My Fake Christmas Fiance (Kane Christmas #1) - Julie Kriss Page 0,52
it. “What about your ring?”
“Keep the ring,” he said, the words clipped and angry.
His angry tone made me angry, though I knew it was unreasonable. “I can’t keep it, because we’re not going to be married.” Fifteen minutes? Ten? I wanted to scream. Instead I wrenched the beautiful diamond and the wedding band from my left hand and put them on the table.
Curtis J. Curtis clicked his pen. “One engagement ring, one wedding band,” he said, making a note.
“I’m not taking them,” Wes said. “They were gifts.”
“What am I supposed to do with them?” I nearly shouted at him, my eyes stinging.
“Wear them,” Wes shot back. “That’s why I gave them to you.”
“I can’t wear a wedding band when I’m not married!”
“Well, what am I supposed to do with it? Get my money back? I don’t want my money back.”
“I don’t care what you do with it. I can’t wear it!”
“Then I can’t wear mine.” Wes lifted his left hand and wrenched his own ring off. I felt like he was ripping my heart from my body with the action. That ring was supposed to mean that he was married to me.
He put the ring on the table and the panic hit me harder. It was getting hard to breathe.
“One wedding band on Mr. Kane’s side.” Curtis made another note. “No other pieces of property?”
“We’ve only been married since last night,” Wes growled. “It’s not like we went house shopping.”
“Of course, of course. Miss Gold, do you have anything to add? Anything to request in the paperwork?”
I couldn’t speak. It was all I could do not to burst into tears. I shook my head.
“Okay, then. If both of you could just sign. Starting with you, Miss Gold.” He took a thick, stapled stack of papers and slid it toward me, along with a pen.
I sat frozen. I couldn’t lift my hand, couldn’t take the pen. All I could do was panic.
“Miss Gold?” Curtis J. Curtis said after a moment of silence.
“Wes,” I said. It was the only word I could force out, and then I couldn’t say any more. My voice cracked.
“Curtis, please leave the room,” Wes said. “My wife is crying.”
Was I? I thought I was keeping it in check. But no. I touched my cheek and realized there were tears tracking down it.
“Mr. Kane, this doesn’t have to be emotional. We can—”
“Leave.” Wes’s hand came down on the table with a loud crack. “My wife. Is crying.”
His wife. I was still his wife. For how long?
Time was up.
Now I was really crying.
Curtis sighed, complained that we were wasting his Christmas Day, and then he left the room. The minute the door closed behind him, Wes was out of his chair and striding around the table.
He took the arm of my chair and turned me away from the table. “Penny,” he said.
“I’m sorry.” I wiped at my tears. “I’m making a scene. I don’t mean to—”
“Screw that.” Wes leaned over me, his hands on the arms of my chair, boxing me in. He was so close I could smell him, and if I lifted my hand I could touch him. I didn’t know what to do.
“Penny,” he said again, and his voice cracked a little. “It’s now or never. Do you want this? Be honest. Do you really, truly, honestly want this?”
I looked up at him. Into his gorgeous blue eyes, into the face I was in love with. Yes, it was crazy and it made no sense. I was in love with Wesley Kane.
And he had asked me a question.
It was time for me to answer.
Chapter 23
Wes
Penny’s lips parted, and I had never been as afraid of anything in my life as I was of this moment. Of what she might be about to say.
“Be honest,” I said, trying to keep control. I was about to lose it, seeing the tears on her cheeks. They were tearing me apart. “Do you want this divorce?”
“Do you?” she asked.
Okay. Fine. If she needed me to say it first, then I’d say it. Consequences be damned. Rejection be damned. “No,” I said. “I don’t.”
She blinked, took a breath. “You don’t?” Her voice sounded hopeful and skeptical at the same time.
“I don’t,” I ground out. “I don’t want to divorce you. But I also don’t want to keep you in a marriage you don’t want to be in. So you have to tell me what you want.”
Penny’s lips parted again, and I steeled myself. If she wanted out, I would sign the