Vesper’s POV
The room fell quiet after Jaxon’s words.
I stood there staring at him while my brain tried to process the fact that the worst solution imaginable was somehow still the best one available to me.
Fake marriage.
To a hockey player I’d known for less than forty-eight hours.
Jaxon watched me in silence, calm and arrogant.
Entirely too comfortable for a man discussing marriage with a stranger.
Meanwhile, my life was actively collapsing.
I exhaled slowly.
“This might genuinely be the worst thing I’ve ever agreed to.”
A smirk tugged at his mouth.
“So that’s a yes?”
”You sound disturbingly excited.”
”You’re offering yourself to me voluntarily, sweetheart.
Try seeing things from my perspective.”
”I’d rather walk into traffic.”
I thought of Sunny, crossed my arms tightly.
“Before you start acting like you won some grand victory, let me make one thing clear.
This is an arrangement, and it’s temporary.
Nothing more.”
Jaxon tilted his head slightly, studying me with that steady stare that was beginning to do inconvenient things to my nervous system.
I ignored him and grabbed my laptop.
“If we’re doing this, we need a contract.”
”You look hot when you’re bossy.”
”Do you flirt with every woman during a crisis?”
He chuckled.
“Only the ones trying to marry me.”
I opened a blank document.
“The marriage lasts until the preliminary custody hearing is over.
Public appearances will be discussed beforehand, and media involvement will be controlled.”
Jaxon didn’t respond immediately.
He’s looking at me.
“You’re not doing this for free; there will be compensation.”
His brow lifted lazily.
“Compensation?”
”You’re helping me, so obviously I’ll pay you.”
The second the words left my mouth, Jaxon laughed and threw his head backwards as if I just cracked a serious joke.
Now, Jaxon was irritating as hell.
How would I survive being near him?
How did my life flip in seconds?
I narrowed my eyes immediately.
“What’s funny?”
”You think I need your money?”
”No, I think normal people don’t fake marriages for free.”
”Who said I was normal?”
Fair point, he’s a psychopath, but a good one who will help my public life.
Jaxon stood then, slow and unhurried, like he had all the control in the room.
The movement pulled my attention immediately, despite my best efforts not to notice him.
Unfortunately, noticing Jaxon Laurent was becoming unavoidable.
He walked toward me while loosening the cuffs of his sleeves, his gaze never leaving mine.
“No money,” his voice dropped mischievously, and I huffed, closing the laptop to look at him.
“Then what do you want?”
”A real marriage.”
“You are bluffing.”
”You know what I mean….
especially if we’re going to be in public.”
My stomach tightened slightly.
“No fake distance,” he continued.
“No, acting like we barely tolerate each other in public.
We live together.
We show up together.
We look convincing.”
”That’s excessive for something temporary.”
”That’s believable except you want the tabloids to even call you a bitch for deceiving them, imagine how your little girl will feel if she realises you’ve been lying to her the whole time.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but honestly?
He wasn’t wrong.
The media already smelled blood.
If this marriage looked forced or cold, people would tear it apart within days.
Still—”Living together?” I repeated carefully.
“You’re asking for a lot from someone you just met.”
Something flickered across his face at that as the words annoyed him somehow.
“Right,” he said softly.
” We just met.”
There it was again with that strange tone like he knew something I didn’t, or I offended him by saying that loud.
Before I could question him, he leaned down slightly, one hand braced against the table beside me, and way too close.
“You want the court to believe you’re stable?” he murmured.
“Then they need to believe somebody stays.”
The words landed harder than they should have.
For one stupid second, my chest tightened.
Jaxon’s gaze dropped briefly to my mouth before returning to my eyes, and heat crawled slowly up my neck.
Damn him.
He noticed immediately, and the corner of his mouth lifted.
“So what do you say, little chaos?”
The confidence in his voice was unbearable, and part of me wanted to humble him.
The other part wanted to keep hearing him talk.
A tragic personal failure on my end.
I forced myself to look back at the contract.
“Fine.
Public affection if necessary.
Shared appearances and temporary cohabitation.”
”Temporary?” he repeated.
“Don’t push it, Jaxon.” His grin widened slowly.
“There’s the attitude Caleb warned me about.”
I froze slightly.
“Caleb talks about me?”
“Though he forgot to mention his manager came with a superiority complex and a mouth that sounds like foreplay.”
My breath caught so suddenly it annoyed me.
“Oh, my God.”
”What?” he asked innocently.
“You’re the one trying to control me.”
I shut the laptop immediately before I could throw it at his head.
“This was a mistake, forget I ever said anything in the first place.”
I pushed my chair back, fully prepared to leave the room for five minutes and reconsider every life decision that brought me here.
But the second I stood, Jaxon caught my wrist lightly.
Not forcefully, but just enough to stop me.
The contact sent heat racing embarrassingly fast up my arm.
His expression shifted slightly then, teasing fading into something lower.
Rougher.
“Relax,” he said quietly.
“We still need one thing.”
I looked down at his hand on my wrist before meeting his eyes again.
“What?”
A slow smile spread across his face.
“We need to rehearse.” Every instinct in my body suddenly became alert.
“I know how to pretend to like someone.”
”Do you?” His voice dipped lower.
“Because right now you look one insult away from murdering me.”
”That’s because you’re enjoying this, humiliating me.”
”I’m enjoying you.”
The air between us tightened and God.
This was dangerous.
Jaxon stepped closer, and my stupid heartbeat immediately lost all professionalism.
Up close, he was worse.
The tattoos disappearing beneath his rolled sleeves, his sharp jaw, and his cocky mouth.
The quiet arrogance in the way he moved like the entire world naturally made space for him.
I should’ve stepped back.
Instead, I stayed completely still while he slid one arm slowly around my waist.
My breath hitched instantly, and Jaxon noticed.
Of course, he noticed because he was smirking.
“I hate you.”
”No, sweetheart.” His hand tightened slightly against my waist, pulling me flush against him.
“That’s not what this feels like.”
The warmth of his body hit me all at once, solid muscle and dangerous confidence, and suddenly, my brain stopped functioning correctly.
This close, his stare felt unfair, like he already knew exactly what he was doing to me.
I opened my mouth to respond with something sharp, sarcastic, and Intelligent—
Then Jaxon kissed me.
And every coherent thought disappeared instantly.