Page 24 of Mating of Convenience
“Did someone actually ask to marry you?” He tilted his head at me. “Something’s up with you today. You’re even weirder than usual.”
“Raph wants to marry me,” I admitted.
Aaron’s eyebrows shot up. “He wants what?”
“Turns out he stands to inherit a bit of money if he gets married. He’s gonna do it too, because his dad got way into debt. The question is just if he’s gonna marry me or some other alpha.” It pained me to even speak those last few words.
How could I let Raph step in front of the altar with some random alpha?
How could I stand by and do nothing when he needed help?
I was going to call Raph, and I was going to tell him that I was gonna do it--and if he asked why, I would tell him that it was for his family and my business.
No one needed to know that I just couldn’t stand the thought of another alpha marrying the love of my life.
I was supposed to be over him, after all.
* * *
The momentI got home that evening, I pulled out my phone and dialed Raph’s number. He hadn’t changed it in years and I’d never deleted it from my phone, but this was the first time I’d called him in... a long time. Too long.
The call connected after only a few rings and then I heard Raph’s voice on the other end of the line. “Nathan?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I uh... I thought a little bit more about what you said yesterday.”
“What I said?”
Sheesh, was he really going to make me spell it out? “You remember when you sort of proposed to me?”
“Yeah. I remember that you rejected me,” Raph said, pretending to be hurt. But was he really just pretending? I thought I could detect a hint of something else in his voice.
Or maybe that was wishful thinking on my part. I needed to pull my head out of the clouds and get on with the call. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll do it.”
“You’ll marry me?” Shock rang clear in Raph’s voice. “For real?”
“For pretend!”
“I know! I mean, you’ll really do it?” Was that cautious joy I heard in his tone?
“It doesn’t mean anything, okay?”
“Of course not. I know I’ve had my shot with you and all that.” He paused. “You can divorce me in a year and find Mr. or Mrs. Right. I’m not going to stop you.”
What if I want you to stop me?Fortunately, I was smart enough not to voice that question. “Sounds great,” I said instead. In reality, I knew I was making a dumb decision, but even so, I couldn’t stop myself. The omega on the other end of the line had that kind of effect on me, though I wasn’t going to tell him that. “When would you like to get married?” I asked. “You know these things take a little while to plan.” I knew all there was to know about wedding planning from watching my dad over the years.
God,my dad was never going to buy the story that Raph and I had gotten back together and decided to marry all in the span of a month. I wasnotlooking forward to inviting my family to this wedding.
Which is why I was kind of relieved when Raph said, “You think we should just elope?”
“Absolutely.” I’d have to figure out how to tell my family after the fact, but for now, I was glad to be able to delay the problem. Raph and I were going to elope, he was going to get the money and approximately twelve months from now, the whole thing would be over with.
I only needed to be careful not to get in over my head.
Oh God, what the hell was I doing?
13
Raphael
