Call it an act of desperation, or bravery, but whatever the reason was, Deacon had just asked Haley Slater to remain married to him. He had known as soon as the words had left his mouth that he'd made a mistake.
Now it was too late to take them back.
And to make matters worse, Slater had just asked him to repeat his statement.
What on earth was he supposed to do? Was she playing some sort of game? Or was she perhaps giving him an out? Would it be advisable for him to say what he had previously said and wait for her to digest it? Or would he be better off pretending as though the whole thing had been a joke?
'Yes', it was best to just pass it off as a bit of humor. Something to laugh about and then move on. Just because Slater had hesitated to sign the papers, that did not mean she would be all in when it came to staying married to him.
He had let his desperation to not be forced into a marriage with Ashely Greene blind him. Of course Slater wanted their union to end officially. She had a life and their marriage was no doubt derailing it.
He was just thinking of the best way to tell her that he had been playing with her, when Slater bit her bottom lip and gave him a curious look.
"Did you seriously just ask me to stay married to you?"
There was the opportunity to just say no to tell her that she had misheard, but when Deacon answered, he was completely honest.
"Yes, I have just asked you to remain as my wife. Are you in or out?"
Slater looked absolutely stunned as though the slightest breeze would knock her over.
"Roth I…Roth what?" After several false starts, she cleared her throat and her back straightened, those green eyes settling on him.
"And what exactly is your reason for wanting to stay married to me? Do you have feelings for me? How far back do they go? Have you always liked me? Or is it perhaps a recent development? Wait, are you toying with me?"
The longer she continued talking, the more Slater worked herself into a state, and by the time she got to the end of her words, she was openly glaring at him. Her arms folded in front of her chest, her hair looking as though it were about to attack him.
Raising his hands up in a placating manner, Deacon tried to throw a charming smile her way, but she did not seem impressed by it in the least. That was a pity, a lot of people often told him that he had a killer smile. But it just so happened that the one time he needed it, it was against a woman who was completely immune to it.
"Relax, Slater. I am not playing games with you,"
Her defensive posture loosened a bit and she stopped glaring at him, but she still did not move. Which Deacon took to mean that she was at least willing to listen to him.
"I am not toying with you. And I'm also not asking you to stay married to me because I have some unrequited feelings for you,"
That had Slater relaxing all the way, all of the tension leaving her frame as she let out a loud breath.
"Good, if you had come out and told me that you had been in love with me since we were teenagers, that would have been very awkward, since I do not feel any type of way for you,"
Surprisingly, Slater's words stung Deacon a bit and he had no idea why. 'Why should he be bothered that she had no feelings for him?' That was a good thing. Dismissing the weird emotion, he turned his focus back to Slater.
"So, Roth, what exactly is the reason that you wish for the two of us to remain as husband and wife?"
Deacon looked at her. Noticing that the flower behind her ear was beginning to slip free, he reached over without thinking and readjusted it. Pulling back hastily when he noticed her staring at him with wide eyes.
"Your flower was about to fall off. I fixed it for you," She nodded and Deacon almost thought that he saw her blush.
But when he looked closer, her cheeks were perfectly normal. He must have imagined it. Deciding to just get back to the point, he began speaking.
"I want us to remain married not for romantic reasons, but for pragmatic ones. Personally, I have no interest in ever being anybody's husband. But a situation has come up that would force me to become exactly that,"
"At least in a marriage with you, the two of us would not expect anything from each other and we would know exactly where we stand,"
He watched as Slater took in his words, her thumb tapping lightly against her cheek as she thought.
"So, let me get this straight. You are being forced into an arranged marriage that you do not want, and you wish for me to stay married to you so that you can dodge that,"
In a nutshell, that was exactly what was going on. So Deacon simply nodded.
"And just who is the lucky lady or there's no one there at the moment, you are just moving ahead of time to prevent a potential disaster,"
Nothing had been announced to the public yet. He could have just kept everything to himself, but he decided that it was best to just come out and tell her.
"My father has every intention of getting an alliance with the Greene family. He wants me to marry the daughter of that family, Ashely Greene,"
Slater inhaled sharply at the name and Deacon's eyes narrowed.
"Do you recall her from high school?" Slater nodded.
"Unfortunately I do. And let me just say there is no love lost between us,"
"For once Roth I have to say you have good taste. At the very least your survival skills are on point. Getting married to Ashely Greene would have been a nightmare for you," Deacon could not help but feel his eyebrows raise at that. What did she mean? As far as he could recall Ashely Greene had been a quiet girl and even as a grown woman.
She barely caused any ruckus at all. Deciding that it really was not that important in that moment. He went on to press the issue that had resulted in him bringing up Ashely's name in the first place.
"So what will it be? Do you agree to remain as my wife, Haley Slater?"