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The real James
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A Marriage of Convenience One step ahead
My phone blaring from the nightstand woke me from the most amazing dream. I was walking down the aisle again, seeing James at the end, but this time he was smiling. He was happy.I slept in the room that I had prior to leaving James’ home. Our home. I still don’t know exactly where we stand in our relationship, and to be honest, it feels like we’re just now getting to the dating stage of things.Reaching out, I grab the phone, answering without checking who was on the other side of the receiver, “Rosalind Colette Red,” my mother’s angry voice shouted, instantly sobering me from my sleepiness, “I expect you here for breakfast within the hour.”She left no room for argument. When my mother demanded something like this; you listened. Despite being an adult, most days she still treated me like a child. Like I was still beneath her thumb.“I’ll see you soon,” I muttered, feeling this uneasiness in my gut. The only other time that my mother had acted this way was when Chris ended up in jai
A Marriage of Convenience Stand here and take it
Every tabloid had a different cover story, but the one in the front, the one that my mother was most concerned about was the one that showed a photo taken out front of the Italian restaurant last week.Tears stained my cheeks as my fingers ran across my lips. James had just kissed me out front after chasing me down. There was a dramatized crack between the photo and the caption said Trouble in paradise. Billionaire romance coming to an end. Sealed divorce documents on page three.“Divorce Rosalind?!” my mother shrieked, “You cannot divorce James.”I wanted a hole to open up in the floor and swallow me whole.“Do you know how much money it’s going to cost your father to have these deemed as false rumors?” she shook her head, scoffing and tossing the stack of tabloids on the table in front of her, but the one hiding behind the top cover caught my eye.Billionaire James Wood purchases multimillion dollar penthouse for mistress amid ongoing divorce.I forced my feet to move, and I bent do
A Marriage of Convenience Mercy (James POV)
The moment that my eyes landed on the magazine picturing Marina and me, I knew I was royally fucked. I watched as Rosalind’s body grew rigid, her line of sight ignoring the first cover and settling on the second.But I think what was worse, is that only Marina knew that we would be there this morning. The woman I thought I knew for all these years continues to show her true colors.She had called the tabloids.She knew they’d eat up that story. Married billionaire James Wood escorting what appears to be his mistress into a lavish penthouse.And she knew Rosalind would see it. At first, I was fuming. The darkness that clouded my vision had me wanting to slam my fists into a wall, but the moment Rosa grabbed that paper with shaky hands; the only thing I could feel was shame.Her beautiful, golden doe eyes stared up at me, realizing that the photo was in fact from this morning. I expected her to cry. I’d seen the glassiness in her eyes… the slight tremble of her plush lower lip, but ins
A Marriage of Convenience Breakfast
Before I could utter a single question, James’ thumb dragged across my lower lip, “You shouldn’t allow your mother to speak to you that way.” I tilted my head slightly, “Even when she’s convincing me to stay married to you?” His lips curled slightly at the same time an eyebrow raised, “Convincing. That sounded more like demanding. And though I agree that you should remain my wife, I want you to want to be my wife. Not feel forced into it.” Was this the real James Wood? The one that I’d seen a tiny glimpse of before that photo shattered my reality all over again? James was typically one to make demands. Directly and indirectly. But does he believe that only he holds that power with me? Every time I find myself in this position with James, a tiny piece of the walls I try to keep strong chip away. His touch feels so comforting. It feels like home. The warmth of his fingers. The slight calloused tips to them from his exercising. It’s almost as if his touch electrifies my skin. The gre
A Marriage of Convenience Show me
“What do you mean ‘gone’?”James took a deep breath, staring once again down at his plate before pushing it to the side.“The night that I was brought to the hospital,” he strummed his fingers against the table top before reaching up and pushing them through his deep, brown hair, “Someone burnt the entire place to the ground.”I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand, “Why would someone do that?”He leaned against the cushion of the booth, “I’ve been trying to figure that out for years. That night,” James looked at me with a haunted expression, shaking his head, “Would you like to go see it?”I felt like everything around me had stopped. Like time had frozen around me, but James and I remained the same. All sound ceased to exist.James was giving me a morsel. A tiny glimpse into the life I knew nothing about.“If you’ll show me.”****When James told me that his town was gone; I never expected what we walked into.The town was in a remote area about fifty miles outside of Savannah. Th
A Marriage of Convenience Doctor
James hasn’t spoken to me in three days. It feels like we took two steps forward, and three steps back. His days have consisted of spending as much time at the office as possible, or working out to the brink of exhaustion before he closes himself in his office. I thought that I felt something shift when he’d showed me the home that he grew up in, but it seems to have only driven a wedge between us. Today is my first day back at work, and I’m thankful for the distraction. It’s been lonely back at the house. It’s my first break in six hours, which means it’s time for a much needed coffee. The elevator feels as if it’s moving at a snails pace as we lower from the sixth floor down to the lobby. As I’m walking up to the line, I notice a familiar figure at the front, “Shawn?” His head whips around and his eyes immediately land on me, “I didn’t know you were back at work already,” he turned quickly, adding my favorite latte to his order before glancing over his shoulder, “Are you on br
A Marriage of Convenience Complicated
Shawn blew out a weighted breath, “I did.”I expected more from him. Anything more. Shawn was never one to be at a loss for words, but right now, the only thing he said was I did. It’s been five years since I sent that letter. Five years I wondered if he’d gotten it. And I told myself it wouldn’t matter if he did. But I hoped he didn’t, because I poured my heart into every word that went onto that page. Tears blurred the writing as I laid out a nine year long crush onto a single sheet of loose leaf paper. The last line I wrote on that paper was: With you, I am home. When I’d written that line, I meant it with every fiber of my being. Shawn was always there growing up. He got me like no one else did. And no matter how things were at home, he made it seem so insignificant. He was the one person in my life that truly felt like home. He still does. None of that matters now. I moved on with James. I’m married. I’m married. It was just a stupid letter that I’d written in the heat of
A Marriage of Convenience Mine (James POV)
I don’t know what I was thinking bringing Rosa to Blackwood.I’ve not been able to return outside of the day I left the hospital. The wound still feels as fresh as it was all those years ago. My sleep has been plagued with tiny flashes of what happened that day, but nothing that will actually help me.Each night I’ve woken up covered in a cool layer of sweat, picking apart each nightmare in hopes that I’ll come up with something, but it’s been fruitless and left me in a sour mood.Putting distance between Rosalind and I has been necessary because she doesn’t deserve to put up with my shitty attitude.I came down to my gym for the fourth day in a row, pounding my fists against the punching bag. I didn’t bother wrapping them today. The pain was a welcome change to the building frustrating that I felt surging through my body.The muscles in my arms glistened with sweat as I pushed my body to its breaking point. I needed the distraction.My phone buzzed on the weight bench, flashing with
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