The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 261

Chapter 261

LORETTA-

I stared at the table in front of me. Then at the patient clerk.

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Giovanni stood next to me as my witness. Luca stood on Marco’s side, arms folded, looking at his brother as if he had lost his mind.

“You’re sure about this?” Luca asked.

“Just sign the paper when you’re told to do it,” Marco said.

“I’m asking a question.”

“And I’m telling you to shut up.” Marco did not look at him. He looked at the clerk to make sure she was distracted, then at me, then back at the paper. “I would rather do this than marry whatever girl our mother is currently choosing for me. You’re lucky you got Charlotte. You have avoided our mother since the announcement of the two of you being together. Let me have my bad idea in peace.”

Luca’s mouth twitched. “Just know you aren’t going to be her favorite anymore when she finds out about

this.”

“Thank you for the support.”

“You’re welcome.”

The clerk cleared her throat, and began to talk.

I could not hear her with all of the thoughts circling in my mind. Are you sure this is a good idea? You are truly marrying him. A popular racer with many fans. And possibly a crazy mother based on everything I’d heard about her so far.

Marco stood close enough that I could smell him. I hated that I noticed how attractive even his scent was. He was not smiling. In Barcelona he had smiled too easily. Here he looked like a man completing a procedure he had already argued with himself about and won.

“Sign here,” the clerk said, and turned the page toward me.

My hand shook.

Giovanni went very still beside me. He had not signed up for this. I had dragged him anyway, because I trusted him more than I trusted most of the people around me, and because this made the process easier since he was already here.

I was sure he was thinking that my parents did not pay him enough to witness a marriage they would hate. He knew if they found out he signed, they would possibly fire him. Even if they did, I would find a way to get him another great job. Better than working for my parents.

I signed where the line was. Loretta Bellandi. What would my last name be after this? I didn’t even bother to ask Marco.

I did not look at the line above it. I did not want to see his name already waiting. I was too nervous and my

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mind was already spinning. I was not ready to see my new last name.

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Needed to remind myself that this was fake. One year. An exit for him and an exit for me, nothing more romantic than two people refusing the marriages other people had already started planning.

He went next.

He leaned in to reach the page, and his fingers brushed mine where I had not moved away fast enough from the edge of the folder. Warm. Brief. Entirely ordinary, except my stomach did this weird thing that made me freeze.

I pulled my hand back.

No. Absolutely not. A brush of skin was not supposed to make me feel like this. This feeling was not allowed. The contract had a clause for exactly this kind of stupidity, and I had read it twice, and I was not going to stand in a clerk’s office and forget why I was here because of a small touch.

He signed.

Luca muttered, “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Marco did not look up. “If you speak again before we leave this room, I will tell Charlotte you cried when she left that night you almost lost her because of your stupidity.”

“I did not cry.”

“Sure.”

Luca glared. Marco’s lips curved into a smile.

Giovanni signed as a witness. Then Luca signed last, still mumbling under his breath.

The clerk took the pages back, checked them, stamped what needed stamping, and said the words that made me realize just how crazy all of this was.

Husband and wife.

I stared at the edge of the table. A folder slid toward Marco. Another copy toward me.

“Congratulations,” the clerk said.

“Thank you.” Marco’s hand settled at the small of my back, light, exactly the kind of touch the contract had described and my nerves had not prepared for.

He smiled at the clerk. It was a good smile. Believable, if you had not seen his face thirty seconds earlier. I forced one of my own.

It will be fine. Just one year.

We walked outside. Charlotte was waiting on the steps, hair tucked behind one ear, looking amused before anyone had spoken.

“Well?” she asked.

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“Done,” Luca said. “Still cannot believe he got married before me.”

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ragic, Charlotte laughed, and then she grinned at Marco. “I think you would make a wonderful

husband.”

“Watch it,” Luca said at once. “No flirting with my brother now that he is married. Especially now that you are officially mine.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes like she was used to him acting jealous and overprotective.

Marco glanced at Charlotte, dry. “Be careful what you say in front of him. We do not want a repeat of the last time he thought you had feelings for me.”

Charlotte sighed. “Please do not remind me.”

She seemed like a fun person. I would not mind being friends with her.

She turned to me and smiled. “Now that you and Marco are officially husband and wife, maybe we can hang out. Get to know each other properly. Without these two.”

Did she read my mind?

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