She Woke Up Married by Suzanne Macpherson Read Free Book Online

friends are great. Shall we…?”
    Paris interrupted him. “See, there is no we. I can take care of myself. I don’t need you, I don’t need anyone. I can’t be anyone’s wife, Turner. I just can’t.” Her voice was matter-of-fact and harsh. Paris peeled off her gloves and shoved them inside her purse.
    Turner just sat back in his chair and stared at her. It was very unnerving. She was glad when Nadine the cook showed up at the table with Turner’s steak and placed it in front of him. Nadine wiped her hands on her white apron and thrust one of them in Turner’s direction. “I justwanted to meet the man with that voice. I’m Nadine, the cook.”
    “How do you do, Nadine the cook, I’m Turner the part-time musical entertainment.” He shook her hand, then nodded toward his steak. “Very nice work, Nadine, it looks delicious.”
    She blushed and looked embarrassed. “Tanks.”
    “Single? Chowder? Anything?” Paris glared at Nadine.
    “Keep yer pants on. I’ll have Mary run them out. I can only carry so much.” Nadine glared back, turned tail, and left.
    Turner poured ketchup on his steak, baked potato, and carrots.
    “Good Lord,” Paris said, disgusted.
    Mary showed up with Paris’s food. She was Nadine’s niece, with the same mousey brown hair and buggy eyes. She smacked the plate down so hard that the food jumped and a fry landed on Paris’s coat.
    “Crap.” Paris picked it off her fur quickly and threw it on the table.
    “Sorry.” Mary threw a napkin down with some silverware and handed an extra one to Paris, then stared at Turner with what looked like unabashed adoration.
    “Thanks.” Turner smiled at her, then picked up his fork.
    “Shall we eat?” Turner paused, waiting forParis. So polite, Paris thought. Mary curtseyed to him and ran off. Curtseyed, yet.
    Paris waved. “Go…eat. You’re starving.”
    “Long flight. Peanuts.” Turner had a mouth full of steak now.
    Paris picked at her deep-fried cod and poured vinegar on it. She’d thought she was hungry, but now she felt sort of—not. She took one bite. It was good, but she was feeling nervous about what she wanted to ask Turner.
    “Can you answer a few questions while you eat?”
    “Sure.”
    “So, forgive me for being so blunt here, but I have to ask you about our so-called wedding night. I remember a few things…tubs, bubble bath, lots of fun.”
    “Thank you. You did seem happy and kept coming back for more.”
    “Oh, great. So my question is, did we have any kind of intelligent adult discussion about birth control?”
    “You showed me your patch and swore you’d had the appropriate tests and were disease free and had been on a long dry spell—at least a year. You made quite a point of it, and I told you I was also disease free.”
    Paris let the breath she’d been holding out. Her patch had been on in the beginning anyway. Thank God. “Well, at least I was still acting responsibly, despite my irresponsible actions.” That didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but she ignored it. She picked up a fry, stared at it, put it back down, then decided on the chowder. Pepper, lots of pepper. She was shaking pepper in her chowder when Turner made a comment.
    “Of course you were quite adamant about starting a family right away.” He didn’t stop eating for that, or anything.
    “I what?” Paris stopped peppering and set the shaker down hard on the table.
    “You said it was a miracle that God had sent you to me after all these years. That you were done working, you wanted to get married and have a family.”
    “Tell me you didn’t listen to any of that.”
    “I did reserve some sense there. You kept your patch on, and I felt that would give you some time to get settled before we actually started a family.”
    “Tell me you used a condom.”
    “I tried. You wouldn’t let me. You kept peeling them off. I swear, you were very insistent about that. I finally gave up and figured I’d married you, I was in for better or