Not Husband Material (Billionaire's Contract Duet 1)

“Got your lackey to spill me some blackmail after I helped him unwind some of that tension?” she finished for me with a devilish smile. “Why yes, I did. I have proof that your little farce is just that.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Was our breakup really that bad, Liv? Jesus.”

“Oh no, Chase,” she assured me, slipping her coat off to the floor and leaning back against the couch, crossing her bare legs. “On the contrary, I think I was too hasty. I think we should revisit some of those long summer nights together...and I think you could stand to invest a little of that investment money into some of my family’s enterprises while you’re at it, as long as you want my evidence of your sham to stay away from the press. If you think Haley had trouble with Simmons…”

“So that’s what this is about,” I spat. “Sex and money. Bl

ackmail.”

“You make it sound so ugly, for someone who’s head over heels in a fake marriage.”

“My marriage is real, Olivia,” I growled.

My shout boomed through the room, and it was so forceful that even Olivia looked shocked for a moment. There was a pause between us before I continued. “Haley is the love of my life. The whole day before you got here, she’s been on my mind, and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t get her out. Until you can get your head out of your ass, you’re never going to understand that feeling.”

I marched across the room and grabbed my heaviest overcoat, throwing it on.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, her voice losing some of its seductive edge. I was already at the door, keys in hand.

“Say whatever the hell you want to the press. I’m going to go be with my wife, even if it means I have to hike through the Rocky Mountains myself.”

I slammed the door behind me, and I’d never felt more right about a decision in my life.

I’d done some stupid shit in my life, but this had to be the pinnacle. Fuck, I was driving over an actual pinnacle to prove a point. To prove I was a man of my word. A man who could be trusted. A man who would do anything to protect his wife.

Wife.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter. My knuckles were white. Almost as white as the blizzard swirling around me.

I’d used the word like a toy. I used it for fun. To seduce her. To fuck her breathless. It had all been a game. A business game I played. The risk and the stakes were high, but so was the payout. I needed a wife for a year, and it seemed harmless. As harmless as a fake marriage to your ex-girlfriend can be.

But I fucked it up. Royally.

As soon as Olivia showed up at my doorstep, I should have known. I had given Haley reason to doubt me. Two weeks had gone by without a touch. Without a kiss. Without being buried inside her, sleeping inside her. What in the hell had I been doing?

Was I trying to sabotage the best thing that had ever happened in my life?

The tires spun as I hit a deep patch of snow coming down the mountain. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I could see the town on the horizon, but I didn’t know how I’d get there. The snow was coming down sideways and I kept fishtailing every two miles. This was as fucked up as winter storms got.

And I was driving in it.

There was no way I’d stop now. Not until I made it to her. Not until she knew the truth. Not until I kissed her soft pouty lips. Not until she understood that Chase Hawthorne was her husband in every way. That I was the man she deserved.

I tried to steer over a sheet of ice. The car started to slide and I shifted to the center of the road. It was getting worse out here. Just over the railing the mountain descended into a dark pit. Like hell if I was ending up in the bottom of the canyon tonight.

“Shit,” I muttered, slowing to an unbelievable crawl. I could walk in the snow faster than this. No, I wasn’t driving over the cliff. I was driving toward the woman who had saved me.

I swore when I got out of this storm, Haley would know everything. And this time, our life would be real.

26

Haley

I had never known this kind of deep, painful loneliness. Not even when Chase first dumped me in college. Not even in the quiet, panicked weeks after my father’s sudden death. Not even when my mother moved out of the Peppertree and into her own place in town. Not even when I first realized that the Peppertree was hemorrhaging revenue and losing beloved clientele and I noticed that I was on the fast track to failure. Nothing could have ever prepared me for the way I felt right now.

I was sitting at my desk in the office nook of my suite here at the Peppertree, staring out the window as the snow fell in heavy swathes of white from the dark gray sky. I could barely even make out the silhouettes of fir trees, the bluish triangles of mountains in the distance. Everything was washed in white and gray and black. Colorado nights were so long in the winter. Long and blisteringly cold. Everything felt emotionless and endless, and it was only adding to my sour mood.

It had been two long, aching weeks without Chase by my side. Sure, we texted each other and called in the mornings and nights, but our conversations were always so short, interrupted by work and obligations.