Page 53 of Between Never and Forever

“Should there be another reason?” I had a million reasons. I’d flipped through them all mentally before I’d landed on that one for texting her tonight.

I wanted her home at the time she’d come home every night this week, I’d made a mental note she should be walking through the door then. I didn’t want her with anyone else but me. She was my fiancée, and my fiancée should be having dinner with me. None of them were logical, considering she wasn’t really mine anymore.

“Nope. We need to think through the media angle, sure, but it’s probably best for the PR teams to handle it.” She seemed resigned to it.

“It’s your brand.” He lifted a brow. “You don’t want a say?”

“Dex, normally what I say is passed over by layers and layers of public relations and—”

“I’m asking you now. What do you want the statement to be? How would you like us to be seen?”

“You want me to make the choice? We’re not capable of running the data points on how it will be received and—”

Normally, I’d agree with her. It was a systematic good marketing approach, but suddenly my ass was willing to veer in a different direction just to hear her opinion. “What data points are needed when you get what you want?”

“Dex, as much as most girls would love to go wave around an engagement ringfrom a Hardy brother…” She glanced over at the nightstand where the box still sat. “Not that it’s the one I want.” She giggled with her declaration and then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”

“You don’t like your engagement ring?”

“I drank too much. I’m just being ridiculous. The ring is beautiful.”

“But it’s not you.” I knew that. I’d told Penelope to go out and get the gaudiest piece of jewelry for this reason.

“I have picky taste.”

She didn’t. I knew what her preference would be had this been real. “You probably want purple stones around the diamond. The wedding band would be solid gold because I know you hate flashy, gaudy things. You’d probably barely wear the other even if it was your favorite.”

The smile that spread across her face was lazy and genuine, relaxed. We were back to us for a second as she said, “Ah, my Dex Hardy is still in there. The guy who knows every single thing about me.”

“Unfortunately,” I grumbled.

She blinked once and then twice before she nodded and glanced away. I was creating the barrier between us, and I knew that. I had to, or I’d be lost to her again. She’d inevitably follow the fame. I’d be thoroughly destroyed. It wasn’t a cycle I would repeat.

“Right.” She took a deep breath. “The media needs a story, and they need to see we’re in love, that we’re engaged, and that my music has changed because we’ve grown and matured together—”

“That statement seems perfect,” I cut her off. “Let the PR teams do with it what they will. They can release it in a week or two.”

Kee frowned and then paced the living room in her high heels. “Do you just do all this”—she waved out at the city—“and not think about the blowback or the repercussions? How they’ll spin it for the next few months? If something doesn’t work, how we’ll navigate it?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and watched her wear down the carpet. Her legs were so damn long, and the dress bunched higher and higher with every stride she took. And she’d been out with my brother, having fun, talking, letting him learn more about her when I knew nothing about who she was now. Letting him watch her in that damn dress.

“I consider what’s necessary, like the security of this resort. I don’t care what they write in the papers, and the press having a field day isn’t part of my job.”

“Well, this isn’t about security. It’s about presenting a mirage to my fans and hoping they believe it.”

“It’s not a mirage if it’s true. You’ve changed. You want your real sound out there.”

“We’re not true, though!” She threw up her hands and then placed them on her hips as she stopped to stare at me. “We aren’t engaged, and no one has seen us together. We can’t act in love. You barely talk to me except, well…”

“Except when?” I wanted to hear her say it.

The pink blush on her cheeks turned almost red before she lifted her chin. Then she stepped up to the plate I’d baited her to. “Except for the other night when we slept together. This is going to be a disaster. It’s not like we’re doing that anymore. Obviously. You don’t even eat dinner with me!”

“I don’t need to eat dinner with you to fuck you, heartbreaker. We both know that.”

“You do if you think you have a chance of fucking me.” She turned and started to walk without her stride even faltering. She was ready to fight fire with fire now.

“If that’s the case, you should have asked me to come home.”