Chapter 19 Almost Said Yes

I stood in the shower like a soggy pretzel, hoping the scalding water would burn the confusion out of my skull.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

Ashton’s words kept looping: ‘Let’s get married for real.’

Excuse me? Was I concussed? Had I slipped and hit my head and developed some sexy-rich-boy-themed delusions?

Because last I checked, we were in a mutually agreed fake engagement. No strings, no vows, no wedding hashtags.

And yet, there he was, five minutes ago, standing in front of me with that infuriatingly composed face and that annoyingly persuasive baritone, dropping a ‘let’s get hitched’ like he was suggesting brunch.

I mean, what even was that?

He’d leaned in, talked in that velvet-coated, emotionless CEO tone like he was negotiating a merger, but the only thing merging in my brain was every single R-rated thought I’d ever had about him.