Holly, Every Man's Bride

Dan married the most beautiful woman he'd ever touched. By midnight, he was sitting on a sofa watching two men he barely knew take turns with his wife in the bridal suite he'd paid for.

I need to be honest with you, because Dan's about to find out anyway.

I'm Holly. Twenty-four, just married, and I've spent two years letting my husband think I'm something I'm not. He's sweet, stable, safe, everything a girl's supposed to want. But marriage doesn't change who I am, and tonight, at our wedding reception in a Kentish Town hotel he paid for outright to impress me, I'm going to stop pretending.

I can't help it. I've never been able to. Big hands, confident voices, men who don't ask permission packing something that demands attention; that's what I need. Dan knows I'm beautiful, knows every man at this wedding's been staring at me all night, but he doesn't know what I've already done in the past, or what I'm about to do right in front of him. His family, his friends, they're all about to see exactly what kind of wife he's really married.

By the time we reach the bridal suite, Dan's going to discover I'm not the woman who walked down the aisle this morning. I'm the woman who can't say no, who's been starving for proper fun since the ceremony ended, and who's about to show him exactly what his wedding night's going to look like - whilst he sits there watching, hard, unable to look away.

Some marriages start with a kiss. Ours starts with Dan learning his place, and me finally getting what I've needed all along. He thinks tonight's about us. It's not. It never was.