Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
She’s moved her knee from under my hand, and I clench the covers. “Stay married...” I mumble, shock hitting me right in the face. She’s leaving me. How in the world did I screw this up already?
She scoots across the bed to the other side and gets up. She’s in her nightgown, and it’s long, white, and flowy. It shouldn’t be sexual, the cotton material, the way it covers all her body parts, but still, it’s probably one of the sexiest nightgowns I’ve ever seen. All because it’s on Mia.
She turns away from me, her hands on the dresser. “Well, I mean we can stay married if you want to... If you found a way to save Snow Valley without it... then you can divorce me.”
She chokes up on the word divorce, and that’s the only saving grace I have to hold on to. She doesn’t act like she wants to leave me. She acts like this is hurting her... so why is she even doing it?
I stand up and walk around the bed. Her body freezes under my touch, but I put my arms around her, locking my hands around her middle and pulling her against me. She keeps her back straight, and I wait for her to pull away, but I already know I’m not going to let her. If she wants to end this marriage, I’m going to hold her while she tries to convince me she’s better off without me.
“What made you change your mind? What did I do?” I ask softly against her ear.
I raise my eyes and look at the mirror on the dresser in front of us. She’s staring at our reflection. “You didn’t do anything.”
She’s lying. I can see it in her face. “Bullshit, honey. Tell me what I did. I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me.”
Her body starts to melt into mine, and she leans her head back against my chest. She has her eyes closed again. “When I married you, I thought it would be forever. At least I wanted it to be.”
My arms tighten around her. Can’t she see I want the same thing? “Me too. That’s what I want too.”
Her eyes clench. “No, Mason. Please don’t lie to me. I can handle anything—well, almost anything—but don’t lie to me. I can’t handle that.”
“Look at me,” I tell her.
She shakes her head, and I turn her in my arms. She still has her eyes closed as if looking at me is going to be painful or something. “Look at me,” I tell her again.
She opens her eyes, and when she does, a lone tear falls down her cheek. “Fuck,” I mutter. I wipe it away with the pad of my finger and then pick her up in my arms. I carry her back across the room and sit in the chair with her in my lap. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She leans against my chest. “I’m leaving, Mason. It will be easier now than later. It’s killing me, but if I wait, I won’t survive it.”
Her hand curls into my shirt, her palm over my heart. “But I don’t understand. Why are you leaving at all?”
I want to understand, I need to know what’s going through her mind, but at the same time, I know I’ll never let her go.
“Jessica told me what you said.”
“What did I say?” I ask her, wracking my brain, trying to remember anything that I’ve said to Jessica that would upset Mia. I can’t think of anything. I don’t really talk to Jessica a lot.
“You said—” She stops and takes a deep breath. “You said that there was an out... that we wouldn’t be stuck together forever, and I’ve thought about it all afternoon, Mason. It will probably be better if I leave now rather than later.”
I put my finger at her chin and bring her face up to mine. ‘You’re not leaving me, Mia. I won’t let you.”
She wraps her hand around mine. “But it’s for the best in the long run.”
I wrap my hand around her chin. I hate to hear her talk this way. “No, it’s not. I told that to Jessica when I first heard about my mother’s idea of the arranged marriage. That was before my mother talked to you and before I even met you.”
She blinks and opens her mouth to say something, but I put my finger over her lips to stop her. “And now, well now that I have you, that you’re my wife, you’re Mrs. Mason Mistletoe, there’s no way I’d ever let you go. Before I met you, I never believed in forever. I didn’t think I would ever find love like my parents have. But now, fuck, now, Mia, I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
Her eyes widen. “So you don’t plan to divorce me once everything is handled with Snow Valley?”