To Love Jason Thorn (Page 37)

I laughed. Like a big LOL laugh. Then I saw his face. “What? You’re serious?”

A big, giant lump took residence in my throat, almost to the point of suffocating me. Could he hear my heartbeat? See how my hands were starting to shake? “You’re not serious, right?” I asked at last, my smile long gone.

He gave me a sarcastic laugh. “Apparently our photos made everyone believe that we were in love with each other, and since we already have a past, Megan thinks the public won’t question our marriage. The opposite actually.”

“Our marriage?” I managed to choke out. He was actually serious. It was right there in his eyes.

“If you accept that is.”

“Wow.” I scrambled up to my feet and walked away from him. “Wow.”

A part of me was screaming inside me to jump on him, monkey style, and shout ‘Yes! Of course, I’ll marry you. YES!’ until my voice grew hoarse so he would get the point. After all, I’d been wishing for this moment ever since I was eight years old, hadn’t I? The other part of me…well, there was no other part of me. Apparently, I was just one giant, mushy, Jason Thorn lover.

I jumped when Jason’s hand touched my shoulder and he turned me to face him. I hadn’t even heard him get up.

“I’m most likely screwing this up. Let me explain a little more before you answer.”

I must have nodded, because he continued.

“If you accept, we’ll get married in a week or two.”

I gave him a sarcastic laugh. Did he think giving me that information would help? Because it didn’t. Not at all.

He kept going. “Of course, you’ll live here with me until the divorce.”

We weren’t even married yet, and he was already planning for a divorce?

“In the contract I’ve signed with the studio for Soul Ache, they added a clause that says I can’t be in a relationship while we are filming the movie and through the promotion phase of it. However, since you are the author, us getting married would be a priceless promotion for them.” He stopped talking and looked into my eyes. “Megan and Tom think you might have had me in your mind when you wrote your book.”

My heart literally stopped beating, longer than it should have. I stood frozen until he spoke again.

“But that can’t be true, right?”

“Of course not.” I shook my head.

“Right. Well, the public will think like Megan and Tom,” he muttered, his eyes still searching mine. “They think the executives will be happy about the news since it will only draw more attention to the movie. When the story gets out that we’re together, everyone will talk about how, after so many years, we found each other again, how the movie star fell in love with the author of their own story. In the movie, practically all they’ll see is me falling in love with you. The more they talk about us, the more your book and their movie will be mentioned. And, well, you’ll be the girl who made me give up my old ways.”

I opened my mouth, but he stopped me and took my hands in his.

“Yes, this will help me get everyone off of my back so I can get back to doing what I love doing without all this media crap, but it can also be a good thing for your career, too. Your next book is pretty much guaranteed to be another bestseller before you even finish writing it.”

I didn’t like hearing that. Not at all. I didn’t want people to read my words just because I was married to their favorite movie star. I wanted to make my own path, not walk in Jason’s shadow.

“The truth is, Olive, I’d take marrying you over marrying some girl I don’t know any day, some girl who is just looking to get a piggyback ride by marrying me.”

Lucky, lucky me.

Wasn’t that the marriage proposal every girl dreamed they would get from the love of their life?

“We are friends, right?” he asked when I kept silent.

Still shell-shocked, I was trying very hard to keep up with him. I nodded. I guessed we could be called friends. “It might be fun living together again. You’ll have your own room right across from mine, just like the old days, except this time there is no Dylan to bother you. I’ll mostly be gone, filming.” He looked around his heavenly backyard—if that expansive space could even be called a backyard, that is—and gave my hands a squeeze. “You can have this place all to yourself, Olive. It would be easier to write here instead of in a house filled with roommates, right?” His eyes came back to me.

“I’m not even writing,” I said stupidly.

“What?”

“I think I’m fresh out of creativity. Nothing new is coming, so that might have been my first and only book.”

He tilted his head and showed me his hypnotizing dimple.

“Maybe when you move here I can help with your creativity issues.”

My eyes got stuck on his mouth.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I forced my eyes away from his lips. I was dreaming of an alternate world where we were kissing. When the love of your life asks you to freaking marry him, you laugh with joy, maybe even shed a few happy tears, and eventually kiss, right? But this wasn’t my childhood dream coming true, was it? No, this would just be living in the same house with Jason Thorn, acting like we were in love only when were out in public, maybe holding his hand, kissing him on the cheek.

Could my heart survive Jason Thorn?

“So, what do you think?”

“About?”

“Marrying me…”

Did he really not see how I felt about him? Not even a little?

“I’m not sure if I’m capable of thinking right now, Jason,” I admitted.

“You’ll be saving me, Olive.”

But what would happen to me in the process? That was the real question. My heart was willing to go along with what he was proposing; after all, there was no way I could attend his wedding knowing it could’ve been me up there standing right next to him—even if it was a lie. But my mind wasn’t thinking any of that; it was giving out all kinds of warning signs.

“Can I think about it?”

“Of course,” he said, letting my hands go.

I was cold. Very cold.

Not knowing what to do with myself, I hugged my elbows and looked down at my feet.

His finger tilted my chin up and he ducked low to capture my eyes, so I gave them to him. He was smiling then, his eyes kind. “It’s okay if you don’t want to say yes, little one. It’s not something I thought I would do this year either.”

Was he getting closer to me? Involuntarily—yeah, no, it was very much voluntarily—I took a step forward to close the distance between us. His eyes were my beacon.

What did he see in my eyes?

His gaze dropped to my neck. He lifted his hand and his fingertips touched the arch of my neck. I stopped breathing and swallowed. His gaze jumped up to mine as if the motion startled him. Then his fingertips trailed up and around my neck and tangled in my hair, his gentle, unexpected touch causing my body to tremble.

My eyes fell closed and I breathed in his scent.

He was standing so close to me.

To my heart.

His thumb caressed my cheekbones and I tilted my head into his touch.

“Olive,” he whispered.

That voice…

I shivered, got wet… My body did all kinds of things that always happen in romance novels.

He was going to freaking kiss me!

If it happens, don’t freak out, Olive.