I owed Shannon a thousand apologies. I had a room booked at a hotel downtown for our wedding night, but I didn’t have a car, money to pay a taxi driver, or money to tip anyone. I had no luggage and no way to get into my apartment if we went there. I had paid for the hotel room in advance, so she didn’t have to pay for that, but we had to leave in a cab.

As we pulled up to the front of the hotel, she whispered, “You’re going to have to tell me what happened today.”

“It was the worst.”

“Must have been,” she said breathily before she kissed me.

She paid the cab driver and we went into the hotel. Our room was on the second to the top floor. We took the elevator up. Since we were alone, I slammed her into the wall and kissed her like I’d die if I stopped.

When we got to our floor, I whispered huskily to her. “Want me to carry you over the threshold?”

“Nope. I want you to give me the key, and give me a few minutes before you come in.”

“It’s a suite. Can’t you just use the bathroom or the bedroom without shutting me out?”

She thought for a moment. I knew she wanted to orchestrate that moment perfectly. Whatever outfit she had planned for our wedding night was going to be phenomenal, so I needed to give her space, but did I really need to wait in the hall?

She grabbed me by my police officer collar and pulled me along to the room. At the door, she unlocked it and dragged me in behind her.

She let me go and I smiled. Maybe that was better than carrying her over the threshold.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Except, she’d stopped in the hallway inside our suite and was staring into the bedroom with a look of pure horror across her face. Without waiting to ask her what happened, I rushed to her and saw what was causing her distress.

Carver was lying on our bed. Propped up on one elbow, he smiled at the two of us, before elegantly raising himself off the bed and approaching us. “Shannon,” he said slowly. “I want something from you. I think you know what it is. Give it to me and we’ll be finished.”

I wasn’t sure what he was talking about.

She took a deep breath. “You are the prince of tricksters. If you’d wanted to completely spoil my wedding, you could have. The only reason I’m standing here now, married, instead of a pile of pathetic white satin is because you allowed it.”

I could not believe that crap came out of her mouth. It was hard on my ears to hear it, but that was exactly what Chase told her to tell him. He said Carver wanted to be the biggest man in the city. Shannon had called him the prince of tricksters. Doubtless, she’d been working on that title in order to satisfy him more completely. If he got what he wanted, they’d be finished, so I let her say what she had to without comment.

“May I say what I thought of your wedding?” he asked, with a cruel smirk in the corner of his mouth.

“I know what you thought of it. It wasn’t your wedding with black decorations and gems like drops of blood hanging from the rafters.”

“Your family is very homey,” he continued. “I’m satisfied. Or… as satisfied as a bumpkin like you could make me. Here’s your wedding gift.” He pulled my wallet, keys, and phone from his pockets and dropped them on the floor.

I did not bend to pick them up.

He had one more thing to say before he left. “When I first saw you, Shannon, I thought I saw the mirror image of who I was inside, but was afraid to show. When you told your guests what it was about Fletch that got you, I saw the truth. If he and I had been switched, you and I wouldn’t have had the night of my dreams. Nothing would have happened. I would have just been angry with you for not being who I wanted after you started out in such a tantalizing way. It’s best that things end now.” He put his hands in his pockets and strolled out.

Shannon and I stared at the spot he had occupied for a full minute before she turned to me and said, “Do you want to see if the hotel has a different room we could use?”

“Yup,” I chirped without hesitation.