Honeymoon from Hell III by R.L. Mathewson

Prologue
    (Just in case you need a reminder of where we left
off…)
    “ I can’t believe we did
it,” he said, pulling into a spot on the freshly paved parking lot
of the newly refinished Strawberry Manor.
    “ And one week ahead of
schedule, too,” Rory said, beaming with excitement as she looked at
the beautiful new hotel. He had to admit that it was beautiful, but
that wasn’t what he’d meant.
    He chuckled as he threw the truck in park.
“I meant, I can’t believe that we’re married.”
    “ Well, I really wasn’t left
with much of a choice,” Rory reminded him, smiling that pleased
little smile that she’d been wearing since the nervous Justice of
the Peace had announced them husband and wife about an hour
ago.
    After the initial shock, the Justice of the
Peace decided that they needed a little fatherly advice and
explained that he believed that they were making a mistake and that
perhaps they needed to take some time and come back on December
2nd. At first, Connor had been pissed that he was interfering, but
by the time the JP mentioned December 2nd for the third time, it
became clear that the man had placed a bet that they would get
married on December 2nd. Once the J.P. resigned himself to losing
two hundred dollars, he’d married them, scowling at them the entire
time until the deed was done and he could storm off.
    “ You didn’t have a choice,
huh?” he mused, reaching for his wife as she unclipped her seatbelt
and moved to straddle his lap.
    “ No, not at all,” she
readily agreed with an impish smile that had him wishing that they
could skip the final inspection and start their wedding night
early.
    “ And how’s that?” he asked,
wrapping his arms around her.
    “ I had to do it for our
deal of course,” she said solemnly, looking so damn serious that he
couldn’t help but laugh.
    “ For our deal, huh?” he
asked with a chuckle, leaning in and stealing a kiss.
    “ Mmmhmm,” she murmured,
returning the kiss.
    Before he could deepen the kiss, Rory opened
his door. She pulled away and climbed out of the truck, laughing
and jumping back when he reached for her.
    “ We need to clear the site
so that we can start that insanely expensive honeymoon that you
promised me,” she said, heading for the manor.
    “ That wasn’t part of our
deal,” he pointed out as he climbed out of the truck.
    “ It is now,” she said,
sounding happy.
    “ Do I get a veto?” he
asked, following after her.
    “ Sorry. You’re a married
man now, Connor. Your job is to fulfill each and every one of my
needs,” she explained, throwing him a wink over her
shoulder.
    “ And you need an insanely
expensive honeymoon?” he asked, chuckling as he veered off to the
right towards her trailer.
    “ I really do,” she said,
sounding happy, really happy and for a moment he was content with
just watching her as she made her way inside the manor.
    How had he gotten so lucky? he couldn’t help
but wonder as he turned around, hoping to get this done quickly so
that he could move onto the insanely expensive honeymoon that his
beautiful wife was demanding when he realized that he had one last
problem that he had to handle before it bit him in the ass.
    “ I heard you tell Andrew
that this was all a game,” Jacob, the surly assistant from hell,
said numbly as he looked at Connor with what could only be
described as disgust. “I kept my mouth shut, because I thought Rory
could handle herself, but apparently I was wrong.”
    “ It’s not what you think,
Jacob,” Connor said, taking a step towards the man only to have him
take two steps back.
    “ Then you didn’t just marry
Rory so that you could take over her company?” Jacob
demanded.
    Connor opened his mouth to tell him that he
had it all wrong, that it wasn’t like that anymore when he realized
that this simple misunderstanding had just blown up into a huge
fuck up in under sixty seconds.
    “ Married?” Johnny repeated,
sharing a confused look with his