Can Yaman International Presents: "Love and Pixie Dust"

Chapter 11: "When Pixie Tackled Bigfoot"

At the end of Chapter 10:  "I can't do it. I've let her down so many times. She would never approve of our weird arrangement. I'll have to move back home," I mumbled. He tilted his head and studied my teary expression thoughtfully. "Okay, then we will lie our asses off." His tricky smile dawned on his face. "How? She knows everything now." "Hawk's Fiery Passion!" He said, out of the blue. "Huh? What does a romance novel have to do with anything right now, Özgür? I need you to get it together!" "No, listen. I read the whole thing. Hawk and Raven had to get married so she could receive her inheritance and get away from her evil uncle's clutches," he explained. I stared at him in disbelief and grumbled. "I think the cheese finally slid off your cracker." "Pix, it's a perfect plan." I'd read enough romance books in my life. I understood what he was proposing. A marriage of convenience.

(Author's Note: Please read to the end of the chapter and leave a comment. Are you enjoying the storyline? Don't forget to vote too. Thank you!)

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Özgür:

She raised a skeptical eyebrow and I fought the urge to kiss her. It seemed like I was always fighting urges these days.

"You can't be suggesting what I think you're suggesting," she said, her tone ripe with disbelief. A marriage of convenience.

"Marry me, Pix?"

Her eyes glistened. For a terrifying moment, she looked on the verge of tears again. I loved her eyes, especially when they danced with laughter or sparked with temper. Most of all, I loved the look in her eyes when they melted with desire. After that night on the balcony, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to never see them filled with tears. But today, tears had trembled on her lashes. Her distress was palpable in the way her hands twisted her T-shirt. It broke something in me. My Pix was hurting and I had to fix it. End of. I refused to analyze the compulsion. I told myself I would do the same for any woman in desperate straits.

Then there was laughter in my head. Would you though? my inner voice piped up. My inner voice was a snarky asshole.

Compulsion to fix the situation and make her happy again was riding me hard. I was helpless against it because I knew I would turn myself inside out to make things better for her. After all, she was carrying my... Martian. I glanced down at the slight bump of her belly and something magnified inside me. My heartbeat stuttered and I felt breathless again. Those damn flu symptoms were coming back.

"Marry me," I repeated softly. Somehow, I had moved closer and my hands were planted on each side of her head, caging her against the door.

"Özgür, that's the worst idea ever. We are in the middle of one bad idea. We cannot add another one. It would be disastrous," she whispered as her eyes melted. I leaned even closer to inhale her scent and my eyes drifted closed. I fisted my hands to keep them from pulling her up against me.

"Think about it. It's foolproof, and we don't even have to get married. We can just be fake engaged for a while," I said.

Alarm bells were blaring, emergency lights were flashing. Abort! Abort! I ignored all of it. For a split second, her eyes went liquid soft and she sighed softly. I blinked and her face had cleared of any expression.

She placed her hand on my forehead. "Hmmm. Feels cool. But obviously, you're suffering from a hemorrhagic brain fever or something equally catastrophic."

"Say yes," I whispered. Suddenly this fake engagement was more important to me than my next breath.

She swallowed hard and blinked rapidly. "You've gone completely off your rocker. Was it your colossal morning wood? Did all your blood flow south and fail to make its way back up? This seems to happen to you a lot. You should get that checked out," she said in a choked voice.