And this was how I repaid them? With a secret marriage? A secret annulment?
This was wrong.
Eloise had begged, but I shouldn’t have agreed. A secret would only make it worse.
I spun around and sprinted for the A-frame. When I reached the porch, I went straight to the shower to rinse off my run. Then I swiped my keys from the kitchen counter and drove into town, parking in an empty space on Main.
There wasn’t a lot to Quincy, Montana. I supposed for most, that was its appeal. I hadn’t decided if I liked the simplicity of this small town, or if it was the reason I felt this constant restlessness.
Downtown had become a regular hangout spot. I’d spent numerous afternoons walking up and down the blocks, peering through storefronts and office windows. There wasn’t a restaurant I hadn’t eaten in at least twice.
And in the center of it all, the tallest building in sight, stood The Eloise Inn.
I marched toward the hotel, about to open the lobby doors, when a beautiful face appeared in the glass.
“Oh.” Eloise’s eyes widened as she stepped outside. “Sorry. Uh, sir.”
“Sir?” What the fuck?
Eloise gulped. Then before I could inform her we needed to revisit this secret idea, she ducked past me and rushed away.
She practically flew down the sidewalk, reaching the corner and looking both ways before she crossed the street.
“What the fuck?”
Was she really going to pretend like I was some nameless stranger? That I hadn’t been inside her days ago?
“Hell no.” I stormed away from the hotel, following her across the street.
She walked with her head down, chin tucked and her hands pulling on the hems of her sweater, using it to cover her fingers and keep them warm.
I’d forgotten a jacket. This long-sleeved tee was too thin for the cold, but my blood was an inferno, raging hotter with every step.
Eloise headed away from Main, down a street into a residential neighborhood. We reached the end of a block, and she kept on moving.
So did I.
She was supposed to erase the bad. She was supposed to be a beautiful picture over an ugly drawing. This? Not helping.
I didn’t need two miserable experiences when it came to my ex-wives.
By the start of the second block, my long strides had closed the gap between us. I trailed her by three feet.
She heard me behind her and glanced over her shoulder, those blue eyes narrowing. But she didn’t stop walking.
So neither did I.
“Jasper,” she hissed, shooting me a glare. “People are going to see us.”
“Who?” I held out my hands, looking around the deserted street. Not a soul was out in their yard. It was too fucking cold. And no one had driven by either.
She frowned, faced forward and kept on walking.
“You could at least not run away when you see me.” Or call me sir.
“We just agreed to keep this a secret.”
“So that means I’m a fucking stranger to you now?”
She huffed, her breath a billowing cloud as she turned off the main sidewalk for a walkway. She’d changed directions so fast that I’d blown past her and had to turn around to follow her to a small, single-level house with denim-blue siding and a white door.
Eloise stopped on the stoop, bending to lift up the corner of her welcome mat and pull out a key.
“Not a great place to hide your house key,” I said.
“Who’s hiding it?” She slid it into the lock. “That’s just where I leave it.”
I blinked. “You leave your house key outside your house for anyone to find? You’re joking.”
She didn’t answer. She shoved inside the house, dropping her phone on a small table in the entryway before walking to the adjoining living room.
I closed the door behind us and followed.
She whirled, her hands flailing in the air. “Why did you follow me here?”
I was about to tell her I’d changed my mind. That I couldn’t keep this from Foster. But I didn’t get the chance.
“You can’t just follow me.” She waved a hand between us. “If people see us, they’ll know. If my parents find out, I’ll lose everything. They’ll think I’m not responsible. They’ll think I haven’t changed. They’ll think I can’t be trusted with The Eloise. Then that’s it. Poof. They already didn’t want to give it to me. They already tried to give it to Knox and probably would have except he said he didn’t want it because yeah, maybe I wasn’t ready for it then and maybe they were right about me being too close with the employees but it’s been a good year and seriously, this will ruin everything.”
She gulped down some air. Then she started pacing.
The talking? Didn’t stop. Apparently my wife didn’t need to be drunk to ramble.
It was like being in Vegas all over again. I watched her, transfixed, and unable to look anywhere else.
Another man might have glanced around her house. Made sure a serial killer hadn’t used her not-so-hidden key to break in while she’d been at work.
But I just stared.
“Why did we get married?” Her hands dove into her glossy hair. “We could have just had sex. I definitely would have had sex. A lot of sex. Because it was good sex. I mean, we could have kept having sex. But this? My family is going to—”
“Eloise.” I closed the distance between us, my eyes searching hers.
Her shoulders slumped. “I have to show them I’m responsible.”
Oh, how I hated that word out of her mouth. She was too free, too pure of heart, to be trapped by the expectations of others.
“Fuck responsibility.”
“Jasper.” She frowned. “Not helping.”
I didn’t like the frown. So I sealed my lips over hers and kissed it away.
She whimpered, her body stiffening.
No, that wasn’t right. The best part about Saturday was the way she’d melted for me. So I backed off enough to whisper against her mouth. “Relax.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
It took her a moment, but her eyes drifted closed. The tension crept from her frame. When I licked the seam of her lips, she moaned. And this time when I kissed her, she sank into it, letting me slide inside.
Damn, but she tasted good. Better than Saturday. How was that possible?
Would sex be better too?
There was only one way to find out.
CHAPTER FIVE
ELOISE
Jasper’s tongue slid against mine in a lazy swirl before he pulled away, planting a kiss on the corner of my mouth. Soft. Sweet. Then he whipped the sweater from my body fast enough to make me gasp.
He swallowed it with a plundering kiss, then devoured my mouth. His palms flattened on my skin, pressing and pushing, his movements rough and feverish.
One moment he was slow. The next, frenzied.
Jasper made my head spin. Just like he had on Saturday. He set the pace, and there was no option but to keep up. There was no predicting his next move. There was no chance for my mind to wander or to think of anything other than Jasper.