Page 55 of Enticing

“Come on, Adelaide. The wedding is a formality. You need the marriage. So, marry me. I’ve got a game the day after, and then back-to-back away games leading up to New Year’s, so this works with the schedule.” She needs this, and I’m going to make sure she gets everything she needs.

Soft brown eyes study my face before she nods. “Tomorrow. Okay, let’s get married tomorrow.” She swallows slowly. “Then I guess we can move you in after.”

“Sounds like a plan, sweetheart.” I gather her face in my hands and hold her there. “I don’t want to leave you.”

She closes her eyes as if she’s fighting something.

“Leo... I can’t promise I’ll ever be able to give you what you want.” She climbs into my lap and tugs at my hoodie. “But I don’t want you to leave either, even if I don’t think I can give you what you want.”

“Baby steps, Mrs. Sinclair.” I tease my lips over hers, and she laughs.

“Oh, I’m taking your name, am I?” She bites at my lip, then shimmies against me when my dick pulses in my sweats. “Why shouldn’t you take my name?”

“I don’t want your money or your name, sweetheart. I just want you.” If her father were here now, I’d tell him exactly what he could do with both.

“How about a compromise? I’ll take it legally but not professionally,” she offers.

That’ll work.

I run my hand up and down her back, going lower with each sweep. “Professionally?”

Pretty sure this intensely private woman hasn’t ever mentioned what she does for a living.

Addie runs her fingers along my lip, hesitating. “I’m a romance author.”

I grab her wrist, stopping the movement and kiss the tips of her fingers. “That’s cool as hell, sweetheart. You should be proud of that. Why didn’t you mention it before?”

“I guess I was struggling with this book, and it had me worried I wasn’t going to be able to get it written.”

“And now?”

“I just needed some inspiration to hit.” She adjusts herself on my lap, and there is absolutely no fucking way she can’t feel how much I want her. “And it started a few weeks ago. I’ve got a few chapters left to write. But I should have it done by the deadline next month.”

There goes that damn flush again.

“Inspiration, huh?” I ask, and she nods.

Damn... There are so many ways I want to inspire this woman.

ADELAIDE

Listen to the whispers of your soul now,

no matter how quietly they’re sung,

so you don’t have to hear them scream later.

—Addie’s Secret Thoughts

Iwake up in the middle of the night, alone on the couch, tucked under a blanket I know wasn’t on me when we turned on Leo’s favorite Christmas movie. The television has been turned off, the only glow coming from the warm white lights of the tree, and Leo is nowhere to be seen. If his sneakers weren’t kicked off next to the couch, and his ring wasn’t on my finger, I may have thought I dreamed him up, but I didn’t.

He’s real, and he’s here, somewhere.

And for as long as this thing between us lasts, I’m pretty sure he’s mine.

My husband . . .

If only that thought didn’t scare the shit out of me.

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