Page 76 of Perfectly Wedded

I cross my arms. “Unfair question. We already agreed there have to be rules.”

He touches my lips to silence me. “All questions are legit. You said so at the beginning.”

I suck air though my teeth. “Fine. You want an answer on why I keep pressuring you to set a date? We went into this arrangement with the understanding that we would end it.Eventually.This gives you an out if things aren’t working.”

“Who says I want out?” he challenges, narrowing his eyes.

Is he reneging on our agreement? Changing the terms? “I thought it would be better if we both believed it would be temporary.”

“Sloan,” he says. “I never wanted this to be temporary.”

The words feel like a grenade to my heart. “Never? Not even when you married me?”

“Never.” His voice is a low rasp.

The scene around me swims in my vision, my legs feel like spaghetti, and the only thing I can focus on are the dark pupils of his eyes, pulling me under. “But you can’t change the rules in the middle of our agreement. I know we’re trying to make this relationship work. That we’re doing everything backward by dating now, after we’re married. But I never want you to feel tied down. Pressured to stay with me when things aren’t working and you want...”

“An out?” he finishes. He shakes his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “Sloan. I don’t need an out. Not when it comes to you. I’ve already decided: I’m staying with you for the long haul, if you’ll have me. If you need more proof, then look at how I’ve behaved in our marriage so far. I’ve followed all the rules.For you. And I’ve tried to honor you in every way possible, waiting on you to decide you don’t need an escape clause from this marriage. I’m trying to be an honorable man until you finally accept that this marriage is real. At some point you need to decide you won’t run when things get hard. And you’ll stick around long enough for me to prove to you that I will always be there for you.”

“Wait—what?” I say, feeling like Vale just knocked the wind out of me.

He cups my face in his hands. “I love you, Sloan. You just have to decide for yourself if you want this marriage. Because there is no end date in my book.”

He’s waiting on me to decide?It doesn’t make sense, unless he knows me all too well. Which of course he does. He knows my temptation is to run away when life gets too hard. When it comes down to it, I’m the one who always gives up first. This is his game. To convince me that I need to see myself the way he does.

“Vale, I don’t know if I can be different,” I say, shaking my head. “Every time I think I can, I end up failing miserably. And then I prove to myself that I’m not capable of changing. I’m so afraid that I’ll disappoint you like my dad did to us. Losing my mom wrecked him, and he never got over it. It’s like he was always looking for something to make that part of him better and nothing ever could. And I’m afraid I’ll just disappoint you like I’ve already disappointed my sister by not telling her the truth about us.” I look down at the water swirling around me, because I can’t meet his eyes. “I want to be with you more than anything. But I’m too afraid of failing you to try. And you mean too much to me to let you down.”

“Then give us a chance,” he says, his voice hoarse, hands sliding to my jaw. “I think when you look in the mirror, you see someone who’s already failed. You’re afraid of getting hurt, of reopening the scars left over from your father. But I’m not him. Leaving will never be an option. When it comes to you and me, there is no end date.”

I blink back tears. I don’t know why I ever thought that Vale would turn out like my father, or that in the end, he’d fail me too.

Tears slip down my cheeks. “But how do you know you’ll still want me?”

“I willnever stopwanting you,” he says, kissing the tears away. “And I’m yours if you’ll have me, Sloan. I’m on my knees for you. Because I love you. I love every part of you. And I always will.” He pauses, holding my gaze.

He’s never said I love you before today.Those words feel like the sun, warming my back, filling me with indescribable happiness.

His thumb strokes my cheekbone. “The only question iswill you?”

I gaze into his eyes and willingly decide to lose the game.

I reach up on my toes and crash into his lips with a kiss that says everything he needs to know.Without question, I love you.

TWENTY-FIVE

Vale

I’m still floating from last night. That last kiss by the waterfall—along with everything that was said and left unsaid—made me never want to leave paradise. But our obscenely early morning alarm clock for the airport ripped away that dream like a cruel joke.

No more waterfall kisses or snorkeling adventures. Time to head back to reality, one that feels more like whiplash than a gentle reentry to life together.

Not only do we have a wedding ceremony and reception to finish planning, we also have to prepare forThe Star Report’sfull coverage of the event. And because things have been so busy, I haven’t even mentioned my hockey contract and the no-movement clause—something I was waiting to tell Sloan once things had settled down.

Even now, I can tell Sloan’s already nervous about the wedding, because her leg keeps bouncing up and down the entire plane trip home.

I lay a hand on her knee. She looks down at it and gives me an apologetic wince. “Sorry.”

“Tell me what’s bothering you,” I say, keeping my hand there.

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