Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (inspirational books .TXT) 📗

Divya’s gaze outside the window as they left Las Vegas and headed into the clouds. Then she turned to him. “I’ve told you my poor-little-rich-girl story. What’s yours?”

He smiled. “Well, this poor little successful billionaire started out with a wonderful family that didn’t have much money but always had love.” Bill had adopted him when he was ten. They’d moved to a new neighborhood and he’d started middle school without anyone knowing that Bill wasn’t his real father. In all the interviews he gave—and answering Divya now—his life story began at age ten. He didn’t miss Wade. Once his mother had married Bill, Ethan had realized what a real father was supposed to be. But he’d always felt like the third wheel in his parents’ marriage. And then his brother had been born.

“I have a younger brother who’s married and has two awesome kids. They live down the street from my parents in Stillwater. It’s a suburb of Minneapolis.” He leaned forward. “I want what they have, but it seems no woman deems me worthy of lifelong commitment.”

Divya raised her brows. “Oh come on! What is it women don’t like? The fact that you’re rich or that you’re handsome?”

“You think I’m handsome?”

A smile played on her lips, and he itched to lean over and kiss her luscious mouth. “You’re not my type, but most women would find you okay-looking.”

“What is your type then? Tall and dark?”

“Maybe,” she said coyly, and a fire licked in his belly at the way her mouth curved. “So what’s wrong with you? Women think you’re a spoilt rich kid?”

He shrugged. “I’ve only been rich for the last few years. Before my company took off, I was an average Joe with a nine-to-five job. Women loved dating me but said I wasn’t the type of guy they’d marry.”

Divya frowned. “Do you have strange habits or crazy fetishes?”

He shrugged. “Not that I know of. Although I do like a bit of adventure in bed.”

She met his gaze. “Most women like a little fun in bed.” Heat rose deep in his core and he had the insane urge to pull her by the loose T-shirt she was wearing and kiss her senseless.

She broke eye contact first. “I’ll figure it out. I’m good at finding out what’s wrong with men.”

“Gee, thanks. There’s nothing wrong with me. I think women don’t know what they want.”

“Or you only go out with women who are unavailable, so you don’t have to commit.”

The comment pulsed through him. “That’s not true. I knew Pooja wanted to settle down and that’s part of what attracted me to her. I asked her to move in after just three months of us being together because I was serious about her.”

“Then, why did she marry someone else?”

“Because I took too long to propose.”

“And why did you do that?”

Why indeed? “I needed a little more time. We’d only been living together for three months and had been dating for a total of six. That’s not enough time to know that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone.”

“Vivek knew in three weeks that he wanted to marry me. He didn’t need more time.”

“But you did.”

“Because I don’t want to get married. To anyone. If I were ready to commit, Vivek would’ve been just fine for me.”

“You were in love with him then?”

“You have to be ready to fall in love. It’s a mindset, and I’m not into it. There is nothing wrong with Vivek. He’s a decent person. He’s kind and intelligent and met all of my criteria for what I’d want in a husband—if I were looking for one.”

“So when you’re ready, you’ll be able to marry anyone who meets your criteria.”

She leaned back in her seat and chewed on her lip, making him lose his train of thought.

“There’s no straight answer to that. My criteria may change in the future. That’s why I don’t want to settle down right now. I don’t feel like I know what I truly want.”

You and most women I meet.

“I am ready for all of it, for love, marriage and children. I thought Pooja was too, but she kept our entire relationship a secret. We never went out in public together because she was afraid someone would post a picture on social media. She refused to introduce me to her family. I had good reason to doubt whether she was as invested in me as I was in her.”

“She did that because she knew that you weren’t going to propose to her. If her family is traditional, they would have exploded at her bringing home an American guy. She can’t go through that kind of upheaval without a commitment from you.”

It was almost exactly what Pooja had said to him. “What more could I do to convince her I was committed? I was going to stop her wedding and marry her today.”

“No, you weren’t.”

How dare you! They’d known each other for a couple of hours, and here she was, challenging him on what he was or was not going to do.

“You might have been willing to stop her wedding, but that’s as far as you were going to go. If you’d really wanted to sweep her off her feet and marry her today, you would’ve proposed to her when you saw her and let her decide how much she really loves her husband. It takes thirty seconds to get an annulment in Vegas. But you were almost relieved that she was happy, like you were off the hook.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I believe in marriage. My parents have been married for almost thirty years and they are so happy together. My brother has been married for nine. He was my best friend until he met his wife. She knows him better than I ever did. She can read his moods, anticipate his needs…” He trailed off. “My parents, and my brother and sister-in-law, are a unit. They’re connected at this deep level, and that’s what I want. I didn’t