Page 110 of Chasing Lynda

She looks at me and her voice is a soft whisper. “I like you, Dodge. Like, really like you. And if Mr. Fletcher can fix my situation so that I’m not dead anymore and I’m not married to my ex anymore, I’d love to help you. God knows you and the guys deserve it and I can imagine a lot of worse things than being married to you.”

She smirks at the slight provocation and I grin right back at her. “But?”

She draws a deep breath. “But last time I was forced to walk down the aisle and say ‘I do’ to someone I didn’t love and who definitely didn’t love me. It was just a business transaction between my ex and my dad. I’ve had a lot of time to think about my life in the last year and I thought I’d probably never trust anyone enough to marry him.” Her gaze is so intense that I have no doubt she means every word she’s saying. “I trust you, Dodge. I trusted you with my body and chose you for ‘my first time.’ The only first time I remember. And now I’m trusting you with why I’ve been running and hiding. I care a lot about you and I could see that becoming more with time. This is why I don’t know if I can go through with marrying you. I don’t want another fake marriage. I don’t want to ruin what could be between us by tying you to me when you’re just doing it because of that clause and to stick it to Mitch and your ex. If I ever married you, I’d want it to be because you want me.”

Fuck.

I don’t know how to tell her how I feel, because I’ve never been good with expressing what’s in my mind; but I know I have to try.

“But don’t you see, Lynda? I do care. In the past couple of weeks all I’ve done has been trying to get closer to you, to get to know you. This is why I asked you to stick around.”

She smiles. “So it wasn’t because you felt guilty about me almost being flambéed in your hotel?”

I chuckle. “Fuck, no. And what happened at the hotel is awful, but we would’ve gotten you a room at a different hotel for the night we owed you, like we did with all the other guests. The reason why I wanted you around was because I’ve never liked anyone the way I like you, sexy girl. I don’t like to throw big words around, but I think you and I could be the real deal. That’s why the idea of asking you to marry me to help my family and the guys out of this mess, didn’t even come to me until I found myself backed up in a corner. If I had just wanted to marry someone for the sake of the money, I could’ve asked Arya or Denise. Damn, I could’ve fucking paid someone. But I agree with you, I didn’t want to get married as a business deal. I almost did it with Chrissie and while I was shocked and hurt by her cheating, in the end I felt relieved. Because I knew, I know there’s no way in hell that she could ever be the one. You? I can totally see us making each other happy. I can totally see us staying married forever. It’s just way faster than I’d have wanted it to happen, thanks to my grandfather.”

She considers my words, her perfect features so serious that I’m scared and hopeful at the same time. “I could see myself with you too, Dodge.” Her voice is laced with doubt.

“But there’s the others.” I guess and she nods, refusing to look at me again.

I coax her eyes back onto me with two gentle fingers under her chin. I don’t even know what the fuck I’m doing; this is a mess, but I say what’s on my mind without thinking about it too much. “I mean what I said to them before. If we get married, I won’t stand between you and them. We can continue like we were. I just ask you not to choose until the five years of the clause are up. Unless you choose me, of course.”

She thinks about it. “So for five years, you’d be sharing me?” She doesn’t look as disgusted by my request as I feared.

“For five years, we’d do what we’ve been doing these past couple of weeks. We’d just have to be discreet because in front of the rest of the world, you’d be just mine.”

For some reason, the idea of having Lynda all to myself doesn’t give me the rush I thought it would; not because I don’t want her enough.

I want her enough to marry her. I want her enough that I’ll ask Basil to draw up a prenup that will make sure that if she decides it isn’t me she wants after five years, she’ll never have to worry about money again. Even if for some reason, she’d ended up not choosing any of us.

It’s weird and all shades of fucked up, but the idea of her choosing me makes me happy and sad at the same time; because I can see that the others are staring to care about her just as much as I do.

Carter and Zane are smitten; even Bennett hasn’t so much as looked at another girl, and I know that it isn’t just because of the challenge. I think my womanizer best friend is falling for Lynda just as much as I am.

I want Lynda, but I don’t want my brothers to be heartbroken if she doesn’t choose them.

A really weird thought makes its way into my head; what if after five years, we decided that after all we don’t need anything to change?

I shake my head. That’s bullshit. The guys and I have been sharing her because we were chasing her, trying to make her fall for us. But we’re four alpha personalities and despite being a team, I doubt we could ever be ok with sharing a woman for good.

What happened with Chrissie should really serve as a cautionary tale.

“Ok,” she says softly. “I’m in. I won’t choose for five years.”

I can’t suppress my smile at her words. Without even thinking, I drop down on one knee and take her small hand into mine. “Fuck, I don’t have a ring. But I promise I’ll do this again when I get you one. Lynda ...” I look at her interrogatively when I realize that I don’t know if she has a middle name and I don’t know her last name.

“Lynda Ann Greggs,” she supplies.

“Lynda Ann Greggs, will you marry me?”

She pulls me up. “Yes,” she simply says, silencing me with a kiss.

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