The Favor: A Marriage of Convenience Romance

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She halted, surprised. Tension crept into her muscles as she stared at him, looking adorably unsure. She didn’t understand what last night meant, he realized. She didn’t know that it hadn’t simply been sex, it had been a statement of intent. A claiming. A message that he was keeping her.

I was about to buzz you when someone opened the main door to leave the complex. I slipped inside before it could close.” He took a slow step forward. “I was hoping we could talk.” I poked my tongue into the inside of my cheek. “If we did go through with it, how long would we need to stay married?” And so, he thought, he’d also have to offer her a divorce. Not that it would dissolve anything else between them— that he wouldn’t allow. But she deserved the option of starting afresh with a wedding that was real in every sense. It would mean losing his trust fund, but he’d sooner lose that than her.

Yeah, he’d informed me of that earlier, but I hadn’t realized he’d meant we’d do it here. He’d left o-Verve at 4 p.m. and still hadn’t returned by 6 p.m. Figuring that we could postpone the discussion until tomorrow, I hadn’t lingered at the office.

Yeah, I didn’t fare much better against it. There was always a dangerous glint in his dark, steely eyes. They could focus on you like a laser, pin you in place, and direct so much intensity at you that your personal space felt invaded. I’d understood, so I hadn’t vilified him for it. But I’d hated that he’d made me feel like I wasn’t good enough to be part of the future he’d mapped out for himself, that I wouldn’t fit with whatever new image he meant to create. Yeah, my defenses had slammed up in an instant. And I was glad of that, because it had numbed the pain and allowed me to move on from Owen faster than I otherwise might have done. Hi Gabriella, thanks for reading my books! Yes there will be a fifth DIYV book, it will be released either late this year or early next 2016 depending on how smoothly my schedule for this year goes http://www.suzannewright.co.uk/#!sche... I never told a soul about that sex video; I kept your secret for you. Would you really balk at keeping one for me? It’s not like I’m asking you to do anything that you’d need to be ashamed of. If your family could be told the truth, they wouldn’t vilify you for keeping your word and repaying a favor—especially if they knew the ins and outs of what happened with your ex. But no one besides you and me can know the marriage is fake, Vienna.”When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.” Dane stared at her for a long moment, her words ringing through his system, resonating with him in a way that shifted something inside him. Not yet ready to think it all through, he squeezed her hip and spoke into her ear. “Dance with me.” He just needed to be closer to her … because he never quite felt close enough to her.

If there was, I wouldn’t be here now.” He paused. “I’m not asking you to make a lifelong commitment to me. The marriage won’t be real. On paper, you’ll be my wife for a year—that’s it. Just say yes, Vienna. Help me like I helped you.” Dane,” she said quietly, calmly, her nerves quite clearly shot. “Dane, you know this is a bad idea.” Second, even if he wasn’t too much of a workaholic to be fully invested in a relationship, he’d be too difficult a partner. In business, things were never good enough for Dane—he was always moving the marker, always driven to have “more,” always finding imperfections. I suspected he’d be the same way with his partner; that he’d never feel truly satisfied. That kind of relationship did not appeal to me. Really, his mistake had been in instating her as his PA in the first place. He’d known better than to plant the temptation of her in his path day in day out. He’d done it anyway.He hadn’t considered firing her, though. Not once. Because while the chemistry he strived to ignore could be a pain in his ass, it didn’t come close to drowning out how much he liked having her around. But she doesn’t have your blunt bangs or Jessica Alba-mouth,” Hanna went on because, yeah, she was a pain in my ass when bored. Watching me closely, Dane lifted his mug and took another sip of his coffee. “I want you to do something for me.” Then again, taking care of the whole sextortion situation hadn’t been a small thing either, had it? Don’t dress as my PA. Wear what you’d wear to go on a date, not what you’d wear to go to a business dinner.

I’m meeting him later, which is why you really need to go.” I pushed to my feet. “I have to get ready.” Narration was fine. But the story was redundant. Basically: Dane & Vienna have a marriage of convenience, someone tries to break them up, they talk about it and stay strong, someone else tries to break them up, they talk about it and stay strong, rinse/repeat ×100. It's great that they have great communication skills but it made for a boring story because nothing else happened and the book is sooo long. I was hate reading/listening to it by the 20% point and I only kept reading it because I don't like DNF-ing books. Read more In the beginning, I used to bristle at his curt manner. Now? I was used to it. I knew not to take his rudeness personally. Dane didn’t put much effort into sparing the feelings of anyone.I won’t, nor would I want to.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “This isn’t a spur of the moment thing, Vienna. I’ve thought it through. All the way through. You and I could pull this off.” A tall, well-groomed figure moved aside to get a better look at me. Owen. Karma clearly hadn’t caught up with him yet, because he was even more good-looking than he’d been seven years ago. He had more muscle definition now and carried himself with more confidence, but he didn’t make my heart skip a beat the way he used to.