Paper Marriage Proposition (Gage Brothers 1)

Weak-kneed, Beth started walking over, her heart pounding like a drum. At that very moment, Kate’s guarantee of him not biting didn’t reassure her. A gleam of possessiveness glimmered in Landon’s eyes, and the mine-mine-mine! they seemed to echo set the tips of her breasts on fire where they pressed against her top.

He watched her advance. The way his attention homed in on her made her blood simmer. If they’d been anywhere else, anywhere else but in a roomful of people, Beth didn’t know what they’d be doing. No, that was a lie. She had a pretty good idea of what they’d be doing, what they could be doing—like regular husbands and wives.

“Come on, brother, make a wish!”

Landon bent forward, and as his eyes met Beth’s over the candles, a slow smile spread on his lips and made her thighs turn liquid. Desire wound around her like a vine, bringing with it a world of emotions she couldn’t suppress. Love…

They weren’t normal h

usband and wife, but they were more than Beth had ever been with her ex-husband. More connected than Beth had ever imagined feeling to another living thing. The candles smoked as he blew them out all at once. Crazily, she wondered what on earth a man who had everything could wish for. And it struck her.

He wished for me.

The thought was irresistible. Her hands clenched at her sides, and she could almost hear the last weak little barrier inside her crumpling.

And maybe all my life I’ve been wishing for him.

Something accompanied them home.

Something searing and undeniable. Electricity leapt from him to her, her to him, charging Beth’s nerve endings as they entered the quiet house.

They took the stairs side by side.

Expectation tickled inside of her as she reached her bedroom door.

She half hoped Landon would draw up behind her, half expected for him to turn her around and claim a heated kiss. He didn’t.

Startled when he said good-night, Beth heard his footsteps, muffled on the carpet as he made his way down the hall.

With an awful disappointment, she slipped into her spacious lonely bedroom, then surveyed the contents of her closet.

She had to do something, wouldn’t forgive herself if his kind actions went unrewarded, if her wanting continued to be unappeased. She wasn’t sure where this determination, this courage or this desperate want had come from; she only knew she needed her husband. She needed to show him her loyalties were with him, her gratitude, her respect and desire. Her trust.

Were with him.

Dragging in a breath, she eased into a little number she’d never worn before, and then without thinking about it too much, quietly made her way to Landon’s bedroom.

The door stood partway open.

Her blood rushed so fast and heady in her veins it deafened her to the single word she spoke. “Landon.”

His head shot up at the sound of his name.

They stared in the quiet, sizing each other up. Beth in the threshold to his bedroom, Landon in bed with the covers to his waist, bare-chested and bronzed, already with a book in his hands.

Her eyes hurt, he was so compelling. Hard, bulging muscles stretched taut across his broad shoulders. She could see his biceps and the defined bands of his abs before they disappeared under the crisp white sheets.

Nervously, she wet her lips and forced herself to shut the door behind her. “Did you have a nice birthday?”

Clenching his jaw, Landon set his reading material aside. “Thank you, yes. Did you need anything?”

His clipped tone hinted that he wanted her to go, and for three long heartbeats, Beth considered it.

But she remained, struggling for the words. Love me.

Landon waited in silence, then let out a sigh. “Bethany, I’m hanging by a thread in more ways than you can imagine. If it’s nothing urgent, I suggest you go back to your room now.”

She did not know what to say. She’d been so insistent they keep a healthy distance, she now realized it would be a struggle to let him know that things…had changed. Everything. Had changed.