DECEPTION : (A student/teacher romance)

“Where are we going?” I glance around the town in bumfuck nowhere. After we showered and dressed this morning, Rocco pulled an SUV out of the garage below the cabin and drove us toward a town I never knew existed. It’s quaint and full of country character, out of sorts compared to the city, but I love it already.

“We’re going for breakfast; it’s going to be a busy day, and I want you to eat before we start.”

His eyes never leave the road, avoiding making eye contact.

“What’s happening today?”

“We’re getting married.”

I splutter on a choked laugh. He’s kidding.

“Today?!” I glance around as if a wedding entourage will spring up from nowhere.

He pulls into a parking lot of a rundown diner, switches off the engine, and turns to face me. “Today.” He smirks.

I glance down at the same red dress I wore to dinner two nights ago. “I can’t get married in this.”

Rocco grins back at me. “I want you to.”

“You do?”

He nods. “It was the first thing I saw you in. It’s how you became my little red.” My mind races as I try to recollect the memory of what I wore the first night we met. I’m pretty sure it was a black dress, but I don’t correct him.

Besides, Gerrard always hated me in red; he said it made me look like a whore. It would be a big fuck you to him.

I clear my throat. “So, when is this wedding taking place?”

“Our wedding is taking place in”—he checks his watch—“a little over an hour.” My mouth drops open. “There.” He points toward a little white chapel down the road, and I sink back into the seat. I love it.

When I married Gerrard, I was never asked what I wanted for a wedding. I wouldn’t have picked the outlandish princess dress they chose to disguise my pregnancy, nor the elaborate golf club to host the ceremony at.

What I would have picked was something very much like the chapel down the street. I remember sending Sharna an image of one I loved as a suggestion for her wedding.

“It’s perfect,” I murmur.

Rocco’s smile encompasses his handsome face, then he throws open the SUV door, and before I can open my own, he’s there helping me out.