Time-Limited Love: A Contract Expired, Not Renewed novel Chapter 2

“I just wanted you to put on these goggles.”

The words barely left his lips before Zinnia cut him off. She held out the goggles in her hand. “The sun’s out. It’s nothing but ice and snow from here on. If you don’t wear these, you’ll end up snow-blind.”

Landon stared at the goggles she offered, her explanation gentle and matter-of-fact. For a moment, he just stood there, thrown off balance.

It took him a while to take the goggles from her. Rubbing his brow with a complicated expression, he finally murmured, “Sorry. I got a little carried away just now, I just…”

Zinnia shook her head. “It’s all right. When someone’s life is on the line, I understand.”

Seeing that faint, forced smile at the corner of her lips made something twist sharply in Landon’s chest. He started to speak, almost without realizing it. “Zinnia—”

“Go,” she cut in, pressing him. “There’s no time to lose. You need to help them.”

At the thought of Noelle kidnapped, her fate uncertain, Landon didn’t waste another second. He gave Zinnia a single, hurried promise, “I’ll be back”, and rushed out the door.

The moment he disappeared down the hallway, the smile vanished from Zinnia’s face.

In over two years of marriage, she’d never seen Landon lose his composure. He’d always been calm and collected, a picture of quiet gentility. But just now… that panic, that raw urgency—it was nothing like him.

Maybe this is what people mean by “love makes fools of us all.”

With a sigh, she went back to her hotel room. The excitement she’d felt that morning was gone—snuffed out, leaving nothing behind.

Their marriage had always been a strange mix of melodrama and cold logic.

“I… I feel the same,” Zinnia replied, forcing a natural smile and sighing as if resigned. “My grandfather’s very ill. He wants to see me settled before he goes, so…”

She gave a small, awkward smile, as if that explained everything. And it was true—her grandfather was sick, and he did want her to get married. But the real reason she’d agreed to this date was because it was Landon.

She’d been secretly in love with him for ten years, ever since high school.

“If you’re open to it, Ms. Quinn, we could sign a marriage contract. Three years. Once the term’s up, we’ll divorce—say it’s due to irreconcilable differences. How does that sound?”

“A… a contract marriage?” Zinnia repeated, stunned.

Landon nodded, utterly serious.