Flanked (14 page)

“Exactly.” She nodded.

Garret shook his head. “You’re a nut.”

“A nut with excellent coverage and a low co-pay.”

He laughed. There really was nothing else to do except laugh at this insane situation he’d found himself in.

“I want to talk to Aaron first. I’m not doing this without his blessing.”

“Okay, fine. You wanna ask my father for my hand in temporary marriage too?” She cocked a brow at him.

Her parents
. Crap. This got more complicated by the moment. “I hadn’t even thought of your parents.”

“Maybe we just shouldn’t tell anybody.”

“Oh yeah,
that
won’t look suspicious at all. You marry and add to your policy a virtual stranger who happens to need shoulder surgery and don’t tell your parents.”

“All right, then we will tell them.” She shrugged.

“I don’t think this is going to be as simple as you’re making it sound.” In the eyes of everyone they knew, they were two people who’d met a few days ago, shared a few drinks and a few meals, but had never even been alone together until tonight. And who would believe Silver and he had fallen madly in love with each other, enough to get run off and get married, in a few hours?

“I think you worry too much.” Silver leaned in and took Garret’s earlobe between her teeth. A shiver ran through him.

“Are we really going to continue having sex after we’re married?” That was certainly one thing worth worrying about.

He shouldn’t even be considering this insanity. He should turn tail and run for the hills. Yet just thinking about having Silver as his legal wife gave him a hard-on. What the fuck was that about? Must be sex hormones. She’d put him in a sex haze, and by all evidence, was trying to keep him there.

“Oh yeah.” The tip of her tongue tickled the whorls of his ear.

Garret hissed in a breath and pressed his waking erection against her naked hip. “And what about after the divorce?”

“Sure. I don’t see why not.” She lifted off him enough to look into his eyes. “Unless of course you’re too busy with those buckle bunnies.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that.” There’s no way he would trade what he had with Silver, even if it didn’t amount to much more than sex, for one night with a stranger he’d picked up at the arena. Decision made, he pointed toward the tangle of denim in a heap next to the bed. “Can you reach my pants?”

“Probably.” She eyed his jeans on the floor but didn’t move.

“Could you grab my phone out of the pocket?”

“Why?”

“I’m going to call Aaron and tell him to get back here before he gets any drunker.”

“Why?” Her tone of voice totally changed as she frowned so much he had to smile.

“Because we need to talk to him about this. The sooner the better. If we get his permission right away, we can both sleep on this tonight and make a final decision in the morning.”

“And then?”

“Then, if we all agree after we’ve had time to think about it—you, me and Aaron—you and I will get married.” He couldn’t believe he didn’t choke on the M word. Maybe because it just didn’t feel real.

“Don’t call Aaron quite yet.”

“Why not?” Garret heard the low sultry change in her voice. Coupled with the look in her eyes, he had a good idea of what she had in mind.

“I bought a whole box of condoms yesterday. I’m not nearly done with you for tonight.” A wide smile spread across her face.

“So that’s it.” He laughed. “You only want me for sex. Tell me the truth.”

“Yup. And you only want me for my insurance. Win-win for both of us.” She nodded, sending her hair swinging. A few strands fell across her eyes. He reached out and tucked them behind her ear.

Garret noticed how Silver’s nose wrinkled adorably as she smiled. How her eyes were a deeper shade in this light and her hips fit perfectly in his hands as he held them. How just the sound of her voice could make him happy. When he looked at her, thought about her, health insurance was the dead last thing on his mind.

He nodded. “Yup. Insurance in exchange for sex. Win-win.”

A chime sounded from somewhere on the floor.

“That’s my phone.” Silver leaned down and managed to grab her pants without taking a header off the bed. She straddled him while she fished her phone out of the pocket and flipped it open, but Garret was far more interested in tracing her dogwood blossom tattoo than whatever was in the text, until she laughed. “I think Aaron’s hoping to get lucky.”

“Why do you say that?” Finger still trailing along the outline of a blossom very near to the part of Silver he’d gotten to know pretty well lately, Garret glanced up.

“He’s asking how I’m doing and if I’m okay here alone in the hotel room for a little while longer.”

Little did Aaron know he should really be asking if Silver was okay over here in the room next door to where she was supposed to be. Her brother certainly wasn’t going to assume she was currently naked from the waist down and straddling Garret’s very happy, newly hard cock. “What are you going to tell him?”

“That I’m fine and he should take his time. As long as he wants.” She raised her gaze from the phone to Garret’s face. “I know you want to discuss this tonight, but trust me, he’ll be in a much more receptive mood tomorrow morning after a night of wild rodeo-groupie sex.”

“You’re probably right.” He let out a sigh. He definitely wanted Aaron in a good mood when they sprung this crazy plan on him.

“It really is going to work out fine, Garret.”

“All right.” He nodded. When Silver looked at him like that, he believed her. “We’ll talk to him in the morning.”

“And we have more time alone together tonight.” She looked positively evil as her fingers flew over the keyboard, probably telling Aaron to take all night if he wanted. That she’d see him in the morning. All night wouldn’t be too bad, actually.

He couldn’t deny, pain in his shoulder or not, he would gladly take every minute Silver was willing to give him, and that wasn’t just because she was sitting on him half-naked. Though that did help.

Chapter Eleven

The knock on her hotel room door was so soft she barely heard it over the sound of Aaron’s shower. Still in the sweatpants she’d slept in, Silver swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. She felt deliciously sore from last night with Garret—the last three nights really. She didn’t mind the stiffness in her muscles at all. Instead, it made her smile as she padded in her socks to the door. She opened it to find Garret and her smile grew broader.

“Sorry. I know it’s so early.” He cringed. “I wanted to get this over with while Skeeter was still asleep. It would be too hard to try and explain to him why you, me and Aaron had to talk in private and he couldn’t hear.”

“Good thinking.” She probably should have thought of that herself. Silver hooked a thumb in the direction of the bathroom. “Aaron’s just in the shower.”

Garret nodded. “I heard the water start from inside my room. That’s how I knew you guys were awake.”

Chances were he’d been lying in bed unable to sleep for a good part of the night, just the way she had been. Silver had told Garret everything was going to be simple. It had felt that way alone in his room, still riding the wave of hormones from her orgasm. But now, actually faced with telling Aaron, followed shortly by telling his friends, then hers, she wasn’t so sure.

The sound of the water stopped. They both turned toward the bathroom door. She drew in a deep breath. Any moment now that door would open and her overprotective and very opinionated brother would step out.

She glanced at Garret. “You sure you don’t just want to elope and not tell him anything?”

“Aaron’s a good friend to me, Silver.”

“I know.” She let out a sigh.

“Garret. Hey.” Aaron stepped out of the bathroom wearing his jeans but shirtless and barefoot. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table. “Sorry, are we late for breakfast or something? I had a few last night so my memory might not be so good, but I didn’t think we set a time.”

Silver was sure he’d had a few drinks, but she also was pretty sure he’d had at least one buckle bunny to go along with them. At least that was her guess judging by how late he’d gotten in.

“No. You’re not late.” Garret shook his head. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh? Okay.” Aaron grabbed a T-shirt out of the drawer and pulled it over his head.

“We both wanted to ask your opinion about something.” Silver stepped forward and chose her words carefully.

Apparently not carefully enough. Aaron frowned at her. He knew her too well. “Why? What’s going on?” His gaze cut to Garret. “And how does it involve the both of you?”

Crap. This was not a promising beginning. “So you know how I feel about the health insurance situation in this country…”

“Yes.” Aaron crossed his arms and said the word painfully slow. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Well, I decided I can’t change the country, but I can get Garret the surgery he needs.” She noticed she was twisting her hands together and forced herself to stop.

She was a legal adult. Aaron was her brother and she loved him, but he wasn’t the boss of her. What was the worst he could do? Tell their parents? They’d probably rejoice over the fact she’d found a man to marry her. They’d be thrilled. But when it came time for the divorce—yeah, not so thrilled then. Silver stood a little straighter and forged on. “I decided the best way—the cheapest way really—to do that would be for he and I to get married so he’s covered under my teacher’s insurance.”

“Silver.” Garret’s eyes popped open wide. “Aaron, that’s not exactly how it happened. We didn’t decide anything yet. All we agreed to last night was that we’d discuss it. All three of us.”

“Same thing.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“No, it’s not. I’m not going to even consider this without hearing Aaron out on it.” Garret’s tone had an authority in it she’d never heard before.

She might like the alpha male act in certain situations, but she didn’t like it now. She had one brother who liked to tell her what to do. She didn’t need the guy she was having sex with, and about to temporarily marry, doing it too. Jeez.

Glancing up, Silver found Aaron watching her and Garret bicker.

He let out a breath. “I never thought I’d ever say this, and it probably means I’m crazy, but I think I might agree with Silver on this.”

“What?” She frowned at her brother.

Garret had spun to stare at Aaron at the same time she did.

Aaron nodded. “I agree with Silver that bull riders, or anyone else in a dangerous profession, shouldn’t be denied affordable insurance coverage just because of what they do for a living.”

“And what about the other part?” she asked, too surprised to absorb much.

He shrugged. “I don’t like the idea, but you’re right. It’s quick and it’s cheap and I don’t see an alternative at this point. He needs to get the operation right after the finals so he can recuperate over the long break and hopefully only miss the beginning of next season. Otherwise, he’ll fall way behind in the standings and be kicked off the tour. He’d have to go back down to the touring pro division and hope to work his way back up.”

She didn’t know what half of that meant, but it must be important to their careers if Aaron was agreeing to this plan just to insure Garret could get his surgery soon.

“So…you’d really be okay that Silver and I got married?” Garret sounded as shocked as Silver felt over Aaron’s words.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to be, I guess. This is a marriage just on paper anyway. It’s not like you two will be having sex or anything.” Aaron laughed and shook his head.

Silver joined in her brother’s laughter. “No, that would be ridiculous. I mean I hardly know Garret.”

She shot him a sideways glance and saw Garret had raised one dark eyebrow, but he stayed quiet. Thank God for small favors.

“This does bring us to another issue though. What do we tell the other guys?” Aaron leaned on the edge of the room’s desk and crossed his arms.

Garret laughed and shook his head. “I’m not real sure about that.”

Aaron let out a long, slow breath. “I mean, do we let them in on the real reason and trust them not to tell anyone else?”

“We’d have to really trust them not to let a word leak out about the insurance thing.” Garret pointed out.

“Hell, yeah.” Aaron nodded. “But you sure as hell can’t get married without any explanation after only knowing each other a few days. That’ll really look suspicious.”

She narrowed her eyes at her brother. “People do it all the time in Vegas.”

“Because they’re drunk. We already discussed this last night.” Garret crossed his arms and winced. He was hurting, she could tell. It made her doubly determined to get him this operation.

“Then we’ll get drunk.” She crossed her arms too. She could be as stubborn as he could.

“No. The press would have a field day with that. Garret has fans and sponsors to worry about.” Aaron blew out a breath. “All right. How about this? We tell our inner circle the total truth. We’re going to have to since Skeeter and Chase know for a fact you two just met. But for anyone else we say that you guys met a few times in the past, maybe at a competition, or at my place when Garret was visiting. Then on this trip you two really hit it off. Enough to get married with no notice.” He shook his head. “It still sounds like a crap story.”

“Tell them I’m pregnant or something.” Silver shrugged.

“No!” Both Aaron and Garret were in sync with their answer as they stared at her.

She sighed. “All right. Fine. Not pregnant. Then back to my original idea. We get really drunk and get married. That better than pretending I’m knocked up?”

“At least it’s believable, and it would sure do less to hurt your reputation.” Aaron scowled.

She shook her head. He could be absolutely Victorian in his thinking about sex. Only when it came to her, of course. Apparently the same rules didn’t apply to him. Silver was dying to remind him that last night’s groupie could very well be someone’s sister too, but she decided to hold her tongue on that. She needed Aaron on her side right now.