I shake my head.
“Then let the man do his job.”
I flex my biceps against the fence with a harsh breath, pushing off. “I said no. Willow is off the table.”
“I was about to give up on you,” Willow tells me with a smirk when I step into my bedroom—our bedroom. If all goes right.
She’s at the window, wearing one of my T-shirts and nothing else, staring out at the moonlit mountains, the river’s shimmer dancing across her face.
I unbutton my shirt and toss it to the side, my expression humorless because of Noah’s bullshit.
I trust Willow.
How could I not?
“Is that right? How so?”
She glances over, her eyes on my loosened buttons instead of my eyes. “Well, I thought about slipping off my panties and leaving them stuffed between your sheets, but .?.?.”
I rake my hand into her hair, pulling it back and kissing her wildly. She moans into my mouth. Relaxed. Something I haven’t seen since her mother got into town.
I pull back, my eyes on her wet lips. “But you need fresh material.”
She bats her lashes at me. “What I need, is my husband to get naked.”
Something kicks in my chest at the word. “Like the sound of that.”
Willow bites her lip and laughs. “I got more sounds for you if you’re interested,” she teases.
I should strip out of my pants. Tear off that T-shirt and toss her over the bed—make love to her.
But the tightness in my chest won’t budge.
She showed up three weeks ago and didn’t want to go back.
Of course I found that suspicious at first.
But I don’t care now.
Perhaps I should. Because that hollow feeling in my chest I thought would never leave? I never want to feel it again. And I’d die a thousand deaths before I let Ellie feel it too.
Taking Willow to bed on our wedding night is all I fucking want to do. But knowing her—in and out, the good and the ugly—is what Ineedto do.
A pit forms in my stomach and I know I’m going to regret this.
“Willow. Why’d you sign the prenup?”
Her easy grin falls, her shoulders tense. “Because it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t take anything from you.”
“Why doesn’t it matter?”
She releases a confused breath. “Well .?.?. why was it handed to me?”
“I never meant it to be, you have to believe that.”
“But it was,” she blurts out, then takes a breath. “I told you, I don’t blame you. You don’t know me. You have a daughter to protect.”
“Yes, and you’re helping me do it. I thought we were in this together.”
