For a second Jaya couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see. No. She’d already told him no. Hadn’t he heard her? But what she’d really been refusing was a marriage of convenience. If he loved her... Did he? And how could he just announce it like that to his sister without consulting—without even asking her first? “I haven’t convinced Jaya yet,” Theo said, taking the weight of his penetrating stare back to his sister. Oh, sure, put it all on me, Jaya thought, working to keep a scowl off her face. Her instinct was to protest, but she didn’t want to draw Adara into it. Given the look exchanged between Nic and Rowan as they returned from the kitchen, they’d heard Theo, adding to her feeling of being outnumbered. No one needed to know her reasons for refusing to marry except maybe Theo and she’d share that only if and when it felt right. “We haven’t had much time to talk about anything except whose turn it is to change a bottom,”
