Page 61 of From Ice to Grace
Her gaze flickers—first to my mouth, then back to my eyes—and it’s quick enough that she might think I didn’t catch it. But I do. Heat coils low in my gut, sharp and insistent.
If she were any other woman, I’d be leaning in. I’d be testing the waters and claiming my prize.
But this is different. She isn’t just someone I’m picking up at a bar. I’m not taking her home for the night and seeing whether or not she’d be a good fit for the next few months. She’s been a constant in my life for the past year—she’s EJ’s sister.
For the first time in a long time, I know that crossing a line would ruin everything.
She swallows, her voice a fraction quieter when she repeats, “Who gets the lie, Declan?”
My palms are still braced on either side of her. Taking a deep breath, I step away from her. Running a hand through my hair I try to gain back some balance. Stepping away from her makes me feel like I’m leaving a fight mid-swing.
I’m definitely attracted to her. Great.
“Everyone,” I say finally, folding my arms and leaning against the chair instead. “For this to work we’d have to lie to everyone. Is that something you’d be able to do?”
She looks at me for a minute, her mind clearly working behind those blue eyes.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Declan,” she says, her voice softer this time, painted with slight hesitation. She turns away from me and something akin to panic grips me.
“Listen, the fact that you’re considering this tells me that there’s some real reason you don’t want to go back to Sweden and just reapply for a new visa. I mean it would take six months out of your life, maybe a year…tops.”
I study her as she looks at me over her shoulder. “That’s presumptuous.”
“Tell me I’m lying,” I say with a smirk. “I dare you.”
She huffs, turning back to face me. “Fine, there is a real reason I don’t want to go back but it doesn’t mean I’m going to share it with you.”
I put up my hands in mock surrender. “Never said you needed to share your deepest darkest secrets with me. I’m just here offering a real solution. I need someone who looks like she’s in my life for the long haul. Someone who’s proper wife-material. And you need to stay in the States.” I shrug. “I’d call this a win-win situation. Especially since we both know what this would be, going in.”
She exhales sharply, her hands going up to hide her face as she groans in frustration.
“I guess we wouldn’t be the first people who enter into marriage for reasons other than love,” she mutters through her fingers. “People have married strangers before to keep countries from going to war.”
For a second I just watch her. The way she says it, half-resigned, half-jokingly…like she’s trying to convince herself this could work.
I chuckle. “I wouldn’t call this marriage that noble, but if that’s what you have to compare it with to make it okay in your mind, then I’m happy to go along with it.”
She drops her hands, her blue eyes flashing. “You really are an idiot.”
“I aim to please.” I give her a smile.
She sighs, her gaze flicking to my mouth again.
“If we do this then we need to set rules,” she says suddenly, firmly drawing a boundary line.
“Snowflake wants rules,” I mock moving closer to the counter again where she’s already tearing out a piece of paper from her family recipe book and grabbing a pen.
“Don’t pretend your other seasonal relationships weren’t arrangements with rules either.” She doesn’t look at me while she starts to compile a makeshift contract between Declan Murphy and Avah Johansson.
She underlines the word ‘rules’ three times.
“True,” I say, with a smirk. “First rule was non-exclusivity.”
“Which is basically cheating. Only with fancier words and rose-colored glasses.”
It’s the same argument she’s been hammering on for as long as I’ve known her.
“It’s not cheating if both people agree to it,” I say, sticking to my guns. It might not be pretty, but when everyone involved knows what’s going on, it’s not behind anyone’s back.
