AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterForty
“What?”I whisper and wait with bated breath for him to speak.
He steps closer to me and cradles my face in his palms.
As if waiting for this moment, the ocean breeze picks up, making me recall just how wet we both are—and in my case, in multiple ways, thanks to his touch.
“Everything I said during that toast at the ceremony is how I really feel,” Art says, his eyes locked on mine. “I wanted you from the moment I caught you in my dressing room. I think that’s why I asked you to be my green card wife. I had to get to know you, and that was the best pretext I could think of to bring you into my life.”
I feel like I’m about to take flight as I cover his hands with mine. “You mean you weren’t looking for a fake wife?”
“Not until I met you. The idea came to me right then and there, in that dressing room. Before that, I was considering other ways to get the green card.”
I bite my lip as he drops his hands. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Tell me it wasn’t all fake?”
He winces. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react. I didn’t want to push for more and lose you. You were so dead set on your rules about us not sleeping together that I thought all you wanted out of our arrangement was the money—and I knew I’d rather have you in my life as my fake wife than not have you at all.”
“So… you’re saying you like me?”
He shakes his head. “Me and you, we just fit, like banya and birch trees. So, no. I don’t merely like you.” He pulls me closer, his eyes warm and soft. “Kislik… I love you.”
My heart explodes into swan feathers.
“I fell for you, hard,” he continues. “I—”
“Wait,” I gasp. “There’s something you have to know. The day we met, I wasn’t there on a dare. I saw you on TV long before that and got so obsessed with you that I snuck into your dressing room, like a stalker.”
I stop breathing, scared that my admission will make him push me away.
Instead, he grips my hands in both of his. His voice is husky. “I’m flattered, kislik. And so glad you did.”
Whew. Should I tell him the rest? In for a kapeika, in for a ruble. “I sniffed your dance belt because I wanted you out of my system,” I blurt.
A smirk curves his lips. “And how did that go?”
“It backfired—and made me believe in love at first sniff.”
He pulls me closer. “You mean—”
“I love you too,” I say solemnly. “I want to remain your wife. Be your main squeeze. Be your—”
He shuts me up with a kiss.
A sweet, devouring kiss that promises a million tomorrows.
