. The door opens and mom

comes in and sits down on the bed next to me. She

doesn’t say anything right away; she just puts an
arm around me, which of course just makes me cry
even harder.

“Tell me what happened,” she says gently. “No

matter what it is; I’ll support you. You know that.”

Wiping my eyes, I look up at her and wonder

just how I’m going to explain everything. But I
can’t just keep this to myself, that’s for sure. So I
take a deep breath and start from the beginning.

Mom just listens while I tell her the story,

leaving out a few of the more explicit details, and
when I’m done, she doesn’t look at me like I’m the
world’s biggest idiot, but like she somehow
understands what I’m going through.

“Don’t blame yourself,” she says finally. “It

happens to the best of us. It happened to me.”

“Dad offered you money to pretend to marry

him?” I laugh through my tears.

“No, but I fell for him right away. I was young

like you and thought I’d found the man of my
dreams,” she says sadly. “As it turned out, as hard
as this may be for you to hear, your father just
didn’t love me. He left me and it broke me for a
long time.”

This is the most my mother has ever gone into

detail about what happened between her and my
father.

“But Hope, what I don’t want is for this to do

the same thing to you as it did to me,” she says,

taking my hand. “Don’t let this one jerk make you
think that there aren’t great guys out there, because
there are, and you’re a great girl and you are going
to find a man who is going to make you happy.”

“Yeah, sure…” I mutter.
“You will!” she says firmly, pulling my face to

hers. “You will, Hope. Because you are worth it.
Don’t close your heart to the world.”

My mom wraps her arms around me, and rather

than acting like I know better than her, for once I
just let her comfort me and do the mom thing. After
a while, she takes me downstairs and makes me
chicken noodle soup.

“Heartbreak can be a sickness too,” she tells

me with a smile as I eat. After, she goes out and
picks me up one of my favorite cupcakes from the
grocery store, and without an ounce of guilt, I eat
the whole thing.

I tell her I’m feeling better and go upstairs to go

to sleep, but four hours later I’m staring at my
ceiling wide-awake; all I can think about is Tanner.

Tanner

I pull up in front of Hope’s house at two in the
morning. It took me all day to find out where she
lived, and eventually got her number by bribing the
shit out of one of the guys stocking shelves at the
grocery store. Cost me five hundred bucks.

I want to rush inside and tell her everything; I

can’t imagine what she’s going through right now. I
should have seen this coming and made sure
something like this didn’t happen, but it’s too late
now. I may fix cars for a living, but fixing this is
going to be a Hell of a lot harder. But I’m not going
to stop, even if that means sitting out here until the
morning.

What makes it even harder is the fact that

Hope’s scent is still in the cab of the truck. I have
to smile at the fact that she went ahead and stole it,
but I feel terrible knowing how she must have felt
when she left the house.

She must have overheard my conversation with

my dad. It was stupid of me not to keep my voice
down, but when we get into it, we really get into it.

I’m stretching out my feet across the seat as I

prepare for a long night when I see a flicker of light

from Hope’s house. The front door opens and I see
her unmistakable silhouette.

Does she know I’m here? She couldn’t possibly.

My truck is off and so are the lights. No, she’s just
coming out to get some air. I wait until she’s almost
to the sidewalk before I get out. I don’t want to
spook her and have her race back inside.

“Hope,” I say, just loud enough so she can hear

me but not to startle her. She looks up and goes
stiff. “Don’t run! Please, just hear me out.”

“How do you know where I live?” she asks. It’s

a fair question.

“A guy at the grocery store,” I say quickly.

“You can yell at me later but please let me
explain.”

“No!” she hisses. She spins around and runs for

the house, but I’m bigger and faster than she is and
catch her just before she goes up the steps. I take
her by the wrist and spin her around to face me,
and quickly cover her mouth with one hand to stifle
her scream.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I tell her. “And I’m

so sorry for what you heard—”

Hope bites me hard, but I don’t move my hand.

If I let her go now, I might not ever get her back.

“I lied to you,” I admit. “I told you I just

wanted to show you to my mom, but there was
more to it; my dad told me that if I didn’t settle
down by Monday, he’d cut me out of the company

and his will. I’d get nothing.”

Her eyes are still red; I can see she’s been

crying and that breaks my heart. She’s also furious
with me and that hurts even more.

“I didn’t want to tell you that at first because I

didn’t want you to think I was just some greedy
asshole. I figured we would just keep things like a
business arrangement and then I’d take you home.
But then…then I fell for you…”

Hope tries to knee me in the balls, which forces

me to take a step back and release her. She lunges
through the front door and slams it shut behind me.

“Hope!” I cry out. “Hope, please believe me!

I’m so sorry I lied to you!”

“Fuck you!” she shouts back through the door.

“You just want me so you can get your money!”

“That’s not true! Hope, I will take you down to

the courthouse in the morning and divorce you if it
means I get to keep you!”

“What!?” she laughs angrily. “What kind of

sense does that make!?”

“If I divorce you now, Hope, my dad will give

me nothing. I’ll be cut out of the business. But I
don’t care, because I’ll have you.”

There’s a long pause. I lean my head against the

door, wondering what else I can possibly say to
make her understand how I truly feel. My heart
thuds in my chest and I realize I have my fists
balled up at my sides. What I thought could be a

simple arrangement ended up being something
entirely different.

Finally, the door opens. I step back and look up

to see Hope’s beautiful face looking at me, most of
the anger gone from her eyes.

“Do you mean that, Tanner?” she asks. “Or are

you gonna just take it back once I forgive you and
try to get me to stay married to you?”

“I promise you, Hope,” I smile. “It has to be the

strangest way any man has ever tried to tell a
woman he loves her, but I will divorce you today.
Just say the word.”

Hope’s face shifts; her eyes widen and her lips

part. And then I realize what I just said.

“You—love me?” she whispers.
I didn’t even mean to say it; the words just sort

of came out. But then the full gravity of my feelings
hit me and a smile blooms on my face. I reach out
and pull Hope to me and she doesn’t fight me. In
fact, she leans into it.

“I love you, Hope,” I tell her. “I know it’s

crazy. I know it’s like something out of a fairy-tale,
but I’ve never been more certain about anything in
my life. You woke up a side of me that I thought I’d
buried, and I know that if any girl can fix me up, it
will be you.”

Fresh tears well up in Hope’s eyes. I lean in for

a kiss, but she drifts back, pulling her lips just out of
reach of mine.

“You believe me, don’t you?” I ask. She nods

slowly.

“I—I do…”
“Then say it, baby. Tell me you love me back.

Tell me.”

She looks at me—my wife looks at me, her

body trembling in my arms. I feel like I’m standing
on the edge of a razor, my life hanging on the next
words out of her mouth.

“Please, baby….tell me you love me.”

Epilogue

Hope

Eight months later…

“God, I fucking love you,” I moan as Tanner’s
tongue flattens on my clit, causing a shiver to run
through my body. He mutters something back,
which I’m sure is him telling me he loves me too,
but his voice is muffled between my legs.

My climax hits me like a slap to the face and I

arch my back off the bed and moan as the fifth
orgasm he’s given me today makes me almost pass
out. He holds his tongue there, and I know he’s
watching me come like he loves to do, and as I
slump back down he crawls on top of me and kisses
me.

I can taste my wetness on his lips, which just

excites me even more. His tongue slides into my
mouth and I suck it softly as I wrap my arms
around his thick back. He moves to my side and
semi-spoons with me. Now that I’m pregnant it’s
our new favorite position, as missionary has
become a bit harder to pull off.

The last eight months have been a blur of bliss.

I took my mom’s advice and didn’t close my heart
to Tanner; I accepted his explanation and he was all
ready to go down to the courthouse to get a divorce
to prove his love to me, but I put a stop to that.

“No. I trust you,” I remember telling him. I

could see in his eyes that it meant the world to him.

The rest of our relationship we sort of did

backwards; we spent the next few months getting
to really know each other. In fact, we did all those
things we said we did when we were making up our
fake story to tell his mom!

We watch Netflix (of course), we go candlepin

bowling, and in a way, Tanner does help me with
my drawing. He converted one of the bedrooms
upstairs into an art studio for me and went
completely overboard stocking me up with supplies.
I have everything an aspiring artist could ever need.

Oh, and we fuck a lot.
In fact, I can’t remember a single day since we

got together that he hasn’t woken me up with a
hard dick and at least one orgasm. Some days I go
down to the shop with him and draw in the office
while he works on a car. He even showed me how
to do some detailing work which I actually enjoy
doing. It’s fun to see a car come in looking like it’s
been sitting for ten years and then send it back out
looking brand new.

A few weeks after the day we met—which we

like to call “the fifty-grand day,” I was pregnant. I
like to say that Tanner has “super sperm” as it
didn’t even take a month for him to knock me up.
I’m due in a month and for now, art school is going
to have to wait. Tanner doesn’t even think I should
go.

“You’re amazing!” he told me. “I don’t see

what they could possibly teach you that you don’t
already know.”

I’m still debating whether or not to take some

classes, and I probably will, but I’m just so excited
to be a mom. We don’t know whether it’s going to
be a boy or a girl, and the suspense is killing me.

Sue and I get along famously; we’re practically

like sisters or some odd kind of friend-mom
relationship that just works, and it turns out that
when Tanner’s dad isn’t worried about his son
throwing away his future, he’s a really great guy
too.

All the time Tanner was single, he thought he

was being some kind of man-whore or playboy or
something. Once he saw that our love was real and
our marriage wasn’t a sham (or wasn’t a sham any
longer), he warmed up to me. As it turns out, he’s
had artistic aspirations of his own and I’ve told him
I’d be more than happy to teach him to draw, but
he hasn’t taken me up on it yet.

Oh, and we also had a real wedding too. We

held it out back on this enormous field by a

beautiful lake. Tanner had everything brought in
and spared no expense, and I felt like Cinderella
when I walked down the isle. Honestly, some days I
wake up and look at my life and wonder if I’m
dreaming.

“Come here, stud,” I whisper, lifting my leg and

twisting onto my side. Tanner growls and gently
bites my neck as he enters me. My body floods
with heat and I gasp.

“How are you so good?”
“I could ask you the same question,” he

whispers as he starts moving inside me. His hands
caress my pregnant body and I twist my head back
to find his lips.

“Can you believe we made it?” I ask him.
“Of course I can,” he says. “Do you think there

was ever any chance I’d let you get away from
me?”

I melt.
“How is it you always know the perfect thing to

say?” I ask him. “It’s like somebody’s writing your
dialogue for you!”

“What are you saying?” he chuckles. “That this

is a movie?”

“Well, we could certainly make a movie out of

it,” I tease back. “But no, I was thinking more of a
romance novel.”