Excerpt: Tied Up in Knots

“There’s no such thing as perfection in men,” I muttered darkly.

Seth snorted. “You only say that because all the ones you date are complete dickheads.”

“You would probably be a dickhead too if your girlfriend told you that she had been sleeping with someone else during your entire relationship,” I said, shrugging.

He gave me a dark look. “Don’t defend him. I don’t care if some girl’s been sleeping around on me or not, that doesn’t give me the right to tell her she’s useless just because my ego was crushed.”

“I’m not defending him, I can just see why he would feel that way, that’s all,” I said, shrugging.

He frowned for a few moments before shrugging himself. “Regardless, there’s no such thing as a perfect relationship. Which is why I’ve put off this marriage thing for so long.”

“You’re going to end up marrying someone you can barely tolerate long enough to have a kid with her, and then you’re going to get a divorce,” I said easily. He shrugged in agreement. There was no use denying it when we both knew it was true. Seth didn’t believe in permanent relationships. I was really the only girl he had kept around for longer than a few months, but that was something entirely different.

A sudden look crossed his face as he looked down at me. “Unless…”

I blinked at him in confusion before I understood what he was trying to suggest. “No.”

“Oh, come on, Mia. You didn’t even think about it.”

“I don’t need to. I know my answer is going to be no either way.” Except that no would probably turn into a yes. Weakness, like I said.

“It’s a win-win situation for the both of us,” he said reasonably. “The company wouldn’t pass on to Clay, and you really want kids anyway. I’d take care of you.”

I didn’t doubt that, but that wasn’t why I was saying no. “I don’t want to marry someone I’m not in love with.”

He shrugged easily. “We love each other, don’t we? That’s close enough to make a marriage work.”

“Greed is enough to make a marriage work,” I muttered darkly. “But what if we fall in love with someone else? What then?”

He frowned thoughtfully for a few moments. “Alright. Here’s the deal. We plan on getting married a year from now. If one of us falls in love with someone else in that period of time, we can break it off. If not, we get married and live happily ever after. Peachy?”

“We can’t just engaged right away,” I argued. “Everyone will see right through that. Especially if we conveniently get engaged right after your father threatened to take the company away from you.”

“So we date for six months and then get engaged for six months,” he said with an easy shrug. “Either way, we get married a year from now. Deal?”

“No!” I protested, shaking my head empathetically. “No deal! No one is going to believe just decided to date after being around each other all of these years. And how the hell do you plan to keep this a secret for the rest of our lives? Because it is a secret, isn’t it? And what am I supposed to tell—“

My protests were silenced when he fused his mouth to mine without hesitation. It was hard to protest when he was kissing me like that, but I somehow managed to at least make enough noises that he pulled away briefly. “We are getting married, it will work, and no one will see through it. Everyone has thought we’re oddly close for years, haven’t that? It’s not such a large step. We tell everyone that we finally came to our senses, and we can tell people that don’t believe us to shove off. Now calm down, shut up, and let me kiss you.” And then he kissed me again.

Obviously, there’s more than one why to keep me from protesting.