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He's spent his entire life following orders.
Captain Mason Hayes is a disciplined military man who believes in duty, honor, and country above everything else. With deployment only weeks away, there's one problem he never expected to have-he needs to be married before he leaves. His family expects it, and for reasons he can't explain, he agrees.
But his options are running out.
Until he thinks of her.
Amara Carter is the last woman Mason would ever imagine marrying. She's outspoken, stubborn, passionate, and completely different from him. She doesn't trust the military, refuses to stand for the flag, and believes America has never truly treated Black people equally. Her family is fiercely proud of Black love, Black history, and their community-and they definitely aren't about to celebrate their daughter marrying a military man.
And the worst part?
Mason and Amara have barely spoken.
When Mason asks her to marry him, Amara thinks he has lost his mind. But when she realizes the marriage could help him before deployment-and he promises it will be nothing more than an arrangement-she reluctantly agrees.
Now they have to convince two completely different families that this marriage is real.
His family sees her as disrespectful and unpatriotic.
Her family sees him as everything they have warned her about.
And Mason and Amara?
They can barely survive being in the same room.
But somewhere between the arguments, late-night conversations, family drama, and the countdown to his deployment, their fake marriage starts feeling dangerously real.
Because sometimes the person who challenges everything you believe is the person who teaches you what love actually means.