Terms and Conditions (Dreamland Billionaires, #2)

by Lauren Asher

“This isn’t supposed to be fun.” Yet it certainly doesn’t feel like work. Exactly why all this is a bad idea. It’s easy to fall into a comfortable rhythm with Iris. Almost too easy.

“Because she was never meant to be mine in the first place.” Damn right she wasn’t. Fake marriage or not, Iris is destined to be with one man and one man only. Me.

“I think part of me always knew she would be the one. It just took a while for the rest of my brain to catch up.” His eyes don’t meet mine.

Iris is the only person with the ability to make me smile. Not that she knows it. I’ve done everything in my power to hide how much sway she has over my moods.

“If you try to leave me again, I’ll make you regret it.” The slight rasp in his voice does something catastrophic to my lower half.

Not quit but leave him. Such a strange choice of words for submitting a two weeks’ notice, but I believe Declan considers them one and the same.

wouldn’t bat an eye at the headlines, but the way they talk about Iris… Now that is simply unacceptable. You never cared about their opinions in the past…

You hate when she cries. You wouldn’t mind murdering someone who hurt her. You took her to the hospital even though you despise them with every fiber of your being. The signs all point to one thing: our situation is quickly crumbling, and I’m the only one to blame.

I know exactly why her injury angers me more than anything else. It’s the same reason I feel an urge to push Cal away from her whenever he gets too close or the way I unexplainably need to see her whenever she is out of my sight for longer than a few hours. You care about her.

“That’s our thing.” The way he says it makes my body buzz. “If you had it your way, everything would be our thing so that you never had to share me with anyone else, you territorial caveman.” “I’m glad you finally understand. It took you long enough.”

I’ve spent an entire lifetime by myself, and while it was never a problem before, it is slowly becoming intolerable.

It’s only a matter of time before I make her mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.

Some men look like a dream. Others a nightmare. Declan happens to be a lethal combination of the two—beautiful in a way that should terrify me.

“You’re growing a bit too comfortable with that nickname for my liking.” “I use it to remind you of your place.” “And what’s that?” “Mine.”

“I might be cold, rude, and distant, but I’m not blind. My whole job is about evaluating assets and it turns out that you’re my biggest one.” I never thought someone talking finance to me would be so heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

“You don’t need to try too hard. I am your wife after all.” “Even if you weren’t, I won’t give you up.”

I found my newest addiction, and it happens to be my fake husband.

But how do I convince my wife by contract that we are meant to be together by choice?

It could explain my insane need to keep Iris close and protect her from harm’s way. The way my chest feels all tight when she is gone. How my heart beats faster whenever she is in the same room as me. My intense need to mind my words so I don’t hurt her. Shit. I am falling in love with Iris.

“We could have one kid or five, so long as you only have them with me.

“Go ahead and take your time, but nothing is going to change the fact that you and I are inevitable.”

“Learning how to forgive is just as important as asking for it in the first place.”

I promise to work every damn day to make sure you don’t regret marrying someone as miserable as me. Because when I’m with you, I’m not miserable at all. You make me happy in a way that makes me afraid to blink just in case it all disappears.”

Declan needs to come with a warning sign because I’m susceptible to swooning whenever he is around. “It’s beautiful.”