For a moment, I just stared at him.
Waiting for him to smile.
To laugh.
To say he was joking.
He didn’t.
“You’re serious,” I said slowly.
“Yes.”
The word landed with quiet certainty.
I let out a breath that sounded more like disbelief than anything else. “You just told me you need a wife.”
“A temporary one,” he repeated.
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“It makes it accurate.”
I shook my head, trying to catch up, trying to make sense of something that didn’t make sense at all. “People don’t just… ask strangers to marry them.”
“Most people don’t.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
Max didn’t look amused this time. If anything, he looked more focused. More deliberate.
“I wouldn’t be asking if the situation wasn’t specific.”
I let out a small, incredulous laugh. “Specific? That’s one wo
