The Road to Rose Bend, Naima Simone [jenna bush book club .TXT] 📗

opinion, I’m not a pauper. I can support myself and the baby on my income. That includes paying your fees.”

“That’s not what I was going to say, but of course, I’m going to represent you. And we’ll discuss payment later.” As in never. “Sydney, I want you to completely hear me out, okay? Let me finish before you say anything.”

A faint frown creased her brow, but she nodded.

“Okay.” He paused, all of the eloquence he employed as an attorney abandoning him when he needed it most. “Marry me.”

Well, fuck.

Shock slackened her beautiful features as she gaped at him. Her lips moved, but nothing emerged, and he jumped in, holding up a hand, palm out.

“You promised to hear me out first.” She didn’t reply, but that was probably due more to being rendered speechless than acquiescence. “I know it sounds impulsive, but it’s not. Daniel’s main argument for custody is providing the baby with the stability of a two-parent home. We could do that. Also, with our combined incomes, his claim of having better financial means doesn’t hold water either. Plus, throw in that I’m the mayor of a small town with a low crime rate, a nationally recognized clinic run by top medical organizations—which Daniel would’ve discovered if he’d bothered to do his homework—and a superior school system just to name a few things. And you have a core support group with my family, yours and a network of friends. We counter each point and give back our own.”

“Cole, stop. Just...stop.” She held up her hands, mimicking his gesture. “Are you listening to yourself? People in romance novels or rom-com movies do what you’re suggesting, not rational adults in the real world. A marriage of convenience is a trope, not my life. My baby’s life. Hell, your life. I can’t even believe...” She trailed off, staring at him.

“I’ve listed the pros,” he said calmly, settling into litigator mode. A curious calm settled over him, and he didn’t question it. Didn’t analyze why he was fighting so hard for this. “Give me your cons.”

“Are you serious?” she scoffed, bewildered. “A huge con is it’s crazy as hell.”

“That’s opinion, not an argument. But okay, I’ll counter with people still marry all the time for reasons of convenience—companionship, finances, expectations, even business. Next.”

“I just returned to Rose Bend. No one here is going to believe that we married for love, least of all a court or Daniel.”

“If we get married sooner rather than later, we’ll be married longer than Daniel and his fiancée. And why wouldn’t a court believe our marriage is legitimate? Besides a very real certificate proving it is, we’ve known each other for years. On paper, we make more sense than your ex and his partner. And the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter what Daniel believes. It only matters what the court takes into account to rule in our favor.”

“When you say ‘sooner rather than later’...”

“Next week.”

She shoved back from the breakfast bar, nearly teetering on the stool before righting herself and shooting off the seat. On instinct, he stood, reaching for her but she backed away.

“I don’t know what the hell this is. But no. No way in hell.”

“Sydney.”

“No,” she repeated, slamming up a hand. He obeyed it, respecting her space. Digging her fingers into her hair, she loosened the crown of curls piled on top of her head. Spinning away from him, she paced across the limited expanse of the living room. “I refused to head back into a marriage that would have been a loveless, emotionally sterile household. After Carlin...” An arm lowered, and delicate fingers circled her neck. “I grew up in that. I couldn’t do that to my child. I chose to raise my baby in a single-parent home rather than put that burden on her. The burden of being my happiness. And now you’re proposing that I undo those choices. That they’re no longer valid. I can’t...”

“I’m not saying any such thing. You made the decisions you did at the time, and they were right for you—for both of you. But here, now, it’s time to make another decision. Your baby wouldn’t grow up in a barren home. You and I are friends. We have mutual respect and affection for one another. There’s...attraction there.”

Jesus, wasn’t that the understatement of the century? As if attraction could accurately describe the greed and lust that consumed him whenever he was within breathing distance of her. Even the ever-present guilt couldn’t extinguish it. In a perverse way, the guilt inflamed it.

He got Tonia pregnant. He failed her and his son when they needed him most. He deserved this guilt, this shame. He didn’t deserve to be free of it when he was alive, and their bodies were interred in a cemetery. Like a masochist, he craved it—guilt connected him to them. Kept them forefront in his mind, his heart, his conscience.

And maybe he was just a desperate addict trying to find a way to justify having Sydney.

“Right.” An edge entered her voice, curling a corner of her mouth, glinting in her eyes. “About that ‘attraction.’ Do you intend for this marriage of convenience to be a platonic arrangement? Sexless?” She scoffed. “I might be pregnant, but I need to be touched. I want the connection that comes from physical intimacy. I want the pleasure. You know what, Cole? I want orgasms.”

Burning hot.

How the fuck did he just instantaneously combust while still standing here?

Desire licked every inch of his skin as if his clothes had evaporated under the heat of his lust. His skin prickled, and awareness of her—of each breath, each rise and fall of her chest, each blink of an eyelash—danced over him as if he’d become a tuning fork set to pick up only her frequency. His cock pounded, blood streaming to it like all his veins had changed course and now charged to one destination. He ground his teeth against the wicked, goddamn delicious throb. Craved the only thing that would ease it, make