Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (14 page)

"I didn’t say—"

"You’re my fiancée, you have to go
with me," he turned his gaze on me. Never before has anyone unleashed a
gaze on me the way that Aidan was right now. I couldn’t even form a word. It
was like he had put me in a trance.

When he smirked, I shook myself out of
the trance.

"Not fair," I groaned. He just
laughed.

"It will be a good way for you to
meet people," he shrugged.

"James’ father also works for the
company. Uncle Henry and Aunt Anne live about twenty minutes from the house we
will be living in." He rubbed the back of his head. "Uh…my aunt and
uncle will come off a little harsh, just to warn you. They treat everyone that
way."

"Great," I groaned
sarcastically. "Can’t wait," I rolled my eyes.

"Be prepared for Viola to bombard
you with questions as soon as she gets her hands on you. She is sweet but very
persistent," he laughed.

"Wow, I’m getting more excited the
closer we get, thanks Walsh." I couldn’t help it, now that I had the
middle name, I was using it.

I watched his face cringe.

"I don’t like to be called
Walsh," he sounded disgusted.

"Well I happen to like calling you
that, Walsh." I laughed and he scowled at me. "Fine, fine…I won’t
call you Walsh." I rolled my eyes.

"Thank you," he smiled like a
little kid. "So, what else do you want to know?"

"Honestly, I just want to sleep at
this point. My brain is exhausted and I need as much sleep as I can get before I
go back to work." I rolled over but felt tension fill the space between
us.

"You aren’t going back to work at
that place are you?" he sounded surprised.

I rolled back over.

"Why wouldn’t I?" I creased my
forehead.

"Because you don’t need to, we are
engaged and when we are married you are going back to school, not work,"

"Just because we are ‘so called’
engaged doesn’t mean that you get to dictate my life to me! I agreed to work a
schedule when I get back and I’m going to." I said firmly.

"You don’t need to work," he
argued.

"We aren’t married yet, Aidan and
even when we are, you don’t give me orders!"

"So, what! I already have my
accounts set up for you to access them," he spewed out.

"You did what?" I exclaimed.

"You will be my wife. You have
access to my credit cards, bank accounts…"

"Are you kidding me?" I looked
at him in astonishment.

"No, why would I be?"

"You are already insisting that I
get this large sum of money, so why do I need..?" he cut me off.

"While we are married you will use my
accounts, you will get that money when we…separate." He looked at me like I
was the idiot.

"I don’t….I don’t want your money,
Aidan!" I buried my head in my hands.

"I know you don’t, but you’re going
to use it, regardless." I could hear the smirk in his tone. "So, now
you don’t have to go back to the bar." He sounded so proud of himself.

I sat up straight and turned my eyes on
him.

"I committed to the next two weeks
schedule and I will be doing it. After that I, that means only me, will decide
if I will stop working or not!"

He leaned in closer to my face and
smirked.

"You can have your two weeks, but
you will be too busy to work there any longer after that."

"Busy how? Playing housewife to
you?" I shouted.

"No! You will be going to school,
full time to finish your degree!" I opened my mouth but he cut me off.
"No arguments Lilli. You signed a contract to go to school." He
stared directly into my eyes and it was almost becoming one of those ‘who could
stare the longest’ contests. When he blinked I wanted to jump up from the seat
and scream ‘I win, Loser’. Instead, I sat back into my seat and sulked.

As I sat pouting another thought crossed
my mind and I smirked.

"So do you have a mistress lined up
yet?" I held my giggle as I watched him blanch.

"W-what?" He looked over at me
wide eyed.

"You know, the girl that I am going
to become ‘friends’ with?" I nudged his arm with my elbow.

"Lilli, I’m not going to risk
losing everything to have sex with some woman."

"So you’re going to be
celibate?" I grinned.

"No," he smirked "I’ll
have a wife who shares my bed." He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

Laughter burst out of my mouth.

"If you think I’m having sex with
you, then you are dumber than I thought." I chortled.

"You know…wait, you think I’m
dumb?"

Holding my stomach, the hilarity was
just too much.

"Shut up," he scowled at me.
"Anyhow…did you not remember the part of ‘consummate’ in the
contract?"

I narrowed my eyes on him.

"Oh, whatever, we can lie." I
shrugged.

"Lie?" his brow raised
"What if someone finds out?"

"Who, Aidan? It’s not like someone
is going to sit at the end of the bed and monitor if we have sex with each
other, please." I chuckled and shook my head.

"You seriously think you could go
four years?" He asked incredulously.

"Nope," I smiled widely.
"That’s what the ‘pool boy’ will be for." I made quote marks with my
fingers as I said pool boy and started to giggle.

Aidan went silent for a few moments,
clearly not enjoying my humor.

"Oh God, Aidan, I am not going to
screw some pool boy," I rolled my eyes. "It’s not the right weather
for a pool boy." I winked.

"It is when you have an indoor
pool," he growled.

"There is an indoor pool?" I
asked in amazement. He nodded. "Holy shit," I shook my head.

"What?"

"Did you ever go without anything
growing up or were you always a spoiled, little brat?" I teased.

"Yeah, I grew up without
parents," he commented shortly.

"Aidan, I didn’t mean…"

A small grin spread on his lips. I
smacked his arm.

"That is not funny!"

"Oh, it was hilarious." He laughed
at the discomfort he’d caused me.

"So back to this…um..." He
brought the conversation back around again.

I groaned.

"Lilli be serious. It’s four years."
He exclaimed.

"What’s the longest you have ever
gone? And be honest." I asked with a warning tone.

He thought for a moment and then rubbed
that back of his head as he admitted.

"Um…like, maybe, three weeks."
He looked up to my astonished face from under his lashes.

"Are you serious?"

He nodded.

"Jesus, Iverson, you’re a
whore." I giggled.

"I am not," he argued.

"Sure you aren’t," I waved him
off. "Like I said, I’ll help you make arrangements." I shrugged.

"So it won’t bother you that your
husband is sleeping with another woman?" he asked with sincerity.

"Look, I know that this is just a
business deal. I don’t expect the ‘real’ thing." I shrugged again.

I thought I heard him huff.

 "So, how do you think that we are
going to conceive?" He asked like I was an idiot.

"Uh…I’m hoping that we don’t have
to," I chuckled. "Can’t you just buy off a doctor to say that I am
infertile? Then you can have a baby with someone else." I smiled brightly
at my brilliance.

"Diabolical," he muttered and I
smiled bigger. "What if that plan doesn’t pan out?"

"Invitro," I responded
quickly.

I watched him hunch his shoulders
forward as he tried to think up something else.

"Just let it go, Aidan. You can
rope me into marriage but not into my pants." I broke into a giggle fit.

"Shut up," he teased back and
pushed my arm.

We landed in New York a little past
eight o’clock and, just as Aidan had said, Viola was waiting in a limo for us.

"Aidan," she exclaimed as she
pulled him into a large hug.

"Hello Vi," he kissed her
cheek. After she released him, he moved to a petite, red haired girl. "Hey
Magpie," he hugged her tightly and she hugged him back.

"Hey there Aidan-o!" she
giggled.

"How come she gets to call you a
nickname?" I exclaimed with my hands on my hips, before laughing.

"Because," he argued and
smirked.

"Nice response genius." I
smacked his arm teasingly.

"Viola, Maggie, this is Lilli
Snowe. Lilli, this is Aunt Vi and Maggie,” Aidan motioned between us with his
hand.

"It’s very nice to meet you." Prepared
to shake hands with Viola, she had other plans.

She grabbed my shoulders, looked me over
and pulled me into a tight hug. After pulling back she examined the ring on my
finger. Her face lit up like the seeing the sun for the first time.

"You accepted," she said
cheerfully and then pulled me into another hug.

"Okay, mom, quit hogging
Lilli," Maggie pushed in between us.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you,
Maggie." I smiled.

"Definitely a pleasure to meet
anyone that puts Aidan-o-boy in his place," she giggled and then wrapped
her arms around me. I laughed and squeezed back.

"Hey!" Aidan pushed her arm.

"Okay you two. It’s getting colder
by the minute, everyone in the car." Viola ordered.

Aidan stood, letting everyone in before
him. Viola pulled me close to her side and Maggie climbed on the other. At that
moment, I felt very claustrophobic.

"So, Lilli, you look like you’re
about a size six?" Viola raised her brow.

"Uh…yeah." I said hesitantly.

"Perfect," she clapped her
hands.

I looked over at Aidan in confusion,
clearly I was missing something. He simply shrugged.

"You will fit her dress,"
Maggie answered my unspoken question.

"Dress?"

"The wedding dress," she
smiled like a kid who just got away with something.

"Oh," was all I could say.

"Do you have a preference on colors
or the cake?" Viola asked pulling my attention back to her.

"Huh?"

"I told you she would bombard you
with questions. I tried to warn you." Aidan laughed.

"Keep it down over there Aidan-o-boy"
I said cockily. He scowled and Maggie burst into laughter.

"I will need your friend’s and
family’s information so we can try to make arrangements for them to
attend." I turned back to a very eager Viola.

"Um…it’s only my mother, sister and
father, but they won’t be attending." I spoke quickly and hoped that there
would be any further questions about it.

"Oh dear," Viola’s face fell.
"Why not?"

Damn!

"My father is sick…uh…heart
problems and, well, my mother…she…she’s not a fan of marriage anymore." I
shrugged.

"Oh," Viola answered.
"Well, I’ll need your friends in New York dear and don’t tell me they
won’t be coming, because I know that a nice girl like you has friends."
She smiled sweetly.

The rest of the car ride was about the
wedding and I was ready to poke my eyes out. When the car finally stopped I
realized that we were in front of a building that I didn’t recognize. Aidan
scooted forward toward the door.

"This is us." He spoke as he
opened the door.

I sat still and Aidan leaned back in
offering me his hand.

"What?"

"This is us," he repeated.

"Us?" I motioned between him
and me.

"Yeah, dork, so let’s go."

"Look loser, don’t call me a dork."
I teased and took his hand.

We said goodbye to Viola and Maggie, but
not before Viola made me promise to meet her for brunch Tuesday. Then the car
pulled away. I don’t think I’ve ever had brunch before in my life.

I reached down for my bag but Aidan
grabbed it first.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking your bag up," he said
like it was nothing.

"Aidan, I have a home," I
stood with my arms across my chest, "and there is nothing more than I
would prefer than to go home to my own bed and bathroom."

"Uh…yeah…well….I kind of…"

"What did you do?" I growled.

"Ihadallyourstuffbroughthere,"
he said so fast that the words ran together.

"What the hell did you just say
about my stuff?" I shouted and took two steps closer to him.

He sighed.

"I said, I had your stuff brought
here" He flinched before I even started yelling.