10. Ember #2
Jack had followed us to the table, and he blew out a breath as he watched his daughter go. He glanced at me, grimacing.
I shrugged. “She’s not wrong.”
A snort escaped him, and warmth went through me when he gave me that brilliant, irresistible smile. It was impossible not to react to that smile, to the force of his attention.
“I hear you saved one of our biggest clients,” a new voice said from behind me. I turned to see another man with the blue Mars eyes, him with an easier smile and hair a lighter shade of brown. “Looks like Grandma’s two for two on the mail-order brides.”
“That’s offensive, Bennett,” Sadie said, and she punched him in the arm.
He yelped, rubbing the spot she’d whacked, and laughed. “No, I mean it. Ember charmed Oren Blanchard and got an invite to a social function on top of it. We’ve been trying to get in his good graces since he signed the contract.”
“It was a nice coincidence,” I admitted. “I use his software every day for work.”
“Whatever you did, keep doing it,” Bennett said, then clamped his lips shut when he glanced at Jack. The sudden change made me look at my sort-of husband, and I was startled to see a thunderous expression on his face. His jaw was tight, his eyes flashing at his brother.
“I’m just saying,” Bennett said, lifting his palms.
“Oren’s an asshole,” Jack grumbled, eyes cutting to me. “I don’t like this.”
“We don’t have to go to the party,” I said. “I hate parties.” My eyes slid left and right, and I was suddenly aware I was at a party of sorts. “I mean, no offense.”
Sadie snorted, and Gideon smiled. Bennett all-out laughed.
Jack simmered. “We have to go to the party. We’re on the verge of losing the contract, and the party gives us a way to get back in his good books.”
He was mad again. Why was he mad? Because I was stepping on his professional toes? Because I’d solved a problem he hadn’t been able to fix?
Or…
No. It couldn’t be. I frowned at him.
“What?” His expression was mulish.
I planted my hands on my hips. “Are you jealous?”
“What?” Jack scoffed. “No. Why would I be jealous? Do I need to be jealous? How do you know him, anyway?”
“Bro…” Bennett cut in softly, shaking his head as he stared at Jack.
Jack ignored him, glaring at me. And why was he glaring at me! Oren wasn’t into me. I was just…a curiosity. A face to an annoying name. An amusement who occasionally helped improve his flagship software.
Now it was my turn to get mad. “You cannot seriously be jealous right now. Not when we’ve had women coming up to us for the sole purpose of making me aware that they’ve slept with you when I haven’t.”
My words fell like bricks in the middle of the clump of family members, and I was suddenly aware of what I’d just said. What I’d admitted.
We hadn’t slept together, and we were supposed to be head over heels.
And we never would! But they weren’t supposed to know that. We were supposed to be faking it. In love. Or at the very least, in lust.
Flustered, I made a strange growling noise, threw my hands up, and stomped toward the solarium doors. I entered into the damp space, inhaling the scent of greenery and dark soil. I threw myself into a wicker chair and slapped my hands over my face. What a disaster. I sucked at this. I hated this.
This was all because I’d woken up in his arms. So really, it was the storm’s fault. All that stupid rain making me feel like I was in a little bubble with Jack, and my body did things without my permission while I slept, and now I knew what it felt like to wake up in his arms.
I was confused, and overwhelmed, and there were too many fucking people here. I hated people.
The scuff of a shoe made me drop my hands from my face. I glared at Jack as he lingered in the doorway, one hand lifting to ruffle his hair, a vaguely contrite expression on his face. “Hey,” he said.
Shifting in my seat, I straightened, trying to regain my composure. This whole thing was a lot more difficult than I’d anticipated. And Jack looming from a few feet away, looking like he cared how I felt, wasn’t helping.
No. What would help was reminding myself why I was here. Six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Dear old Dad, rolling in his grave. The chance at a better life.
Not included in that list: the attention of a wildly attractive man. The promise of true love. Sex.
It didn’t matter if Jack was jealous of Oren. I didn’t understand why he would be, and I wouldn’t waste any effort trying to figure it out. What mattered was me keeping my eyes on the prize, which was getting that marriage certificate filed so we could be officially hitched.
Which meant I had to do my part.
I pushed myself to my feet. “I apologize,” I said, dipping my chin in a businesslike nod. “I don’t know what came over me.”
Jack inhaled, eyes searching mine, and said, “Me too.”
I gave him another nod. “Good. We go out there and fake it like our futures depend on it?”
I expected Jack to relax and agree, and for us to walk back in together.
But there was a pause.
A pause where it seemed like he wanted to say something. A pause where his eyes lingered on mine before dropping to my lips. A pause that, incomprehensibly, made my entire body turn tingly and electric.
Finally, in a low voice, he said, “Do you want me to get them to stop? The women who come up to me when we’re together?”
Yes, my brain screamed. But what came out was, “How would you do that?”
His eyes were intent. “I would make it clear that you’re the only one I want.”
“You’ll ruin your chances with them in the future.”
“That won’t keep me up at night.”
It was suddenly hard to breathe. I didn’t understand what was going on. Scrambling for solid ground, I shrugged and said, “It’s fine,” and I knew I sounded grumpy and petulant.
That was probably why Jack’s jaw popped.
Why he looked so mad and…disappointed? Then he tore his gaze away from mine and angled his body so we could walk back into the gathering together.
I girded myself with a deep inhalation and marched toward him, but I still wasn’t ready for the press of his palm against my lower back.
Tension gripped me, and I couldn’t help hiking my shoulders up near my ears.
A second later, his hand dropped from my back, and the distance between our arms increased to the point that I could no longer feel the heat of him along my side.
A long breath slipped out of me, relief cool and welcome.
If there was disappointment lurking in the shadows of my heart, I ignored it.
JACK
Ember was quiet all the way home. I tried and failed to resist the urge to glance at her constantly. I didn’t have the right to reach over and put my hand on her thigh, or grasp her fingers and bring them to my lips.
I was off-balance. I wasn’t used to feeling this way about women. Women were transient, temporary, and they served a purpose.
Ember was different.
Difficult, stubborn, unflappable Ember. Brilliant, beautiful, witty woman.
In a matter of weeks, she’d be gone.
And then where would I be? Why did my mind keep circling this like it was some kind of existential problem?
I’d known the woman a week. I would be exactly where I was before, and that was fine.
I liked my life. I liked the boundaries I’d set in my personal life.
I liked having Darby be the center of my universe.
When we got home, Darby disappeared into her room and Ember made for the stairs behind her.
I reached for her, arresting the movement before my hand made contact with hers.
She flinched every time I touched her; I couldn’t bear to see her do it now.
Not after today’s disastrous lunch. Not after holding her all night when I had no right to.
Not after stroking myself to lewd thoughts of her with only the flimsy bathroom door as separation.
She stood on the second stair and turned to arch her brows at me. “Yes?”
“I was thinking we could go out to The Pier this week. Maybe Tuesday? Darby doesn’t have basketball practice that night, so I can ask one of my cousins to watch her.”
“I suppose we have to continue to be seen together,” she replied, sphinxlike, unknowable. “Tuesday will be fine.”
I watched her go up the steps, hips swaying, back straight, and something shifted within me.
I knew what it felt like to hold her, and I was sick of telling myself I wasn’t supposed to want her. It might only be temporary, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be fake.
Not anymore.