Nara tried not to let that statement hurt her self-esteem. “It’s your job to marry me? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”
“Can we talk about this later?” He shifted his feet and she could tell he was getting anxious to join her father.
Nara huffed. Her resolve to begin healthier drinking habits crumbled. She needed a Diet Coke, like, pronto. “All right, fine. I know I have to do this thing. Might as well get it over with. But just so you know, this is a marriage on paper only. I’ll be sleeping in the guest bedroom. You can keep your manly urges to yourself.”
Did the emperor smile at that statement? She couldn’t quite tell, because she had already turned to follow her father, but she thought she saw a slight upturn of his lips through the corner of her eye. Huh. She must be mistaken, because she could count the times on one hand when she’d seen him actually smile.
“Do you know if there’s any Diet Coke in the car?”
“I brought one for you.”
Stunned, she stopped short and turned. Derek ran smack into her. He grabbed her around the waist as she flailed, trying not to fall again. “Whoa. Sorry. I didn’t think you’d stop like that.”
An odd sensation skittered over her skin as she stood there, Derek holding her. Had she ever been this close to him? She wasn’t sure. She clung to him, and it was like clinging to a bull. He was all muscle. And he must have had on some expensive cologne, because he smelled like an ocean breeze had taken a bath in musk.
She gasped and broke free from him, stumbling back. “Sorry. I was just surprised. I’m having a Diet Coke emergency.”
He didn’t respond, and she continued on to the limo. The driver opened the door for her and she climbed in, sitting opposite from her father. When Derek slid in beside her, she didn’t complain. He was giving her Diet Coke, after all.
He reached under the seat and produced her life-saving nectar. “Here you go.”
She took the 12 oz. bottle of heaven from him. It was ice cold. She opened the lid and tipped it to her lips. It was the best thing she’d tasted in the last two days. Guess she could cross off that New Year’s resolution.
She drank half the bottle, then wrapped her hands around it. The cold felt good on the palms of her hands. They kind of stung from her pancake incident.
As they drove, Derek leaned over and whispered. “You have dirt on your chin.”
Oh, that was just great. As if she wasn’t already a super slob today. She licked her finger and rubbed her chin. Not that she would do that normally, but she thought it would annoy her father and possibly gross out the Emperor, a double win. “Did I get it?”
“No.”
She repeated the licking and the rubbing. “There?”
Derek pressed his lips together. Ha, she had successfully upset him. He shook his head. “Try again.”
“Third time’s a charm.” But after another cat-like bath, he still shook his head.
“Let me,” he said. He reached out, his thumb grazing her chin.
An electrical current shot through her where his skin came in contact with her. It felt like someone took physical attraction and hooked it up to a power line. Her skin tingled all over and she jumped back. What in the world? She stared at Derek. What had just happened?
“Okay, I got it,” he said, ignoring her shocked reaction.
She nodded and sat back in the seat, her heart pounding. That was odd. When had she ever reacted to Derek like that? She tried to think of a time when he’d actually touched her in the past, but her mind came up blank. She’d known him as a kid, they even played hide and seek together in her father’s office building late at night. Surely she had grabbed his hand or something in the past. How odd she would start reacting to him now, of all times.
Thirty minutes later they pulled up in front of a church-like building, the words Accelerated Marriage Chapel lit up on a neon sign. Of course, it wasn’t an actual church. No one went there to worship. They only went there to be saved from deportation, or to make a rash decision they would regret for the rest of their lives.
Nara left her art supplies in the limo and climbed out. She clapped her hands, then regretted it as her palms stung. She winced. “Let’s do this thing.”
Derek studied her. “Are you all right?”
What, now he was concerned about if she wanted to get married or not? Sheesh, what a time to pick to turn on his ‘give a crap’ meter. “I’m fine,” she said, craning her neck to see her father just inside the door talking to someone.
“You don’t have to go through with this if you don’t want to.”
She squinted at him. “Why do you suddenly care?”
He frowned. “I know you think me heartless, but I do care about what you want.”
“Well, I just want to get this done and over with so I can have what my grandmother left for me.”
“Your grandmother left you an inheritance?”
She shifted her weight. It wasn’t really an inheritance. It was the one object from her grandmother’s estate that she wanted. The only thing that had any value to her. She tried to think of a better way to say it, but when none came, she just nodded. “Yeah. And pops said he’d give it to me if I did this thing. So, let’s get to it.”
“Are you sure?”
She huffed. “Shut up before I change my mind. We’re getting married and that’s final.”
Man, this day was getting stranger and stranger. When had she ever thought those words would come out of her mouth?
Chapter 2
Derek ducked inside the chapel, following after Nara. It was the kind of unique building he might photograph under different circumstances. But not today. He didn’t want photographic evidence of what was happening today.
Guilt rose in his throat, and he coughed into his fist. This was all his fault. Him, and his stupid rambling that one late night at the office, five years ago. But he couldn’t back out of it now because Mr. Claymore was so set on everything. He was determined to see the two of them married. And once Mr. Claymore got something in his mind, not the devil himself would be successful at making him change it.
Nara fidgeted, smoothing down her t-shirt. She stared at her flip flops, looking uncomfortable.
He stepped toward the woman behind the front desk. “Do you have a wedding dress we can rent?”
Nara’s head snapped up. “I don’t need a dress.”
“Yes, she’s fine how she is,” Mr. Claymore said.
The guilt inside Derek grew. Today Nara was going to get married. Didn’t girls dream of their weddings, planning and primping, thinking of their dresses and flowers and stuff? She wouldn’t want to get married in her travel clothes, would she?
The woman behind the desk shook her head. “We don’t have dresses. Sorry.” She handed Mr. Claymore a clipboard. “We’ll need to see the happy couple’s ID’s, and they will need to sign these papers.”
The paperwork took ten minutes. Then Derek found himself standing at the front of the chapel facing Nara. He felt like he towered over her. She’d always been short, but as kids he hadn’t cared that much. When he hit puberty and experienced a sudden growth spurt it left him feeling gangly and awkward around her. At least he had more muscles now.