Page 146 of Failure to Match

My lips wobbled, the aching mass in my throat swelling. Even if I’d known what to say, I wouldn’t have been able to get the words out without dissolving into tears. I dropped my hand and rolled my trembling lips. The urge to lean forward and kiss his pain away kicked at my chest, but it would only make this next part harder.

“I told you she wasn’t talking about him,” he said.

“I didn’t think—” My voice split into an uneven half, opening the dam. “You didn’t have to… I’m sorry.”

A harsh breath rushed out of him, his pale eyes sharpening. “Stop crying,” he demanded.

“Okay.” I took a sleeve to my face. “Sorry.”

“Jamie.” The skin underneath his left eye feathered unhappily. “Stop it.”

“I’m trying!” My god. If he’d just give me a minute.

“This wasn’t why I showed them to you.” He quickly buttoned up his shirt, his brows pulling into a deep frown.

“I know.”

“I was just trying to—damn it, Jamie.” To his utter dismay, I’d hiccuped. “I had a plan.”

“So-orry.” I was a broken record of apologies, and I didn’t care.

His thawing gaze slid all over my blotchy face, and his thumb brushed away a rogue tear that had slid down to my bottom lip. “I fucking hate it when you cry.”

“Sorr-ry.”

“Stop that, too.”

“Okay.”

He gave me a minute, soothing away my tears as they fell. Once I’d gathered the pieces of myself into a somewhat solid pile again, he murmured, “Do you have enough proof now? Can you sign the contract or do I need to?—”

“Okay.”

“I… what?”

“I’ll do it. I’ll sign it.” He didn’t deserve to be forced into a relationship, and if this was the only way I could really help, so be it. “But I’ve got a few conditions and they’re nonnegotiable.”

“Anything,” he said, voice light with disbelief. “Whatever you want, just tell me. The agreement I had drawn up has a two-hundred-million dollar?—”

“I won’t do it for money,” I said firmly. “Or any sort of material gain. That includes properties, cars, company shares, or whatever else you’re thinking of compensating me with.”

His brows pinched. “Jamie?—”

“No.” I shook my head. “I won’t budge on it. You’re my friend and I care about you. So I’ll do this for you as a favor, or I won’t do it at all.”

His eye twitched. “As mywife?—”

“On paper.” Which was a perfect segway to my next condition. “I will be your wife on paper for exactly one year, just until those shares are legally yours.”

The tension in his forehead eased, his eyes searching mine.

“I want the same relationship terms and boundaries that you had in the original agreement. Separate bedrooms, separate lives, an open marriage, all of it. We will be husband and wife on paper, and we can maintain a friendship outside of our contractual obligations, but I can’t offer you any more than that, Jackson.”

He swallowed roughly, eyes continuing to slip between mine, studying them.

“And I can’t… have a child with you. If you need an heir, then you’ll have to figure something else out.”

He said nothing, so I cleared my throat and moved on to my last condition. “But before all that, you have to complete the Immersive program and go on the dates I set you up on. If you still haven’t found someone you like by the end, I’ll sign the agreement.”

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