She’s everything I would never choose in a woman.
So naturally, she’s the only one I can’t stop wanting.
Purple hair. Red lips. Ten rings on her fingers and an opinion about everything.
She should drive me insane.
Instead, she makes me laugh and forget about my work.
She makes me wonder when my perfectly ordered life became so… empty.
When business takes me to Rome and I suddenly need a fiancée on my arm, there’s only one woman I want beside me.
It’s supposed to be simple.
A fake engagement. A few public appearances. One very convincing lie.
Then she walks into a ballroom wearing my ring, looking nothing like the woman everyone expects me to choose—and exactly like the woman I can’t stop wanting.
Somewhere between arguing in hotel rooms, drinking too much Italian wine, and dancing beneath the lights of a Roman piazza, I start losing my grip on every rule I’ve ever lived by.
She challenges me. Surprises me. Sees straight through me.
And she’s so full of life that standing beside her makes me realize how little of my own I’ve actually been living.
But when everything starts slipping beyond my control, I do what I’ve always done best.
I shut it down.
There’s just one problem.
I can walk away from the deal. I can walk away from the expectations.
But walking away from the woman who made me feel alive for the first time?
That might be the one thing I can’t do.