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“Nope. No divorce.” Dyllan forced himself to keep his voice calm, even though rage built within him.
“You can’t be serious. We can’t stay married.” Her eyes were wide as she took in his words.
“Yup, that’s what I’m saying.” Dyllan crossed his arms as he looked at her, willing himself not to give in to his urge to trail his gaze along her exposed flesh.
“Don’t be ridiculous. We don’t even like each other. Why would we stay married?” Skylar waved her hands in the air, causing his shirt to ride dangerously close to the apex of her legs. His breath hitched as the fabric of his shirt raised higher the more animated she became.
“I like you just fine,” he said, letting his eyes roam over her body. “I don’t do divorce. I wasn’t even going to do marriage, but here we are.”
“What does that mean? You don’t do divorce? And what have you got against marriage?” Her voice became frantic, getting louder the more she spoke.
“I don’t have anything against marriage in general; I just didn’t want it for me. I’ve seen what divorce does, and I don’t do that either.”
“But we don’t know each other; we don’t have anything tying us together. I don’t understand why we can’t just end it before it starts.”
“No. I promised myself I would never be divorced.” He steeled his gaze to hers, driving his point home.
I refuse to be like my parents. Fuck that. I’m not adding divorcee to my name.
“You’ll have to tell me why eventually.” Skylar’s shoulders slumped, a slight pout on her pretty face. “So, what are we going to do?”
“We figure out how to be married.” Dyllan shrugged as he reached down and stepped into his jeans. Now that his lust for her was under control, thanks to their conversation, he saw no reason to stay in just his boxers.
“I still don’t understand why you want to stay married to me. You’ve been so mean to me.” Skylar dropped down on the bed, placing her head in her hands.
Dyllan sighed as he walked around the bed and sat beside her. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Why? Don’t tell me it has something to do with your friend because I had nothing to do with that.” Skylar dropped her hands and turned to him.
He held her gaze, not knowing where to start. “No. Well, not directly anyway.”
“Please explain.”
He waited a breath before he laced his fingers behind his head and flopped back onto the mattress, looking up at the ceiling. “You scare me, Skylar.”
“Me?” she shrieked. “Why do I scare you?”
“Because you’re everything I didn’t think I could have.” He kept his eyes on the popcorn ceiling, not wanting to look at her. Knowing that if he glanced at her, he would lose his nerve to tell her.
“Still not following you,” she said quieter. The mattress dipped as she sat next to him.
“When I was in the military, I saw the married guys struggle with being away from their families. Missing the milestones, not being there for their wives when something happened, or someone died. Seeing how they had to go through shit alone when something fucked up happened to us.” He took a deep breath, needing to keep those memories at bay. He usually did a really good job but being here with Skylar, baring his soul to her, he couldn’t help the flashes that came back to him. “I promised myself that I’d never do that.”
“But you aren’t in the military anymore. You’re the mayor of Logan Creek,” her voice was soft as she spoke. He felt her shift toward him on the bed, careful not to touch him.
“But I might not be for much longer,” he sighed. He didn’t have the courage to look at her as he admitted that. Instead, he kept his eyes focused on the ceiling.
Coward.
“What do you mean?” She placed her hand on his arm, moving close enough he could see her in his peripheral vision.
“I’ve been thinking about not running again and taking private security jobs overseas.”
Skylar gasped. “Why? What happened? Don’t you like being the mayor?”
“I do,” he ground out. “Just, things have changed.”
“What’s changed? Dyllan, why would you put yourself at risk again like that? I don’t understand,” her voice became frantic as she gripped on to him.
