Two Truths and a Marriage (The Rory Brothers, #1)

by Nicole Snow

What happens when the truth matters less by the day? What happens when you start falling in love with a lie?

There’s a name scrawled across the bottom in a garish slash. Dexter Rory. “All right,” I say, rubbing my face. “Let’s find out how crappy a tipper you are, Dexter Rory.” I skim down to the tip line and my eyes nearly exit my face. My jaw drops. Well, crap.

“It just so happens we’re finalizing plans to have a full complement of Sugar Bowl desserts—plus an on-demand menu—added to all our Kansas City properties.”

“Did Haute buy that you—Dexter Rory, the man without a beating heart—are engaged to a pastry chef?”

“Miss Winkley, I’m warning you. I don’t need this tonight.” “Oh, yeah? That’s a shame.”

“To the best mistake I’ll ever make,”

Little Junie, never enough to keep a man around.

“Juniper.” The way he says it shocks me to my core.

I can’t even tell if he’s having lewd thoughts about my ‘fiancée,’ but hot rage sweeps through my blood anyway.

Of the three of us, Patton got the best people skills. This glorified brat could charm the wheels off a car and sell them back to the owner at a horrifying markup. Archer got the dick-with-me-and-you’re-dead energy, and I got—stubbornness, I suppose. A certain pigheaded tenacity that serves me in business as much as it hinders me with people.

“Woman, it wasn’t nearly enough if I liked fucking you. And it would’ve happened over two weeks before I decided I liked being inside you so much we decided to go exclusive.”

I’m greedier than I should be, tracing her skin with my fingers.

My lips hover over hers. A low moan slips out of her that makes me fucking feral. I’m about to move in and claim what’s killing me—

The dance did its job, melting away the stifling tension. Somehow, it was nice, which was an even greater surprise. Even when he held me close enough to inhale him with every breath, staring down at my mouth with a hunger that scared me in all the best ways.

When Dexter’s not scowling, Patton isn’t the only charmer, but that’s a thought I’m not entertaining.

Dexter’s eyes remind me more of the sea and its endless mysteries.

Until his hand slides through my hair, his fingers tangling with a claiming pull, and he kisses me with what feels like the weight of his entire soul.

She might be the first sweet thing I’ve ever had that I don’t instantly hate.

“Who?” she asks breathlessly. “Which one of my boys is getting married?” Archer and Patton both look at me. If I die tonight, I’m going out as a murderer.

“As I was saying, you’ve been the best fake girlfriend a man could hope for. You haven’t gone back on our deal, you haven’t backed down, and you haven’t even found a hitman to haul my carcass down to the Ozarks and be done with my shit—though I know you’ve thought about it plenty.” I bite my bottom lip, trying not to laugh. “So, Sweet Stuff, fake lover and real partner, will you accept this ring? Will you save my balls from getting crushed like grapes one more time?” Without waiting for an answer, he grabs my hand and slides the ring on. Holy, holy hell.

Even the way he says sweetheart makes my heart flutter, just as much as it stalls me in my tracks.

I’m behaving like some horndog who just found out he can do a lot more with his dick than piss out of it.

Juniper Winkley needs to know what she does to me. How special she is. For better or worse, she needs to wrap her pretty little head around how damnably hard it’s going to be to ever let her go.

Is it really Haute at all or is he afraid to admit he’s feeling the same things I am—everything we’re both too scared to say?

“Whatever you two told yourselves, your feelings were more honest. Your lips didn’t lie. That man is right for you, Junie, no doubt about it.”

Why couldn’t I just tell Dexter Rory I was falling in love?

She just needs her man.”

If I ever thought I wasn’t deliriously in love with this man, I was dead wrong. He still has my heart captive, bruises and all.

“I love you, Juniper Winkley,” he says, and his face has lost its smile. He’s deadly serious as he looks at me. “I’ve known it for a while, but I pretended I didn’t because we told ourselves it was make-believe. Now, I’m not afraid. It was always real to me, and if you’ll have me, I want to find out how sweet life can be. Together.”

He’s made me so happy I may never cry again.

It’s not a dream, I decide as I rest my head against his shoulder. Dreams always end, but this is just the first night. This is the deepest truth. As long as I’m with him—as long as I’m a Rory—I’ll never ask for anything more from a man who’s delivered the entire world.