Not Husband Material (Billionaire's Contract Duet 1)

I stopped her as I reached that same corner table where we first saw each other. “Nothing’s too far for you. I’m safe. I’m here.”

Before she could answer, I grabbed her with an ice-cold hand and stood her up.

Her eyes were still open wide, true shock in her expression, and I can’t imagine how wild and insane I must have looked barging in here like this.

“Why, though?” she finally asked, looking more fearful by the moment.

“Olivia showed up at my place,” I explained, and her face darkened. “She showed up naked under a fur coat and tried to blackmail me into having an affair. Said she had evidence about us and that she’d go public and tell everyone our marriage is fake if I didn’t do what she wanted.”

“Oh my God, no,” she breathed. She put her head in her hands and looked like she was going to have a panic attack. “No, no, no.”

“Haley,” I started, but she turned away from me, biting her fingernails.

“I never should have agreed to this,” she nearly sobbed. “To any of this. I never thought it would get this complicated. I wanted to keep the Peppertree so badly, and the idea of having a baby of my own sounded so great at the time, but...” She turned to face me, and her eyes were rimmed with red. “I can’t do this with someone who doesn’t love me back.”

The words hit me like an arrow through the heart, and my jaw dropped as I watched tears stream down her face.

“I know it’s pathetic,” she sobbed. “But I can’t lie anymore. I love you, damn it, as much as I tried not to, no matter how much I tried to get you out of my head, I love you. I’ve loved you since...God, I can’t even remember where the facade ended and the real thing started, but I’m so, so far deep in it. I can’t do this anymore, not like this.”

I was stunned to silence for a few long moments as she sniffled. At last, I spoke in a soft, still tone.

“Haley, do you have any idea why I just crossed a mountain in a snowstorm?”

She stared at me like I was about to play some cruel joke.

“For you,” I confessed, and I watched her face go bright red. “All for you. To get everything that’s been in my heart off my chest for...hell, for weeks.”

“W-what?” she stuttered, her eyes going wide. She knew what was coming. I knew it in my heart, and it was written in her expression--it was something she felt too, but she’d never dared let herself go there out of fear.

I took Haley’s hands, and they warmed mine as I squeezed them.

“I turned my back on her and came here, because...because I love you,” I gushed, and I saw tears spring to Haley’s eyes.

“I love you, Haley Simmons,” I repeated, my face splitting into a laughing smile, and I picked her up to hug her, swinging her in a circle. “I love you, and I don’t want our marriage to be fake. I want this to be real, I want us to have a life together.”

She silenced me with a kiss, grabbing my face and pressing hers to mine. Her heart was pounding so hard I could feel it as I set her back down, and for a moment that felt like eternity, we got lost in each other.

Finally, she broke the kiss and half-whispered, half-sobbed into my ear, “I swear to God if you’re not serious.”

“Let me show you just how serious I am,” I growled meaningfully, and I unzipped my pants. “I’m going to show you exactly what I wanted to do the moment I saw you at this very table. And after that, I don’t ever want us to be apart for a second.”

My cock sprang free, and I ground it against her, pushing her down against the table and feeling her hair in my hands as she buried her face in my muscles.

“I’m going to build a life with you, have a child with you, and we’re going to run this place, right here in the mountains...together.”

I ripped my shirt off. I thought I heard buttons roll uselessly to the ground, and I didn’t care. The mess of clothes coming off was such a blur I barely even noticed. All I cared about was touching more of Haley and her touching more of me.

Soon, I felt her nails digging into the skin of my back while I pressed a kiss deep into her mouth.

Her tongue was warm, and everything about her was so ripe and ready to be plucked that I could have come inside her right then.

We soon tossed our shoes aside, and her bra came next. The moment her breasts were exposed, I was on them.

My teeth grazed her nipples, and my tongue massaged them until they were stiff and needy. Her breasts seemed fuller than ever, and the feeling of those stiff nipples between my teeth made me so hard I could barely stand it.

She was bent backward on the table, and I was looming

over her, my hands on her hips one moment and her sides the next.