Page 36 of Bad Boy Husband

JAMESON

Knee deep in emails, I had one eye on the clock, practically counting down the minutes until I would get to go home to my fiancée, but the other eye was on my computer.

I was trying to wade through all my admin, prioritizing projects and doing my best to figure out how the hell I was supposed to fit a honeymoon into my schedule.

I was going to do it, though. Fuck everything and everyone else. Somehow, I was going to take Sadie Shepard on the romantic vacation of her dreams after she’d promised to spend the rest of her life with me. She deserved nothing less, and frankly, after this weekend, she had my undying devotion.

The way she looked at me hadn’t even changed a little bit and Saturday night? God, I’d been blown away.

She was sweet, kind, sassy, strong, and sexy as fuck. Basically, everything I ever could’ve wished for in a wife and so much more. As I thought about her and the weekend, I felt my pants getting a little tighter and I groaned, rolling my head back and shutting my eyes as I inhaled a deep breath.

The woman had me feeling like a teenager again.

My libido was absolutely out of control and the only place I wanted to be was with her.

Yet, she was preparing for the adoption fair with Laney and Gwen, and I was supposed to be working, not fantasizing about all the things I was going to do to my future wife when I took her on the honeymoon I wouldn’t be able to go on if I didn’t get any fucking work done.

My phone buzzed and I grabbed it immediately, relieved for the interruption and hoping it was Sadie, but not disappointed either when I saw it was my mom calling.

It was probably better that it was her. At least all my dirty thoughts vanished in an instant.

Maybe I’ll actually be able to get some work done after this.

“Hello, darling,” CC said when I picked up. “I’m stopping by the office sometime today. The wedding is only two weeks out and we need to talk.”

“Of course,” I replied, an actual smile spreading on my lips at the thought of it now that it felt like it might actually happen. “How’s the weather looking for the big day? Are we still set on doing it outside?”

“Balmy and beautiful,” she assured me happily.

Slowly but surely, she seemed to be getting onboard with my marriage to Sadie.

No doubt she was getting caught up in the wedding fever since she was the one planning it all, but it seemed to be more than just that.

“I had a chat with your bride earlier and I need to run some of the outstanding decisions by you. She and I finalized what we could, but you’re not getting away with just arriving on the day. ”

I chuckled. “I wouldn’t dream of it, but also, I kind of have been dreaming about it. Isn’t it my job as the groom to just shut up, look pretty, and show up?”

“No,” Mom said firmly. “What do you think this is, the nineteen-fifties? I thought you were more evolved than that. I’ll see you soon, though, okay?”

“Sure thing, Mom. Bye.” I hung up, leaning back in my chair and feeling surprisingly light.

Right now, everything was coming up roses for me and I couldn’t deny that it was making me feel more like myself than I had in years. I grinned, staring at nothing in the middle distance and wondering why the hell I’d been so stressed out when my dad had first given me the marriage ultimatum.

“Mr. Westwood,” my assistant’s voice cut through my thoughts, speaking through the intercom on my desk. “You have a visitor. Can I send her in?”

My eyebrows twitched. Wow, Mom. That was fast.

I hadn’t been expecting her so soon, but I sat forward and hit the speaker button on the intercom. “Sure thing. I’m ready.”

Bracing myself for a conversation about the nuances of napkin colors or wedding favors, I stood up and waited for CC to breeze in, but when the door opened, it wasn’t her. It was Collins.

Immediately, I felt my face fall, confusion knotting my gut as I stared, eyes narrowing, at the very last person I’d expected to see. “What the hell are you doing here?”

She glided in like the place belonged to her, a smug little smirk on her glossy lips and giant black sunglasses sitting on top of her blonde hair. “Relax, Jamie. This won’t take long.”

My hackles went up. Sadie .

Collins was supposed to be her friend, yet said friend couldn’t seem to stop seeking me out. The memory of that night at the bar hit me, the way she’d come onto me, completely ignoring the fact that I was—happily—engaged.

“You have no business being here,” I said, sliding my hands into my pockets and planting my feet firmly apart. “If you’re trying to cause drama?—”

“Cause drama?” she repeated, feigning offense and sighing when I wouldn’t get out of her way while she’d clearly been making for a chair. She flicked her eyes up to mine and held them. “I’m trying to save you. Both of you, actually. Especially you.”

“Cut the crap.” I took a big step back, arching an eyebrow at her but still not getting out of her path between the door and my desk. “You don’t have to make yourself comfortable. Just tell me what you’re doing here and get the hell out.”

“You really are no fun.” She pouted those glossy lips at me, exhaling a deep breath through her nostrils when she seemed to realize I wasn’t fucking around.

“Oh, fine.” She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone.

A few taps, and she turned the screen toward me.

“I thought you should know that I have pictures of our wild night together.”

“What wild night together?” I frowned, my mind racing to search for some point in the past when she and I might’ve been at the same party, but as far as my memory served, we’d only met on my last trip to Dallas. “We’ve never had one of those.”

“Haven’t we?” she shot back mildly, lifting her phone to show me the pictures in question.

I narrowed my eyes, struggling to figure out what I was looking at until it struck me like a bolt out of the blue. The photos were grainy, likely zoomed-in screenshots from a video, but they were of her and me together at that bar.

At the time, I remembered knowing that an outsider might think it was something it wasn’t if they were looking at us, and fuck.

It really, really did look like the exact opposite of what it had been—me turning her down.

The camera angle had been just right, showing her leaning in way too close, and with the position of my head, it looked like I might’ve been kissing her cheek.

While I knew for a fact that hadn’t happened, it only got worse from there.

Collins swiped to another photo, this one of her smiling flirtatiously with her hand on my arm.

I’d pulled away fractions of a second after that, but obviously, the photograph didn’t show that.

It was only her touching me, smiling while I stared at her.

The angle didn’t show that it had been a glare.

“These are nothing,” I said coldly. “I don’t even know why you have them, but it doesn’t really matter because nothing happened except that you got rejected. What are you playing at with this, Collins?”

“You know, when I look at these pictures, I don’t see a woman who got rejected,” she said smoothly.

“Sadie won’t see that either. Neither will anyone else who happens to stumble upon them.

Not your parents or hers. Really, the truth is irrelevant when you’ve got images like these and there are more where those came from. ”

“What do you want?” My fists clenched at my sides and my stomach churned. Not out of guilt though, but because I knew she was right. If Sadie saw those pictures?

Game over.

Collins’ lips curved into a wicked but cool smile, her long lashes fluttering like she thought she might fool me into believing she was innocent if she just kept batting them at me. “All I want is for you to leave her, Jamie. Break up with her, walk away, and no one else will ever see these.”

I stared back at her, annoyance and a healthy dose of sickening suspicion rolling through me simultaneously. Just yesterday, I’d received another text from Trent. All it had said was, We need to talk .

Short and sweet. I hadn’t replied yet, too caught up in the aftermath of the weekend to care much about the drama or the politics behind our arrangement. Now, however, something was definitely fishy and I kind of wished I had known why he’d reached out again.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked evenly. “Sadie is happy. Her parents are finally off her back. Aren’t you supposed to be her friend?”

Collins’ smile twitched. “Friendship is subjective, darling. Besides, I’ve already told you. I’m trying to save you. Both of you. From yourselves and from each other.”

I snorted. “We don’t need saving, least of all by you. What are you really hoping to get out of this?”

“You.” Her voice was crystal clear, much too sweet for the poisonous glint in her eyes and the slight twist of her lips as she said it. “You don’t deserve what she’s going to do to you and I need a husband too, you know.”

She took a small step forward, manicured hand already reaching for me again, but I shook my head, caught her fingers, and firmly pushed them back to her side.

“What do you mean, what she’s going to do to me ?

The only thing she’s going to do is marry me.

Frankly, anything else she already has done or might do to me is none of your goddamn concern. ”

Collins tilted her head, a strange expression crossing her dainty features that looked almost like pity. “Oh, darling. You can’t possibly be that naive.”

I finally reached the end of my rope. “Just tell me what the fuck you’re talking about and get out of here.”

“Sadie and Carson? They’re in love and they’ve got a little plan, Jamie.

” She pursed her lips, her brow puckering as if she really was feeling just so sorry for me.

I didn’t buy it for a second. “After the wedding, they’re going to take all the prenup money and disappear into the sunset together.

She’s not with you for any reason other than that.

She’s broke and that five million from her inheritance won’t last long, so they’re playing you.

Bleeding you for as much as they can before they run off to live their lives together. ”

My pulse kicked up a few notches, but nothing about the scenario she was trying to paint made any sense. “That’s a lie.”

“Is it?” she asked lightly. “You don’t know the half of what goes on when you’re not looking and you haven’t been looking at her for a very, very long time until recently, have you, darling?”

“I’m not your fucking darling,” I snapped, my voice a lot harsher than even I’d ever heard it. “Now get the hell out of my office and don’t fucking come back.”

She sighed, holding up her hands and backing away from me. “You’ll regret this, Jameson. I’m giving you an out, and if you knew what was good for you, you’d take it.”

I marched toward the door and yanked it open. “You have ten seconds to get out of this building before I call security. Don’t ever go anywhere near her again or you’ll have to answer to me.”

Collins paused in the doorway and turned back with a viper’s smile on her lips, that poison in her eyes no longer just a glint. “Good luck, Jameson. Trust me, you’re going to need it.”

When the door clicked shut behind her, I blew out a heavy breath but the pressure in my chest didn’t ease. I sat back down and reached for my phone, dialing Sadie’s number with numb fingers. It rang a few times before I reached her voicemail.

I hung up and tried again, knowing that whatever Collins’ visit had really been about, it wasn’t over yet and she wasn’t going to stop with me.

Voicemail again.

I would bet everything I had she would be popping in to see Sadie next, so I tried again, even as I got up and grabbed my keys.

Voicemail. Fuck .

As soon as Sadie saw those pictures, the truth really would be irrelevant. Collins had gotten that right. Sadie would never trust me again and there would be absolutely nothing I could do to win her back if she thought I’d been cheating on her all along.