Chapter Eight
Jilly: Based on what data?
Jack: Increased phone checking frequency, decreased meal consumption, irrational decision-making patterns.
Jilly: You made a formula for heartbreak?
Jack: Emotional distress creates measurable behavioral changes.
Jilly: That’s... actually kind of sweet that you noticed.
Jack: I notice inefficiencies. His productivity dropped 23%.
Jilly: Well, 73% of women who dump actors are usually practical types who overthink everything.
Jack: Overthinking is a statistical waste of cognitive resources.
Jilly: Tell me about it.
“DON’T LAUGH, BUT I’M here as your private auditor.”
They were sitting with proper professional distance between them now, Guy behind his desk, and her in the visitor’s chair trying not to think they were roleplaying 50 Shades.
Jilly’s gaze drifted nervously around his office, taking in details she had been too flustered to notice earlier. Was that a signed script from his breakthrough role propped against the bookshelf? And those crystal paperweights on his desk...didn't they look like—
Stop distracting yourself with fangirling thoughts, Jilly!
She forced herself to meet his gaze again, which was still worryingly unreadable. "If you'd, um, like to see my reference—”
Guy cut her off, saying solemnly, "It's fine. I figured that part out just before I tasted—”
She made a strangled sound of protest, unable to believe he would...oh my goodness, how could he even...
All Jilly could do was look at him pleadingly. "Can we—" Oh gosh, why did she keep ending up in homes that had malfunctioning A/Cs? "Can we, um, just not talk about that?"
"On one condition."
She looked at him in dismay.
"I want to know why you stopped me earlier."
Another squeak of distress escaped her, but Guy's handsome face remained uncompromisingly hard.
"This isn't appropriate—"
"I think we're long past what's appropriate."
Aaargh.
She squirmed in her seat. "I already told you—"
“There must be something else."
Jilly was thrown off by the sharpness in his tone. "There's none."
Bullshit, Guy thought.
"I don't know what else I can tell you," Jilly said helplessly. "That's all there is to it. My faith. It's even..."
His gaze narrowed. "Even what?"
Oh, here goes nothing...
"It's why I blocked your number..." Jilly knew it was cowardly of her, but she couldn't help avoiding his gaze as she gloomily admitted the truth. "I've never even been kissed before. Or tempted to...you know. But...you...betrayed..."
Guy could not remember being this... hell, he didn't even know how to describe what her damn confession had him feeling.
Was Jillian saying that she had found him so irresistible...she had ended up betraying a certain idiot named Jack, and it was why her so-called faith had her squirming in guilt?
Was this her way of telling him, in not so many words, that while her body wanted him, her stupid heart chose an equally stupid Jack?
Guy's fists clenched as an image flashed in his mind, and it was of that idiot with wire-rimmed glasses realizing he was a man of passion...the moment he found himself alone with an unconsciously seductive Jillian.
Hell no.
The mere thought of that arrogant jerk kissing Jillian had rage and possessiveness surging through Guy with startling intensity.
No.
For that damn idiot...to be Jillian's first?
Fuck no.
Jack might call Jilly his endgame, but Guy knew he still had a shot.
For now.
Because if Jilly could turn a cynical womanizer like him into someone obsessed, it was only a matter of time before that idiot remembered what he had between his legs, and then...
I'm the one who's fucked.
Jilly could feel Guy’s temper threatening to explode at any moment, and she found herself wondering uneasily if his anger had anything to do with her faith.
Was he mad because she was choosing God over him?
Was he unable to understand how much it meant to her not to betray her promise to keep herself pure?
It would break her heart if so, but she could see why, if Guy didn’t really know God, he would feel that way.
"Guy?"
Icy blue eyes turned her way, and she gulped at the hardness of his gaze.
He was really, really angry.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. “And I...I just want you to know that I don’t expect you to understand—”
“Ah, but I do.”
H-He did?
“You need to make a choice,” he drawled, his voice carrying an edge that made her glance up from the antique globe she had been examining. “And so do I.”
Jilly could only look at Guy in complete bemusement. Was this about being his auditor? Was he asking if she would rather have the honor of "quitting" rather than being fired?
Guy couldn't remember feeling this...out of control.
Nothing about this day had been according to plan.
Then again, nothing he thought about her turned out to be true.
She was innocent, not deceitful. Adorable, not manipulative.
Untouched...but only until she was claimed.
And because there was no damn way he would someone as precious as her be wasted with a certain obnoxious idiot—
"Marry me," Guy heard himself say...and all because he would rather destroy his own freedom than let another man discover what belonged to him.
Jillian was still staring at him as if she was unable to believe what she had just heard.
"Marry me."
And so he said it again—slowly, clearly, and firmly—and this time the words had Jillian jerking in her seat.
"T-That’s not a joking matter—”
“Who says I’m joking?” he asked coolly. "I want you to marry me because it's the only way to have you, and I don't intend to share."
"This isn't..." Jilly shook her head. “This isn't like you. I...I know you—”
“How?” he asked silkily. “How do you know me?”
Because I’m your fan!
“Because you’re my fan?”
Jilly let out a gasp, her hand instinctively reaching for the armrest of her chair as if she needed something solid to anchor herself to reality.
"Yes, Jillian. I know everything. Or would you rather I call you... Miss President?"