Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 119(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
“Built a trap for me?”
He sighs, leans against his desk with his head down. “I didn’t know how to just ask you.”
“Ask me? Ask me what?”
“To stay!” His voice is ragged, stripped of its normal confidence. “I’ve never asked anyone to stay. Never wanted it. But when I saw your photo, I knew. I knew that if I let you slip away, I’d spend the rest of my life knowing that the one person who could have saved me is out there somewhere because I let her go.”
Something softens in my chest. My vision starts to clear.
“Hazel, I trapped you because I was afraid you’d never truly choose me on your own.”
The silence that follows is heavy, enormous, and fills the space between us like an invisible barrier.
I look at Dominic—this brilliant, broken, ruthless man that controls more money than most countries—and my mind spins. How could he not know how to ask a girl to stay?
I pull the massive ring off my finger, and his face goes white. His chest stops moving. I’ve never seen him look so vulnerable. Not even when we’re in bed together.
Slowly, I set the ring down on his desk, right next to the smiley-face cup.
He looks at me, his jaw loose like he wants to scream. Then I pick the ring back up and slide it onto my finger. I move slowly, deliberately, watching his eyes the entire time.
“You’re right, Dominic,” I say. “I wouldn’t have chosen you. Because I never thought a man like you would ever even know a girl like me existed.”
I move around to his side of the desk, closing the distance between us. For the first time since we met, I feel like now is the real moment where I get to make a truly informed choice. My own choice.
“Hazel—”
“But you saw me,” I say, tears spilling down my eyes. “Before I even walked through the door.”
He takes a big step forward and slips his hand over my cheek, threading his fingers through my hair. My body reacts to his touch, lighting up inside. Goosebumps pop up all over my arms.
“Stay with me, Hazel,” he says. “However we met, it doesn’t matter now. All that matters is we’re together. That we love each other. That is the universe telling us that this is fate.”
My words nearly choke in my throat, but I manage to get them out. “I am staying, Dominic. And I want you to know that I would have loved you without the contract, without the trap. But Dominic, if you ever lie to me again—”
“I won’t,” he snaps, wrapping his arms around me so tightly I can barely breathe. I inhale his scent and bathe in the warmth of his body. “No more lies, no more secrets, Hazel. Just me and you.”
I nod, spilling tears against his shirt. “Just me and you.”
EPILOGUE
HAZEL
Five years later…
Our daughter draws smiley faces on everything.
Coffee cups, notepads, napkins, the margins of Dominic’s quarterly reports—even the back of Marcus’s hand when she catches him not paying attention.
Bethany is three years old now, and she’s already figured out that a silly smiley face can make anybody’s day better.
Gee, wonder where she learned that…
“Momma, look!” Beth holds up a crayon drawing of what appears to be a big rectangle with two dots and a curved line in it. “It’s Daddy!”
Keeping my smile to myself, I crouch down and examine the masterpiece. “Gorgeous, sweetie. You really captured his essence.”
“Essence? What’s that?”
Unable to contain my smirk now, I ruffle her hair playfully. “It means you drew his grumpy face perfectly.”
Beth’s adorable giggle makes my heart ache—in a good way, of course. She runs off to show Cassi, who is sprawled out across the living room couch with a glass of red wine, looking not much different than she did five years ago. Some people just do not age. It’s obnoxious, but I love her for it.
“Aunt Cassi, look! I drew Daddy’s…essence!”
Cassi takes the drawing and gasps with dramatic wonder. “Oh, you sure did, babe. That’s wonderful. You know, I think you might be a famous artist one day.”
I smile from the kitchen doorway, one hand on the counter and one resting on the swell of my pregnant belly. I’m five months along with baby number two—a boy this time.
Dominic almost cried when we found out. Not quite, but his eyes were watering.
I never thought a man like him could show such softness, but that’s the thing about my husband: The world sees a stone-cold billionaire, a titan in the boardroom and an alpha who intimidates everyone around him.
But I see all that and more.
I see a man who draws smiley faces on my coffee cups still to this day, all because I drew one on his five years ago. I see the man who bounces his daughter in his lap and would do anything to make her happy.