Author's note: Another MOC Ethina story from me, but in this they are older than my last Ethina MOC. Hopefully, my muse will latch onto another Ethina idea soon, other than MOC. For now, hope you enjoy this fic.

Someday is Now

REVISED HISTORY

Chapter One

December 2019

"I'm going to marry you someday."

The memory of the moment Kristina had said those words to him flashed through Ethan's mind as she walked down the aisle toward him at the altar of the church.

It was a church only in the most broad sense of the word. Instead of stain glass windows, there were neon lights. Instead of a preacher, there was a guy dressed as Elvis. It was cheesy and bordering on lame but it was also so Vegas. So him.

He lived for gambling, the rush, the danger, the exhilarating highs and the crushing lows. Dodging gangsters. Screwing strippers and showgirls. He loved living in Vegas, visiting Monte Carlo, Atlantic City, London and Macau.

He made good money at the tables and in the tournaments, then lost it all plus more, then made it back and lost it all again and, over and over. It was a good enough life for him. Sometimes he even went on adventures with his father or with his brother- rarely with both at the same time- or his father's best friend, Robert, and sometimes even with his mother.

He was living the life of his dreams- until she had tumbled back into his life unceremoniously pushing into his hotel room door at three am last night with a scheme. She needed a husband and had her scope set on him.

If he was any good at all at saying no to her, he wouldn't be wearing this monkey suit and standing next to Elvis about to become her husband. Unfortunately, Ethan Lovett was a lot of things but good at resisting Kristina's big brown eyes when they asked for his help- help he could easily give- was not one of them.

His heart raced as she made it to the altar. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. He knew this was all fake. They were far from crazy about each other.

This was just a scam, a scheme, a con. He was a con artist. She was mad at her Daddy. This wedding wasn't romantic. They weren't star crossed lovers finally reunited.

She had been a kid with a crush. He had been flattered and his heart weak for someone like her, so sweet and good, giving a damn over someone like him- who was anything and everything but sweet and good, except when it came to dealing with her.

No, this wasn't a big, romantic wedding they were pulling off here today in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Church of The King of Rock and Roll. But his heart beat nearly out of his chest all the same.

His palms were sweaty. His mouth was dry. He nibbled his bottom lip as his eyes locked on hers.

He reached for her hand- small and delicate, soft and slightly chilled- and asked "You sure about this, sweetheart?"

He called plenty of women sweetheart in his life. Plenty. But it never sounded quite the same falling off his lips as it sounded when he said it to her.

Goosebumps cascaded over his skin as she parted her lips and said "I've never been more sure of anything in all my life."

Preacher Elvis interrupted the moment by swiveling his hips and saying "Well, then let's get this party started! You ready for a lifetime of rock and roll? You're one lucky man to get this little lady as your missus until death do you part."

Ethan gulped. His death might come a lot sooner than expected once Sonny heard about this little stunt.

But his motto was You're not really living unless you're living on the edge. Well, this was the edge, for damn sure.

He was way out on the edge and he only hoped that this wasn't his last big hurrah.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Three Hours Earlier

Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, as he ignored the grumbles of the women laying in the bed behind him, he leaned on the door of his hotel room in Vegas and drawled out "Well, well, well, what brings you to my door? Are my eyes deceiving me? Kristina?"

He knew it was her. He'd know her anywhere. She still looked the same- just more jaded, more experienced, more raw and ruthless and edgy, all that little girl softness washed away somewhere along the way. She still took his breath away with her wide brown eyes that begged for understanding and attention.

He was a sucker for being needed and no one ever made him feel quite as needed- as necessary- as Kristina Corinthos Davis.

She pushed her away inside, wrinkling her nose at the smell. "Are you running a brothel in here?"

A light flipped on and revealed three scantily clad showgirls in his bed.

One of them, Bunny he thinks is her name, or maybe Bambi, (something animal related for sure), asked "Who the hell are you?"

Kristina said "His fiancée. Now get out." She looked at Ethan. "We need to talk." Her voice turned pleading "Please, you are the only one I can turn to."

The only one. Magic words. His kryptonite where she was concerned.

"Ladies," he said to the women in the bed "I'm so sorry but it looks like the party is over. Duty calls."

Soon his bedmates were dispatched, slightly put out to be tossed out in the middle of the night when he had said it was cool if they crash there but also understanding that stuff like this happened when you played the game the way they all played it. They had just been having fun. Ethan had regular fun with all variety of women. Always protected. Always safe. Tested regularly.

He rarely had fun twice with the same woman because he wasn't looking to catch feelings. And he could go without for months if he wasn't in the mood to be bothered. He wasn't a sex addict. Just not the marrying kind. He had tried that once and it blew up in his face within months. He'd never let that happen again.

Fooling around with strangers worked for him. He enjoyed it and he wouldn't apologize to anyone for how he lived his life. Not like either of his parents had room to judge or were the type to care anyway.

He only had one real friend and that guy had done time in prison for murder, before it was overturned on a technicality, so Johnny Zacchara really had no room to judge either. Ethan answered to no one.

So why did he feel like a slut when Kristina lifted her perfectly arched eyebrow at him as he closed the door behind the last of his bedmates. He swallowed hard and threw her a sheepish grin as they faced off.

She had busted into his hotel room at three am, after not seeing him for years, and she was the one questioning his life choices? Really?

Okay, fine, maybe three women at one time was a little much. Okay, fine. But he was single so he wouldn't apologize for the unorthodox nature of his social life- even to Kristina.

He bit back an explanation and went on the offense. "What brings you to my part of the world at this late hour?"

"I need you to marry me."

Ethan started to choke on his tongue.

"Marry?" he asked, coughing, as he hurried to grab a bottle of booze off the dresser and take a big gulp. He wiped at his mouth. "You're serious, aren't you? Of course you are. Only you would show up asked me to marry you and be completely serious." His voice grew softer as he looked at her.

Her mouth opened to speak but he cut her off "Kristina," her name was a caress on his tongue that felt so right, like heaven and hell, life and death, all in one word, like everything, but she couldn't be all that to him. No one could be. He wouldn't allow it.

Ethan went on "It's been years since we've even seen each other-."

She rolled her eyes. "Relax. I'm not still into you. Give me a break, Ethan. I just need to run a con and you're a con man. Plus, I used to have a crush on you so my family would totally buy that I impulsively ran off to see you and we got married on a whim. I just need a little favor. You'll help me out, right?"

His heart beat fast. Time stood still. His mouth betrayed his better senses as a smile curved his lips and he said, his brain not involved in the decision at all, "Sure thing. I'm always up for a good con." He took another big gulp of the booze. "So what's the story? Why do you need to be married so bad?"

"Because my father is an ass. He gives Michael anything he wants because Michael is a guy. I'm not so, in my father's eyes, I need to be protected and shielded and spied on and I don't deserve my trust fund until I'm 30 or married."

Her father, of course this would have to do with that guy: Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, Jr, mob boss. Great. Just great.

What did I just get myself into? Ethan asked

Kristina hadn't even had to push him hard to get him to agree to her wild idea. It wasn't a half bad plan- straightforward and backed by a legal document so it should work but only if Ethan lived long enough to enjoy his winnings.

"So" he drawled out "what's my cut?"

"You're charging me for a favor?"

"Nothing comes for free, sweetheart. 50 percent is the going rate but you got spunk, and I admire that in a woman, so I'll only charge you 10."

"So you finally noticed I am a woman? Took you long enough."

He gulped. "How long we got to stay hitched for you to get your pay off?"

"Well, my lawyer suggests, just to be on the safe side," she mumbled the next part "two years" then said louder "but you can just ditch me and run off after a month. No one will be surprised. You're not the type who sticks around anywhere for too long and my family thinks I'm just as much of a flake so they'll just roll their eyes and give me a lecture about making bad decisions. I'll deal with the clean up and the pitying looks around town. It will be worth it to finally be able to call my own shots in my life."

"I just gotta ask: what's the rush? Wouldn't it be easier to just wait a few more years until you're thirty and get your trust fund that way?"

"I've been jumping to my parents tune all my life. Every penny they ever gave me has come with strings. I'm working in a bar and can't pay my rent while Michael lives in a mansion and if he didn't live with the Quartermaines my father would buy him his own mansion or penthouse because Michael is a man and men can take care of themselves. But I'm just a girl in my parents eyes, a messed up one at that, and I need to have guards and roommates or worse, live with my mother until I get it in my head to go back to college and settle down with a respectable guy."

"I'm far from that."

"You're better than respectable. You live your life to the fullest. You're there for your family and friends when they need you. You're a really good person, Ethan. That's why I knew you'd help me when I asked-."

"I'm just in it for the money."

"Sure, sure, but if there was no money and I needed you to marry me anyway, I know you would."

"I'm not half as good a guy as you think, Kristina."

"Don't worry. I don't have stars in my eyes over you any longer. I'm only here for the cash. You in?" She sashayed over to him and stuck out her hand to shake on it.

Eyes locked on hers, lost in the brown depths, he shook her hand and said "For better or worse, let's do this."