River-rose thinks what her and her high school sweetheart has is love, but when she's told she needs to marry a complete stranger all of that changes.
Hayze is only 24 and owns his own thriving architectural business. After a business problem, his...
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Rushing around wasn't something Hayze did often, but today he was. He had woken up eighteen minutes later than usual and to make matters worse, River had decided to be an early bird and go out and play in the garden. Now there was a chance he'd run into her while he went out to walk his dog, Blue.
Blue was an all white husky with blue eyes similar to his own. His dog was also slightly intimidating just as he was. Blue acted as guard dog and alerted Hayze whenever there was someone foreign on his property. Blue was mostly bark rather than bite. And usually when he did bark it was because he was defending Hayze or he was just being playful.
Suddenly, loud barking and then a scream had Hayze scrambling down the stairs half-dressed in his suit. The last top three buttons of his white dress shirt were undone and his tie was hanging limply over one shoulder. The right side of his dress shirt wasn't tucked into his black dress pants and he hadn't yet put on his belt.
Hayze ran outside, only socks covering his feet, towards the garden with the fountain where the sound of the barking was coming from.
"Blue here, now!" he called as he stepped into the garden. He watched as his big pup trotted over to him and stood protectively at his hips.
Slowly, Hayze lifted his gaze from his dog up to River who was looking at him with wide honey-green eyes. Her eyes didn't blink and her chest rose and fell with unsteady breaths. She looked nervous and he couldn't blame her because they hadn't seen each other face to face for six whole days.
He let his eyes shamelessly trail over her petite figure. He took in her dark hair that contrasted deeply against her light skin. He couldn't get over how silky and long it looked. He then scanned her outfit which consisted of a white t-shirt, a high-waisted black shirt, fishnet knee highs and simple slip on sneakers. He adored how cute she looked in her outfit but he probably wouldn't allow her to go out in public wearing that because she'd be getting a lot of attention. The attention only he was supposed to be giving her. So far he'd done a pretty bad job.
Despite her outfit, she somehow managed to look unbelievably innocent.
River shifted nervously, her mouth opening and closing. "Hi." Was all she was able to squeak out.
"Good morning River." He noticed her smile down at her shoes when he said her name.
"Morning." She looked up at him with a small, hesitant smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scream so loud. I just didn't know you had a dog."
"It's okay." He reached down and scratched behind his dogs ears. "His name is Blue. Eventually he'll get used to you being around and then you'll be fine. I apologize for not warning you in advance. You're not allergic right?"
She shook her head. Her face looked shocked but he didn't ask why. "No, i'm not allergic. Blue. That's a cool name for your dog," she said with an excited smile. "Can I pet him?"
