The Cupid Contract

Chapter 3

Dinner went by swimmingly. It turned out Seth enjoyed every type of pasta there was and just about devoured anything brought to him. He even mentioned certain dishes being his favorite. Had he had this place before?

While the mess of dinner was cleared away, the cake was brought out. Plain vanilla was Steven's favorite, not caring that I wasn't a big cake person, or that I preferred more flavoring. Even the icing was plain, white, buttercream. A red flag I hadn't seen before.

Seth and I walked up to it and John begrudgingly handed him a knife.

"I don't know what she's doing with you, but once Steven gets back you're done." I said dryly and stepped back. Seth shrugged and looked down to me.

"Ready to give a show?" He asked. With all the courage I could muster, I nodded. "Then follow my lead." He slid the hilt of the knife in my hand, then placed his overtop of mine. Together and pressed the blade into the cake and cut out a chunk, smiling for the camera.

The dull white of the cake and icing left little to the imagination as we set the slice onto our shared plate. Even the silverware had more design. Seth took a spoon and scooped a small bite into it, which I took. What I didn't see was that he'd swiped icing onto a free finger and when I pulled away from the bite he smeared it on my lips and pulled me into another kiss leaving me to squeak out in shock.

Laughter filled the room as the cake was pulled away from us for the workers to divide amongst the guests. Seth pulled from the kiss and chuckled. "I figured it would taste better on you than by itself." He whispered. Chelsea yanked me away to fix my lipstick and check the rest of my makeup.

"That hunk is sure giving you a run for your money. What's the story?" She asked.

"I already told you everything. It's literally all I know. Well, that and I guess he wants to fill out a contract to keep up the charade of the marriage." I answered.

"Contract? Girl, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"I dunno, but I'm ready to find out." As I was talking to her, my dad stepped in. "Hi, Daddy." I said sweetly.

"Explain yourself, Man-Man. That's not the self absorbed boy you introduced me to." He said sternly.

"I met him outside the ceremony. I guess I'd made a better offer on the room than he did because he uses it for business meetings. I wanted to get back at Steven for leaving me at the altar. He's helping me."

"This seems risky."

"The fake marriage is going to last a while. He wants me to sign a contract as his wife." I told him. He stared at me for a moment, seeing if I was joking.

"That seems dangerous! If he hurts you, Man-Man, I have connections."

"I know, Daddy. But anyone would be stupid to hurt a Buckley." I smiled and skipped back over to Seth. The DJ was playing different remixes of dance music and he held his hand out to me.

"Would you like to dance, Flower?" I smiled and took his hand, following him to the dance floor.

"Ladies and Gentleman! Mr. and Mrs. Horner!" The DJ yelled into the mic, beginning a slow song I had definitely not picked as my first dance.

"I figured you'd want something new, so I picked a new one while you spoke with your father." Seth told me as he lead me in a dance. It was amazing, so much feeling, so much emotion, it felt so real.

Once the song was over, everyone went back to their mingling and regular dancing. Then toasts came and went with a little drama caused by John refusing his best man speech toward a man he didn't know. Finally it was well past 2am and I was exhausted. Mom and Dad had paid a special cleanup crew to come in and put everything back where it needed to be so that the conservatory didn't have to lift a finger.

I held the straps of my heels in my hand as I slouched over Chelsea and Brittney's shoulders, Theresa had already flounced off with her boyfriend while we were all bouncing to Sandstorm. Seth was talking to some of Steven's groomsmen and seemed to be making friends; it was amazing how social he was. When he saw my exhaustion he quickly ran over.

"Flower, you need to get some sleep. I'll take you home." He told me as he effortlessly scooped me into his arms.

"Not so fast!" I heard Mom yell from across the room before hearing the sound of her shoes stomping into the floor. "We've already paid for a honeymoon suite for her at a nearby hotel. I'm not going to let her miss out on it just because the real groom vanished."

"Then I'll take her there. What matters is that she gets some rest. Today has quite obviously been rough on her." I could hear him trailing off as sleep began to envelop me and I snuggled my head into his chest.

Before I knew it, my eyes were opening and I looked up to what looked like the roof of a car. I turned my head and saw it was laying on a thigh. His thigh. My stretched out before I could stop it.

"Well hello, sleepy Flower. Close your eyes. We're almost there. Your dad showed me where the limo was and your mom gave me the key card to the suite. I'll get you tucked into bed." The soothing base of his voice lulled me back to sleep.

The sound of a beep caused my eyes to reopen and I could feel myself being wiggled around as a door clicked open. I lifted my head to see Seth smiling down at me.

"Well since you're awake I can give you a choice. Would you like to walk in yourself? Or would you like your groom to carry you over the threshold?" He chuckled when my head plopped back against his chest. "I suppose that's the answer." Then he carried me into the room and flicked on the light causing my eyes to open one more time.

"This is gorgeous. You can put me down now." I told him. He set me on the ground and steadied me as I learned to stand again. Clearly I'd drank way too much over the last 24 hours. "Wow, they already brought my luggage in and even left something for you." I said while pointing to my suitcase and a pile of clothing and toiletries set next to it for him.

"Seems they did. Well why don't you freshen up first and I'll go sit in the in-suite couch to leave you to your privacy." He told me as he grabbed the pile and walked toward the room with the couch. I started to turn toward the bathroom and stopped.

"I mean, we did just get married. What kind of new wife would I be if I showered without you?" I asked as seductively as I could. He turned to me.

"Amanda, as much as I would love to absolutely ravish you right now... You're drunk. We just met. You had your broken today. I won't take advantage of you." His tone was somber, as if he regretted saying it. I didn't care. I marched forward and grabbed his face, pulling it down to me and kissing him.

As quickly as he responded to the kiss, he jerked away. My body began to sway and the room started to spin. Suddenly I felt myself falling and everything went black again.