Broken (The Marriage Contract)
15 parts Ongoing You want the secret to happiness?
Keep your heart out of the equation.
That's what my father drilled into us James boys after my mom passed, and I've lived by it ever since. Love complicates everything. Business? Clean. Contracts? Binding. Feelings? Useless.
So when Dad drops a bomb over Sunday brunch and asks me for a "favor," I expect something simple. Pick up dry cleaning? Fine. But no-he wants me married. Settled down. Producing heirs to carry on the James legacy. And to top it off, he's already chosen my bride.
Sounds insane, right? But here's the thing-I'm tired. Tired of dating, tired of shallow connections, tired of women who want the James fortune more than they want me. Marriage, at least, is just a contract. And contracts? Those, I can handle.
Then comes Melanie Edison. A quick-witted, gorgeous veterinary nurse with curves that test my self-control and a "no sex before marriage" rule that borders on torture. Somehow, not dating her is the most fun I've ever had.
But what starts as a cold business arrangement doesn't stay that way. Somewhere between the bickering, the stolen glances, and the lines we swore not to cross, I end up breaking the one rule I swore I'd never break.
And once that rule is shattered, so am I.
Now I don't know how to fix us-or if I even can. All I know is going back to who I was before Melanie isn't an option anymore.
Because she isn't just my contract.
She's everything.