Chapter 21
WILL
Ilet Eliza sleep in. When I’d told her last night that I wanted her to be able to do that, I’d meant it. God knew, if anyone deserved to be left to rest, it was her.
When I’d slipped into the room sometime before dawn, she’d been sprawled diagonally across the bed like she’d fought a serious battle with her own thoughts and lost. One arm had been thrown over her head.
Her golden brown hair was fanned out across the pillow, and the blankets were twisted around her legs like she’d been wrestling with them before she’d finally fallen asleep.
I’d known I should’ve just left her room, satisfied with the knowledge that she was sleeping deeply, but I hadn’t been able to convince myself to do it.
Naturally, I’d done the smart thing, sliding into the bed without waking her, and I’d fully intended to keep to my side of the bed like a respectable fake fiancé who was definitely not the COO of W&S secretly impersonating his brother.
What my plan hadn’t accounted for was her. The respectable distance had lasted approximately ten minutes before she’d rolled toward me and tucked herself against my side like it was the most natural thing in the world. My arm had followed of its own accord.
At that point, moving had seemed both rude and potentially fatal to the don’t-tell-her-who-I-really-am plan. If she had woken up and if we had started talking—or, God forbid, kissing—again, I would have told her.
So instead of all that, I’d decided to just let myself hold her and I’d slept better than I had in months. Now, I left without her being any the wiser, quietly closing the door behind me and heading down the hall while she was still cocooned in the blankets.
We had a few hours before we had to leave for the airstrip.
That was plenty of time for her to catch up on some sleep and still get ready for the flight before we had to go.
Back in my own room, I took a quick shower, got dressed, and tried very hard not to replay the memory of kissing her last night.
Or the way she’d kissed me back. Or the way she’d looked at me afterward.
Yeah. No. That road will lead directly to absolute physical and emotional ruin.
Eliza was a dream and I was currently living in heaven, but only temporarily, which meant I should probably stop acting like I’d accidentally stumbled into the perfect life. Hell, I was getting dangerously close to forgetting this life wasn’t mine even when I wasn’t around her.
Even now, I was floating on Cloud fucking Nine, in the best mood I’d been in for ages. While I’d been kissing her last night, I damn sure hadn’t been thinking about my brother.
What I had been thinking about was all the things I desperately wanted to do to her, and that was what had stopped me. The thought that when I made her come, she’d be screaming his name.
Yep. Not for me.
Before I stopped caring whose name she would be moaning and went back to her bed, I hastily packed up my things and left my room, heading downstairs. James had sent word with a footman that he wanted to see me this morning and I was already halfway down a mental path I had no business exploring.
If I didn’t snap myself out of it soon, I really would end up back in her bed. For better or worse.
At this point, her father’s office was probably the safest place for me to be. He was already in there when I arrived, dressed as always in a neatly pressed dark suit with his glasses perched on his nose and his graying hair pushed back from his face.
He looked up from a stack of papers as I stepped inside. “Ah, Jesse. Good. I wanted to go over the estate financials with you again before you leave for Chicago.” Gesturing toward the chair across from his desk, he gave me a pleasant smile. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” I said as I sat down. “We don’t have to wait for it before we get started, though.”
He inclined his chin in a nod, put in a call for an espresso, then launched immediately into a detailed breakdown of revenue streams, maintenance costs, tourism income, restoration budgets, and approximately seventeen other categories that would make most people’s eyes glaze over, but not mine.
This was my world, hearing the numbers and devising a strategy around them that would ensure long-term stability, but somewhere around the fifteen-minute mark, something strange started happening.
Instead of analyzing the information he was giving me, my mind wandered, starting to imagine a different kind of life for myself.
A life far away from boardrooms, acquisitions, and the relentless pressure of running ops for one of the most powerful companies in the country.
The life taking shape in my mind was much slower and quieter.
In it, I was retired from W&S, living at the castle with Eliza.
I could practically see it, our kids racing through the garden, the sound of their laughter echoing off the old stone walls.
Eliza sitting beside me on a bench with a cup of tea, watching them with that soft smile she got when she thought no one was looking.
I’d lean over and kiss her temple—
A shrill voice shattered the moment, instantly snapping me back to reality. “I hope I’m not interrupting something important.”
My head snapped up, but as soon as I saw who the voice belonged to, I wished I could just go back to my imagination. Because standing in the doorway was someone I hadn’t seen in years. Someone I hadn’t wanted to ever see again.
Eugenie.
She paused dramatically, flipping her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder like she’d just stepped onto a runway instead of into her father’s office.
She looked exactly the same as she had when Jesse had been dating her, tall, with statuesque, striking features, heavy makeup, and a skin-tight, impeccable dress.
The very picture of high society. Her sharp blue eyes landed on me, narrowing slightly as her gaze swept over my face.
James pushed his chair back and stood, clearly surprised to see her. “Genie, I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”
She walked into the room, her heels clicking against the floor with deliberate precision, but her gaze never left my face.
James gestured toward me. “I’m sure you remember Jesse Westwood?”
As soon as Eugenie turned fully to face me, I knew that she knew I wasn’t Jesse. It wasn’t a suspicion or a worry. I knew it for an absolute fact, without a shadow of a doubt.
She knew who I was.
It was in the way her eyes had sharpened the second they’d landed on my face. In the slight pause of her step. In the way her perfectly arched eyebrow lifted just a fraction too high.
For most people, the resemblance between my brother and me was enough to confuse them. Especially if they hadn’t seen both of us in the same room in years, but Eugenie tilted her head slightly, studying me. Then she looked at her father and my stomach dropped.
This is it. Game over.
The carefully balanced lie I’d been maintaining for the last couple weeks was about to detonate spectacularly. My brain rapidly started trying to prepare for the fallout, thinking up explanations and apologies.
I nearly winced when I thought about the inevitable moment when Eliza would look at me and realize I’d been lying. That I wasn’t who I’d led her to believe. The trust she’d put in me was about to be shattered and I didn’t know if we could ever recover from that.
Meanwhile, somewhere along the way, I’d stopped thinking of her as someone else’s future wife.
Logically, I knew she wasn’t mine to kiss or to dream about.
She definitely wasn’t mine to imagine a peaceful retirement with in the gardens of her ancestral castle.
Yet, logic didn’t have much to do with it for me.
Not anymore.
As all those thoughts tumbled through my head, I straightened slightly in the chair, bracing for an impact I knew was going to be infinitely more painful than I could comprehend right now. Eugenie’s gaze flicked back to me, and for one extended moment, we just stared at each other.
Her lips curved slowly into a coy smile. “Oh, of course, I remember him. It’s been a while, but I’d never forget dear Jesse.”
Her smile widened, her tone smooth and polished, but her eyes said something else entirely. They sparkled with unmistakable recognition and mischief, and I held her gaze, silently pleading with every higher power currently accepting applications.
Please don’t say anything. Please. Please.
“Hey, Eugenie,” I said, hoping I managed to match the aloof confidence of her tone. “How have you been?”
“I can’t complain too much.” She studied me like a cat considering whether to play with its prey or simply eat it, finally giving a small, elegant shrug. “It’s lovely to see you again.”
Okay, so crisis temporarily averted.
I exhaled slowly through my nose and pushed to my feet. It was time to get out of here, before she changed her mind.
“As much as I’d love to stay and reminisce,” I said dryly, doing my best to replicate Jesse’s brisk tone, “Eliza and I have a flight to catch.”
James nodded immediately. “Of course, of course. I won’t keep you. We’ll finalize the rest when you return for the wedding.”
The wedding. Right. That little detail again.
I gave him a polite nod and moved toward the door. Unfortunately, Eugenie stepped slightly into my path, the movement subtle but deliberate, and up close, it was impossible to miss the amusement in her eyes.
“Safe travels,” she said. “I might just swing across the pond myself before the big day. Visit my little sister and provide some much needed guidance throughout the process.”
Fantastic. Absolutely fucking fantastic.
The image of Eugenie arriving in Chicago, armed with years of shared history with my brother, flashed through my mind like a disaster movie trailer.
Frankly, I would have preferred the collapsed buildings and cities on fire to an impending visit from her—and I was one hundred percent convinced that Jesse would agree with me on this one—but I forced a polite smile.
“I’m sure Eliza would love that,” I said.
Her grin widened, and once again, she reminded me of a cat. This time, one who’d just discovered a particularly entertaining mouse. “Oh, I’m certain she will. I’ll see you soon, Jesse.”
My stomach dropped straight through the floor at the confirmation that I’d been right. Eugenie Roderick knew that we’d been deceiving her sister, and there was nothing I could do about it but wait to find out what she was going to do with that information.
I fucking told Alex she was going to end up being a problem.