Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 667(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
I ease back to stare into those simmering green eyes. “How?”
“The heroine eats Chinese food, gets naked with her future husband, and then later marries her fiancé at the lighthouse. In the original dress she ordered for the first wedding, or any dress she wishes.”
“Because he saved her dress. He held onto it because he held onto me.” Heart swelling, I reach over and touch his jaw, as I add, “And she lives happily ever after, with the most incredible man any woman could ever love.”
He kisses my fingers. “After they eat Chinese food, right?”
“Yes.” I laugh. “After they eat Chinese food.”
And so, we do. We eat. And laugh. And watch the movie, both of us betting on when the peck of a kiss Hallmark will allow, actually happens. When finally we climb into bed, it’s naked. When finally we sleep, it’s with his big, wonderful body wrapped around mine. And I don’t let myself lay there and think about the day ahead or the reasons we’re in the hotel room. I shut my eyes and think about the lighthouse, my dress, and the moment I get to say “I do.”
Chapter fifty-eight
Mia
Morning comes with a knock of reality. Grayson and I are back together, but we can’t just go home. I’ve never needed home quite so badly. Grayson feels it, too. I see it in the sharp lines of his handsome face, and the silent intense way he presses me into the corner of the shower and takes me hard and fast. I know this man. He’s on edge, and that worries me. Just how deep in trouble are we?
Fortunately, Kara has managed to pack my favorite pale pink silk blouse, and my lucky black skirt and jacket. Lucky because I won my first case in this very outfit. I dress with one goal in mind: standing by my man and finding our path to a better place—no, our path home. Together. I walk into the living area of the suite to find coffee and pastries on the coffee table, and my man dressed to kill in a gray pin-striped suit with a light blue tie. He’s also standing with Adrian and Blake and I’m pretty sure no one has heard the tomato joke because they aren’t smiling.
“Morning, Mia,” Blake says, while Adrian offers me a nod.
I murmur a reply but it’s Grayson I’m focused on. “What’s wrong?” I ask, stepping in front of him.
Blake and Adrian head for the door, and my stomach knots. “Grayson, what’s wrong?”
He catches my waist and pulls me to him. “You know how much I love you, right?”
I swallow hard, my voice rasping from my throat. “What’s wrong?”
“There was a hit piece done on me this morning.”
Grayson isn’t rattled by hit pieces, which is why I ask, “And?”
“The reporter, who was clearly set-up by Ri’s hacker hires, has photos of me with any woman I had contact with when we were split up.”
“Women that you slept with?” The question rasps like blades from my throat, painful and sharp.
“No. Actually, I didn’t sleep with any of the women they put in the article. Two were clients. One I went on one date with and couldn’t stop thinking about you. There wasn’t a second. I now have to call the clients to apologize. Mia—”
My hand comes down on his chest. “Stop. I don’t want to hear about it anymore or see it, for that matter.”
“Even TMZ picked it up, baby.”
I inhale and let out a breath. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“It’s done, Grayson. You didn’t cheat on me. And even if these women were bedmates—”
“They weren’t.”
“I believe you, but even if they had been your bedmates, I left you. You didn’t think you’d ever be right here with me again and neither did I. Let’s just go get this next week or two behind us.”
“Which is why I have a proposal for you.”
“You already gave me the greatest proposal of all.” I hold up my ring. “Twice, and honestly, Grayson, after I let Ri beat us, sometimes I don’t think I deserve to be back here with you now.”
“Don’t do that,” he says, pulling me hard to him. “We let it happen. And we are not going to let it happen ever again.”
“That’s right,” I agree. “Let’s go face this down. Together.”
“I want to grant an interview to a high-profile reporter. I want us to grant the interview. I want the world to know—”
I push to my toes and kiss him. “I don’t care about what the world thinks. I care about you and I care about us.”
His hand flattens on my lower back. “There was a time when you feared the world would think you slept your way to the top.”
“And then there’s today when I don’t. No one who knows us believes that’s true.” I push past the knot in my belly. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. He doesn’t get to win this time.”