Page 19 of Sweet Nothings

“I don’t think you understand how badly I need this,” he says. “I need to take on this company. If I don’t, no one else will, and our entire empire will fall. We will lose it all.”

“What do you mean, you’ll lose it all?” My anger is twisting and tightening in my chest. “Don’t you have two other brothers who can help? You can’t tell me you don’t have some sort of loophole you can find to get out of this.”

“It’s not that simple, Laurel. Don’t be so naïve. There is no loophole, and no one else can run this company. You know my brother Jude no longer works for our firm, and Micah isn’t ready.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Micah isn’t ready?” I don’t hold back my cynical laughter. It climbs up my throat with minimal effort. “And what, you think you are? You can’t force someone to marry you, Lennon.”

I know my tongue is laced with resentment, but I can’t help it. The realization Lennon is proposing to me in the only way he’s capable of makes my bad day somehow turn even worse.

A business transaction. No feeling. No emotion hidden behind those cursed, beautiful eyes.

There’s still no recollection of the night we met buried behind them. No sudden epiphany. No memory of the night I straddled his lap while he whispered sweet nothings into my ear.

His eyes are as vacant as his heart.

My body betrays my mind. Because as much as Lennon has shown me who he is over the past few years, I saw a different side to him the night we met. There was a softness to all the edges he’s kept sharpened since.

I’m drawn to Lennon despite his coldness, but my mind won’t allow me to entertain his proposal.

“Tell me what it will take for you to agree.” He squares his jaw, unwilling to back down. “Is it money? I’ve heard your family doesn’t have the same notoriety it once had. Sounds like they could use a marriage like ours.”

“Yeah.” Tears sting the back of my eyes. “My family might need this, but I don’t.”

I blink and inhale a deep breath, stepping to the side to get out from under Lennon’s body, but his free hand is quick to wrap around my wrist, stopping me before I have the chance to turn away. “How much?”

My chest fills with immense shock. “You can’tbuyme, Lennon. I deserve a marriage that holds more value than money.”

I hide the echo of the pain from my marriage with David. A marriage that only held monetary value and nothing else.

“Trust me, Laurel.” He growls. “When you’re my wife, I’d make sure our marriage meant more than money.”

My breath catches and my heart pounds. I don’t exactly understand what he means. Much like the night we met when he talked about sweet nothings. Cryptic and mysterious. That’s all Lennon will ever be.

I swallow his promise of what a life would look like if he were to make me his. “I’m not certain you can do anything that isn’t self-serving.”

Lennon’s hardened eyes soften only slightly. At first, I think I might get a glimpse of the Lennon I met all those years ago, or at least a moment of recognition, but it fades before I’m even certain I saw it.

He loosens his grip as if my words are an arrow shooting straight to his inflated ego. Slowly and deliberately, he drags the tip of his finger along the length of my arm. I shiver, and my breath catches. His eyes follow his touch. He stops at the base of my throat as if to count my pulse.

The memory of his touch six years ago comes back full force. A trail of heat blazes up my arm to where his hand is resting on my throat. I imagine a ring wrapped around his fourth finger. One that would show everyone he was mine.

Considering the type of man Lennon is and the world he comes from, it’s a difficult concept to imagine. Especially in a world where the ring would be tied to me.

“I’m not trying to buy you. I…” He closes his mouth, and his nostrils flare. His eyes meet mine, cold as fucking steel. “Forget it.”

With bitterness simmering in my veins, I manage to speak around my racing heart. “A pleasure as always, Mr. Harding.”

With a hardened stare and a fixed jaw, he pushes away from the door. His stiff, rigid shoulders don’t so much as flinch when I open the door and hold it open for him once again.

It isn’t until he brushes past me and he’s left my office do I finally allow oxygen to fill my lungs again.

Then reality hits.

Lennon Harding just asked me to be his wife and I said no.

SIX

I don’t know what I was expecting.

---