365 Days with Sexy Maia

Chapter 5

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Rosianna said as she approached Nathan. “And I’m sorry that my grandfather is springing this on you—”

“I assume you’re in on this too, since you’re wearing a wedding dress,” Nathan hissed, though his eyes couldn’t help but stray from her face to the gown. She looked enchanting. “You’re both trying to rope me into this—” he waved his hand vaguely in the air. “Whatever this is!”

“A marriage,” Rosianna said evenly. “It’s understandable if you don’t want to do this.”

Nathan gaped at her. “Of course I don’t want to do this. I don’t even know what this is.”

Rosianna glanced briefly at her grandfather. “You didn’t fill him in? When you said you had this figured out, what did that mean?”

The older man shrugged. “You told me to trust you and you’d do it but then you failed. I only had to bring him here.”

“Well, there’s that, but we didn’t need to jump him like this.” Before Nathan could register what was going on, she turned to him. “I apologize for this mix-up. I thought he must have convinced you to marry me.”

“No. He just asked me to meet him here. You both ambushed me,” he replied sourly.

Rosianna gripped her flowers and smiled tiredly at him. He could tell she was already at her wits end. “It’s alright if you don’t want to do this, Nathan. I mean it. You can leave if you want to.”

This was an opportunity, Nathan thought. He should walk away now. The whole thing was absurd—getting married to a woman he met just the day before. Yet he found himself leaving close to her, whispering so others won’t hear.

“Why are you doing this?”

She shrugged. “Easy. I want to inherit my grandfather’s legacy and he has a bunch of rules for me to follow, which includes marriage.” She glanced at the older man, who was busy signaling to people to call for the priest. “He’s going to retire soon, and if I’m not married the position would go to someone else.”

Then she turned back to him. “Are you in or not?”

Half an hour later, Nathan was exchanging vows with Rosianna. All he had done was say a simple "yes," and her grandfather had immediately handed him a suit to wear over his shirt. Now, he stood at the altar with Rosianna, her cheeks rosy and her gaze steady as they promised to be each other's backbone until death do them part.

It was weird. It was insane. It was the craziest thing he had ever done in his life. He tried to think of a reason why he was doing this and came up with nothing. At least he was marrying an heiress. At least his mother and sister would stop bothering him about his lonely life. At least he finally had some excitement.

All of these were very invalid reasons, yet Nathan remained rooted in place until it was time to exchange rings. Her grandfather handed him a small box containing rings for both of them. They weren’t the extravagant diamond bands she had shown off the other day but instead simple silver bands with sapphire stones embedded in them. The ring fit snugly on his finger and gleamed under the sky.

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“I have an apartment in the upscale residential city,” Rosianna said softly, handing him a key. “It’s a three-bedroom flat. We’ll have to live together to keep this up.”

He stared at her. It wasn’t until then that he understood that he was married. He had married the girl he met yesterday and the only thing that he knew was her name and that she needed to be married in order to climb a ladder of success, one that her only family member was highly in support of.

“Do we need to live together?” He inquired, a bit suspicious.

“Yes,” she said. “Don’t you want to?”

“I mean… only if I get to pay the rent?”

Rosianna frowned. “That is an odd thing to say, and you really don’t have to.”

“I want to. I feel like I’m living off you.”

“You aren’t living off me. I’m the one living off you!” Disgruntled, she clicked her tongue and pressed the key into his palm. “Fine, you can pay 3,000 dollars every for your part of the rent and let me handle the rest.”

He smiled wearily. “Thank you. We need to talk about a lot of things—”

“There’s really nothing much to talk about.”

A sleek black car pulled up, and her female assistant stepped out. Nathan glanced at the girl briefly before looking away.

“I have a meeting to attend, and I might be home late,” she continued. “The house is missing a few essentials since I just bought it. I’d really appreciate it if you could stock up on household items.”

He gaped at her. “I’m not sleeping with you tonight.”

“You don’t have to. I might not even be available.”

Her tone was curt and direct. Her assistant handed her a coat, which she draped over her wedding dress. Nathan’s eyes drifted back to the dress again. She was absolutely stunning. This was an image he probably would never forget, and he was oddly glad that they had a picture together.

“You can go home for the day,” she continued, now giving him her full attention. “Later, we’ll slowly stock up on the house. I’ll have my assistant send you the money for that.”

“I don’t need your money.”

“You will,” she said firmly. “The house is empty, and this is my contribution. You know what?” She reached into the car, pulled out two stacks of cash, and pressed them into his palm. “How about you use this to shop for the essentials? I wish I could go with you, but I’ll be very busy.”

Nathan stared at the stack of money for a moment. It had to be close to a hundred thousand. One crucial detail lingered in his mind, unspoken. When he glanced at her again, her eyes were already fixed on his.

“How about our s****l life, Rosianna? Don’t you think that’s something we need to talk about?”