DON’T MARRY HIM

  by

  J. Sterling

  DON’T MARRY HIM

  Copyright © 2023 by J. Sterling

  All Rights Reserved

  Edited by:

  Jovana Shirley

  Unforeseen Editing

  www.unforeseenediting.com

  Cover Design by:

  Michelle Preast

  www.Michelle-Preast.com

  www.facebook.com/IndieBookCovers

  E-Book Edition, License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Please do not participate or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-945042-42-3

  Please visit the author’s website

  www.j-sterling.com

  to find out where additional versions may be purchased.

  Thank you for downloading this book.

  I hope you enjoy my Fun for the Holidays collection!

  Sign up for my newsletter to get emails about new releases, upcoming releases, and special price promotions:

  NEWSLETTER

  Come join my private reader group on Facebook for giveaways:

  PRIVATE READER GROUP

  Other Books by J. Sterling

  Bitter Rivals- an enemies to lovers romance

  Dear Heart, I Hate You

  10 Years Later- A Second Chance Romance

  In Dreams – a new adult college romance

  Chance Encounters- a coming of age story

  The Game Series

  The Perfect Game - Book One

  The Game Changer - Book Two

  The Sweetest Game - Book Three

  The Other Game (Dean Carter) – Book Four

  The Playboy Serial

  Avoiding the Playboy- Episode #1

  Resisting the Playboy- Episode #2

  Wanting the Playboy- Episode #3

  The Celebrity Series

  Seeing Stars- Madison & Walker

  Breaking Stars- Paige & Tatum

  Losing Stars- Quinn & Ryson

  The Fisher Brothers Series

  No Bad Days – a New Adult, Second Chance Romance

  Guy Hater – an Emotional Love Story

  Adios Pantalones – a Single Mom Romance

  Happy Ending

  The Boys of Baseball

  (the next generation of fullton state baseball players):

  The Ninth Inning – Cole Anders

  Behind the Plate- Chance Carter

  Safe at First – Mac Davies

  Fun for the Holidays

  (a collection of stand-alone novels with holiday based themes)

  Kissing my Co-worker

  Dumped for Valentine’s

  My Week with the Prince

  Fools in Love

  Spring’s Second Chance

  Don’t Marry Him

  Summer Lovin’

  Flirting with Sunshine

  Falling for the Boss

  Tricked by my Ex

  The Thanksgiving Hookup

  Christmas with Saint

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Other Books by J. Sterling

  Crossing Lines

  Pushed Too Far

  I Don’t Understand

  Secrets are the Worst

  We Have to Save Her

  Dinner with Dad

  Operation Object

  I Do … n’t

  Save My Woman

  I Failed Her

  Depressed and Alone

  Putting the Pieces Together

  Have to Fix This

  Our Future Starts Now

  Always & Forever

  Justice

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Other Books by J. Sterling

  About the Author

  CROSSING LINES

  DOMINIC

  “You want me to object at your wedding?” I asked again, simply for clarification. I knew that I’d heard her right the first time, but I wanted to hear her say it one more time … to make this fucking insane request of me again.

  I’d been in love with Dove Tryst my entire life, and there was very little that I wouldn’t do for the woman. We’d made it a habit to push each other’s buttons, each of us doing some pretty insane shit for the other in the name of love—and sometimes hate—but this … this was going too far.

  Even for us.

  She stared at me silently, her green eyes daring me to tell her no as the wind whipped her blonde hair around.

  “Dove, I haven’t talked to you in months, and this is what you say to me after all this time? No explanations, no answers. Just this fucked up request after I find out you’re marrying him?”

  Silence.

  It gave me time to take her in, to really look at her. I had this woman memorized, knew every inch of her by heart. I could recognize her in a lineup if I was blindfolded, just by the way her body felt underneath my fingertips. There were subtle changes that most men wouldn’t notice, but I wasn’t most men. Her blonde hair was longer than she normally kept it, falling past her full breasts instead of stopping just short of them. And her body was a shade darker and toned to a level she’d never been before. No doubt she’d been working out and getting in shape for her upcoming nuptials.

  The perfect-looking bride.

  Bile threatened to rise. I had never once entertained the idea that Dove would marry someone who wasn’t me. It was absolutely fucking preposterous. My anger flared, betrayal and loathing filling me before flitting away with my next breath. I had a hard time staying angry with her. Getting worked up was easy, but staying that way always eluded me.

  Unlike her.

  Dove could hold a grudge like no other. Whenever she got a little too pissed, it was me who ended up on his knees, asking for forgiveness. She gave it. For me, she’d claimed, she’d always give in. But now, here we were, standing in silence in the middle of some empty field in the town we’d both grown up in, a huge pear-shaped diamond on her ring finger that I hadn’t given her.

  “First, you break my fucking heart by getting engaged to him, of all people, and now, you want me to object at your goddamn wedding? A wedding I have no intention of showing up to, by the way.”

  More silence.

  “As if I could stand there and watch you marry someone else—anyone else—and not die from the pain.”

  She was still quiet. And no tears fell. I’d expected at least some moisture to start forming at the corners of her eyes with my confessions, but there was nothing there.

  Only hardness remained.

  It was unnerving, her looking at me this way. My girl was definitely fighting something internally, but I wasn’t sure exactly what. This woman, who I knew as well as I knew myself, suddenly felt like a complete stranger. Nothing made sense.

  “Fucking hell! Answer me, Dove!”

  “Yes,” she screamed back, losing all of her composure.

  I found myself momentarily satisfied at her lack of control. Her anger, or irritation, or whatever it was meant that she still felt something for me. I hadn’t lost her forever. There was still part of my girl in there, no matter how deep she tried to bury it and act like she didn’t need me anymore.

  We both knew that nothing could be further from the truth. One of us didn’t exist without the other. There was only the two of us, and the whole damn town knew it. Which was why none of this made any kind of sense.

  “I need you to object,” she said, her voice more stoic now.

  I shifted my weight from foot to foot, wrestling with what she was asking me to do. And for a reason she refused to give me.

  “This is too much.”

  “I figured that you, of anyone else in the world, would relish in the chance to humiliate Trevor O’Connor in front of the whole town, all of his donors and constituents. Imagine how embarrassed he’d be if you not only stopped his wedding, but also ran off with the bride.”

  It was tempting.

  Damn, it was really tempting.

  Trevor used to be my best friend when we were younger. He’d had a fucked-up home life. A dad who struggled to stay sober and a mom who rarely, if ever, came back to the run-down two-bedroom apartment they called home. He moved into our mansion as soon as my father gave me the okay. He even had his own room. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, helping out a friend in need. I never realized that he’d turn into my biggest threat.

  I learned in that moment what it was like to be competed with—for my father’s attention, for accolades, for jobs, and f
or girls. Trevor wanted everything that I had, and with the exception of Dove, I happily handed it all over to him. Nothing, except her, meant anything to me.

  He followed in my father’s footsteps, learning the ins and outs of the political circuit. Trevor fed off of the manipulation and power—two things I’d always steered clear of, much to both of my parents’ ire. I had no desire to be the type of man my father was or to follow in the family business. I came from a long line of politicians, where nothing was off the table when it came to getting what you wanted.

  Dove was the one thing that I kept for myself. She was never a bargaining chip, never an option on anyone’s agenda. She had been mine, end of story, and everyone had fucking known it. But now, somehow, she was his, and nothing made sense anymore.

  So, yeah, it was tempting as fuck to want to steal her from right under his nose on what was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. But I had to think straight. And while the idea that Dove had planted in my head was a good one, it wasn’t necessarily smart.

  My jaw ticced as I looked at her, forcing my hands to stay put and not reach for her like they were so used to doing. She was waiting for my response.

  “If I did that …” I swallowed hard, searching my mind for a time I’d ever turned her down. I couldn’t think of one. “If I stopped the wedding and you left him at the altar, Trevor would be the victim. Everyone would feel sorry for him. Hell, it would probably get him more votes and reach, not less. He’d be some sort of hero to the everyday people. His next campaign slogan or some shit. And we’d be the villains, Dove. In that scenario, you and I? We’d be the bad guys. The entire town would hate us. Everything we’d worked for would go under, like that.” I snapped my fingers to signal how quickly we’d lose it all. “No one would support our businesses; they wouldn’t be allowed to without scandal following them at every turn. People would be forced to choose a side, and they wouldn’t choose ours.”

  Not that I honestly gave a shit about my development company. I could always start over online or somewhere else. And it wasn’t that I needed the money. I had plenty from my success over the years, saved up and accruing nicely regardless of the economy. And I knew that Dove had her finances in check too. She’d bought Hopetown Real Estate and turned it into the most successful residential company in the county, not just the city limits. It had taken her years to turn the business around and make it into what it was today. I couldn’t imagine her walking away from it like it wouldn’t break her heart to do it.

  If the town turned on us, I knew it would devastate her. She loved it here in Hopetown as much as I hated it. I never planned on leaving though because Dove never wanted to. Even though corruption ran through the neighborhoods like telephone wires, Hopetown would always be home. It was where she wanted to raise our family, and I never planned on denying her that.

  I hadn’t expected her face to look so crestfallen with my words, but that was exactly what happened. She looked like she was about to break. The tears I’d wanted to see a few minutes ago now appeared. I didn’t want them now. I’d wanted them then. Now, they made me feel like an asshole. Now, they made me question more than ever what the hell was really going on that she wasn’t telling me.

  “Can you really stand the thought of me being someone else’s wife? Of being his wife? I thought we were soul mates, Dominic. I thought you loved me.”

  My cheek stung with the force of her words like she had slapped me with them. And watching her walk away had almost been as bad as being struck.

  “How could you do this? You owe me an explanation, Dove!” I shouted, and she stopped moving. “Why the hell did you say yes to him?”

  “You’re joking, right?” was the answer she gave me, and I wanted to tear my fucking hair out piece by piece as she climbed into her all-white Range Rover.

  That wasn’t a fucking answer.

  Dove drove off anyway, the loose gravel from the road spitting up behind her tires and flying toward me. A piece hit the sunglasses on top of my head, leaving a mark. It seemed fitting that something else besides me would carry the scars from today’s meeting.

  I kicked the gravel with my boot, sending dirt and debris into the air.

  She thought I loved her. I thought she loved me. Even when she acted like she hated me, I knew she still loved me. But marrying someone else wasn’t love. It was punishment. It was torture. It was downright fucking cruel. Yet she was doing it.

  My heart split in half inside my chest. It hurt almost as bad as it had the day I found out that she was engaged to him. The day my world stopped turning and life hit the pause button.

  Moving forward, without her, seemed impossible.

  I stopped talking to my family the minute I caught wind of the news. There was no way they hadn’t been in on this soul-level deception, and I knew it without even having to ask. I wondered how long they had been plotting it, how long this treachery had been in the works behind my back.

  My father knew exactly how badly losing Dove would gut me. He knew she was my Achilles heel, the person I couldn’t function without. That was the thing about the people closest to you—the moment they knew your weaknesses, they wouldn’t hesitate to exploit them when necessary. My father would do whatever it took to get whatever he needed even if I had no earthly idea what that was. Apparently, he’d needed me out of the way and Dove by Trevor’s side.

  But why? I wondered as more questions than answers filled my head.

  All to climb the political ladder? It didn’t make sense.

  And how had they gotten Dove to agree? She loathed Trevor as much as I did. Her loyalty had never strayed from me. Until now.

  I had a choice to make. But when it came to Dove, there was never truly a choice. I’d do anything that woman asked, and we both knew it.

  But objecting at a wedding she’d willingly agreed to be a part of?

  That was definitely crossing a line, yet she’d asked for it anyway. I replayed her words in my head, and that was when I caught her slipup. A rarity for Dove. Unless it was done on purpose, which was more than likely the case.

  What was she trying to tell me that she couldn’t come right out and say?

  “I need you to object,” she had told me.

  Need.

  Not want.

  She needed me to do this. And we both knew that I would.

  PUSHED TOO FAR

  DOVE

  I drove away, my heart bleeding out in his hands and he didn’t even realize it. Dominic DeLuca was convinced this was some sort of game that I was playing. I had seen it in his dark eyes—the questioning, the hesitation, the uncertainty of what I was asking him to do without telling him why.

  But Dominic, of all people, should have realized that if I was leaving information out, there was a damn good reason for it. I couldn’t tell him anything without Trevor finding out about it and doing what he’d threatened. I’d promised that I’d marry him, be a good little wife, and play the part for as long as I had to. I was determined to eventually find a way out of this charade. But for now, it was the only way to keep my dad from going to prison. I knew what people in jail did to the cops who ended up there. If there was any way I could stop that from happening, I had to do it.

  Being in Dominic’s presence, sharing the same air, had almost made me pass out. It was unnatural to be that close to him and not touch him. My body wanted to move to its rightful place—in his arms—but my brain refused to allow it. I had to be strong. He had known what he was doing when he came to meet me—dressed in my favorite navy-blue suit, looking stunning with his dark hair gelled back to perfection and the beard on his face perfectly trimmed.

  I’d loved that man my whole life. How was I supposed to live without him?

  Dominic and I had a history of pushing too far. We’d tested limits and boundaries, all in the name of love, asking some pretty questionable things of the other. All of that was mostly in the past though. We had been young when we first fell in love, first became each other’s everything, and realized that this was what books, movies, and TV shows always talked about. Other halves. People you couldn’t live without. A partner who would fight through the pits of hell to be by your side and never let go.

  I believed in soul mates because I’d found mine. And I had constantly made him prove it. I was insecure in the beginning, unsure that a guy as cool and confident as Dominic could feel for me the way I felt for him, so my asks usually involved other girls. They wanted him. He was mine. He let them know they’d never have a chance in the most humiliating way possible. I asked him for cruelty. He delivered.