I Do (Hate You) by Sienna Blake
Shell
When James’s jaw dropped to his knees like a cartoon character, I knew it wasn’t a room service waiter out there, but I could never have guessed who it actually was.
I peeked through the gap between the door and the wall. My jaw fell almost as far down as James’s had. At first, I didn’t even recognize Natazia. All I saw was a tall, hot blonde in a kimono over a perfect pair of double-D breasts and a belly dancer’s sexy tummy and juicy hips.
Unconsciously, I wrapped the towel around me a little tighter around my own breasts that were definitely not Double D.
Then I got a look at the face. She normally wore glasses, little makeup and her hair skinned back from her forehead in a tight ponytail. But her white-blonde hair was loose and flowing over her shoulders. Her skillful makeup accentuated her big blue eyes and bee-stung lips.
“Natazia!” James squeaked, then cleared his throat. “Is something wrong? What are you doing here?”
“Don’t tease me,” she said with just a hint of a Russian accent. “I’m here because you invited me yesterday.”
In my peripheral vision, I saw James look over at me. I didn’t take my eyes off of Natazia. My blood ran cold as I thought of how I’d almost cheated on Rupert with that lying sack of shit James. He almost made me fall for all those lies about us not being a fling and how he wanted to date me, but Logan wouldn’t let him.
Once a player, always a player.
“Are you sure I invited you to come over?” James asked Natazia, his voice still high with panic. “It doesn’t really ring a bell. Sorry for the inconvenience but I better get to bed.”
“That’s exactly where I thought we were going,” she said, letting her robe fall open wider to reveal even more creamy white skin.
“I mean alone! I need to go to bed alone. I’ll see you tomorrow at the wedding! Okay, bye-bye now.”
James pulled the door closer to him and watched as an obviously pissed-off Natazia pulled her robe closed and clickety-clacked on her heels off the porch and down the path.
When he slammed the door, he took a step toward me. “Okay, now where were we?”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, throwing up a hand which he ran into with his face when he came in for a kiss.
“Me kid about sex? Never! Let’s do this!”
“Not happening,” I said, giving his face a little shove backwards.
“What changed from two minutes ago?” he asked as his eyes nervously flicked toward the closed door. When I didn’t bother answering, he continued, “Are you mad because Natazia showed up on my doorstep? I honestly can’t remember asking her over here but I’m sure it wasn’t for sex.”
She rounded on me, dripping with sarcasm. “Because that would be so against your character, inviting a hottie over for a quick and dirty bang.”
“The dirty part sounds like me, but you know I’m anything but ‘quick!’”
“Shut up, James.”
“You know what? Never mind. The point is, I’m sure I wouldn’t have invited Natazia over here for sex. She must have misunderstood. Now that we’ve cleared that up—”
“Let’s just go to bed,” I said, too tired to fight anymore.
He nearly jumped with joy when he yelled, “Exactly! Let’s go to bed!”
“To sleep. Let’s go to bed to sleep,” I said.
He looked like I’d kicked him in the balls. “Are you seriously blaming me for maybe, possibly planning a hookup with someone when you’re the one getting married tomorrow?”
“Exactly,” I said. “I’m getting married tomorrow even if I have to cut your arm off to do it.”
James tried to argue more but I wouldn’t respond. Then he insisted on getting clean himself, which I could hardly refuse. I stood there with my forehead against the tile of the bathroom while he took a cold shower on the other side of the curtain.
He had a brand-new toothbrush in his drawer which I used, and we stood there in front of the mirror like an old married couple brushing and spitting, except James had to use his teeth to get the cap off the tube of toothpaste since I refused to help him.
We went to bed and angled ourselves back-to-back with our cuffed hands lying awkwardly across our hips and the gap between us. It was uncomfortable, but I just couldn’t face him. I could hardly face myself.