Chapter 17 #2
A knot twinged in my chest. How I wished that were true. I blinked hard, fighting off another wave of emotion, stuffing all those feelings back into the box I’d packed them away in. “Guess I definitely one-upped him there,” I said, deadpan. Me and my fake marriage.
“Exactly,” Weston said, hugging me close and rubbing his hand up and down my arm. “You’re on track to having the job of your dreams and I’m going to make sure you come at least twice more tonight.” He rolled, pulling me on top of him. “So clearly you won the breakup.”
“Clearly,” I said. I couldn’t help grinning as I stared down at him, my hair falling against his chest. I could feel his cock hardening where it rested between my legs, and desire coiled in my belly.
I wanted to be touched by him. I wanted the comfort I knew I would find.
I wanted to bask in Weston’s hands on my body.
“I think I’m going to need to stock up on condoms,” he noted. “I only packed that one box.”
“Well, I’m certainly not screwing you without a condom,” I teased. “I’ve heard all the rumors about your exotic jungle STI.”
He groaned, and I giggled at the look on his face. “God, Narissa really is the gift that keeps on giving. What the hell was I ever thinking, getting involved with her in the first place?”
I leaned against his chest, my lips close enough to press a kiss to his chin. “You matched on paper. I think people have been married for less.” I gestured between us to make my point.
“We, in fact, were married for far more important things than how we matched on paper,” Weston said.
I knew he was talking about Lochbrae, which definitely meant more to him than his relationship with Narissa ever had, but that didn’t change the fact that choosing me as his wife had been a whim.
Just a case of convenience, choosing the option that had been staring him in the face at the right time.
“I don’t think you realize how grateful I am to you,” he continued.
“Well,” I said, my voice a little rough. “Love can make you do crazy things.”
He blinked at me.
“I’ve seen how you love this place,” I clarified.
“The people and the land. The memories. How much passion you have for them. Maybe proposing the way you did was crazy,” I paused.
“Scratch that. It was definitely crazy, but I suppose I would have fought hard for all of this too, if the roles were reversed.” I watched his expression shift from concerned to thoughtful. “What are you thinking?”
“Just that you’re right about how much this place means.
And yes, I acted out of desperation when I learned about the will.
I knew I couldn’t let this place fall into anyone else’s hands.
I guess I was just surprised to hear you call it love.
I think I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid that kind of love. ”
“Why?”
“Because, as far as I’ve seen, loving something that deeply always ends in destruction.”
I laughed. “Destruction, really? Don’t you think that’s a little melodramatic?”
But Weston wasn’t laughing. “Look at Alistair,” he pointed out. “Wouldn’t you say his life has been destroyed?”
Well. He might actually have a point there. “But it wasn’t the fact of love itself that was at fault,” I argued. “Wasn’t the real issue that he trusted the wrong person?”
“He absolutely trusted the wrong person—but the reason she was able to get away with everything she did was because he loved her so much that he ignored the warning signs,” Weston shot back.
“And you don’t have to be a liar and a thief to tear someone apart.
My parents were horrible to each other for as far back as I can remember.
But everyone who knew them back when they first got together would always say how wild for each other they were back then. ”
Sounds like the relationship was never all that stable in the first place, I couldn’t help thinking.
“That’s why I actually thought things would work with me and Narissa.
I figured I was making the smart choice—a socialite who knew the score, who wouldn’t care whether I was head over heels for her as long as I gave her the life she wanted.
The fact that I didn’t love her was supposed to make our relationship safe. ”
“Probably best to keep that tidbit off social media,” I joked. “Lest you invite a whole new wave of falsehoods and verbal abuse.” Speaking of, I needed to add “check in with PR” to my list.
He sighed, stuffing a hand behind his head, staring past me to the ceiling. “I was so certain we made sense together. I thought we’d have a simple, uncomplicated partnership.”
“So what happened? What went wrong?” I’d been around for some of it, watching the aftermath blow his life apart, but I hadn’t been in the relationship.
I’d cleaned up his messes, but I’d never questioned why there was a mess.
Especially when it came to Narissa, I certainly hadn’t thought it my place.
“The problem,” Weston admitted, “was that, somewhere along the way, she fell in love with me. That’s when she started getting all possessive and irrational. All the drama I’d thought I was avoiding found me anyway.”
The way he talked about love made me uncomfortable, but when Weston turned toward me, running a hand down my back and giving me a soft smile, I pushed my discomfort aside. Neither one of us was looking for love, so what did his thoughts about it matter in the end?
We were enjoying ourselves now, and that was all I wanted. That would be enough.
Wouldn’t it?