Page 24 of Pretend Wife (Angels of the Secret Order #4)

The door swung open, and I drank in the sight of the woman who was officially trying to kill me.

She was wrapped in an ocean-blue dress with a skirt that barely covered her ass.

The top of the dress was reminiscent of a toga, leaving one arm bare while the other was covered from neck to wrist. Fabric gathered at her waist and fell to the floor on the opposite side of her covered arm.

“You like it?” she asked as my eyes roved over every inch of her long legs, her dress, her straightened hair.

“You look stunning.” And I was going to have to keep her glued to my side the entire night if I wanted to avoid a scandal.

“You say that every time we go out. ”

“And I mean it every time.” I grabbed her left hand and raised it to my lips, pressing a kiss to her fingers right beside the diamond I’d given her. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Sunday School. Everyone else pales in comparison.”

She shook her head slightly. “I thought I looked boring and prudish. Isn’t that the point of the nickname?”

I smirked at her. “No, it’s not.”

Her brows rose. “Oh?”

“While it’s true that you did remind me of my Sunday school teacher when I saw you in your brother’s club, I picked the name because the first time I saw you, I thought you were an angel.

I honestly believed I’d died and somehow ended up in Heaven.

You made me interested in religion for the first time in years.

I’d go to a million Sunday school classes if you were waiting for me at the end of the road. ”

Danielle stared at me with a shell-shocked expression, her lips parted and her eyes wide. “I… don’t even know what to say to that.”

“Say you’ll be mine.”

“Hayden.”

“Yes, baby?”

“Did you just call me baby?”

“Possibly.”

“Why? You’ve never called me that before.”

Because in the past I was always in denial about how much I wanted her.

I was trying to keep distance between us, protect my heart for when we inevitably ended.

And I really had believed that ending was inevitable.

I never believed in romantic love. I thought it was just a glorified way of describing lust that would eventually fade.

But Danielle was changing everything I used to believe. I’d missed her during the eight months we’d been apart. I hated the idea of her with anyone who wasn’t me. I would chase her forever if that’s how long it took. And I’d never chased anyone in my life.

“This isn’t before,” I said softly.

“What changed?”

“I lived for eight months without you. I told myself I was fine, that I didn’t miss you, didn’t want you back. But I was lying to myself. Without you, my life is completely empty. I do want you back, and not just for the next six months.”

She shook her head. “I don’t—”

“Shh. Don’t ruin it. Don’t make any decisions yet. I still have six months to convince you.”

“Does that mean you’ll meet my family and go on dates with me that aren’t for show?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Maybe,” she said coyly.

And fuck me, I was harder than diamond in half a second. It should be illegal for her to talk in that voice when I wasn’t allowed to touch her, taste her, claim her.

Whoever said patience was a virtue was a fucking sadist.

The gala started out as boring and painful as all the others I’d been going to since I was a teenager.

I talked numbers and avoided answering questions about my personal life.

I watched Miles effortlessly charm everyone and wondered for the thousandth time why Dad didn’t just give him the CEO job.

And I took every opportunity to touch my wife—a hand on her lower back or elbow, a brush of her hair behind her ear, a kiss to her cheek or palm, an arm around her waist.

I wanted to send a clear message to everyone in the room that she was taken. I was taken too, and everyone would eventually realize I only had eyes for my wife, that I was off the market and attempting to flirt with me would only be a waste of their time.

“Hayden?” The feminine voice behind me made every muscle in my body tense.

I turned around and came face-to-face with Jacqueline Vance.

She hadn’t changed much in the nearly seven years since I’d last seen her.

Her shiny blond hair was pulled into some fancy updo.

A red dress hugged her curves and showed off her fake tits.

She was the picture of beauty standards, but it was lost on me.

All I could see when I looked at her was a past full of pain and heartbreak.

“It is you,” she said with a wide smile on her painted lips.

“Jacqueline.” My voice sounded flat, almost robotic.

Her smile didn’t even waver. “It’s been too long.”

On the contrary, it hadn’t been nearly long enough. I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing her again after she’d swept in and out of my life, leaving nothing but destruction in her wake.

Danielle stepped in front of me. “Hi, I’m Danielle Blake,” she said in a voice so sweet it almost made my teeth ache. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Hayden’s wife.”

Jacqueline’s eyes flew to mine before focusing on Danielle with the fakest smile I’d ever seen. “Jacqueline Vance. Hayden and I used to be very close.”

Key words: used to . Before I learned what kind of person she really was.

Danielle’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. “Really? He’s never mentioned you.”

Jacqueline’s smile faltered. “Well, it has been a while. What’s it been now, Hayden? Seven years? It feels like just yesterday.” She pulled a phone from her handbag and shoved it in our faces. “It’s amazing how fast time goes by when you have kids. They grow up in the blink of an eye, I swear.”

I finally focused on the picture on her phone. A six-year-old boy sat on his mother’s lap. He looked just like her, the kind of kid she could have passed off as anyone’s.

I was going to be sick. I didn’t want to see her son, the one who was almost mine. I was so close to being his father before Jacqueline ruined that, before she’d ripped him away and left me more hollow than I could have imagined.

Danielle stiffened, and I could feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of my head, but I couldn’t look away from the damn picture. It was like I’d lost all control over my body. My muscles refused to obey my orders, to fucking move.

“He’s adorable,” Danielle said, her fingers wrapping around the phone and pulling it away from my face. “I have a nephew who’s about that age. They’re so much fun.”

Jacqueline laughed, high and slightly screechy. “It must be nice to be able to enjoy them and then send them home. No one tells you how much work it is to have kids.”

“Oh, believe me, my brothers tell me all the time.”

“Right.” She finally tucked her phone away. “Well, I should make my rounds. It was nice to see you again, Hayden.”

I nodded without a word. I wasn’t sure I could speak even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t.

The rest of the night was awkward at best. I could feel the tension radiating off Danielle. It was subtle, but it was there in the way her back was perfectly straight and her smiles were dimmer than usual.

There was also the small issue of her pulling away from me every time I tried to touch her.

She didn’t do it obviously, but she was definitely avoiding my touch.

She even went as far as asking my brother to dance with her, though she did cast glances at me the whole time, so that was some consolation.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” I asked when we slid into the car, finally able to leave the godforsaken party.

She didn’t even look at me, her gaze fixed on something on her phone.

“Sunday School—”

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Unless you’re going to explain what happened in there, I don’t want to hear it.”

I shoved a hand through my hair. “What do you want me to tell you? Do you want an apology that we ran into an ex I’d rather have never seen again? I’m sorry. She means nothing. I really haven’t seen her in years.”

She finally looked up, and I sort of wished she hadn’t. Her whisky eyes were filled with a mix of betrayal and disappointment I never wanted to see in them again. “I don’t care about you having exes. Do you have a son?”