Page 16 of Impending Consent

“I can… we can fix it,” she said softly but with no confidence.

“How, Sail? The only person who might be able to fix this is our father and do you really want him to know you married thisguy and signed a prenup that gives him access to your money? To our firm? Did you think about that? Half of everything you own means he’ll own part of the firm if you don’t follow through with this. Dad has been waiting for a fuck up from us and you just handed it to him. He’s gonna gloat and hand over a shitload of ‘I knew you couldn’t hack it in the world without me’. Is that a conversation you want to have with Torrance Addison Sr.?”

“No.”

“Damnit, Sailor.”

A few seconds later, the door swung open and her brother locked eyes with me. His were filled with fire.

“A word, please.”

I nodded and followed him to the living room. Halfway there, he glanced over his shoulder. “Stay in your room, Sail.”

She flinched and nodded, turning in the opposite direction. We trailed through the apartment onto the balcony where TJ stared at me for a long moment before he finally spoke.

“How much are you willing to accept to end this? Because you can’t possibly expect my sister to hand over half of her money to end this marriage.”

“What I’m willing to accept is for my wife to adhere to the terms we agreed upon.”

He laughed sarcastically. “She doesn’t want to be your wife, which means you want half of her money.”

“I don’t want her fucking money. I want her.”

“But she doesn’t want you?”

“Sailor doesn’t know what the hell she wants.”

“And you do?”

“I know she’s a brilliant woman, with more confidence in her pinky finger than the entire legal system in Atlanta possesses, but that only applies with sex, not her career. When it comes to her personal life, she’s very dissatisfied and searching for something. If she didn’t want to be married to me in somesense, she wouldn’t have gone through the motions of ensuring our marriage was legally binding. Regardless of the reasons she agreed,she agreed, which means she wanted this, even if only subconsciously.”

He frowned slightly. “And what were her reasons for agreeing?”

I smirked. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Of course I’m sure. The only way to find resolve is if I have all the details.”

“I refused to sleep with her.”

“You…what?” He stumbled over the words as confusion settled in.

“Your sister wanted me in her bed. I was practicing celibacy and refused to have sex with your sister or anyone until I was in a committed relationship, marriage kind of committed. She came up with the idea of us getting married, pulled it all together, and here we are, legally married.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

I shook my head animatedly, relishing in his disbelief and aggravation. I would assert TJ was well versed in his sister’s sexually expressive behaviors, but this was a step beyond her normal acts. “Unfortunately not.”

“And you agreed.”

“I did.”

“Why? If you claim it’s not about the money.”

How could I explain this to him in a way that didn’t make me appear crazy? Wanting to follow through with a bogus marriage did feel like I had somewhat lost the sense God provided me with.

“For the past couple months I’ve been around your sister. I’ve witnessed things that both pissed me off and intrigued me. Sailor is a unique personality but also very insecure to the point of not feeling deserving of a man who truly sees her. She is verydeserving and I see her. I can’t fully explain this but I agreed to marry Sailor because beyond the physical attraction, I feel a connection to your sister. Maybe I’m being naïve but we could be good together. I don’t want the money, I want to be her husband.”

He stared at me for a long moment then nodded. “The terms are one year. If she remains married to you for one year and this doesn’t work, you will walk and you get nothing.”

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