From Fake to Forever (Newlywed Games 2)

Her mind buzzed dully with all the implications of that one crystalline realization. Maybe she wasn’t so confused after all because there it was. She wanted something special and real and lasting with Jason. He didn’t.

He cocked his head and contemplated her. “Sharing a bedroom complicates our interaction unnecessarily. This is a business proposition. Same as the first one.”

Right, how could she forget? She wanted something he would never give her—the man buried beneath his strategy. “I know. Marriage is still your weapon of choice.”

This new deal was far more difficult to agree to. She’d be insane to say no. This would solve all her problems in one, easy shot. Except for the one where she’d be acting like Jason’s wife without any of the benefits, like a supportive husband who cared about her and thought she was the best thing that ever happened to him.

She’d be insane to say yes.

“I need you, Meredith.” His blue eyes filled with vulnerability and her breath hitched. Not the puppy-dog eyes. She could stand anything but that. It threw her back to that time two years ago when he’d needed her. And she’d needed him.

God help her, she still did. She couldn’t resist him when he morphed into that man she’d spent so many blissful hours with. It was stupid to even pretend she didn’t want to stay a few more days. Stupid to pretend she’d snatched back that piece of her soul she’d given him in Vegas.

This was her chance, her very last chance, to find out if she’d made a mistake walking away from him in Vegas. And the last chance to find out if she was making a mistake wishing for something more this time.

If living in the same house couldn’t afford her an opportunity to get there, nothing could. She could go back to Houston with the knowledge that Jason wasn’t the man for her and get over him, once and for all. Somehow.

“How long?” she croaked. “I do have another job, my real job, to get back to.”

Which was less and less attractive the longer she stayed smack-dab in the middle of the New York fashion industry. Wedding dresses was Cara’s forte, Cara’s love. Meredith only worked with Cara because they were family, and her sister didn’t care that Meredith brought nothing to the table other than money.

“I don’t know. Maybe a couple of weeks. Is that a yes?” The hopefulness in his voice coupled with vulnerability pretty much made her choice for her.

She held up a hand before his smile grew any wider. “How can this possibly work? I don’t understand what your mother thinks we’ve been doing for two years with no contact.”

He shook his head. “She thinks we got married recently. She’s all gushy over the romance of it.”

“Wait a minute. So now we’re going to take our marriage, pretend it’s fake with each other but real to everyone else and lie about the timing? How does that make sense? Avery figured out we were married from somewhere and might actually know the whole story. Do you really want to give her that much leverage?”

Jason grinned instead of getting huffy about her contradicting him, like she’d expected. “I love the way your mind works. Please, my beautiful wife, tell me what we should do instead.”

Rolling her eyes, she crossed her arms before she punched him. “We tell everyone we got married in Vegas and intended to get it annulled, but neither one of us could bear to go through with it. Then we reconnected because you had to get the divorce to marry Meiling. It was obvious to both of us we never stopped loving each other and you knew you could never go through with your arranged marriage and here we are.”

“That’s—”

“Brilliant. Duh. Always ask a woman to give you a romantic cover story.”

Cover story. Because it wasn’t true. There was no romance to their practical union   and they weren’t in love. But she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about what might happen while they were living under the same roof. If she could only get him to let his guard down, like when he’d gotten so emotional about his father, she could say Adios to the corporate Jason Lynhurst. The man she wanted was in there and she’d entice him into making a more permanent appearance. Then, all bets were off.

His expression veered between amusement and admiration. “Great. It’s all settled, then. Right?”

She sighed. “I’m the least settled I think I’ve ever been in my life.”

“You’ll be great.” He waved it off as if he had the slightest clue what she was feeling, but he couldn’t possibly. “And we’re late for dinner. Mess up your hair and we’ll act like we had a really good reason for our tardiness.”