“What!” Ruby shouted.
Gavin winced and pulled the
phone away from his right ear. He expected her to be shocked by his unexpected
marriage proposal. But not shocked to the point of shouting. “Can you bring it
down a notch, Red?”
“I don’t want to be tied down
and I definitely don’t want to be tamed,” she said, lowering her voice again.
“Logan wanted to tame me with marriage and you see where that got him. Plus I have a hard enough time trying to act docile
around my family during the week. Why do you think I go out and let my hair
down every weekend? If I didn’t have that outlet, I would probably go
crazy.”
“I would never think of trying
to tame you. I like you wild if you recall,” Gavin replied, referring to their
night together.
Ruby moaned. “Yes, I do
remember. I’ve never felt freer in my life.”
“That’s good to know, because
marriage to me would set you free in other ways. You would be free to pursue
your own dreams without upsetting your family,” Gavin advocated. “Our marriage would
be your ticket out of Blue-eyed Hollow before you got too old to do all the
things you want to do with your life. It would also enable us to continue a
relationship that neither one of us are ready to stop now.”
“But there’s no love between
us. Are you sure you want to enter into a loveless union?”
Gavin felt a prick of pain in
his heart to learn that Ruby hadn’t fallen in love with him just as fast as he
had her. However, he was determined to press forward. He would get her to love
him…soon.
“So what if our marriage
doesn’t start out with mutual love. We have so many other things in common to
pull it off. We both like sports, we both like steamy sex, and we both want you
to be free. Not necessarily in that order, of course.” He chuckled, laughing at
his own joke.
Ruby laughed, too. “You make
it sound so simple. But is a marriage of convenience ever simple?”
“Ours would be simple. To make
it even simpler for you, I’ll even include a pre-nup, so that all parties know
where they stand at all times. By our twelfth month together, you will have
phased yourself out of your father’s business without incurring his
disapproval, your sisters will have seen you with a steady man in your life
and possibly start trusting you around theirs again, and you will have started
your new career.”
“So let me get this straight
in my head,” Ruby said. “If I marry you, I get to leave Blue-eyed Hollow guilt-free once I find a replacement at
the shop, I finally get my family off my back, and I get to have sex
with you for a whole year?”
“Yes, yes, and most definitely
yes!” Gavin said excitedly. He was so close to winning her over to his plan. He
just knew it!
Ruby chuckled. “The more you
talk, the more I like this idea. But tell me, Vinny. What do you get out
of all this?” She turned serious again. “I may have given you great sex, but
surely that’s not enough to stick your neck out so far for me. For all you
know, I may have infidelity issues and make the next twelve months of your life
a living hell.”
“Thought of that, too,” Gavin
replied, just as seriously. “That’s why the pre-nup will have instant
dissolution of the marriage if either of us proves unfaithful over the next
year.”
“Smart fella,” Ruby replied,
sounding impressed. “But you still haven’t told me what you’re getting out of
this deal.”
“Honest answer or an
emotionally safe one?” Gavin asked, ready to put himself on the line in another
way. What did he really have to lose? He risked losing her either way.
“I want an honest answer,”
Ruby replied.
“If you marry me, I get to
spend the next year of my life with the woman I love.”
(c) 2014 by Mi'Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier
(c) 2014 by Mi'Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier
Photo
Credits:
No comments:
Post a Comment