“Me neither.”
He finally looked at me. Really looked at me. “What do we do now?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
We were legally married. Had consummated that marriage quite thoroughly just hours ago. And had an arrangement based entirely on a lie.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “What do you want to do?”
He crossed the kitchen, stopping in front of me. “Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“I want to be mad at Kate. I want to be furious that she manipulated us both.” He reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “But I can’t stop thinking that if she hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here.”
My chest tightened. “Thorne—”
“This didn’t start as a lie, Maddie. We both knew what we were getting into. And just because my sister lied—which she will pay for somehow, some way.” His thumb brushed across my cheek. “I can’t bring myself to regret it.”
“Even though you didn’t actually need to get married?”
“Even though.” He leaned his forehead against mine. “Tell me I’m not crazy. Tell me you feel it too.”
I did. God help me, I did.
“You’re not crazy,” I whispered.
“So what do we do?”
I pulled back to look at him. “We could get it annulled. Pretend this never happened. Go back to our separate lives.”
“We could.”
“Or...”
“Or?”
“Or we could decide that maybe Kate’s crazy scheme actually worked.” I traced the line of his jaw. “Maybe we keep going. See where this goes. On our own terms this time.”
“No contract. No timeline. No arrangement.”
“Just us. Figuring it out as we go.”
He kissed me, soft and sweet and full of promise. “I like that plan.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He grinned. “Though I reserve the right to be mad at Kate for at least a week.”
“A week seems fair. Maybe two.”
“Two weeks. Final offer.”
I laughed, and he pulled me closer, and somewhere in the middle of the chaos Kate had created, I realized something.
I had fallen for my fake husband.
EPILOGUE
