Chapter 4

Ashley stirred slightly. She felt beckoning warmth around her and nuzzled deeper into it. Her bed had never been this comfortable, she felt she never wanted to leave. She would probably be late to her class today for the first time ever. But she wasn’t leaving this bed, or the arms wound tightly around her.

Wait! Arms?!

She struggled to open her eyes. A searing headache split through her head immediately. Why did she feel like someone smashed a sledgehammer on her head multiple times? And why was she in bed with Richard? She had made that rule at the beginning of their relationship. She didn’t like that much physical intimacy. She could count the number of times they’ve kissed. It seemed as though she would have to reconsider. She finally opened her eyes successfully, ignoring the throbbing in her skull.

Her eyes met with jet-black hair instead of Richard’s light brown. She blinked a few times to ensure that she was seeing right. This was not a trick of the light, neither was the man in front of her Richard. Richard cheated on her, and also only Rita’s brother could be this hot.

As soon as the thought pierced through her head, Ashley screamed and tried to roll out of his hold. The headache worsened and she saw his eyebrows creased before he tightened his hold. She was fucked! She was fucked! What was he doing in her bed? She looked around and dread fell upon her when she realized that this was in fact not her room at all.

Ian felt like he was holding a cloud, a wriggling cloud. He tightened his hold and felt more at peace. He should hold this cloud everywhere. The more he thought about it, the more he came to realize that he was actually holding a human being, a loud human being. Was it Rita? He hadn’t hugged Rita to sleep since the time she had a nightmare at fifteen.

He started to slowly open his eyes, the headache that was associated with the action struck him jarringly. It had been a long time since he felt this. It had been a long time since he was hungover. His eyes met the eyes of his sister’s ill advised best friend and he almost facepalmed.

Ashley held her breath. 

“Mention this to no one”, he said and started removing his arms. Ashley’s heart skipped a beat. His voice, usually smooth and composed, had transformed into something entirely different. It was raw and deep and textured, like gravel being poured over velvet. She had to look away to avoid him seeing her blush. 

The door was slammed open. “Rise and shine Hills!”, A shrill voice yelled and a lithe beautiful woman skipped into the room. Right in front of the bed stood a black-haired woman, effortlessly chic in blue cotton pajamas. Her silky, obsidian hair, usually draping down her back, was everywhere like it had a life of its own.

“Congratulations to the newest couple in town”, she gave them both weird looks and Ian sped up the process of extracting his hands from her body. He should’ve been done already, but they had somehow tangled their limbs so strongly together that it was hard for him to know who owned which limb.

“It’s really not what it looks like”. Ian said, pinching his brows after he succeeded. Ashley swallowed. This was not the time to fawn over his voice.

“Oh I know. A lot of things happened last night. You might wanna hold on to each other for this”, she said, suddenly nervous.

“Rita…w-what happened?”, Ashley asked, sitting up on the bed with some difficulty.

She honestly didn’t want to know. Especially not if she had slept with the condescending man. Oh the insults would never stop!

“You two are married”, She sped out.

“WHAT?!”, Ashely shrieked. Ian recoiled in disbelief. Rita sighed and pulled out papers from her back.

“I didn’t sleep a wink trying to look for a loophole but it’s ironclad”, she said, passing three papers to each of them.

The first thing Ashley saw was the contract. It said she and Ian had to stay married for a year or they’d forfeit everything they had. This was ridiculous! This was impossible! It had to be a prank! Her eyes caught on her signature and her brand new name. 

Ashley Hills. This was a farce. This was horrible.

“We can still rip it up”, Ashley said decisively, turning the paper to the side to rip it.

“The stamp of the supreme court is on it”, Ian said coldly. “What did we do last night?”, Ian asked in his gravelly voice.

“Well, I got to your hotel and you were nowhere to be found, so I called you and you told me to come home”, Rita started, sitting at the edge of the bed. “I got home to discover the both of you in my living room, surrounded by paper and vodka bottles -I’m going to steal yours by the way-, discussing so seriously I thought someone was about to die”.

Ashley did get a flashback to a serious conversation with the arrogant bastard.

“You”, Rita said, pointing at Ashley, “told me you and Ian planned to get married to save Ian’s standing as the boss and to prevent your bitch of a step-sister from totally winning”, she looked down at her hands at this. “Sorry about that demon by the way”, Ashley waved it off, there were bigger problems on ground.

“I, of course, noticed you were both drunk, but unfortunately, I got drunk too. And in the process, I crafted this”, she pointed to the papers in their hands. Ashley chanced a glance at Ian and saw that his features were unreadable.

“While you were drunk, you crafted out a contract that can’t be breached”, Ashley said, holding her head. Rita was one of the best lawyers she had ever met, and now Ashley was regretting it.

“Yeah. So you both signed and you said it wasn’t legal yet, and so you asked big bro if he had contacts in the supreme court. Like some urban dictator, he dramatically whipped out his phone and skillfully explained things and asked the judge to come over with his stamp. The man really came over! And uh, he made the contract legal”, Rita sighed.

“We’re not actually married yet though”, Ian said, as if expecting Rita to hit him with something else.

“Uh I’m not done yet”, Rita winced. “Uhm, you got married in vegas and I was the witness”, Rita said, closing her eyes and opening them slightly to observe their reactions.

“HAHAHA, what a funny funny joke, it IS a joke, right?”, she asked, her voice hiding pain.

“Big bro called in his helicopter. We’re in your honeymoon suite. In Vegas. Ashley booked the church. I saw tapes of the wedding. You both looked like you were going off for war as you recited your vows”, Rita flopped lifelessly on the bed.

“I booked a church while drunk? He called in a judge and a helicopter while drunk?!”, Ashley asked, her headache multiplying by four times.

“What can I say? The Hills are talented with alcohol”, Rita said, a shining gleam in her eyes. Ashley recognized it for what it was. Rita was calling her a member of the Hills family, and legally, for at least a year she was.

“I’m telling the newspapers”, Ian said grimly, getting up from the bed.

“W-What?”, Ashley asked, confused.

“You’ve gotten your greedy wish, you're married to a billionaire, I have to inform the press”, Ian said, pulling out his phone from heaven knows where.

“HEY! You don’t talk to your woman that way”, Rita yelled before Ashley could drop the insult that was lingering on the tip of her tongue. 

“I’m not his woman! And I’ll never be his woman!”, she said firmly to Rita. “And you!”, she faced Ian. “I’ve never wanted to marry a fucking prick! So I’ll be out of your fucking way, after a year, I’M LEAVING!”, she yelled, standing up to go to the bathroom. Whatever bathroom she could find. This was the honeymoon suite after all, she needed to empty out the contents of her stomach. She should have gone straight to her own home. She shouldn’t have talked to him at all. Now she was bound by marriage in a relationship where the only thing they shared was their hatred for each other.  

A knock sounded on the door, Ashley opened it, hoping to find her best friend but when she saw the ruggedly handsome face of her new husband she slammed the door closed. He was a waste of good looks.

“The helicopter is coming down in ten minutes, get dressed or I’m leaving you here, there's a mask on the bedside drawer. I figured you wouldn’t want to show your face to the public. You have ten minutes”, his stupidly attractive voice sounded from behind the door.

Ashley sighed and slid down. She was tied to the man she hated most for twelve months. How bad could things get?