Page 95 of The Marriage Deal
I want to hide from the world.
I don’t know that I’ve ever felt heavy exhaustion quite like this.
There’s a noise and I peek up to see Briggs standing from his chair. The hard is gone from his eyes, though it’s still there in the tight set of his jaw.
He rounds the desk, but I don’t turn to face him. It’s no matter, the man crowds me anyway.
I feel him at my back. His warmth spills from him to seep into me. I hate that I love the way I crave it. The way I melt into it.
His hands find the desk on either side of me. I can feel his hot breath at my temple as he speaks, “We may have made a deal, but while you are my wife, you aremy wife, Lilah.”
“But—”
He cuts me off. “I bought you that car because I’ve hated knowing you drove something older than you since I learned you drove it. I want you in something reliable, and big enough to give a shred of hope if, God forbid, you were ever in an accident.” One hand moves from the desk to my belly, his palm pressing in until I’m moved into the solid wall of his chest. Against my temple, he says softly, “Your safety means everything to me, Lilah.”
“Okay,” I breathe, because it’s all I can summon right now.
“Okay?”
I swallow hard to clear the lump of emotion from my throat. “I love my new car.”
His hand curls into my belly a moment before he spins me around to face him. He tips my head back gently, and then his mouth is on mine. His kiss is deep, as though he’s trying to brand himself on my soul.
I wonder if he’d kiss me like this if I told him he was already there, the mark of him certainly deep enough to scar me for eternity.
He pulls away, leaving me breathless. “Thank you.”
I nod because I can’t do anything else.
36
NAME OF THE GAME
LILAH
Briggs isn’t beside me when I wake. It’s the first time since I started sleeping in his bed that I haven’t woken to him leaving me in the morning. I wonder if he slid his lips over my shoulder in that way he always does every morning.
I’m disappointed I missed it. It’s become my favorite part of the day, apart from the time when I slide into bed with him, and he gives me a couple orgasms. We really should stop doing that. But why?
Why not take pleasure from the year we have together?
I know the answer to that question. It’s dangerous, because every time I connect with the man I give him another chunk of my heart. Another chunk I can’t get back.
By the end of us, I’m not sure there will be anything left of me that he doesn’t own.
So, I know why I should stop. I absolutely know why I should stop. I also know that I won’t.
Obviously, I’m a glutton for punishment.
I roll onto my belly to check my phone and see a pair of yellow eyes watching me from the floor below. Then a blur of black leaps onto the bed with me, a little rattle-purr in full swing for pets. I laugh lightly, noting the door is ajar. Clearly, Spookers wanted in when Briggs left this morning, so he made sure the little guy would be able to escape when wanted.
“Morning, cutie,” I greet Spookers with a scratch behind his ears and a solid five minutes of pets before I climb out of bed. He follows me into the bathroom as I do my business, shower and get myself semi ready for the day in a light, soft yellow sundress printed with little white flowers.
It’s already impossibly hot out today, the sun shining hot and high in the sky even though it’s only just nine in the morning.
I’m obviously emotionally overloaded to have been so exhausted. But with the wedding nearing, ground breaking on the resort, and the feelings I’m doing my best to stuff down deep for my fake fiancé, exhaustion is just the name of the game.
I pad into the kitchen with Spookers on my heel. Senior ditched me during my shower, but I find Shana in the kitchen with her pad of paper and pen and a half-drank cup of coffee.
