Temporary Marriage (Complete MATCHMAKER BOOK 3)

Chapter 9

“ NATHALIE POV ” 

A strong arm tugged me against a warm, muscular chest as a husky voice rasped in my ear,

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Gah!”  I squeaked when his deep voice startled me.

“You scared me to death. I thought you were still sleeping.”

I’d been trying to quietly slip out of the bed, but I’d only been able to toss one leg over the edge of the mattress before he yanked me back.

Luckily, the sheet had still been covering my body, and his hold on me was keeping it in place over my breasts.

“Was that why you were trying to sneak out on me? Because you thought I wouldn’t notice?”

“I wasn’t trying to sneak out on you.”

Okay, maybe I was.

Just a little bit, because I figured the morning-after scene would be super awkward after all the things I’d let him do to my body last night.

But I wasn’t going to admit to it.

Nope. No way.

Plus, I was a little freaked out by how happy I’d felt with him when I knew darn well that this wasn’t going to last forever.

Luckily, I had the perfect cover story in place, and I was going to stick to it.

“I’m supposed to be at my dad’s campaign office today, so I was just getting up to go into work.”

He nuzzled into my neck and murmured against my skin,

“Nope.”

“Nope?”  I twisted around to look at him.

“Nope what?”

“My wife isn’t going to work the morning after we got married.”

He brushed his mouth across mine and nibbled at my bottom lip.

“Especially not after you gave me your sweet little cherry last night. I need to make sure you’re not sore, since I wasn’t able to control myself. With how hard I took you, I should’ve stopped after the first time, but fuck—”

His hazel eyes filled with heat, and I knew he was remembering each time he’d woken me in the night.

I felt my cheeks heat as I tried to look over his shoulder because it was too hard to meet his gaze with all those memories swirling in my brain.

But he didn’t let me get away with it.

His fingers were firm but gentle as he took hold of my chin and forced me to look him in the eye.

“I fucking love that blush of yours”

—he trailed his fingers along the edge of the sheet at the tops of my breasts—

“Especially now that I know exactly how far down it goes. But as pretty as it is, it’d better not be there because you’re feeling embarrassed by anything that happened between us. We’re married, with mind-blowing chemistry between us. Nobody’s going to judge us for that. If anything, they’re going to be insanely jealous because they wish they had it this good.”

Whoa.

That was a lot to wrap my head around.

We were married, and the number of times we’d had amazing sex last night more than proved the strength of our attraction.

He’d been incredibly possessive, making me agree over and over that I was his.

Still, guys said that kind of thing in the heat of the moment, even if I desperately wished he meant it.

But the part about other couples being jealous because of how good things were between us?

Yeah—they might actually think we were insane, since we’d only met for the first time less than twenty-four hours ago.

“Okay. Well. Um, I guess I can try to work on the whole blushing thing, but I’m not sure how much good it’ll do, since I’ve kind of been cursed with this pale skin ever since I was a little girl.”

“What you call a curse, I call a blessing.”

He tugged at the sheet until it barely hung off my pebbled nipples.

“The way your skin tinges pink when you’re close to coming makes you even hotter, which should be impossible, considering you’re already sexy as fuck.”

“Um. Thanks. You know how I was getting out of bed when you woke up? It’s because I really do need to go into the office today,”

I blurted out in my desperate need to get away and pull myself together before I did something nuts,

Like fall in love with my new husband who I didn’t really know.

“Like I said before. It’s not gonna happen. You’re going to stay home and let me spoil you.”

“But—”

He cut me off with a hard press of his lips against mine before he pulled me closer.

“I refuse to take no for an answer. Not when your father isn’t even in the office for a few more days.”

I jerked back and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“How do you know when my dad’s going to be back in town?”

The grin he flashed me while he shrugged his wide shoulders was cocky.

It should’ve been incredibly irritating, except it was also too darn sexy.

“Gathering intel is vital to my business.”

“This isn’t business,”

I argued, and then I thought better of it.

“Well, okay. Maybe it was business at the start of all of this, so I guess I can understand why you’d be familiar with my dad’s calendar. But now it’s—personal, right? So you won’t need to do stuff like that anymore? I mean, I know we still have the contract, and we’ve only really just tossed out that one clause about being married in name only, but my dad would not be cool with the idea of you keeping tabs on him. He’s the reason for all the privacy requirements in the contract, and—”

He interrupted me with another kiss.

This one was deeper and longer than the last. I sank into his body and wrapped my arms around his neck.

When he finally lifted his head and rubbed his nose against mine, I barely remembered what we’d been talking about in the first place.

Garrett didn’t seem to have the same problem, though.

“This is as personal as it gets, beautiful.”

“My dad—”

He brushed his thumb across my lips to quiet me.

“You don’t need to worry about your father anymore. He’s my problem now. That’s why you married me, after all.”