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Dammit. I know better.
“Sunshine?” Kane calls when the footsteps and laughter drift away down the hall.
I spin in his arms, forcing myself to look at him. “We can’t lose control like that again, Kane. There needs to be boundaries, so we don’t get confused.”
“I’m not confused.”
I pull in air through my nose and let it out slowly the same. “Youmight be experienced at checking your emotions at the door when you fuck someone, but I’m not.”
Why am I angry?Oh, maybe it’s because I’m still throbbing between my legs and I left my box of vibratorsin my nightstand at the apartment—and I told Kane everything the movers packed could be taken to storage, so my vibrators are all there.
Kane frowns. He’s still sporting the raging erection I really should know better than to play with, considering how threatening it is even behind his jeans, but I think I’ve pissed him off. I don’t know why the thought is somehow thrilling.
“I don’t want to hear about all the men you’ve fucked in the past, Nevaeh.”
My mouth pops open. “It’s not like there’s a whole team of them!”
His eyes close, like he’s trying to reign control of his temper. “Fuck.”
“I’ve had four partners, Kane.” I don’t know why I press on. Death wish, I suppose. “And you know what, sex sucks. So how about we just keep it friendly and uncomplicated between us, okay? Simple and clean, like we agreed when we made the deal.”
He leans in, growling, “That’s the last time you talk to me about the boys you’ve let inside that body, Sunshine. Won’t tell you again, understand?”
“What?” A thrill I don’t understand goes through me when a muscle in his hard jaw jumps.
“You’re to be my wife, and I’m a jealous, possessive man.” His voice is darkly, deliciously low. “You fuck me, or you fuck no one. You think of fucking me, or you think of fucking no one. And there’s nothingfriendly and uncomplicated between us, Sunshine. For the year you’re my wife, I’ll think of being inside only you.” Oh, holy hell. I shouldn’t like that. I really shouldn’t, but I do.Boundaries.“We have a show to put on now. And there’s nothing uncomplicated about fooling men who don’t fool easily.” He catches my jaw in his big hand, claiming my mouth in a possessive, borderline vicious kiss that drenches my panties before he rips away from me, leaving me breathless and aching in the worst way. Then he walks to the bed, drops a little black box onto the cream duvet, before he says, “You’re my fiancée as of tonight. Bring your A-Game, baby.”
With those parting words, he exits.
I stand for a long while, staring in shock at the box. Finally, I gather enough courage to tiptoe across the space as though this sham might come crashing down to crush me if a single floorboard creaks.
I lift the box, open it, and stop breathing.
The ring inside is—everything. It’s nothing a fake fiancé would purchase. There’s too much thought in this ring to be fake. Only, that’s exactly what we have. Fake. A deal. Not real.
The diamond in the center is big and round and bound by warm yellow gold. Circling the massive diamond in the center is a ring of smaller diamonds bound by gold starbursts that make the ring look endearingly like a sunshine.
My heart throbs with violent emotion in my chest that I should not feel for my fake fiancé.
I slide the ring onto my ring finger, hide the box in the nightstand and do one more thing I shouldn’t have to do because of my fake fiancé.
I change my panties.
fourteen
Kane
My brothers know all about my deal with Nevaeh. After all, Cash had been the one to give me the idea to buy the time I needed to make her mine. Hence, the deal.
Nevaeh’s life is complicated, there’s no question about that. It’s brutally, terribly interwoven with a million reasons why she shouldn’t let herself be with someone. At least not for real. That’s where the deal I made comes into play. Besides, making her my wife is the perfect way to ensure her crazy ex doesn’t get any ideas about forcing her to marry him. I plan to show her off to the world, because to me, this isn’t going to be fake. Not even a little.
To me, this is as real as it gets.
And once our year is up, I have no intention of signing any divorce papers.
I am, after all, my father’s son. And when we’ve foundthewoman—there’s no walking away. There’s noafterher. There’s. Just. Her.
For me, that woman is Nevaeh. I knew it when she collided with me in that club. I knew it as I inhaled the scent of toasted marshmallow and caramel cream as her joke of an ex glared hatefully at me, because I had what he wanted. I knew it when I walked her to her car and I knew it when I let her drive away, the numbers of her license plate branded in my brain. I fucking knew it when I saw her beaten and bruised in that hospital room when it was physically hard for me not to call on my older brother, the head of the Volkov Bratva, to help me rid the world of a man who shouldn’t be allowed to breathe air.
