Marry Me: Royally Complicated #2 Read online

  Quin

  Work was incredibly hectic today. My new client was extremely nitpicky and wanted his mobile app to be ready in three weeks. His deadline was insane. It took us eighteen weeks to design our latest game. Testing and development alone took ages to complete. Our latest project squeezed every last drop of creativity from my body. I loved my job, but the clients were super demanding at times. They needed to understand that we’re not magicians. I can’t pull ready-made applications out of my ass.

  Wendy and I needed some time off. I was thinking of taking our baby girl, Adley, to Disneyland. She was so smart for her age and curious about everything. I bought her a chocolate fudge cake on the way home. She loved dessert just as much as I did. The apple really didn’t fall far from the tree.

  The weather was hot today, so I parked in the garage and took the elevator up to our apartment. We lived in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, so the view was terrific, but the money we spent on rent was enough to buy a condo in New York. Wendy loved boasting about our luxurious penthouse to her friends. Our weekends consisted of cocktail parties and dinners. She was a social butterfly, unlike yours truly. I would rather curl up on the couch with a good book than rub elbows with those Bay Area snobs.

  I walked into our apartment and followed the familiar sound of Adley playing in the living room. My baby was brushing her curly hair with a fork, Little Mermaid style. She had an army of spoons and forks on the coffee table. “Dada!” she shouted when she saw me.

  “Hello.” I greeted her with a kiss and picked her up. She yanked the fork out of her hair and tried to stab my head with it. “Honey, this is not a comb.” I laughed.

  “Comb?!” She looked up at me with those innocent blue eyes. She was a carbon copy of me as a child. I was cuter than a cabbage patch kid.

  The Disney Channel was on, but the volume was disturbingly loud. Adley insisted on brushing my straight hair with the damn fork. I grabbed the remote and turned the volume down.

  “Ooooh. Fuck. Yes! Yes!”

  I suddenly heard Wendy moaning and begging someone to fuck her hard. The sound was unmistakable and it made my blood boil. I remained calm and carried Adley to the kitchen. She touched my cheek with her tiny hand and shoved the fork into my breast pocket.

  “Gift!” She giggled.

  “Thank you.” My hands trembled while I fixed her a bottle of milk. My ears must be defective because there was no way that Wendy was fucking someone else in our bedroom. No way.

  I carried Adley to her bedroom and sat her down in her high chair. Luckily, her room was at the end of the hall, far away from the obscene noises her mother was making.

  Jesus. I could hear a man grunting in the background.

  I quickly barged into our master bedroom to find Wendy writhing beneath a hairy piece of shit. She was happily fucking him, her legs wrapped around his waist while she begged him to go harder and faster. “Oh, Lionel! Fuck me with your big cock,” she moaned.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I shouted.

  Lionel paused midthrust to look at me. His eyes widened like saucers when he saw me. I lunged at him and smacked his hairy ass. “Get out of my bed!” I practically pulled him out of my shocked wife by his butt cheeks. They were slippery from all the enthusiastic fucking.

  I tossed him out of the apartment like he weighed nothing. Unlike me, he was short and bald with a beer belly the size of Texas. I grabbed his clothes from my bedroom carpet and threw them in his face. “Get the fuck out of my neighborhood!”

  I slammed the door shut and marched back to the bedroom. Wendy had already slipped into her pink kimono and was standing by the window. “How dare you bring another man into our home? Into our bed? You just stabbed me in the back with a fucking sword.”

  She pouted and stared at her red acrylic nails. The same nails she used to scratch Lionel while he fucked the shit out of her. “Honestly, you should have seen this coming! You barely touch me, Quin. You can’t do the job right with me so I had to find someone who does. There. I said it!”

  Her words cut me like a knife. I stared at my wife in disbelief. There was zero regret in her eyes.

  “I need a real man,” she said. “Not a delicate flower who eats my pussy and cuddles me like a baby. I want raw and animalistic sex. Lionel gives me exactly what I need,” she added. “You, on the other hand, need an audio guide during sex.”

  “So instead of coming to me with this, you opted to fuck another man while our baby is listening? Screw you, Wendy.” I scowled. “I’ve had it up to here with you.”

  She gave me the finger. “No. Screw you and your ‘holier than thou’ attitude. You and I should have never gotten married in the first place. I expected a gorgeous guy like you to keep me satisfied. You get a hard-on when it comes to gadgets and tech stuff but never with me. I have to blow you for an hour until my jaw breaks.”

  I looked her up and down. She was not the sweet, down-to-earth woman I married. No. She played her part well and now her real personality’s starting to show. The real Wendy finally showed her true colors. I was too busy with Adley to notice that she had finally taken off her fake mask. “Says the woman who takes eighty-five years to orgasm! You know what? I’m done. There’s no going back from this. What you did today, ignoring our baby and fucking that asshole in our bed is too much to overlook.”

  I opened my sock drawer and pulled out a brown envelope. “I want a divorce.”

  She read the divorce papers, looking stunned for the first time ever. I wanted to show her that my decision had been brewing for quite some time now. I spent many sleepless nights contemplating a divorce. Marrying her turned out to be the mother of all mistakes.

  “What the fuck, Quin?!” Her eight-carat diamond ring glinted under the spotlights when she waved her hand in the air. It cost me a fortune to buy her that wedding ring. “No. You are so not getting a divorce. “Nuh-uh. Over my dead body.”

  “I want those papers signed by tomorrow, Wendy. This is not a request. This is a demand.”

  She shook her head vehemently. “If you divorce me, I will take Adley away.” She threatened me. “I swear I’ll do it. You can kiss your daughter goodbye, Quin.”

  3

  Quin

  My weekend turned out to be a big pile of horse shit. Adley was misbehaving badly. She wouldn’t stop fussing and crying. Not even when I turned on the television and showed her Barney the dinosaur. She was obsessed with him. I carried her in my arms and sat next to the window. The sunset was beautiful this time of year. It turned the sky into a cocktail of red and orange. Adley sniffled and pressed her tiny hands against the glass. There was some kind of boat race in the Pacific. The ocean was the color of maple syrup with colorful sailboats scattered here and there. I spent the night on the couch because I was too disgusted to go to sleep in the master bedroom. Lionel and his hairy ass cheeks were forever burned into my retinas. I was so mad at Wendy for betraying me like that. I busted my ass to get us this apartment. I treated her like a queen. I even worked overnight for a month to buy her a Hermes Birkin bag for her birthday. I cared for her as much as I could given our circumstances. I tried to make things work, but deep down, I knew our relationship was doomed to fail.

  The doorbell pulled me out of my thoughts. Weird. I wasn’t expecting anyone. Not after what happened the day before. Everyone in the building knew about my cheating wife. Our next-door neighbor apparently saw the whole thing unfold from her peephole. She even took pictures of Lionel and his naked ass. I caught her showing it to Mrs. Cooper in the lobby.

  “Coming!” I shouted when the doorbell rang for the third time.

  I opened the door, armed with a frown and plenty of attitude. Adley sucked every last bit of patience out of me. A pair of gorgeous hazel eyes greeted me on the other side. “Hey, stranger.”

  Greg smiled. He looked effortlessly handsome. His curly golden hair framed his face perfectly. It felt so good to see him. My heart felt like the engine of a race car. It was beating so fast
. I missed everything about him, from his perverted jokes to his caramel skin. “Oh thank God.” I sighed.

  I wanted to throw myself into his arms and tell him how much I loved him. I never stopped loving him. Wendy probably felt it. Deep down, she must have known that I had feelings for someone else. Maybe what she did was excusable after all.

  “You look like shit,” he blurted out. Our eyes connected over my fussy daughter. There were so many words left unsaid between us. So many suppressed emotions threatened to hack my body like a computer virus. They wanted me to relinquish control. They wanted me to spill my guts until there were no more secrets left to spill.

  “Gee. Thanks.” I rolled my eyes at him. Adley calmed down the second she saw him. He really was a sight for sore eyes. I balanced her on my hip and invited him in.

  “Sorry. Come here.” He closed the distance between us and gave me a warm hug. I inhaled his comforting scent and melted into his arms. It felt good to have my rock in San Francisco. He had no idea how much I needed him. He came just in time to witness my failure as a husband. I sucked at this marriage thing. I really did.

  “Fuck. I missed you.” He breathed into my neck.

  I pulled away, all the while fighting the urge to kiss his royal lips. There was something different about him. I felt it in his touch. He gave off a weird vibe. “Me too.” I almost forgot about Adley who resorted to crying again. My shirt was damp with her tears.

  We sat down in the living room. I offered to make him coffee, but he refused. “Can you please hold her for a second? I really need to pee.”

  “Umm...” He stared at Adley like she was the Loch Ness monster. “Can’t you put her on that high chair over there?” he suggested.

  “No. She spilled orange juice and a bunch of other stuff all over it.” I filled him in. “Look around you. The apartment is a mess. I barely had time to clean up.”

  “Fine, but just so you know, I have a severe case of baby phobia.”

  “Since when?” I asked, carefully placing Adley in his arms. She stopped crying all of a sudden and reached up to squeeze his nose.

  He froze like a deer in the headlights and kept a tight grip on her while she explored his face. “Holy shit. She really likes you.”

  “Your kid smells like a weird mix of food.” He scrunched up his nose and sat her on his lap. “Please tell me she’s wearing a fucking diaper.”

  I laughed. His expression was adorable. “Of course, silly.”

  I went to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. Greg was right. I really did look like shit. My hair was disheveled thanks to my daughter’s wandering hands. There were dark circles under my eyes. My shirt was splattered with baby food and milk. I was the definition of a mess.

  I quickly washed up and changed into a clean shirt before returning to the living room. Greg had his eyes closed while Adley ruffled his short curls. She had him wrapped around her pretty little finger.

  “Your daughter is a hairdresser in the making,” he said.

  “I know. She has a thing for hair apparently. Hair and iPads.”

  “What a weird combination.”

  “Dada! Pretty!” Adley waved me over. She was clearly in love with Greg and his lustrous locks.

  “Yes. Very pretty.” I picked her up and she immediately started calling out to him.

  “Gag! Gag!” She giggled.

  “Did you teach her to say your name?” I chuckled.

  “Kind of. Yeah,” he admitted. “Please don’t make me carry her again.”

  “Chicken,” I teased.

  He grabbed a throw pillow from the couch and threw it in my direction. “Take it back.”

  “Ha. No way. You brought this on yourself.”

  I almost tripped over one of Adley’s many dolls. Greg jumped to my rescue and saved me from falling down like a klutz. His fingers circled my arms, sending shivers down my spine. “You, my friend, are in desperate need of a break,” he said.

  I cradled Adley in my arms and sat down in my comfy armchair. “I hate to break it to you, but parenting is a full-time job. I can’t take a break from this little monster.”

  “Oh come on. YOLO, Quin. You need to blow off some steam after what happened with Wendy.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. His youthful looks always made me feel like a teenager with a crush. “I bet you know a lot of people who are willing to babysit Adley for the weekend.”

  He was right. I was in desperate need of a vacation. My baby made funny noises in my lap. She was smitten with Greg. “Gag! Gag! Pwetty hair.”

  I felt guilty at the thought of leaving her. We usually spent our weekends making sheet forts and shadow puppets on the wall. Well, I built the sheet fort while Adley rode her unicorn tricycle around the room.

  “Come on. We haven’t done this in years. It’ll be fun,” he added. “You can’t just sit here while Wendy shacks up with that bald idiot you told me about.”

  “Fine. I’ll give my mom a call.” I nodded.

  I called Louisa and explained the situation in brief. She loved Adley to pieces, so she offered to come and take her granddaughter away for the weekend. I quickly packed an overnight bag and filled it with diapers and toys. I usually read her a bedtime story, but my mother already had a bookshelf filled with toddler books for Adley to read. I swear Louisa was turning her into a spoiled brat.

  “Don’t forget to pack an overnight bag too,” Greg told me.

  “Right.” I slapped my forehead. “My brain needs a reboot.”

  I packed a small suitcase and made sure all of my beloved gadgets were in it. Mom arrived just in time to witness yet another round of grumpy Adley.

  “Why the tears, baby Addy,” she cooed, hugging her granddaughter close to her chest.

  I bit my lip nervously, afraid of her reaction to Greg. She wasn’t particularly fond of him.

  “Hello, Louisa.” The prince politely greeted her.

  She turned up her nose and gave him a dirty look in return. “Oh. This explains it all.”

  My mom was under the impression that Greg had somehow turned me gay. She never quite forgave him for it. She once accused him of casting a spell on me. “Come on, Ma. This is not the time for this bullshit.”

  She frowned at me. “Old habits seem to stick to you like glue.” She huffed. “They never die. No wonder your marriage crumbled. How did you expect it to work when you’re still up to your usual shenanigans?”

  “Jeez. We’re only going away for the weekend. Take a chill pill.”

  Greg crossed his arms defensively in front of his chest. He never liked my mother either.

  “It was nice seeing you again, Louisa.”

  She waved him off and grabbed Adley’s overnight bag from the couch. “Your generation knows nothing about loyalty, tradition, or respect.”

  “Thanks for the life lesson, Ma. You may go now.”

  4

  Greg

  Viva Las Vegas!

  I wanted someone to fucking pinch me because my life felt like a blissful dream. My body was high with excitement. I barely slept last night. Quin’s unexpected phone call kept me awake until it was time for me to head to the airport. I booked my ticket the second he hung up. The sadness in his voice was too much to bear, but I was over the fucking moon, knowing he turned to me for support. It sounded cheesy as hell, but I wanted to be his crying shoulder. Wendy never deserved him anyway. She was a stuck-up bitch. I hated her for cheating on him. Quin was a sensitive soul. He treated everyone with love and respect. He must have been a saint in another life. Adley was lucky to have him as her dad.

  That kid scared the shit out of me. She was all touchy feely and awfully confident for her age. Quin boasted about how smart she was. She was the apple of his eye. Addy was the only good thing that came out of his fucking marriage. It took him ages to say goodbye to the little rascal. I had to shove his mother out the door so we’d book those tickets to Vegas. Louisa hated my guts. She was low-key homophobic and always blamed me for
Quin’s problems. She accused him of having a messy marriage when I knew for certain that he did the best he could to make Wendy happy.

  The second she left, I pulled out my phone and booked us two first-class tickets to Vegas. Quin was still hesitant about going, but I used the subtle art of persuasion to get him packing. He was dressed and ready in no time. We boarded the flight together and made a “good riddance Wendy“ toast to celebrate his newfound freedom. I finally had a second chance with Quin. We used to be called the dynamic duo back in boarding school. He was more of the shy, quiet type. I was loud and too much of an extrovert at times.

  It took us one hour to reach Las Vegas. It was one of my favorite American cities. We owned a five-star hotel on the famous Vegas Strip. It was one of many real estate investments our family poured into the country. Hotel R was right next to the MGM Grand. The manager greeted us in the lobby and personally handed us the keys to our executive suite.

  It was times like these when I felt blessed to be a Raplen royal. Hotel R was my second home here in the States. I used to come to Vegas all the time before settling down in California. Playing cards was my favorite pastime. I had a thing for baccarat, blackjack, and Texas hold’ em.

  “Wow. The view is superb,” Quin gushed, staring at the floor-to-ceiling windows. The suite offered a panoramic view of the dancing fountains at the Bellagio. We had the entire floor all to ourselves complete with a swimming pool and an outdoor terrace. “You were right. This is the perfect place to be right now.”

  I grabbed the bottle of Dom Perignon from the dining table and uncorked it. “Damn right it is.” I poured him a glass and handed it to him. The dazzling Vegas skyline with its neon lights and Eiffel tower were a cause for celebration. I finally had Quin all to myself. Wendy had him on lockdown ever since they got married so they never really ventured outside of San Francisco. There were so many things I wanted to show him. The MGM Grand hosted a fuckload of concerts, and the Red Rock Canyon was also worth a visit. “The masseuse here gives the best massages too.”