He was leaned against an old crate that had been tipped upside down with his legs stretched out long, sipping from a beer while he kept watching her, thinkin’ something this good had to be a hallucination.
Genny stood between his thighs. Close, but not quite close enough.
He eyed her from over the bottle. “Yeah. And why’s that? Tell me you don’t have a boyfriend.”
He meant it as a tease because there wasn’t a chance in the world this girl would be stepping out on her man.
He had a knack for readin’ people.
Knowing who was out for pleasure and who was out for gain.
This girl?
She was as blameless as they came.
Except a blush raced across her face. Hot and heated and ashamed. He eyed her harder when he saw her reaction. “Tell me you don’t actually have a boyfriend.”
He almost choked on it because shit…he was gonna be struck dumb if he’d pegged her wrong.
She laughed a hard, bitter sound, and she dropped her face.
Heart stretching his chest tight, he reached out and tucked his knuckle under her chin, lifting it to him.
He had the overwhelming urge to wrap her up tight when he saw a single tear slip down her face. Hold her and promise her he’d fix it, whatever it was.
“No, Rhys. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
A frown dented his brow. “Then what?”
She wavered and warred, and then she was spitting the words like they were poison. “I have a fiancé.”
What the actual lovin’ fuck?
She cringed again and swayed in some kinda dismay that had him drawing her closer rather than pushing her away like he should have been doing.
“He’s…he’s my father’s best friend’s son. It’s been assumed since we were babies that we were gonna get married. It’s been planned forever that I would marry Noah and he would take over my father’s company. The wedding is in three months, but I don’t…” Her face lit in that shyness. “I haven’t even….”
The girl couldn’t even say it.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s still what’s required of me.”
“Tell me you’re jokin’,” he demanded. Anger rose in the middle of him. This protectiveness for a girl who clearly was being forced into something she hadn’t agreed to.
“Not jokin’. It’s what’s expected of me.” That time, she laughed, but it was dire and hollow.
She lifted her arms out to the sides. “For the first time in my life, I got brave and fought with my mama about it today. Told her she couldn’t make me. She told me to stop bein’ silly and to accept what I was born to do. That our family legacy was riding on us merging our families. The women in my family don’t step out or go chasin’ after dreams, Rhys. But tonight, I did. I chased a single dream. I snuck out with my friend so I could get the taste of freedom. Just for one night. For one moment.”
Then she flinched. “I know it’s gonna cost me when I get home. I’ll be punished, but it will be worth it.”
This was the most fucked-up shit that Rhys had ever heard, and he was having a hard time processing. Making sense of it.
“What are you sayin’? Someone’s goin’ to lay a hand on you when you get home?”
Redness flushed her face, and he could taste her terror.
“Shit.” He blinked a bunch of times. “Then why don’t you leave? Get away from there?”
She ran her hands up her bare arms like she was chasing away a flash of chills. “I wish it were that easy. They’ll find me. Noah and my father…they are…” She flinched.
Motherfucker.
Rhys suddenly felt like going on a murder spree.
“It’ll be bad enough if they discover I sneaked out tonight.” Then she smiled. Smiled an awed smiled that made his chest ache. “But it’ll be worth it. Just for a second of this.”
She tipped her face to the sky like she was relishing the moment. Imprinting it into her being. Writing it forever on her memories.
Rhys choked over the intensity of what she was feeling right then, scrambling to find a solution. Half wantin’ to pull out his hair and the other wanting to go on a manhunt.
Because this was straight bullshit.
“This is insane. Come on, Genny, stuff like that doesn’t happen anymore. They can’t make you.”
She blanched. “Look around you, Rhys. You’re not exactly standin’ on modern ground. I’ve known since I was little that I was supposed to marry Noah. My daddy…he owns this whole town, and because of me, Noah is next in line.”
She trailed off with the misery.
Rhys’ heart started to beat in real time. A flicker of somethin’ he hadn’t felt since he’d been a boy.
“And then every once in a while, God makes someone extra special. Someone who is more vulnerable than others, and it’s our job to protect them. To take care of them. Even when it ain’t pretty.”