Marriage by Mistake

we?"
    Felicia tried, and failed, to come up with a plausible reason to refuse his request. With an expression she hoped was suitably off-putting, she gestured toward the living room. "Please," she said. "Be my guest."
    Troy grinned and gestured. "After you."
    Felicia stifled a sigh as she descended the rest of the stairs and led the way into the spacious living room. Halfway into the room she turned and found Troy ogling a Tiffany lamp.
    "Wow," he said. "Your mother's house is way classier than my uncle's."
    Felicia's teeth clamped together. She didn't think she had to accept small talk from him, not when it was taking every ounce of strength she owned to maintain a cool and composed exterior. "Troy," she said. "Your purpose?"
    "Oh." He glanced over, looking sheepish. "Yeah. Well, first I wanted to apologize for the way I brushed you off the other night at the Club. It wasn't gracious. It wasn't polite. And—" His grin quirked. "And you're very welcome for the checks I managed to bring in. In fact—" His smile widened as he pulled a piece of paper out of his trouser pocket. "In fact, I have another one right here."
    Felicia could only stand there, flabbergasted, as he stepped toward her and held out the check. He'd just apologized. He'd just admitted he'd brought in the other checks. And his eyes as they met hers were...sincere.
    Stunned, Felicia took the check from Troy's outstretched hand. Her eyes took a second to focus, but eventually took in that it was a check for sixty thousand dollars, signed by Dean Singleton.
    "It was only supposed to be twenty," Troy admitted, and rocked onto the balls of his feet. "But when he found out what it was for, he gave me this long, deep look and then tripled the amount."
    Gape-jawed, Felicia gazed from the check to Troy. "You did this?" she asked, her voice hoarse.
    Troy rocked back onto his heels. "Not only did I do it, but I whipped Dean in the process. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Ah!" Troy chuckled and shook his head. "There I was telling him it wasn't going to make him feel any better to knock my block off, and I ended up knocking his off. And it did make me feel better!" Troy laughed out loud then, and with definite relish.
    "You fought Dean?" Felicia was agog.
    Troy tsked. "He begged me to." His head tilted in the direction of the check that was held frozen between Felicia's fingers. "He even paid me for it."
    "But— I don't understand."
    Troy sighed. "Suffice it to say, Dean needed to get whipped, and...maybe I needed to be the one to do the whipping. And now here I am, starting to believe I may really be good at this, getting people to part with their money for a cause. And—and—it feels good ." Troy took his hands out of his trouser pockets. "It feels really good to do something for somebody else, to make a difference. You were— Aw, hell, Felicia."
    In two long strides, Troy was in front of her. Dean's check wafted to the floor as Troy took hold of her arms, drew her against him, and pressed his mouth to hers.
    Felicia was too surprised to do anything but accept Troy's kiss. It was— He was— She was too overwhelmed to know.
    Then Troy lifted his mouth and gave her a chance to think. Or try to. Her eyes searched his now-somber face. "I—I thought you didn't want to take credit."
    "I didn't. That is, I was afraid to. Afraid of...well, of what more you might expect of me."
    "What more?"
    "You know." He waved a hand. "Like you'd think people could start to depend on me." His voice deepened. "Like maybe you would start to depend on me."
    "Oh, Troy..."
    "I know, I know." He rolled his eyes. "You'd never be so stupid as to depend on me , and I think maybe that was the sticking point. While I didn't want you to depend on me, I kind of did want you to depend on me." He gave her an extremely un-Troy, very serious look. "I do want you to be able to depend on me, to rely on me...to trust me. I want to be that kind of man for you."
    Felicia felt everything inside of her go still. Had all of that come out of Troy's mouth? Troy's? But as she looked into his eyes she knew it had. She knew she'd always understood he had this in him. It had been part of his appeal, the most dangerous part of all.
    That he had the capacity to become something exquisitely true and fine.
    Slowly, Troy set her apart from him. His expression had gone terribly serious. Clearly, he wanted her to take this in, and figure it out. In a way...he was believing in her .
    Felicia felt a deep pull