They didn’t talk as Dustin drove them to work on Monday, as Ambria was too worried about who would be her boss to make an effect to chitchat. Would it be her own boss, Vernon, or would it be Amanda’s boss, Irwin? Since Vernon had called her while they were in Las Vegas, she assumed he would be her boss, but she couldn’t be sure until she saw him with her own eyes. Since Susie was part of this mess, she hadn’t been sure where she would be working and when Dustin pulled into the parking lot of the company she worked for, she let out a sigh of relief and smiled, thinking today was going to be a piece of cake.

Dustin kissed her good-bye before they left the car, then they walked into the building together. She did worry about how her coworkers would act once they found out she and Dustin had gotten married, but she shouldn’t have. When they called good morning to them, several people even asked where they’d been, but no one said anything derogatory when she said they had gotten married and had been on their honeymoon. When she arrived at her desk, she started working hard to catch up on her work from last week and she had been there about an hour when Vernon walked in.

Vernon was surprised to see a special glow about her and it made him angry. While she’d enjoying a week at home, he’d been busy trying to keep her work up. “It’s about time you returned,” he said hatefully to her.

“It wasn’t my idea to take the week off. If you have a problem with me being gone, I suggest you talk to Mr. Clayton about it,” she fired back at him. Once the words were out of her mouth, she cringed, unsure if the circumstances for her leave were the same as Amanda’s had been.

“Whatever.” He didn’t want to fight with her; he just wanted her to go to bed with him.

“I’m sorry if my being gone last week caused you problems. Is there any way I can do to make things up to you?”

“How about going to lunch with me?” Then while they were at lunch, he could tell her what he really wanted from her.

As she looked at him, she quickly prepared herself for his fury. “I can’t, I’m having lunch with my husband.”

His eyed darkened. “Since when do you have a husband?” he asked, his voice filled with fury.

It wasn’t really any of his business, as he was her boss, nothing more. “Dustin and I were married last Monday,” she told him, not caring how he took her news.

“You married Dustin Crenshaw?” His tone was sharp and his expression dark.

“Yes.” She looked at him boldly, daring him to say something nasty to her about her sudden marriage.

“I wasn’t aware you two were dating,” he said maliciously, as if she’d had to get married.

She refused to be baited by him. “We didn’t announce the fact, nor did we try to hide it.”

“I don’t want to see you on the phone with him or visiting his office during working hours,” he said, practically yelling at her.

“I’ll be too busy getting caught up on my work to be visiting with anyone, let alone my husband,” she retorted back.

The rest of the morning, he was very cool to her, ordering her to do something for him, instead of the usual more friendly way he used to ask her to do something. Vernon had just returned to his office and slammed the door, when a man entered her office. Ambria didn’t know who the man was and became to panic, unsure if she should know this man or not.

“Good morning. We haven’t met yet, but I’m Chad Driver,” he said as he put his hand out to her.

She responded by putting out her hand, remembering in the book Chad had been Susie’s boss and wondered just how many more people from the book would show up in her world. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Driver. What can I do for you?”

“First of all I want you to call me Chad.”

“Okay,” she replied shyly, a bit surprised by his friendly demeanor since she was part of the reason his employee had been fired. At least she thought she did.

“I also want to congratulate you on your wedding.”

She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

“With Susie’s dismissal, I have an opening in my department and I want you to be the one to fill it,” he told her, smiling at her as he waited for her quick acceptance.

Ambria was shocked at his offer and it took her a few seconds before she could find her voice. “I don’t know what to say. To be honest, your offer has caught me off guard. I’m honored you want me, but I haven’t even thought about her position being available, let alone think about applying for it.”

“I’m sure Vernon has been giving you a hard time since you told him about your marriage,” he said to her, watching her closely as he waited for her response.

When she looked at him, she could see his eyes reflecting some sort of knowledge and she gave him a puzzled look. “How would you know that?” For she knew not one person, not even Dustin, knew how Vernon had been acting towards her today.

“I’d seen you and Dustin out at lunch a couple of times, so I was knew something was going on between the two of you. Vernon and I had lunch once, and he happened to mentioned he was interested in you, so I knew your marriage to Dustin would upset him. I’m sure Vernon is letting you know just unhappy he is with your choice of a husband.”

“I told him the day I started that I wouldn’t date him. I never gave him the impression there could ever be anything between us,” she said defensively.

“I’m sure you didn’t,” he assured her. “Now about that position, do you want it or not.”

“You don’t have a problem with my husband being the cause of your employee being fired?” she asked, not positive if what she said was true or just something she’d read in the book

“Susie did it herself. Dustin wasn’t the first man she’d tried to stick her claws into, but whereas the other men just left the company to get away from her accusations, Dustin fought against her lies and won.”

“I see. Can I have some time to think about your offer?”

He nodded at her. “I didn’t expect your answer today. I’ll give you this week to think it over. All I ask is for you to let me know as soon as you made your decision.”

“I will, and thank you for the offer.”

“I want you to know there’s a substantial raise that comes with the acceptance of the promotion,” he said, giving her a grin. As if, just knowing that information would make the decision for her.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” she replied, giving him a smile at his quickly added enticement.

Chad said good-bye to her, then he was gone. With the way Vernon was acting, transferring to another department might be best as her marriage to Dustin was going to make them working together even more stressful than it already was. She would talk it over with Dustin tonight to get his input before giving Chad her decision.

At lunchtime, she met Dustin in the parking lot and they went out to lunch together. She told Dustin about Vernon’s rude behavior, and he asked if she wanted him to talk to him for her. She thanked him, but declined his offer, telling him Chad wanted her to fill Susie’s position. He told her he thought she would be great for the job, and if she wanted it, to go for it.

Ambria decided when they returned from lunch, she’d call Chad to tell him she accepted the position. When she thought of telling Vernon she was transferring out of his department, she grimace, knowing it wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation with him. She quickly decided she would wait until tomorrow afternoon to tell him about accepting the new job, as she wasn’t ready for any of his ranting and raving.

They returned to work and Ambria started back on her work, but by quitting time, she was still way behind. She left her office to meet Dustin at the front door and when he arrived, he didn’t take hold of her hand, but instead, he winked at her. At first, Ambria was disappointed, then it dawned on her why he hadn’t touched her. They were still in the building, and if someone saw them and didn’t approve, they could complain and cause problems for them.

Dustin’s hand itched to touch his new wife, but he was afraid if he did, he would end up embarrassing the both of them. He helped her into the car, forcing himself not to pull her into his arms and give her a kiss right there in the parking lot. He refrained, as technically, they were still on company property. However, as soon as they were home, he would be able to ravish her to his heart content.

“Tell me about your afternoon. Did you tell Vernon about the job offer?”

“I was too afraid to mention it. He’s been so nasty today, that and I didn’t want a confrontation with him until I was in a better state of mind and he was in a better mood.”

He wanted to offer his help again, but knew this was something she wanted to do for herself. “From what little I know about Vernon, I don’t think anytime will be a good time to tell him.”

Ambria panic-filled eyes turned to her husband. “You think he’s going to prevent me from transferring out of his department?”

He reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Chad is above him on the corporate ladder. I don’t think he would dare try to interfere with your promotion.”

“Well, I’m not going to worry anymore about it tonight, as I have more important things to think about,” she said, giving him a seductive smile.

“You thinking about sex again, aren’t you?” he asked, his voice as smooth as honey.

She bit her lip to prevent herself from smiling at him. “Actually, I was thinking we’ve had enough sex this week,” she said, trying to keep a sincere expression on her face as she look at him.

He gave her a quick glance. “Really. Then after dinner, you wouldn’t mind if I went out with some of the guys from work and had a couple of beers?” he asked so sincerely, Ambria raised her eyebrows at him.

Not realizing her husband was getting back at her for her earlier teasing, the smile she’d been fighting promptly dissipated. Tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes and her lips trembled. “You don’t want to spend the evening with me?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“Damn it!” he exclaimed. He pounded his fist on the steering wheel, as he felt bad for hurting her feelings. He pulled the car to the side of the street, quickly parked it, undid her seatbelt, then jerked her into his arms. “Sweetheart, please forgive my ghastly joking, I was just playing along with your teasing. Please say you forgive me?”

She looked into his pain-filled eyes. “Oh, Dustin, I do. I’m sorry too. All I can say is we’re still getting to know each other.”

“I agree, but something tells me it’s more than that. It’s almost as if you haven’t known me as long as I’ve known you.”

She let out of forced laugh at his statement. “What a strange thing to say.” She moved out of his arms and refused to look at him. “I’m hungry, let’s go home, and have some dinner.”

He stared at her for a few seconds longer thinking how differently she’d been acting since the morning after they were married. It was almost as if she was a completely different woman than the one he’d said his marriage vows to, but he knew that wasn’t possible. “Okay.”

When they arrive at the house, Ambria hurriedly opened her door and rushed into the house. She went into the bathroom in the master bedroom, then shut and locked the door. Then she sat down on top of the stool lid and began to cry, letting all her pent up emotions since landing in this new life poured out of her. How much longer could she keep this up? She felt as if she was living on top of a house of cards and just one wrong word would send her new world crashing down around her, but what could she do? She couldn’t explain to Dustin and truly expect him to believe she had read about him in a book. How could she tell him it had been Amanda, not her, who said her wedding vows to him?

Dustin was shocked at the speed Ambria had rushed into the house as he thought they’d come to some sort of understanding about the earlier confusion of his comment, but maybe not. He entered the house, but when he didn’t see her anywhere, he went into the bedroom thinking she wanted to change her clothes before fixing dinner. He saw the bathroom door closed and realized where she’d gone. “Ambria, are you okay?”

She hastily cleared her throat. “I forgot to use the bathroom before we left and I really had to go.” She hated lying to him, but didn’t think the truth would be a better option.

Dustin could tell by the crackle of her voice she’d been crying. If what she just said had been true, then why had she been sobbing? That meant she had lied to him just now. The more he thought about her lying, the more hurt he became, until his hurt turned into fury. How dare she lie to him! He wasn’t just some stranger, he was her husband for goodness sake.

“Until you’re ready to speak truthfully to me, I’ll be at the bar getting drunk,” he shouted through the door at her. He turned and left the room before she could open the door to stop him.

Ambria’s tears poured down her face, and the more she thought of the mess she was in, the harder she cried. She couldn’t remember every crying like this before, and was unsure what was causing her to be this emotional. It was too soon for her period, but maybe she was having PMS symptoms early this month.

She wiped the tears away, then began concentrating on her breathing, and slowly her emotions returned to normal. Well as normal as it could be considering she was married to a man she’d read about in one of her books. Knowing she had to apologize to her husband, she went to retrieve her cell phone, and dialed Dustin’s number.

“Hello,” a cold voice answered.

“Dustin, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you. You deserve better than that from me. All I can say in my defense is I’m scared. Getting married to a man I barely know, this situation with Susie, Vernon being upset, and then the promotion. It has all been a bit overwhelming to me,” she told him. It wasn’t all the reasons for her tears, but for now, it was all she felt she could tell him and have him believe her.

“I’m sorry too. My feelings got hurt and I took my frustration out on you. I guess you and I still have some things to learn about each other.”

“Are you coming home soon?” she asked him, wondering what she’d do if he said he wasn’t. She felt more tears threatening, but she swiftly brushed them away.

“Yes, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just remember I love you.”

She smiled. “I love you too.”

They disconnected, then Ambria hurried to the kitchen to start dinner. When she passed the kitchen table, she suddenly realized all her furniture had been moved to his home while they’d been at work. Wondering where her bedroom furniture was, she started searching the other two bedrooms, finding all of it in the smallest of the three bedrooms. When she saw her bookcase, she hurried to it to search for the book that had caused her life to change, finding it exactly where it should be in the bookcase. She grabbed it and started to open it, then stopped, unsure if she wanted to read it now or leave it for another time. A thought suddenly entered her head, making her swiftly put the book back on the shelf. If reading the book the first time had altered her life, would reading it again change back to the way it’s been before? To be safe, she decided not to take the gamble and left the room.

She had just put dinner into the oven when she heard the garage door opening, then she turned to look towards the door, anxiously waiting for Dustin to enter the house. When she saw he had a red rose in one hand and a wooden decorative birdhouse in the other, she walked towards him, giving him a sweet smile.

The birdhouse was blue, with decals of red hearts, ladybugs, butterflies, snails, and flowers on it and she loved it. “What do you have there?”

“These are for the woman I love,” he whispered in her ear as he pulled her into his arms.

“Since you told me you loved me just a few minutes ago, they must be for me. Where did you get the birdhouse? I love it.”

“I saw it at the florist shop and I just had to buy it so you know you had my heart.”

“Thank you,” she said tearfully. “I’ll treasure it always.

“If I give these to you to say I’m sorry for my harsh words, what are you going to give me?”

She put her lips against his ear and whispered a sexual act into it, then blushed when he gasped at her suggestion.

“Do I have to wait until after dinner?” he asked excitedly.

She looked over at the stove timer. “You have twenty minutes before dinner is ready.”

He grabbed hold of her hand. “That should give us plenty of time.”

She laughed as he dragged her towards the bedroom and when she heard the timer go off, they were still in bed. “I’d better go put dinner on the table.”

Ambria hurriedly dressed, then left the room to put dinner on the table. By the time, she was ready to sit down; Dustin had set the table. After dinner, he helped clean off the table and put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. They spent the rest of the evening sitting on the reclining loveseat together watching television. By nine o’clock, Ambria was more than ready to go to bed, and when she turned to tell Dustin she was going to bed, she saw he’d fallen asleep.

“Dustin,” she called softly, putting her hand on his arm, “it’s time to go to bed.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her, then put his hand on the side of her face. “I was dreaming you were a just a figment of my imagination. Just as you were waking me up, your body just evaporated in front of me, and I thought I would die.” He grabbed hold of her hand. “I don’t know what I’d do if you were gone from my life.”

His words brought tears to her eyes, making her wondered if his feelings were for her or for Amanda, but of course, she couldn’t ask him. “I haven’t any plans to ever leave you,” she said, and it was the truth. If she left, it would be by the strange occurrence that had brought her to him in the first place, and not because she wanted to leave.

They moved into the bedroom, and Ambria put on her nightgown, crawled into bed, and then turn on the television to watch some of the news. As she settled in the bed, Dustin went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he came out of the bathroom, he glanced over at her. As she watched him, a ridiculous smirk on his face covered his face as he turned off the television and switched on the stereo. As the loud music filled the room, Dustin started removing his clothes to the music, giving her a strip tease performance.

Ambria’s eyes grew wide as she watched her husband. Never in her life had she ever seen anything as erotic as watching Dustin remove his clothes to the music. She’d seen a male stripper once at a birthday party when a coworker had turned forty, but it hadn’t been as exciting as this. Maybe it was because she knew she could touch Dustin at any time and in any way she wanted, but the real reason might have been because she knew he was going to make love to her once the dance was over.

Dustin was down to just his bikini underwear, then as graceful as he could, he removed them, and threw the article of clothing at her, causing her to blush. Then he danced in front of her naked, flipping and flopping, his male anatomy at her. The sight was more than she could take and she broke out laughing, giggling so hard she soon had tears running down her face.

“See if I ever perform for you again,” he said, giving her a fake childish frown.

“Come to bed and I’ll kiss your bruised ego.”

He gave her a genuine gasp. “I didn’t know you did that sort of thing.”

“Yes, I do, but just don’t tell my husband that I do,” she teased, “or then he’ll want me to kiss his too.”

He hurriedly turned off the music and the light before he got into bed.

“Dustin, how am I to find your bruised ego in the dark.”

“Let me help you,” he whispered in her ear, and he did.