Page 33 of Chasing His Bride

I’m still in the process of moving on from him. If he thinks he can keep turning up and disrupting my life, he’s sadly mistaken.

“He looks interested in you,” he says, ignoring me.

“He is,” I say. “But that’s not your problem.”

There’s visible tension in Jack’s face as his jaw tightens and a vein bulges in his neck. “I need you to move to the US,” he says.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You have nothing keeping you here,” he says, walking to my chair, pulling it out, and taking a seat.

I raise an eyebrow in disbelief at the sheer absurdity of what he now expects from me. “And I have nothing in the US that would take me there.”

His eyes fixate on mine, almost pleadingly, as he says, “Me.”

No. No. No. Less than three weeks ago, he wanted nothing from me.

“I want to us to give us a try,” he adds.

“No.” I shake my head. Despite my strong desire for this to be real and my urge to walk up to him and kiss him, I must prioritize protecting my heart. I know this can’t be real.

And that is the only thing I want. For him to feel for me the same way I feel for him. But he doesn’t. This is still a transaction for Jack.

I step back and press my back against the wall as I take him in. “You chose me because I conveniently lived in another country and you could get your inheritance.”

“I didn’t choose you; we chose each other like two magnets, drawn together. The only thing that kept us from meeting each other before was an ocean. But that wasn’t enough in the end,” he says, not taking his eyes from me.

“But you can’t love. And I need that—” He goes to open his mouth, but I gesture with my hand to halt his words. “No Jack, let me finish. You told me that’s why you married me, because it didn’t matter. We didn’t matter,” I choke out.

His words haunted me for weeks, and I’m not disrupting my life so he can play happy families for his grandfather’s benefit. I’m not a fool; I know what this is about. He needs to do something for his inheritance; I suspect.

“I married you because I was attracted to you.” He pauses for a moment, tapping his fingers over my desk. “Had it never occurred to you I’m thirty-four years old, but I didn’t get married before for my inheritance?”

I shake my head, undeterred. “You didn’t marry me because you were attracted to me. You admitted it. I was suitable because you could get on with your life, inherit and forget about me.”

“I was attracted to you from the moment I saw you,” he grunts, his eyes piercing mine. “And regarding everything else, the only thing I’ve managed to do is inherit the business.”

My head tilts to one side as I consider what he’s saying. “Has anyone ever told you that you expect far too much,” I say, noticing his sudden caveman act; he’d throw me over his shoulder and carry me off if I didn’t rein him in.

“I expect nothing. But I need you in my life.” He exhales a deep, long breath. “Please have dinner with me tonight. My hotel, I’ll send a driver for you.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

My shoulders sag as I sigh. “Because you told me you couldn’t love me,” I say, my voice trembling.

“And that was a lie, Amber. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.”

Chapter 14

Jack

She walks into the hotel where I’m staying, and I can’t breathe. She wears a pair of slim-fitting trousers with a gold pleated top, showing her slender shoulders and not much else. But I don’t need to see her skin to know how her body flows; the curves of her ass or her tits that look as good as I know they feel. And I want her legs wrapped around my waist again.

My eyes are on her as she smiles and floats toward me. My wife is like an angel, just not showing her wings.

There’s a quick rise and fall of her chest as she realizes I’m there in front of her, and my heart clenches at how she sucks in a deep breath whenever she locks eyes with me.

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