She woke up married in Tokyo.
He refuses to help her undo it.
Now they have sixty days to decide if it was ever a mistake.

I don’t make impulsive decisions. I keep Bennett Mercer’s empire running and make his impossible deals survive contact with reality.

So when Dominic Cruz and I agree that whatever happens during our ten days in Tokyo stays in Tokyo, I make the terms very clear. We can have each other until the deal is done. Then we go home and pretend it never happened.

Instead, on our final night, I marry him. Stone-cold sober. Completely certain.

By morning, reality has caught up. I leave a Post-it on our marriage certificate that says Undo this and call my lawyer to draft the annulment. Dominic refuses to sign.

He offers me another deal instead: sixty days of real marriage. Rings on. No hiding. Then, if I still want out, he’ll give me a divorce.

Leaving before the punchline lands has kept me safe my entire life. But Dominic is asking me to choose what I want where everyone can see it.

I’ve wanted Jenna Pemberton for almost a decade. I’ve spent the last three years making sure she knows it.

She thinks the pursuit is a game. That I love the challenge and, once I finally win, I’ll lose interest. She has never been more wrong.

I’ll give her a divorce if that’s truly what she wants. What I won’t do is help her erase the night she stopped running and chose me.

For sixty days, I get to show her what our vows meant. Mornings in Chicago. Dinner with my family. Her clothes in my drawers. Every ordinary piece of the life I want with her.

So when I stumble across one old hurt she refuses to explain, I do what I always do: I make a plan to give her a better ending.

This time, I should have left it alone.