Two weeks.

I didn’t know how much longer I could go without seeing my wife. My wife. I smiled, realizing how often that term came into my head when I thought about her.

But the snow was too heavy for planes to be flying, so I was trapped at my penthouse in Chicago while she was back at the Peppertree. Business was doing its best to keep us from talking. Work was a shitstorm this time of year.

Honestly, I wanted to be bothering her every second of every hour, asking how she was, how she felt, and telling her what I was going to do with her when I got back.

In my defense, that would make this look like a more legitimate marriage, but that wasn’t where my motives were. I had to face the facts. Haley was eating up every spare second of my imagination. Her body her personality, the way her mind worked, it was all such a drug to me that I never wanted it to stop running through my mind.

Work on the Peppertree was going better than I could have expected. I made good on my promise to have my best designers handle it, and I was looking over a report from one of them while the sun set in the window of my apartment.

I was halfway through envisioning pinning Haley against the wall in the redesigned master suite when the doorbell rang.

I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn’t expecting anyone. For a moment, my heart jumped. There was no way Haley could have made it here through the snow, was there…? She was resourceful, and she had my bank account to work with, so anything was possible.

I almost didn’t want to believe it as I made my way to the door, but by the time I touched the handle, I was just about ready to expect her standing there.

Instead, what I saw when I pulled the door open made me want to slam it right back.

“Knock knock, Chase,” came Olivia’s silky voice.

My jaw dropped.

Olivia was standing in the doorway wearing a fabulously luxurious fur coat of chocolatey brown that reached all the way down to her knees. Despite the size, it showed off her tall figure in all the right ways, hugging her chest and her ass. She wore heavy makeup that made her eyes look smokey and seductive, and her lips told me everything I needed to know about her intentions.

“Liv, what are you doing here?” I groaned in a tired voice, grimacing at her ensemble.

“Don’t pretend you don’t remember everything I’m about, Chase,” she replied, strutting into the apartment on high heels that clacked on the floors. I shut the door behind her and rubbed my forehead.

“You’re about trying to dig your claws into my business, apparently,” I shot back. “And my marriage.”

“Marriage?” she asked coyly, pursing her lips. “What marriage? We’ve talked about this, Chase. You might be a little stubborn about the farce you’re putting on, but we both know that when you strip that away…”

She let go of her coat to reveal her naked skin underneath, her full breasts spilling out as she pulled the cloak back. She was completely nude, and she presented herself like a gift halfway unwrapped.

“...you’re still a free man,” she finished.

I turned my head away as if she’d just overturned a rotting log. “For God’s sakes, Olivia, put some clothes on!”

“Not a bad idea,” she mused, stepping closer to me. “I seem to remember you liking the way I looked in your oversized clothes after a night full of you coming all over me.”

“I’m married, Liv,” I nearly shouted, my voice firm and unyielding. “What the hell did you think was going to happen here?”

“I miss you, Chase,” she pouted, stalking up to me and putting her hands on my shoulders. I turned my back and took a few steps away, shaking my head. “And I know you miss me, too. I just think we should revisit what we missed out on, that’s all.”

“We couldn’t have been worse for each other, Liv,” I retorted. “You need to accept that.”

“Plenty of people in our kind of lifestyles have rough marriages,” she protested with a sadistic lilt to her tone. “That doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun through it all, though. Isn’t that how this all started with Haley?”

“Haley isn’t your concern.”

“You don’t have to explain your little situation. Or should I say your fake situation,” she chimed in a tone that gave me a very bad feeling. “Your attorney already did all the talking I could possibly want.”

My eyes widened, and I turned to glare at her. “What did you do?”

“Got your lackey to spill me some blackmail after I helped him unwind some of that tension?” she finished for me with a devilish smile. “Why yes, I did. I have proof that your little farce is just that.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Was our breakup really that bad, Liv? Jesus.”

“Oh no, Chase,” she assured me, slipping her coat off to the floor and leaning back against the couch, crossing her bare legs. “On the contrary, I think I was too hasty. I think we should revisit some of those long summer nights together...and I think you could stand to invest a little of that investment money into some of my family’s enterprises while you’re at it, as long as you want my evidence of your sham to stay away from the press. If you think Haley had trouble with Simmons…”

“So that’s what this is about,” I spat. “Sex and money. Blackmail.”

“You make it sound so ugly, for someone who’s head over heels in a fake marriage.”

“My marriage is real, Olivia,” I growled.

My shout boomed through the room, and it was so forceful that even Olivia looked shocked for a moment. There was a pause between us before I continued. “Haley is the love of my life. The whole day before you got here, she’s been on my mind, and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t get her out. Until you can get your head out of your ass, you’re never going to understand that feeling.”

I marched across the room and grabbed my heaviest overcoat, throwing it on.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, her voice losing some of its seductive edge. I was already at the door, keys in hand.

“Say whatever the hell you want to the press. I’m going to go be with my wife, even if it means I have to hike through the Rocky Mountains myself.”

I slammed the door behind me, and I’d never felt more right about a decision in my life.

* * *

I’d done some stupid shit in my life, but this had to be the pinnacle. Fuck, I was driving over an actual pinnacle to prove a point. To prove I was a man of my word. A man who could be trusted. A man who would do anything to protect his wife.

Wife.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter. My knuckles were white. Almost as white as the blizzard swirling around me.

I’d used the word like a toy. I used it for fun. To seduce her. To fuck her breathless. It had all been a game. A business game I played. The risk and the stakes were high, but so was the payout. I needed a wife for a year, and it seemed harmless. As harmless as a fake marriage to your ex-girlfriend can be.

But I fucked it up. Royally.

As soon as Olivia showed up at my doorstep, I should have known. I had given Haley reason to doubt me. Two weeks had gone by without a touch. Without a kiss. Without being buried inside her, sleeping inside her. What in the hell had I been doing?

Was I trying to sabotage the best thing that had ever happened in my life?

The tires spun as I hit a deep patch of snow coming down the mountain. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I could see the town on the horizon, but I didn’t know how I’d get there. The snow was coming down sideways and I kept fishtailing every two miles. This was as fucked up as winter storms got.

And I was driving in it.

There was no way I’d stop now. Not until I made it to her. Not until she knew the truth. Not until I kissed her soft pouty lips. Not until she understood that Chase Hawthorne was her husband in every way. That I was the man she deserved.

I tried to steer over a sheet of ice. The car started to slide and I shifted to the center of the road. It was getting worse out here. Just over the railing the mountain descended into a dark pit. Like hell if I was ending up in the bottom of the canyon tonight.

“Shit,” I muttered, slowing to an unbelievable crawl. I could walk in the snow faster than this. No, I wasn’t driving over the cliff. I was driving toward the woman who had saved me.

I swore when I got out of this storm, Haley would know everything. And this time, our life would be real.