Excerpt of Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell

“There is one alternative.” Gideon’s tone was neutral, artificially so, Charis thought. His eyes didn’t waver from her face. “We could get married.

For one radiant moment, joy flared inside her.

Married…

She rose and took an unsteady step toward him. “Gideon…” she began as wild happiness exploded in her breast.

His troubled expression halted her in her tracks and reminded her of his pain when she’d told him she loved him. She sucked in a tremulous breath and looked at him properly.

Her glittering palace of hope disintegrated. The hands that had risen toward him fell back to her sides and formed fists of anguish.

“What’s this about?” she asked in a flinty voice.

He shifted away from the windows, back toward the fire. He stopped before her, still too far away to touch. Of course.

“It’s the obvious solution, Charis.” An unexpected moment to realize he’d started to use her real name naturally. He spread his gloved hands as if appealing to her to see things his way. “If we’re wed, I have a husband’s legal rights.”

Since she’d met him, becoming his wife had been a hopeless dream. Now he proposed and she wanted to run away and cry her eyes out. Because he married her to save her, not because he wanted her as his life companion, the woman in his bed, the mother of his children.

“You said you’d never marry. Never have a family.” Her lips felt as if they were made of wood. “That’s changed?”

“No.” He held himself rigid as a soldier on parade. His voice was implacable. “It will be a marriage in name only.”