Hold Me Closer (Sea Island Brides Book 1) by Georgia Kelly Read Free Book Online

looked sad and confused.
    “When
it comes to family, I don’t take things lightly,” she
said finally. “Getting close to yours and pretending I’m
going to become a part of it? I don’t know. It’s risky.”
    Throughout
the evening, anytime he'd tried to ask questions about her family or
her past, she'd quickly asked him a question about his own life.
Until now, she’d been careful to guard any discussion about her
own family.
    He’d
had one of his security guys run a full background check on her, so
he knew that she had lost her family at a young age. He didn’t
want to pry, but he needed to find a way past her worries and
convince her to agree to his proposal.
    “It
doesn’t have to be risky,” he said. “Everyone
inside the family will know the situation. They’ll be kind to
you, I promise. You have nothing to worry about.”
    She
shook her head. “I’m not afraid they’ll be unkind,”
she said. “I’m worried about getting too attached. I lost
my own parents when I was thirteen. I don’t have any brothers
or sisters, so pretending to be a part of your family for months
might be more difficult than I can handle.”
    “Thirteen?
I can't imagine that. What happened to them?” He already knew
some of the details, but he felt that asking was the right thing to
do.
    “They
died in a car crash,” she said, taking a sip of her water. “My
mother and her sister won a trip for four to Hawaii in one of those
mail-in sweepstakes. It was like a dream come true for them. Neither
of them had been outside Georgia their whole lives. Part of their
prize included a rental car while they were on the island. They were
hit by a drunk driver the last day of their trip and all four of them
died instantly. My mom and dad, and my aunt and uncle.”
    Her
eyes glistened with tears and he couldn't help but wonder what losing
both her parents so young must have been like for her. It had been
hard to lose his own father earlier this year to a heart attack, but
he knew it wasn’t the same.
    “Who
took care of you?”
    “My
older cousin was eighteen at the time. She lost her parents too, so
we stuck together. Took care of each other.”
    She
looked so vulnerable and soft compared to the tiger she'd been
earlier in her apartment. More than anything, he wanted to pull her
into his arms to comfort her, but before he could make a move, she
was wiping away her tears.
    “Enough
of that,” she said, taking a deep breath. Soon, she was smiling
again and asking him about the plantation.
    In
the short time he'd known her, he was already more intrigued by her
than any other woman he'd known. There were hidden depths to her,
while most of the women he'd gotten close
to were shallow and easy to predict.
    He
liked spending time with her and hated that their night was almost
over.
    “It’s
getting late,” she said. “I really should be getting
home. I have to get up early to start job hunting.”
    When
they got back to her apartment, he paused inside her door and took
her hand.
    “Don’t
look for another job in the morning,” he said. “Come to
Sea Island. I had a great time with you tonight, Annabelle. I think
we could really make this work.”
    She
shook her head, but didn’t pull her hand away. He took that as
a good sign.
    “I
don’t know,” she said.
    “I
know it’s crazy, but I’d love to get to know you better,”
he said. “I honestly haven’t been able to get you out of
my mind since the other day by the pool. Say yes. I promise, if
things start to feel weird or you get uncomfortable around my family,
we can call the whole thing off.”
    “And
if we go through with this, what then?” she asked. “I
pretend to be your girlfriend or your fiancee until when?”
    He
shrugged. “Until that deal in Japan goes through,” he
said. “Or until you don’t want to be a part of it any
more. You call the shots.”
    She
sucked in a breath and he could see that she was considering it.
    He
smiled, suddenly excited about