CHAPTER THREE

Cassie blinked and suddenly burst into a sharp and disbelieving laugh. "What?"

"You heard me."

"This is insane, you're insane."

"Probably." Dom shifted, still crouched at her level, his expression serious despite the absurdity of what he was proposing. "But think about it. Marcus wanted you for the business merger with your father's company, right? Your father's contract specifies marriage to a Hale son but it doesn't specify which one."

Cassie stared at him. "You're really serious about this?"

Her breath caught somewhere between a laugh and something closer to panic. The champagne in her system wasn't even helping and neither was the way he was looking at her like this was the most rational thing he had done his whole life.

"Completely."

"Why would I even possibly agree to that?"

"Because you want revenge," Dom said simply. "Because you want to save face. Because marrying me means Marcus doesn't get what he wanted, your father still gets his merger, and you get to walk back into that ballroom with your head high instead of running away like a victim."

"I don't even know you like that."

"You didn't know Marcus either, clearly." Dom's smile was sharp. "Look, at least with me, you know exactly what you're getting into. No pretense, no lies. Just a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"This is crazy."

"So is what happened out there." Dom gestured toward the door, toward the ballroom and the disaster still unfolding beyond it. "You have two choices, Cassie. You can leave here tonight as the girl who got publicly dumped and humiliated by a scumbag or you can leave as the girl who upgraded."

"Upgraded? You are more like a downgrade Dom." Cassie repeated flatly.

"Ouch…"

"I'm not lying. You are the rogue of the house, why should I be glad I am ending up with you?"

"Well I wasn't the one who just got dumped, sweetheart. You dodged a bullet and you're worried about the reputation of your saviour?"

The audacity of it was almost impressive. Almost enough to distract her from the fact that Dominic Hale, the family's disappointment, the one who'd been cut off from the family business twice and had a reputation for clubs and models and wasting his potential, was proposing marriage like it was a business pitch.

"What do you get out of this?" Cassie asked.

Dom's expression shifted, something darker and more honest sliding behind his eyes. "Everything Marcus has spent his whole life trying to keep from me."

There it was. The real motivation. Cassie watched his jaw tighten and watched the flash of something raw cross his face before he locked it down. This wasn't about Cassie at all. Whatever history existed between these brothers, it wasn't just sibling rivalry. It was blood and betrayal and years of something that had carved itself deep. There was an ugly history between the golden child and the black sheep.

"I'm not going to be a weapon in your family drama," Cassie said.

"You already are," Dom countered. "Marcus made you one the second he chose your engagement party as his stage. The only question is whether you let him win or whether you hit back."

Cassie's phone buzzed again from across the room with another notification, probably another stranger commenting on her humiliation.

She thought about walking out of this hotel and facing the cameras and her parents' disappointment. And the weeks or months of being Manhattan's favorite tragedy, the cautionary tale mothers would tell their daughters about marrying for the wrong reasons.

She thought about Marcus and Vanessa, probably still in that ballroom, probably answering questions and basking in their dramatic love story while Cassie was the footnote.

She thought about Dominic's offer, insane and calculated and wrong in every conventional way.

Then she thought about the look on Marcus's face if she actually did it.

"Six months," Dom said, reading something in her expression. "We will stay married for six months, long enough for your father's shares to transfer per the contract. Then we renegotiate. We would divorce if you want or stay married if it's working. Your choice."

"My choice," Cassie repeated.

"Your choice," Dom confirmed. "I'm not Marcus. I won't trap you."

Cassie looked at him. At the sharp intelligence behind the careless facade and the way he'd found her in this coat room and offered cigarettes instead of pity. She looked at the dangerous smile that said he knew exactly how insane this was and didn't care.

"This is the worst idea I've ever heard," she said.

"Probably."

"People will think I've lost my mind."

"Well let them."

"My parents—"

"Will support it because your father wants his merger and your mother wants you to stop crying." Dom's eyes didn't leave hers. There was something sort of tender in it.

"And Marcus will lose his mind, which honestly seems like a bonus."

Cassie laughed despite herself, the sound wet and broken but real.

She should call her father. She should think this through.

She should do literally anything except what she was about to do. But her phone buzzed again and she imagined tomorrow's headlines and running into Marcus and Vanessa at every society function for the next year.

She was going to be the pity in everyone's eyes and just imagining never getting even made her skin crawl.

Dom extended his hand towards her. "So what do you say, Cassie Reeves? Want to make the worst decision of your life with me?"

She wanted to say no.She should stand up, dust herself off, and face this disaster with dignity.

Anything at all but agreeing to marry a man she barely knew just to get revenge on the man who'd humiliated her.

But her mind traveled back to the humiliation she faced moments ago, and then to the phone blowing up at the corner.

And Cassie took his hand.

"Let's burn it all down," she said.

Dom's smile was absolutely wicked as he pulled her to her feet. "Now you're speaking my language.”