What happens when a girl meets a guy she really likes, but she’s lying to the world about far too many things? She does her best not to get caught in her lies. At least that’s what Melinda’s hoping for. She has just a little over a year before she’s officially eighteen and no one can try to force her somewhere she doesn’t want to go, and she’s desperately holding on trying to get there. Her current boss isn’t helping though with his sliminess so when Jordan offers her a far better deal working for him, she’s determined to keep...
What happens when a girl meets a guy she really likes, but she’s lying to the world about far too many things? She does her best not to get caught in her lies. At least that’s what Melinda’s hoping for. She has just a little over a year before she’s officially eighteen and no one can try to force her somewhere she doesn’t want to go, and she’s desperately holding on trying to get there. Her current boss isn’t helping though with his sliminess so when Jordan offers her a far better deal working for him, she’s determined to keep her crush from making a mess of things. She can handle working with the man who’s nothing but sweet and helpful to her, who doesn’t look at her body the way others have for years, but rather sees her for her without things going badly, right?
Wrong. When Jordan uncovers her lies, he makes her an offer she never expected—an in-name only marriage to keep her safe and protected until she’s finished with school including college. A marriage that will require him to find and get her mother’s agreement to it, which she’s certain won’t happen, but she amazingly wants it to. When she tells her best friend Tate, the only one who’s known the truth about her mother disappearing two years ago, what Jordan offered, he makes her one of his own—for them to head out and make enough money on a pool circuit until she’s eighteen and can come back or go to college on her own terms.
Now, she has a choice to make, run with her best friend who’s never let her down, or stay with the man she’s already fallen for, even if he doesn’t know it? It’s not really that hard of a choice to make. She doesn’t really have to think hard about it, because if there’s any chance that one day Jordan might love her in return, she’ll choose him, now and always. Jordan fell for Mel the moment he saw her but seeing as how there were a dozen other men leering at her and her derision to it, he tried his best to tame it down. Talking to her for just a couple minutes had him falling even harder, wanting to be someone safe for her to turn to, even if it meant being her boss and only her boss. He wants her next to him as he builds up his company now that he’s graduated with his master’s degree in architecture, knows that she’s the only one he wants next to him.
Working with her didn’t stop any of those feelings, only deepened them, and when he learns the truth of her situation, there’s only one thing he can think of to fully protect her. Marrying her and keeping his hands completely to himself, unless she wants more one day. Surely he can handle that and her closeness to her best friend, the one she tells everything to, relies on completely to be there for her—the one he’s certain she’ll choose over him if she really has to. Maybe one day she’ll actually choose him over Tate, but until then, he’ll learn to live with just being her friend, because Mel is too important to him to lose—now or in the future.
TW: discussions of abuse, assault, and violence throughout the story
It may be light on spice, but it’s full of heart. Jordan is a marshmallow who knows how to keep his hands to himself, even with the woman he desperately loves. With some strong language, some heavy emotional material, and a HEA, Her Always Choice is approximately 73,850 words. It is intended for an adult audience and may include subjects that are sensitive to some readers.
