Page 19 of Sweet Surrender

“Why couldn’t you sleep?”

“Because I was busy googling everything there is to google about you.”

“Well . . . that’s sobering.” He laughs, and I love that he’s like this. Unaffected and carefree.

“I already confessed that I wasn’t a serial killer so—”

“So you were making sure I wasn’t,” Jase says.

“Can you blame a girl? I mean, it’s the Wild West out there these days.”

“It sure is,” Jase murmurs as the moment stretches. Smiles play at the corners of our mouths.

“So, we want you to marry him,” Nathaniel says without warning.

“What?” I bark out but then realize they’re serious. Dead serious.

No.

No again.

And what the hell. One more time—no.

I decorated cookies for hours last night. I may have played BENT’s music to get more familiar with their songs. I may have stopped and listened to a particularly difficult drumbeat and thought of Jase and his irrefutable talent. I may have also wondered why Jase wanted to see me—and why I might possibly have to sign an NDA. But this? This was most definitely not it.

Nerves have me sputtering to give a better response and then when I do, something absolutely ridiculous comes out. “Whew, and here I was worried the two of you were into some kind of brother kink where you planned to share me.”

I couldn’t get two more different responses. Nathaniel’s eyes bug out of his head with shock and discomfort. Jase runs a hand through his hair as he chuckles, his eyes suggesting he’s game for anything.

Paul’s reaction would most resemble Nathaniel’s reaction so there’s something . . . refreshing about the way Jase reacts.

“It’s to repair his image and show he’s settled down,” Nathaniel states as he nervously turns his wedding ring around on his finger. “To save the band’s world tour.”

“To make the world and my band, not hate me,” Jase says. We both catch Nathaniel start to but then stop the rolling of his eyes. I can’t help but presume there’s a rift between them, but that’s for another time.

Right now? I’ve just been asked to marry a man I met yesterday. A man who’s drop-dead gorgeous and everything I’ve never found sexy—arrogance, tattoos, rebellion—but do in this man. A man who’s the exact opposite of Paul and I’m not certain why that seems to be so important—enthralling—to me.

“So you’re telling me that marrying you would be doing the world a favor?” I laugh. What the hell even is that statement? And how arrogant does one have to be to make it?

“Well, when you put it that way.” Jase snorts.

“Be serious,” Nathaniel warns him.

“This is fucked up. I can’t be serious when it comes to this,” Jase says.

“Well, at least we can both agree on that,” I say as nervous laughter bubbles up and sounds partly hysterical as it bounces around the room.

This. Is. Crazy. Talk.

“Can I explain?” Nathaniel asks.

“He’s the serious one.” Jase hooks a thumb at his brother.

“Clearly.” I hold Jase’s eyes and take in the lifted brow. I surprisingly hate and love this question.

“Jase here has a history of . . . let’s just say, acting out.”

“I like to have a good time. Sometimes that good time ends up with me having a nice chat with our friendly police officers. Other times, they like me so much, they want me to hang with them in a holding cell for a bit. Nothing violent.” Jase holds his hands up. “A few misunderstandings here and there but nothing even remotely near the serial killer realm since that’s where it seems you draw the line.”