Page 210 of On A Manhunt: Complete Series

EVE

“You’re leaving.”

I knew when Silas came in that he was going somewhere.

He wasn’t in jeans, but dress pants. The kind no one in Hunter Valley wore, not now with feet of snow on the ground, piled high outside the shop’s windows to make a small path on the sidewalk.

It had only been a few hours, but he didn’t have that same relaxed look that had settled about him while we’d been stuck at the inn.

Of course, it could have been all the orgasms.

June took over the service counter and we stepped to the side. She knew we’d been stuck together, and I’d filled her in on some of what we’d done. Not the sexy stuff, but the fact that we’d both come clean about the cam room craziness.

It had only been three hours since he’d had his way with me this morning just as the sun was coming up. Me, bent over the side of the bed as he took me. Hard. Rough. Thoroughly as I’d gripped the sheets as if they might keep me anchored. I still felt him.

I was going to miss him. And his Big Dick. Stuck together with nothing to do but have sex, talk, and have more sex made me spoiled.

Reaching out, he tucked my hair behind my ear. A small gesture, but intimate. Familiar in a way that indicated we were… more.

He didn’t have to answer. He trimmed his beard.

“Yes.”

He suddenly looked uncomfortable, especially when he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I… um, need a favor. A really big favor.”

“Okay.”

He took a big breath. “I need you to be my wife.”

I blinked. Was the Gregorian Chants coming from the speakers too loud? “I’m sorry, what? I think you just said you need me to be your wife.”

He glanced at me, then away. “I did.”

Not want. Need. He needed me to be his wife. No declarations of love. This wasn’t a proposal.

“Why?”

What had happened in the past few hours?

He kept scrubbing his hand over the back of his neck.

Finally, he met my gaze. “The Hyport deal… during a meeting, they overheard you in the cam room. Reading a sex scene.”

My cheeks heated and I covered my face with my hands. “Oh my God.”

“Then I switched meeting times so I could be done at seven to join you in the room.”

This was getting worse by the second.

“Robert, that’s the CEO, pretty much cornered me and accused me of having a porn addiction.”

I lowered my hands and looked at Silas. He looked frustrated and forlorn. A little scared and a little angry.

Silas, the epic organizer and master CEO, got caught watching porn. Not just porn. Me.

“I think I should’ve just taken that loan,” I said.

His eyes widened in surprise and then started to laugh.

“None of this insanity would have happened if I did,” I reminded him. “Although the animal shelter will probably disagree since they’re thousands of dollars richer.”

“I wouldn’t have known all your sexy secrets though, kitten,” Silas finally said when he could catch his breath.

I blushed because I had definitely, inadvertently, given away a lot.

“I’m still expecting you to maybe kill me with a coffee stirrer for telling you all this.”

“Yeah, well, it’s kind of hilarious. You, a porn addiction?”

He grinned, leaned close so his mouth brushed over my ear. “I’m a sex addict when it comes to you.”

I shivered, knowing that was probably true.

“The deal could be blown because you’re so sexy.”

My smile slipped. “That’s not funny, Silas.”

He sobered up, too.

“Right. My father was going to merge with him twenty years ago, except my father slept with Hyport’s assistant–on his desk apparently–and did some other shady shit. The deal fell apart. I’ve been trying to make it happen ever since I took over James Corp. It’s almost done and then–”

I winced. “Then I happened.”

He nodded. “Yeah. In the spur of the moment, I told him it wasn’t porn, but my wife. My wife I hadn’t told anyone about because I made her up right then and there. He doesn’t seem to care if we do kinky shit in the confines of marriage.”

“But not out,” I clarified.

“Exactly.”

He took my hands and held them between his. “I need you… desperately, to come to San Francisco and be my wife.”

This wasn’t how I expected a marriage proposal to go. Then again, I never expected to be a cam girl either.

“Evelyn,” a deep voice called.

I stilled, then frowned. I didn’t need to turn around to know that it was Cheney interrupting us.

I looked over my shoulder. “What?”

“If this is how you treat customers, then–”

I turned around to face him. Grumpy. “This is how I treat you. What do you want?”

He glanced around. “To see how the place is holding up.”

“No snow damage. As you can see from the line, obviously business is good.”

The tables were also full. Everyone in Hunter Valley had cabin fever. Except me. I wanted to go back to the James Inn and stay cozy all alone with Silas.

“Not for long,” he said, his voice laced with acid.

Silas set his hand on my shoulder. I felt it. The hand. His presence. He had my back. “Right, because my father got all the banks in town to refuse me a loan.”

He smiled. He fucking smiled. Which meant he knew. That didn’t surprise me at all.

“Guess you have to come back to me after all.”

I felt Silas’s fingers tighten on my shoulder. I could feel the restraint, the barely-there reserve he held. Someone was fucking with me, and he didn’t like it.

“Yeah, not happening,” I said. “As I told you last time, I’m paying my bills just fine.”

“How?” he asked, looking totally stumped. “No bank in town will give you money. Your trust is cut off. What are you doing to keep this place open?”

Wait. Wait.

I glanced at Silas over my shoulder. He needed me to marry him for his mega-deal to go through. Cheney wasn’t going to let me do anything with my trust money. I had to wait until I turned thirty to access it. And to get him out of my life.

There was one way to solve my Cheney problem. Marriage, the other stipulation to my trust. If I got married–not to him–he wouldn’t be in control of my money or me.

I wasn’t sure if I would have thought of it if Silas hadn’t suggested it first.

Everything would be resolved. Cheney would be gone. There would be no more reason to talk about the James Corp loan. Or the camming. Or covering any of Steaming Hotties’ bills. Even my father and him getting the local banks to deny me a loan wouldn’t matter.

I might be doing Silas a favor, but he could do one for me as well.

Maybe he didn’t want me to be his wife, but he needed me. Well, I suddenly needed him in return.

“Cheney, did you meet my husband?” I asked.