Chapter 6 #2
“Right.” He swallowed. Tugged at a thread on his jeans, then adjusted the collar of his long-sleeve tee where it sat over his scars.
I wondered how much of his chest and back were covered in them.
The sliver of chest I’d seen last night had been unmarred, other than his left shoulder.
He caught me looking at him and narrowed his eyes.
“Why did you sign up for this in the first place?”
Because I was off-balance and tender, knowing that I wanted him and he definitely didn’t want me, I went on the attack. “I’m a hopeless romantic,” I said, echoing his words from yesterday. “Emphasis on the hopeless.”
His glare was flat and unimpressed. “Come on, Sadie. I think by now we can be honest with each other.”
There he went, saying my name again in that indecent, dark velvet voice of his. I squirmed and tried to cover it up by taking a sip of my drink. Finally, I said, “You first.”
I expected him to brush me off again, but instead, he studied me for a beat and said, “My grandmother blackmailed me into it.”
Shock stole my words. I gaped at him, then recovered enough to ask, “What do you mean?”
“First, she threatened to cut me out of the will.”
My brows jumped. “Wow.”
“To be fair,” he added with a grin, “she threatened to cut us all out of the will.”
“You were…okay with that?”
A careless shrug. “I wasn’t going to let her manipulate me like that.”
By all accounts, Etta Mars was a very wealthy woman. Gideon had been prepared to walk away from hundreds of thousands—millions?—of dollars to avoid having to marry someone. To avoid marrying me.
Throat tight, I asked, “So what happened?”
Gideon’s eyes slid to the side, and he let out a long sigh. “When I was young and dumb, my security business was failing, and I went to her for help. I agreed to sell her half my business. Fifty-one percent, actually. She has a controlling stake.”
“She threatened to take it if you didn’t get married?”
He let out a bitter snort. “She threatened to chop it up and sell it like a venture capital vulture,” he told me.
“My livelihood. My brothers’ livelihoods.
We built Marswood Security together. We saw all these rich people building second and third homes on the outskirts of town—homes they barely visited—and we decided they wouldn’t ruin us.
They were a new market that needed security, and they were happy to pay for it.
My grandmother said she was proud. She said I reminded her of my grandpa.
And then she told me she’d take it all away unless I did what she wanted. ”
“She’s ruthless.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” he agreed, leaning back against the couch. He took a sip and shook his head. “She wants these weddings to happen, no matter what. I agreed to six weeks. If I get to the end and my bride decides not to go forward, she’ll let me be—and let me keep the business running as-is.”
Embarrassment swallowed me whole. I’d thrown myself at him last night, made a mess of everything, and now I was learning that he’d married me under duress. Of course he had! Wasn’t I in exactly the same situation?
“What if you don’t go the full six weeks?”
“She’ll use her judgment as to whether I made enough of an effort,” he answered, sardonic and bitter.
“Oh.”
He grunted in response.
He could lose his business if I left today. And still, he was willing to let me go. Because he wanted me to leave that badly? I was that awful?
Or was he just that kind?
“What’s stopping her from cutting you out of the will even if you go the full six weeks and don’t stay married?”
Gideon let out a humorless laugh. “Nothing. She’ll always have this leverage over me.” A tense silence followed. His blue eyes were suspicious when he met my gaze. “What’s your excuse?”
“Same story, kind of. My business is failing. I needed a way out. The only other option was moving back in with my parents, and that was an absolute last resort. Which, I guess, is where I’m at now.”
He clicked his tongue, ripping his gaze away to stare at the fireplace. It sounded like the words were torn out of him, but he finally said, “Stay, Sadie.”
“I wouldn’t want to put you through that,” I answered, caustic.
Gideon let out a bitter laugh, like my words had been a joke only he could understand.
It was clear he had agreed to be married against his will, and meeting me hadn’t changed his mind. Last night had been an aberration. We’d both gotten carried away.
These embers inside me would die. I wouldn’t be attracted to him forever.
It was a terrible idea to stay…but I was tempted.
It was a soft place to land while I figured my life out.
I’d loved everything I’d seen about this town.
Would it hurt to explore it some more? I had six weeks of free housing.
Maybe I’d find a third option, and I wouldn’t have to crawl back to the family fold.
“How would that look,” I started slowly, “if I stayed.”
Gideon cleared his throat. Shifted on the couch, like he couldn’t get comfortable. “We would live here for the next six weeks,” he said, spreading his arms to indicate the cottage.
The cottage with only one bedroom. Only one bed.
I sat very still. “Okay.”
“I’m busy with work,” he said. “You’d barely see me.”
That was a blessing and a curse, but I nodded. “Right. And at the end of the month and a half, we decide what we want to do next.”
He frowned like he didn’t understand.
I took a deep breath and grasped at the only thing that was left between us. “I wasn’t expecting to find true love here,” I admitted. “All I wanted was companionship.”
“I see.”
I licked my lips. Companionship. That was achievable, wasn’t it?
If true love was a silly fantasy, then mutual respect was the real-life equivalent.
“Maybe we can have that. We can come to an understanding,” I said, then straightened, nodding, my own words convincing myself.
“We both need this for our own reasons. It doesn’t have to be a—a regular marriage.
And then your grandmother’s leverage would be gone, so you’d be free. And I…I like it here. You know?”
His eye twitched. “Right.”
“Last night was messy,” I continued, “so how about we just—”
“Pretend it never happened?”
“You need to keep your grandma off your back. I need a fresh start. We’ve got six weeks to see if we can live with each other. Like…friends. Or business associates.”
His jaw ticked. “And after that?”
“If we’re happy with how things are going, we file the certificate. Stay married on paper. Live our best lives.” I gave him an uncertain smile. “And if we decide we’re better off apart, then we go our separate ways.”
It made sense. We couldn’t just walk away from each other. I had nowhere to go, and Gideon would be at his grandmother’s mercy. We could use this time as a test. I could stay in Marswood Harbor, see if it was really where I wanted to stay.
What happened last night wouldn’t happen again.
His eyes bore holes into me. I couldn’t tell if he was furious about my suggestion or relieved. Then it was his turn to smile without humor. “See if you still want to stick around after family lunch, and then we can talk about forever. We’ll leave in an hour.”
Without another word, he got up, turned around, and disappeared outside.
GIDEON
She would never be mine—not in truth—but the edge of panic that had ridden me hard when I noticed her packed bags had eased.
She was staying. For now.
I inhaled the loamy scent of the forest and cursed myself for wanting her so badly. The only way this plan would work would be to keep my distance. Build up my walls. Never, ever kiss her again.