Suddenly Yours Read online

  “Is this a joke?”

  If only this was a prank cooked up by his scheming best friends, but neither of them was that lucky. Although Cody couldn’t quite remember everything at the moment thanks to the alcohol-induced fog that clouded his memories, he distinctly recalled walking into the twenty-four-hour chapel hand in hand with Julian and laughing all the way down the aisle. They certainly weren’t laughing now. “Nope. We’re hitched.”

  “This—this can’t be happening,” Julian groaned, a look of panic seizing his dark, handsome features as he glanced at the white sheets wrapped around their bodies. “Am I—? Are we—? Did we—?”

  Cody didn’t need Julian to finish his questions to know what he was asking. Clearly they’d been married long enough already for Cody to finish his thoughts. “Yes, yes, and—” He reached under the blankets. The head of his cock was raw, and when he cupped his balls, they ached as if he’d been slamming them hard against something all night. “Yes.”

  Julian covered his mouth with his hand, and a second later he was a naked blur heading for the bathroom. Shortly after the door slammed, the magical sounds of violent retching echoed off the tiled walls.

  Not exactly a stellar way to start off their lives together.

  “God, I want to die,” Julian said between heaves.

  Cody could definitely relate.

  Suddenly Yours

  By Jacob Z. Flores

  A One Fine Day Novel

  What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas.

  Cody Hayes is having one epic morning-after. The hangover following a Vegas bachelor party is nothing new to him, and neither is the naked man in his bed.

  His apparent marriage is a different story.

  Carefully plotting every detail of his life carried Julian Canales to a Senate seat as an openly gay man. A drunken night of Truth or Dare isn’t like him… and neither is marrying a man he just met. He’d get an annulment, but the media has gotten wind of his hasty nuptials. If Julian’s political career is going to survive, he has to stay married to a man who’s his opposite in every way.

  Now he must convince Cody that all they need to do is survive a conservative political rival, a heartbroken ex, their painful pasts… and an attraction neither man can fight.

  Table of Contents

  Sneak Peek

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  About the Author

  Now Available

  Coming in November 2016

  Don’t Miss Dreamspun Desires!

  Visit Dreamspinner Press

  Copyright Page

  To Andy, Christy, and Dani. Thank you for everything.

  Chapter One

  CODY Hayes had had some epic hangovers in his life. In college he’d woken up naked in front of his fraternity house after his brothers had decided to draw obscene pictures in Magic Marker all over his skin. It had taken him a week to finally scrub the many penises off his flesh. Then there was his twenty-first birthday, when his best friend, Sam Judd, convinced him he’d look good without eyebrows, or the time he’d sung “I Will Always Love You” to his college crush, the star quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. That had been a fun night of trying not to get his ass kicked.

  There had been other moments like that throughout the thirty years of his life, but this one… well, this one took the cake.

  He’d never woken up married before.

  “We’re what?” his new husband asked before glancing at Cody’s hand. Cody quit fiddling with the wedding band and pointed to his finger.

  “Married.”

  Julian, his gasping groom, fixed his gaze on his own left hand. “Is this a joke?”

  If only this was a prank cooked up by his scheming best friends, but neither of them was that lucky. Although Cody couldn’t quite remember everything at the moment thanks to the alcohol-induced fog that clouded his memories, he distinctly recalled walking into the twenty-four-hour chapel hand in hand with Julian and laughing all the way down the aisle. They certainly weren’t laughing now. “Nope. We’re hitched.”

  “This—this can’t be happening,” Julian groaned, a look of panic seizing his dark, handsome features as he glanced at the white sheets wrapped around their bodies. “Am I—? Are we—? Did we—?”

  Cody didn’t need Julian to finish his questions to know what he was asking. Clearly they’d been married long enough already for Cody to finish his thoughts. “Yes, yes, and—” He reached under the blankets. The head of his cock was raw, and when he cupped his balls, they ached as if he’d been slamming them hard against something all night. “Yes.”

  Julian covered his mouth with his hand, and a second later he was a naked blur heading for the bathroom. Shortly after the door slammed, the magical sounds of violent retching echoed off the tiled walls.

  Not exactly a stellar way to start off their lives together.

  “God, I want to die,” Julian said between heaves.

  Cody could definitely relate. His already uneasy stomach churned, and when he got out of bed and glanced at himself in the mirror, he wasn’t digging his current shade of green.

  This had to be the most screwed-up thing he’d ever done, and for Cody, that was saying a lot. He prided himself on leaping first and looking later. Hell, it was the mantra he lived by. Why live life following the same dead-end road as everybody else? But this? This was too much even for him.

  “We need lawyers,” Julian said before another wave of nastiness left his body.

  No shit, and it wasn’t like Cody had spare money to fix this blunder. He’d wasted most of what he’d saved working shifts as a waiter to pay for this trip to Vegas. This vacation sure as hell wasn’t an expense he could afford, but Sam was getting married this weekend. He couldn’t not come.

  Now, instead of finding a way to pay the rent on his studio apartment when he got home to Austin, he was also going to have to figure out how to afford a lawyer.

  A dry heave racked the room.

  Wasn’t marriage fun?

  Cody closed his eyes, concentrating as hard as he could to pierce the black veil of his memories and find some reasonable explanation for his actions the night before. He remembered the bar after the bachelor party. Sam had been there, and so had Cody’s other college best friends, Mando Escamilla and Brett Cooper. They’d been whooping it up all night. Then one of them, most likely Sam, damn him, made Cody hit on an attractive Hispanic guy. Naturally, he’d done it. When had he ever turned down a double-dog dare?

  But when he thought back to his time with Julian, he could only clearly remember striking up a conversation with him. After that, he caught only faint glimpses of playing Truth or Dare and strolling the boulevard before deciding to live as husbands until death parted them. What the fuck was wrong with him?

  That wasn’t a can of worms he wanted to open right now.

  What he wanted to do was bolt out of this room and pretend this never happened, but he couldn’t run far enough to escape this particular hell. He had to stay and see this through to the bitter end.

  Cody let out a long breath and peeked into the bathroom, where Linda Blair had finally stopped spewing pea soup. Thank God. “How are you feeling, sweet cheeks?”

  “Don’t call me that.”


  Had Julian been this much of a party pooper last night? Cody recalled a frosty reception when he had first introduced himself. While most other men would have turned around and left, Cody hadn’t. Julian’s aloofness presented a challenge, and Cody never ran from a challenge. It had excited him—like the first time he went scuba diving. He was nervous but couldn’t wait to jump in feetfirst.

  That was exactly what he’d done. No, that was exactly what they’d both done. Julian clearly hadn’t remembered that yet.

  Cody leaned against the door and grinned. “Do you prefer honey bunny, or do you like to keep it simple? Something like babe or love?”

  “Julian works just fine,” he said into the bowl before another wave of gross left his body.

  This was the worst honeymoon ever!

  Since his groom wasn’t interested in playful morning banter, Cody took it upon himself to survey the body the State of Nevada had recently declared all his. No wonder he put a ring on it. Julian was smoking hot, even with his face shoved inside the porcelain god.

  His short dark hair, which stood up at rakish angles, complemented his naturally dark flesh, and boy did Cody love him some dark-skinned men. He pursued them like it was his job or something. Julian also had a lean, muscular chest, nicely developed arms, and a cute, tight butt.

  Score, score, and double-oh-my-God-I-could-eat-that-all-night score.

  If Cody weren’t so nauseous, he’d be doing his “Go, Cody” dance, which was basically the cabbage patch with a few high kicks thrown in for good measure.

  Still, no matter how awesomely yummy Julian’s body was, why did Cody even walk down that aisle in the first place?

  Julian took his head out of the toilet, staring up at him with his big, dark chocolate brown eyes, and flashed him a smile that turned Cody’s legs into Silly Putty.

  Oh yeah. That might’ve had something to do with it.

  JULIAN Canales had no idea why he was smiling. Nothing about this was funny, especially considering he’d just emptied the entire contents of his stomach in a matter of minutes.

  How the hell was he married? And what the heck had he eaten that was lime green?

  Doing something this idiotic wasn’t like him at all. He’d lived his life on the straight and narrow, making sure every path he traveled would take him where he most wanted to go. He had been that way since he was a child. His parents had instilled it in him, and they taught him how to avoid screwing up his life, but here he was, married to a man he could only vaguely remember meeting, and now, because of this one, single, stupid decision, Julian had most likely destroyed his career.

  His head swam with the implications, and another wave of nausea crashed over him. He gripped the edges of the commode.

  “Are you gonna be okay?” His new husband leaned against the bathroom door, wearing only his wedding ring and a smile. There was no denying he was an attractive guy. He was tall, probably just over six feet, with a strong jawline softened by a goofy smile. His hair, which was long at the top and short at the sides, jutted out in golden-reddish spikes, most likely the result of their night together. Judging from Julian’s sore ass, it had indeed been a long night. Had they even used condoms? God, he hoped so. He certainly didn’t want to add HIV or any other STD to the list of new things he’d acquired last night.

  “Listen, Cory—”

  “Cody.”

  “What?”

  “My name is Cody.” A grin dangled from the edges of his lips as he scratched at the reddish-gold facial hair that dusted his cheeks and neck. Julian had never been a fan of scruff, having always preferred the All-American look, but Cory, or Cody, somehow managed to make Julian a fan of the unkempt appearance. “You’d think you’d know the name of your husband.”

  Cody waggled his eyebrows in an obvious attempt at levity, but Julian wasn’t in the mood. The time for fun and games was over. It was time to be adults, not the irresponsible college boys they’d been masquerading as, but it was hard to have a serious conversation with someone who was buck naked.

  He slowly rose, traveling his gaze down the muscular curves of Cody’s arms and the light golden hair filling in the valley between his pecs. From there, Julian followed the trail down his stomach to the golden nest where Cody’s cock slept. Images of himself on his back, on his knees, with his legs draped over Cody’s broad shoulders on the ottoman, against the wall, bent over the desk, on the carpet, and then back on the bed suddenly filled Julian’s mind. Good God! How many times had they done it?

  “Like what you see?” A mischievous grin slowly slid across Cody’s mouth. “Because I do.”

  “What are—?” Julian glanced down at his own nakedness before covering his privates with both hands. “Perhaps clothes are in order.”

  “Are you tired of me?” Cody’s hand flew to his mouth in exaggerated shock. He glanced around the room before he choked out in a low whisper, “Already?”

  Julian sighed. If he’d married a stand-up comedian, he just might kill himself. He snatched a white towel off the sink and wrapped it around his waist. “Clothes. Now.”

  A fake sneer curled Cody’s upper lip. “I’m your husband, not your slave!”

  Julian changed his mind. It was Cody who had only a few seconds left to live. “Clothes. Please.”

  A smile suddenly replaced the fake snarl. “Sure thing, sugar bear.” He spun around and left the bathroom, exposing his smooth, muscular ass. Julian’s new husband certainly took good care of himself.

  Julian shook his head. He needed to focus on their predicament, not the creamy-white flesh that suddenly made concentrating difficult.

  “So what now?” Cody had wrapped a robe around his body. He was properly covered up, except the way the fabric parted at his chest and dipped low to his navel did nothing to help Julian’s concentration.

  He blew all the breath from his lungs, exorcising the person he’d been last night from his body. After a few deep breaths, the cool, familiar reins of control once again wound themselves around his grip. He felt centered, more like the person he’d always been, and he turned a critical eye toward his groom and the murky memories from last night.

  There could be only one reason this stranger would have whisked him down the aisle. “What are you after?”

  Cody tilted his head to one side. “What are you talking about?”

  “You obviously know who I am and are looking to cash in.” Julian headed toward where his pants lay in a crumpled heap, and fished out his wallet. “How much are you expecting to get out of this?”

  “You’re speaking English, but I have no clue what you’re saying.”

  “Come on, Cory—”

  “Cody.”

  “Whatever. Let’s just cut to the chase. How much?” He took out some bills and fanned them in his new husband’s direction.

  Cody snorted and shook his head. “You think I married you for your money?”

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t know I was rich?”

  “Well, I knew you weren’t hurting financially, that’s for damn sure.” He gestured toward Julian’s custom Italian suit, which was carefully draped over the back of the far chair. Julian might have been rash about marriage and sex last night, but he had taken the time to make sure his clothes didn’t get wrinkled. What the hell was wrong with him? No. It was best not to go there.

  “Are you even listening to me?”

  Cody’s words brought him back to the disaster that was now his life.

  “Sorry. You were saying?”

  “We didn’t get married because of your money. Hell, that almost made me not marry you.”

  Cody was speaking the truth. Julian could tell by the ease of his posture and the way he met Julian’s gaze. His tenure in politics had taught him how to spot a liar at ten paces. “I don’t understand. You know who I am, right?”

  “You mean besides my husband, the light of my life?”

  Julian locked eyes with him.

  “Jeez.” Cody shook his head. “I see you’ve g
one back to being the grumpy Gus I first met.”

  The pained expression in Cody’s eyes caused Julian’s chest to tighten. Why was he physically reacting to upsetting Cody? Julian pissed people off all the time, and it had never bothered him one bit.

  Julian tossed the money and his wallet onto the desk and plopped onto the bed beside Cody. “Okay, then. Maybe we should talk about what the hell happened last night.”

  It was the only option that made sense. Once he knew how it happened, he could find a way to make it all go away as quickly and as quietly as possible.

  Chapter Two

  “DO you remember that time we drew all those cocks on Cody?” Mando asked after taking a drag on his third beer of the night.

  Cody groaned into his drink. He loved his college buddies, but sometimes he wanted to beat them until they were dead. Why did they always get so much joy out of tormenting him? Especially since he was so sweet, personable, and innocent as a newborn babe? It probably had something to do with them being straight. Only straight men were this annoyingly obnoxious. When alcohol was added, it ramped up the irritating factor by at least a thousand.

  Brett and Sam chuckled in memory.

  “That was a great night.” Sam wiped away a stray tear. “It was the night Cody finally told us he was gay.”

  Oh Lord. Not this story again. He’d been scared to come out to his friends, worried they would turn their backs on him. If only he’d been that lucky.

  Brett snorted, running his hands through his hair as if it was still shoulder length like it had been in college instead of slowly retreating off his scalp. “As if we didn’t know. I mean, the rest of us were banging chicks like every weekend while Cody holed up in his room watching—” He stopped and blinked. “What was that show again?”

  Cody sighed. If he didn’t tell them, they’d bug the shit out of him until he did. It was better to just get it over with. Luckily paybacks were a bitch, and he was the undisputed king of settling the score. “Days of Our Lives.”