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I manage to catch myself on the back of the couch, but I don’t miss the way his lips quirk up in a barely there sign of amusement.
For the first time since my dad came up with this ridiculous plan, I consider the fact that I may not be successful in getting out of it, and the idea of spending the rest of my life with this terrifying man has dread washing over me.
I need a new plan.
CHAPTER FIVE
DOC
I’m still convinced this is a bad fucking idea.
The worst that Edward has ever had.
But he has me backed into a corner I’m not sure how to get out of.
Every excuse I could think of, he threw back in my face until it was time for him to bring Isla down.
I can’t imagine she’s thrilled about marrying a man twice her age. And not just that. A man that she’s associated with the death of her aunt.
Isla and Clarissa were close. From the time she was born, Clarissa was obsessed with her niece, and she made no secret of the fact she wanted to give her cousins. But I was never around for long enough to make that happen.
I neverwantedto make that happen.
I can’t imagine having kids running around. I’m too old now, but even when I wasn’t, I had no interest in a screaming child waking me up ten times a night and ruining all my shit.
And Clarissa never let me live that down.
I’m torn from my thoughts by the sound of soft steps on the stairs, and when I turn toward the door, waiting to meet thewoman, if I can even call her that, I’m supposed to marry, I almost choke on my vodka when she comes into view.
The little girl I remember isn’t so little anymore.
In fact, I can’t reconcile the woman standing in front of me with the kid who used to hang off my wife’s every word and follow her everywhere like a lost puppy.
Her deep raven hair falls against her back in soft waves, and her baggy tracksuit pants and sweater do nothing to hide her curves. But it’s the amber eyes that stare back at me, mirroring my own surprise, that have my breath stuttering in my chest.
She stumbles over something, her own feet probably, and barely catches herself on the back of the lounge, but I find myself moving toward her out of instinct.
Although I rarely displayed them when it came to my wife when she was alive, my protective instincts are generally quite strong. It’s why I answer calls from the worried men of Frost Industries when they call in the middle of the night, worried the weird craving one of their wives is having during pregnancy could be a sign of something more. But that seems amplified with Isla.
It’s just guilt,I tell myself. It has to be. I cost this girl her aunt, the person she always thought she’d be able to rely on. That’s all it is.
She rights herself, and this time when our eyes clash, I manage to shove down the possessive instincts that flare to life in my chest. She’s not mine. She can never be mine. And I don’t want her to be.
I don’t need that kind of complication in my life.
Not now. Not ever.
Edward appears behind her, his eyes flicking between us expectantly, but it’s becoming more and more evident that neither of us are interested in the plan he’s cooked up.
I know I’m fucking not.
“You’ll leave on the next flight,” he tells us, and Isla rounds on him, her hands resting on her hips defiantly.
The move makes her cropped oversized sweater ride up ever so slightly, and a sliver of pale skin peeks out. She’s tempting, I’ll give her that, but not for a man like me.
I’d chew her up and spit her out before she could take her first breath, and somehow I don’t think that’s what Edward had in mind when he made this plan.
“I’m not going to Chicago,” she snaps. “I’m not getting married. This is all fucking insane. You’ve lost your fucking mind.”
