Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 60711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 202(@300wpm)
He cupped her face in his hands, the same way he had in the hallway, the same gentle possessiveness—and slowly lowered his head.
And in his eyes, just before his mouth covered hers, and she let herself fall into his kiss—
Just for one moment, she had seen in his eyes...
The same thought she was thinking.
The same fear she was feeling.
If marrying each other felt so terrifyingly right...
Why did it also feel like they were in danger of losing each other?
Chapter Ten
ANDIE STARED AT HER phone screen for a long moment.
The numbers glowed back at her, simple and stark.
A routing number.
An account number.
And finally—
$55,000.00.
Her thumb hovered over the Send button.
This was it.
This was everything she’d come to San Antonio for.
She pressed Send.
And just like that, all fifty-five thousand dollars was gone from her account.
Andie waited for the relief to hit. The triumph. The sense of finally, finally having accomplished what she’d set out to do.
Instead, she just felt...numb.
She lowered the phone to her lap and stared at the wall of the jet’s private bathroom—all marble and brushed gold fixtures, because of course even the bathroom on Paul’s plane looked like it belonged in a five-star hotel.
The last few hours felt like a fever dream.
The wedding ceremony, brief and surreal, with Harry and Star crying and their husbands pretending they weren’t. The judge’s voice intoning words that changed everything. Paul’s hand gripping hers like he was afraid she’d disappear again.
The kiss.
That kiss.
And then somehow they were in a car, and then somehow they were at an airport, and then somehow she was walking up the steps of a private jet while a flight attendant welcomed her aboard like this was all perfectly normal.
Like people got married to billionaires they’d known for three days and flew off into the sunset every afternoon.
Her phone buzzed.
A notification from her bank.
Payment received. Transaction complete.
Her chest tightened.
It was done.
The money had arrived.
And now it was time to tell her husband...because she didn’t want to start her marriage with a lie.
Andie tucked her phone into the small clutch she’d been carrying since the courthouse and stepped out of the bathroom.
Paul was waiting in the main cabin, his tall frame silhouetted against the windows. He’d loosened his tie and undone the top button of his shirt, and something about that small dishevelment made her heart do a complicated little flip.
Her husband.
This impossibly beautiful man was her husband.
“There you are.” His gray eyes swept over her, warm and proprietary in a way that made her skin tingle. “I was beginning to think you’d made another run for it.”
“Very funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
Her heart ached.
This man, oh, this man...
“I’m yours,” she whispered.
Something flashed in his eyes.
Something...that she herself wasn’t quite ready to decipher.
Especially since she wasn’t quite sure that something would last...once she told him the truth.
“It can wait.” He was already pulling her toward the back of the plane. “But first...” Paul guided her through a door at the rear of the cabin, and whatever she’d been about to say evaporated entirely.
A bedroom.
There was a bedroom on this plane.
She should have expected this, shouldn’t she?
And...it wasn’t just some small room, but a suite.
With a queen-sized bed that dominated the space, its linens crisp and white against dark wood paneling. Soft lighting cast everything in a warm glow, and through the windows, she could see clouds drifting past like cotton scattered across an endless blue.
“This is where we’d, um...sleep?”
Paul’s hands settled on her waist as he turned her to face him. “Who says anything about sleeping?”
His mouth found hers before she could respond, and any remaining thoughts about confessions or bank transfers simply...dissolved.
This kiss...
It was different from the others.
Slower.
Deeper.
Like her husband had all the time in the world and intended to use every second of it.
His hands slid up her back, fingers tracing the line of her spine through the delicate fabric of her wedding dress. Andie melted against him, her own hands finding his shoulders, gripping the fine wool of his jacket.
“I’ve been wanting to do this,” Paul murmured against her lips, “since the moment you walked toward me in that courtroom.”
“We’ve been married for—” She tried to think. Failed. “—three hours?”
“The longest three hours of my life.”
He was walking her backward, slow and deliberate. Her knees hit the edge of the bed, and she sat down hard, the mattress dipping beneath her weight.
Paul loomed over her, one hand braced beside her head, his gray eyes dark with want.
“I’ve thought about this.” His voice was rough. Strained. “Thought about having you in my bed. Thought about all the things I want to do to you.”
“Paul—”
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
She shook her head, mute.
“Let me show you.”
He kissed her again, harder this time, his tongue sweeping past her lips. Her back met the mattress, and then he was covering her, his weight pressing her into those impossibly soft sheets.