Twice the Trouble Read Free Page A

breathlessly. “My fiancé and I took the premarital prep course so we could get married right away. Is that what the two of you did?”
    “No.” Lacey smiled. “I didn’t expect to be here at all, but my ex-boyfriend is blackmailing me, so here I am.”
    Alex listened, but didn’t look up from his booklet. “Lacey, behave,” he said in a bored tone. “Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you have to spoil it for everyone.”
    The young woman looked confused and a little alarmed, but she quickly recovered when a clerk called her name.
    After forty long minutes, it was Alex and Lacey’s turn to stand at the glass-partitioned counter. A middle-aged woman with half glasses, a pencil in her hair, and a jaded expression pushed a form through a slot under the glass. “Fill this out and return it with both of your picture IDs, please.”
    Alex was amused by the way Lacey blocked his view while she filled out her half of the form. He made a point of reading every word she’d written before completing his half. The questions were generic and nothing he didn’t already know about her.
    “Did the two of you take the premarital preparation course within the last thirty days?” the clerk asked.
    “No,” Alex answered. “We just ran into each other this afternoon.”
    The clerk rolled her eyes, as though she’d heard that line a hundred times before. “It’ll cost ninety-three-fifty, and then you’ll have a three-day waiting period.”
    “Do you really think that’s long enough?” Lacey said. “This is a big step, and I could use a few more months to think about it.”
    “I hear that U-Haul has great local rates.” Alex peeled a hundred dollar bill from his money clip and slid it through the window slot. He turned to Lacey. “You can keep the change. Apply it toward your moving expenses.”
    The ride back to his office building was silent as before, but somehow seemed more so. It wasn’t because he didn’t know what to say. There just didn’t seem to be anything left to say.
    Alex parked in the same choice spot he’d left earlier and shut off the ignition. He walked around to the passenger side and opened Lacey’s door.
    “Why are you doing this to me?” she asked again.
    “Isn’t it obvious?” Alex smirked. “Retribution.”
    Alex cringed when Lacey slammed the door of his treasured BMW and strode to the next island in the lot. She stopped beside an older than dirt Ford pickup with more primer than paint and rust holes along the bottom the size of baseballs.
    Alex rushed to catch up to her. “You can’t be serious,” He looked the truck over.
    “Hey, this happens to be an antique.” Lacey seemed truly offended. “It just needs a little fixing up. I admit it’s not pretty, but what do you expect from a farm truck?”
    “I expect you to be able to make it home without having to add three quarts of oil.”
    “Seriously, Alex, I’ll be fine. I’ve been driving this thing forever.”
    “You, and how many others before you?” Alex pulled a business card from his breast pocket. “Call me when you get home. Just so I know that Old Rusty got you there safely.”
    Lacey snatched the card from his fingers. “Whatever, I really need to get on the road. Granddad is going to be furious that I’m so late.” She turned and opened the creaky driver’s door.
    “What, no kiss good-bye?”
    “Now you’re the one who’s not serious.” Alex spun her around and trapped her against the side of the truck bed. Impulsively, he took her mouth in a deep, bone-melting kiss. He didn’t know why he did it, but he realized that he’d wanted to, since the moment he saw her standing in his office. It was still a natural, primal instinct to press his body to hers and find a way inside. As much as he hated her, his body still craved her. From the desperate little whine she emitted as she leaned close, he suspected Lacey’s body might still remember his as well.
    His hands roamed down her