Heirly Ever After - Vernon, Magan (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📗

you were sleeping, but the fact that you believed me made this whole thing ten times better.”

Sitting up, he leaned his back against the sofa, letting out a breath. “Okay, damsel. You win. And I guess I have some apologizing to do.”

“To your family?”

“They’re your family, too, aren’t they?” He turned toward me, blinking slowly so his long eyelashes fluttered.

“I guess technically they will be after the wedding. I don’t know. I guess I never thought of them as my family.”

“Me, neither,” he muttered under his breath.

“Do you still?” I asked bluntly.

“Still what?”

“Not think of them as your family?”

He shook his head, raking his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know, honestly.”

“Then why stay?” I blurted without even thinking. I should have taken it back or closed my big damn mouth.

“Are you asking me why I’m still here? Because of you or them?” He tilted his head, and the heat of his stare intently focused on me.

I should have looked away. Should have made an excuse. But something in his eyes gave me the courage to keep up with my epic spill of questions. “Yes. Both. I don’t know what’s going on with us or your family, but I feel like there’s a lot you aren’t telling me, and I don’t know if you’re going to or if we are just going to continue to dance around everything.”

He blinked again.

Damn those eyelashes.

Then he gradually let out a breath, nodding. “You’re right. And obviously there’s something on yer mind, so come out and ask it, if we’re being honest here.”

I opened my mouth to speak then closed it again, racking my brain for what to say. Did I ask about what I’d seen online? Or about us? Or both?

Before I could figure out the correct thing to say, a knock came at the door, and I jolted in my seat.

“I’ll get that,” I blurted, jumping up and padding toward the door.

On the other side was one of the maids in her starch gray uniform, hands folded together as she smiled up at me. “Miss Madison, Miss Natalie is heading for the dining room shortly and has asked me to check on you and Laird Jacob to make sure you’re coming.”

My hand stilled on the door.

Shit.

Was it already time?

And I hadn’t asked him the question I needed to.

A warm hand pressed on top of mine, and the scent of toffee surrounded me as Jacob sidled up to the door beside me. “We’ll be down there shortly. Thank you, miss.”

With that, she nodded, and Jacob closed the door.

“I need a quick shower and to change, but before I do, do ye still want to ask me that question?” He raised his eyebrows, his smile bringing out those damn irresistible dimples.

This was it. I could ask and get a simple answer for anything.

But instead, I took the coward’s way out. “I just…I wanted to ask if you think this dress looks okay for dinner. I guess some other guests are coming and one of the maids dropped it off earlier. I’m guessing it’s from Cecily. Or my sister. Or someone.”

I took a step back, trying to ignore the now cold spot that lingered without being near him. Grabbing the ankle-length skirt in my hands, I focused on the lace overlay material and how it felt against my skin instead of the way his eyes roamed from the tips of my toes and up the gold fitted dress and cap sleeves, up to my neck that he’d been kissing earlier.

I had to get a damn grip or my face was going to be blotchy and he’d know exactly the effect he kept having on me.

“The gold in the dress matches those little flecks in yer eyes.”

“Um, thanks,” I muttered, staring at the skirt instead of him.

“I’ll see if I have a tie that matches,” he said. “I’ll just be quick in the shower, then we can head down together.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

I waited until I heard the bathroom door close before I finally let out a breath. No matter how right it felt to be near him, to let his warm words envelop me, I needed to stop letting everything about this guy get to me. It was only a few days until the wedding then he’d be gone.

I’d be gone.

Unless I stayed like Mom wanted.

Then what…?

I’d have to tell her about school.

Would I bring even more shame as the low-class family with the girl who’d dropped out of college?

By the time Jacob emerged from the bathroom dressed in his same blue suit but now with a golden tie, I had already worked myself up into a mental frenzy.

“Madison,” his tone commanded, and I looked up to see him approaching me with purpose. His eyes were narrowed.

“What? Something wrong? I used all of your shampoo?”

He shook his head as he closed the space between us. His fingers brushed against my chin as he forced me to meet his eyes, and I swallowed hard against his hold on me. “You’re biting yer lip and fidgeting. Something is bothering you, and I have a feeling it has to do with that question you were going to ask me, so out with it.”

“Um…” I made sure I wasn’t biting my lip as I rolled the tips of my toes, trying to think of the right thing to say. “You know if we don’t hurry, we’ll be late, and we wouldn’t want to be late.”

“I don’t care about that right now. I want to know what’s bothering you, and I’m not leaving this room until you tell me.” His stare darkened, more intense with each second his jaw ticked.

There was the family resemblance. The one that intimidated me and shouldn’t have been causing a flame low in my stomach at the same time.

“My mom is moving to a cottage here and wants me to move as well.” I pushed out the first thing that came to mind that wouldn’t completely embarrass me.

He stilled for a second before dropping his hand. “Is