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I shift slightly, and I watch her eyes checking out my abs. "Like what you see?" I say.

"No," she responds tartly. "I'm still mad at you, by the way. Just because I caught you creeping in my bedroom doesn't mean that I forgive you for anything."

"I understand that, and I wouldn't think that you would forgive me just because I was creeping into your bedroom."

"You know what I mean. I mean just because I didn't kill you because I caught you creeping in my bedroom. It's early. I'm getting my words confused."

"Okay. I understand. I can leave now if you want."

"Actually…" She shakes her head, and I stare at her in surprise.

"Oh, you don’t want me to leave?"

"I think we should talk."

"Okay. Now?"

"Yeah, now is as good a time as any, seeing as you woke me up. Thank you for that, by the way. I'll probably be a raging bitch all day because I'm never in a good mood when I get woken up early."

"Okay, so you get woken up early every single day, then?”

“Excuse me?”

I crack a smile and laugh. "Sorry, maybe it's the wrong time for a joke."

"Yeah, it is. Really, Liam, you're gonna try and get back on my good side by saying that I’m a raging bitch every single day?"

"I don't think you're a bitch any time of day." I walk over and take a seat on the mattress. "Is this okay?"

"It's fine," she says as she shifts away from me.

"Can I come up and lean against the wall or?—"

She stares at me for a couple of seconds. "No funny business."

I put my hands up in the air and give her my most innocent smile. "No funny business," I say.

I clamber up on the bed and lean back against the headboard. I'm close to her now, so close that I can feel the heat emanating from her skin.

Her hair is messy, and her cheeks are rosy. I can see that she's wearing a pair of short shorts with her tank top. The sheet slips slightly down her legs and I stare at a naked expanse of thigh and swallow hard. Fuck, she's sexy.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"I wanna know what the deal is."

"What what deal is?"

"About the marriage."

"I already told you. Your father wanted to marry you off, and I didn't think it was right that you could end up with a nobody or just a random creepy man, so I?—"

"So you decided to be the creepy man that would get me."

I press my lips together. "I decided that I thought it would be better for me to marry you than for you to end up with some horrible dude."

"Because you're not horrible?"

I throw my hands up in the air. "I mean, I don't know, am I horrible? Was I horrible before you found this out?"