The thought of anyone propositioning him was enough to put her in a bad mood. He should just sleep with them. It sounded like any guy’s dream, having hordes of attractive girls lining up for a chance to fuck him. Yet it made something inside her want to explode in fury.
She must have exhausted herself at some point because eventually she fell asleep. The sound of her phone ringing woke her up, and it took her a second to remember where she was. Blackstone. Motel. Daniel Rogers.
Pushing him from her thoughts, she reached for the phone on the bedside table. “Hello?” she greeted groggily.
“Sarah, where are you?” came Darcey’s frantic cry through the receiver.
The urgency in her sister’s voice jolted her awake. “What’s wrong, Darce? Are you okay? Is it Adam? Is he asking where I am?” They had told their brother that The Griffin management was sending her to a compulsory health and safety seminar down in Reno and she had to stay overnight.
“No, he’s fine, don’t worry,” Darcey assured her. “But it’s … well, do you have a TV? Never mind. Give me second, and then check your messages.”
“Check my messages?” But Darcey had already hung up. What the heck did her sister mean?
Two seconds later, her notifications lit up with a message from Darcey. Actually, there were dozens and dozens of messages piling up in her inbox.
Thea: Where are you? Why aren’t you answering my messages?
Cathy: How could you keep this from me? I thought we were friends!
Stephanie: OMG, you’re all over the news!
There were a couple more cryptic ones from other people at work, and some acquaintances she hadn’t heard from in years. What the heck was going on?
Swiping the notifications away, she opened the latest message from Darcey. It was a link to a well-known gossip news site. “What the—” After clicking it, she realized what had sent Darcey into a tizzy.
Hero Ranger Who Saved VP—Married!?
There was a picture of her taken from an old social media profile and one of her and Daniel as they walked out of the Rangers Headquarters building, his arm around her as she pressed to his side. Scrolling down, she began to read.
Daniel Rogers, dashing ranger who captured the hearts of America.… She skipped the next few lines that recapped the assassination attempt story until she saw her name. Update: The mysterious Mrs. Rogers’s identity has now been revealed: Sarah Mendez of Las Vegas, Nevada. According to their marriage certificate, they were wed three months ago at the Chapel of Hearts in Las Vegas. Ms. Mendez is a waitress at The Griffin Resort and Casino, as well as a lingerie designer. She sells her original creations on her own website, Silk, Lace, and Whispers.
“How the hell did they figure that out?” she burst out.
Except for Darcey and the bank, no one knew about her side business, not even Adam or her friends at the casino. She deliberately didn’t put her real name on the company site or social media accounts. Her real-life clients only knew her first name and ordered directly by text messaging her.
Silk, Lace, and Whispers wasn’t a secret, per se, and designing lingerie was her passion, but when she decided to start up SLW, she’d had to think of Adam. He was a teenager, after all, and he was already getting teased and bullied at school being so … different from his peers. The last thing he needed was for his classmates to find out his sister sold trashy underwear to strippers. The Summerlin boutique would have been far enough from his school district that none of his classmates would know about it, plus Darcey would be the one running the shop. And if her brick and mortar location took off, she’d be able to afford so many more things for Adam, including sending him to MIT, his dream college by the time he graduated. But now—
The phone rang again, making her jump to her feet.
“Sarah, are you there?” Darcey asked when she answered.
“Yeah, Darce, I’m here,” she whispered. “Is it bad? Does Adam know yet?”
“He didn’t say anything during breakfast.”
“But he’s going to find out.” She buried her face in one hand. “Darce, this is awful.”
“Awful?” Darcey chuckled. “Oh my God, Sarah, this is great.”
“Great?”
“Yeah, why do you think I called? The orders on the SLW website are pouring in. That gossip rag linked back to us, and now we’re down to half our inventory! At this rate, I’m going to have to put in an order to the manufacturer to replenish our stocks by lunchtime.”
“Holy—you’re not shitting me, are you?”
“No, I’m not. Really. The site crashed this morning—and boy, was that a nightmare—but I fixed it. I also asked Agnes for the day off just so I can handle the orders coming in. She’s furious, but if this keeps up, I might be able to quit by the end of the month.”
She chewed on her lip. “Really?”
“Really. Like, Sarah, we might not even need a loan from the bank at this rate. They’ll be begging to give us money.”
“Jesus.” She sank back down on the lumpy bed. “I … I need to think about this.”
“Think about what?”
Though she hesitated for a moment, she told Darcey what happened with Daniel Rogers and his proposition.
“Oh my God,” Darcey exclaimed. “What are you going to do?”
“Go home and help you with the orders, I guess,” she said. “And file those annulment papers.” If Daniel was true to his word, they would be waiting for her at the reception.
“Good God, Sarah, why would you do that now?”
“That’s what I came here to do.”
“Yeah but … couldn’t you wait for a bit? Or even consider Daniel’s offer?”
“You mean, be his fake wife? Why?”
“So you can milk this publicity for a bit longer. Any other brand would kill for this free advertising. The SLW social media
