Chapter 2

"This... this is..." My voice cracked as the photograph nearly slipped through my fingers.

He looked at me with a tired smile, something tender beneath the exhaustion.

"Delaney, I'm your husband—Gideon Sterling. Just got back from a three-month assignment overseas. Never imagined my first call back would be to our own apartment."

What?!

Something detonated in my brain.

I stared at this impossibly hot cop standing in my doorway, then back at the wedding photo in my trembling hands, my entire world tilting sideways.

This ridiculously gorgeous guy in uniform... was my husband?

The man I'd drunkenly married at that Comic-Con after-party?

"Oh my God. Oh my God!" Heat flooded my face. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know... I thought you were some kind of—Jesus, what did I even say to you!"

Remembering how I'd just pointed at his face and accused him of being a stalker, I wanted the floor to swallow me whole.

I'd mistaken my own husband for a deranged pervert!

Watching my meltdown, his mouth quirked into a real smile.

That expression transformed him instantly—from intimidating officer to something warm and almost boyish.

"Mrs. Valdez's misunderstanding got a little out of hand," he said gently. "She heard sounds from your apartment and thought something bad was happening."

Oh God. The sound effects testing. My face burned hotter. "That was... work stuff... game audio..."

"I know." He nodded. "You're designing a new game, right?"

I gaped at him. "How do you know that?"

"Because..." He stepped closer, his voice dropping lower. "I've been following your work. Even during deployment, I kept track of every project you launched."

Those words hit me somewhere unexpected, sending a strange flutter through my chest.

I studied him with fresh eyes.

The broad shoulders filling out that uniform, the strong build, those intense eyes, and that face—a face that belonged on a billboard, not standing in my cramped apartment hallway...

So I really had married a cop who looked like this?

And he'd been following my work this whole time? Even while doing whatever dangerous shit cops do overseas?

"So..." I managed quietly. "You're back now? The assignment's over?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Just finished today. I was planning to surprise you after my shift ended, but instead..."

His smile turned rueful as he glanced around at the hallway, at Mrs. Valdez's door cracked open across the way.

"Didn't think our first real meeting would go quite like this."

I looked down at the wedding photo clutched in my hands, emotions knotting in my chest.

My memories of that Comic-Con party three months ago were a blurry disaster—just fragments of too many drinks, too much laughter, and waking up the next morning to discover I was legally married.

But looking at this photo now, at how happy we both looked...

Maybe drunk-me hadn't made the worst decision ever.

The warm hallway light caught on Gideon's profile as he finished typing something into his phone—probably closing out the incident report.

He looked ready to leave.

I stood frozen in my doorway, my heart still racing from the embarrassment.

This man... was actually my husband?

"I'll pick you up after work tomorrow." Gideon turned back, his gaze locking onto mine. "Time we actually started this marriage."

What?

My face went up in flames. "Started this marriage? You mean... we're going to live together?"

The corner of his mouth lifted, that gentle smile making my heart do weird things. "I've been gone three months. It's time I came home."

"But I don't—we barely know each other!" I waved my hands frantically. "This is insane!"

"Then we'll get to know each other starting tomorrow."

He made it sound so simple! I stared at him like he'd grown a second head.

Gideon closed the distance between us, his fingers brushing my cheek with surprising gentleness.

"Delaney, we're married. Three months apart is more than enough."

My breathing went haywire. His voice, this closeness, the warmth radiating off him...

"I need time to... to adjust..."

"I'll give you time." His voice was soft. "But tomorrow, we start living together. Deal?"

My head bobbed up and down, then froze, shaking side to side, then bobbing again.

"Okay... wait, no, I mean... God, my brain is completely fried right now!"

Gideon's quiet laugh rumbled through his chest as he pressed a light kiss to my forehead.

"Get some sleep. See you tomorrow, Mrs. Sterling."

He turned to leave, got a few steps down the hall, then looked back.

"Oh, and next time you're testing sound effects? Close your windows. Mrs. Valdez's gossip network is legendary around here."

Then he winked—an absolutely devastating gesture that made my heart skip.

The moment my door clicked shut, I slumped against it, clutching my racing heart.

I stared at the wedding photo still gripped in my hand, replaying what Gideon had said—that he'd been following my work all this time.

"Following my work while deployed overseas?" I muttered to myself. "Do all cops have this much free time?"

The words came out weird though. I should have been questioning whether he was telling the truth, but instead it sounded more like... flirting?

"Though honestly..." I looked down at our smiling faces in the photo, my voice softening unconsciously. "I never expected him to be okay with what I do. Let alone actively follow it."

Most guys, when they found out I designed otome games—especially the adult content—either thought I was sketchy or got all judgmental about it. But him...

I shook my head, completely at a loss.

The drunken Vegas-style wedding three months ago had been absurd enough.

Now this gorgeous husband materializes out of nowhere, and I'd spent the first five minutes of our reunion accusing him of being a dangerous lunatic...

What kind of rom-com nightmare was this?

Though... he really did look incredible in that uniform.

Wait.

Wait a damn minute.

If he really was my husband, didn't that mean we were supposed to be living together this whole time?

We were married, but we'd never actually lived together—what kind of backwards arrangement was that?

I thought about what Gideon had said—"I'll pick you up after work tomorrow," "Time we actually started this marriage"...

Oh shit.

Tomorrow we'd be living together.

For real.