Page 31 of Pretend Wife (Angels of the Secret Order #4)

“Do you want to?” He sounded surprised, like he’d fully expected this shower to be one-sided.

“Yes.”

His lips found the spot where my neck met my shoulder, and he nibbled at the skin there. “You can do whatever you want, baby.”

I turned around in his arms and reached up to trace over his face with my fingertips, memorizing every detail. His eyes fell shut at my touch, and I felt him relax, felt him let go of some of his rigid control.

We were in our own little world, where the rest of life couldn’t touch us. At least for a few more minutes.

I gave him the same treatment he had me, washing him from head to toe.

He watched me the whole time, like he couldn’t believe I was real.

And when he pulled me against his chest when I was finished, I realized that as much as I hated Beelzebub for the deal he’d forced me into, I was also eternally grateful to him for bringing Hayden to me after his accident two years ago.

If it weren’t for Beelzebub, Hayden would have died that night and I never would have gotten the chance to love him, to know what it was like to be loved by him.

Without letting go of me, Hayden turned off the shower and reached for a towel. He dried me off as best he could before wrapping the towel around my shoulders. “Do you want me to get you some clothes?”

“Okay.”

He pulled another towel from the rack and tied it around his waist before heading out of the bathroom.

I stared after him, watching the door he’d left through for a minute before walking back into the bedroom. The evidence of our night was scattered about the room, from the clothes on the floor to the rumpled sheets on the bed.

It didn’t take Hayden long to return with a green puffy-sleeved dress over his arm. I raised my brows when I took it from him. It was one of my older dresses, one that I was thinking it was time to retire.

“If you don’t like my selection, move your clothes into my room and next time you can choose your own dress.”

“Is that your high-handed way of asking me to move into your room?”

“Are you saying if I said it subtly, you wouldn’t pretend to miss the hint again?”

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t really argue with him. He was right. I had been dodging his hints about us sharing a bedroom for the past two weeks.

I slipped the dress on and then fished my holster and bow from the heap that was my clothes from yesterday. I could feel Hayden’s eyes on me as I began hooking the small eyelets that ran up the outside of my thigh, but he didn’t comment .

“I’m going to go make breakfast,” I said. “Do you have any requests?”

“Coffee.”

“Anything else?”

“I don’t have a preference. I’m sure it’ll be good no matter what you make.”

The penthouse felt different as I moved around the kitchen. It was like the place had become my home overnight.

I’d just finished preparing the same dish Hayden had first made for me at the beach house when he came into the kitchen. He was dressed in black slacks and a white button-down with the sleeves pushed up enough for me to see the silver watch around his left wrist.

My eyes lingered on the triangle of skin showing where he’d left the top few buttons undone. He was wearing a silver chain that stood out against the dusting of hair on his chest.

When I finally managed to bring my gaze back up to his face, he was smirking at me. “See something you like, Mrs. Blake?”

“You know that’s not really my name.” I honestly didn’t even know how to change it. Sam had always taken care of all my human-identity paperwork for me.

“It’s how you introduced yourself to Jacqueline at the gala.”

“That was due to special circumstances.”

“Oh?” He propped his elbows on the granite countertop of the island. “And what were those special circumstances? Were you jealous, Sunday School?”

I glared at him .

He chuckled. “I think it’s cute. Actually, scratch that. It was fucking hot when you introduced yourself as my wife, and I wish I hadn’t been so stuck in my head and could have truly enjoyed it.”

“If you still want to stay married to me by the end of our deal, I’ll look into changing my name.”

The amusement faded from Hayden’s face. “I thought we’d already established that I have no interest in letting you go at the end of our deal.”

Something warmed in my chest at his words, but I couldn’t really accept his declaration until he knew everything. He might think he wanted me now, but would he still feel the same way when he learned the truth?

“Baby,” he said, coming around the island to wrap his arms around me. “What’s going on?”

I shook my head. “I’m just… Everything feels so perfect, and I can’t help feeling like it’s all going to fall apart.”

“Hey, I’m supposed to be the pessimistic one in this relationship.”

“There’s no rule that says you get a monopoly on that,” I said with a weak smile.

“It’s going to be okay. I promise.” His lips found my forehead, and I let him hold me, wishing I could believe him. Wishing I could live in this moment forever.

Shortly after Hayden left for work, Miles showed up at the front door with a bottle of wine and a grin.

“Hello, stranger who has been avoiding my calls since the last gala.”

“I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve just been busy.”

“Right. According to my brother, you’re taking some class that’s sucking the life out of you.” He placed the bottle of wine into my hands and moved into Hayden’s kitchen to get glasses. “I’m hurt, Dani. Are we really to a point where I’m hearing about your life through my brother?”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been turning my phone off so I can focus. You could text me, you know.”

“But you don’t like texting.”

“I’ve gotten used to it lately.” Hayden’s constant texting had trained me to assume the best when my phone chimed. I no longer dreaded seeing a message from Z every time I got a text.

Miles lifted his brows at me. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He took the wine bottle back from me and poured us each a glass. “Now, are you going to tell me what happened at the gala?”

“What do you mean?” I asked innocently.

“You asked me to dance right in front of my brother. That’s about as close as you have ever gotten to being spiteful. What did he do?”

“He didn’t do anything exactly.” I took my wineglass from Miles, and we moved to my beanbag chairs in the living room. “We ran into Jacqueline.”

“Ah.”

“She sort of implied that her kid could have been Hayden’s. He didn’t exactly rush to explain the situation, and I guess I was hurt.”

“Well, you know I’m always down for helping you put my brother in his place. He’s been hurt before, and I hate that, but that doesn’t give him the right to hurt you. ”

“It’s okay. I get it. I’m actually glad we ran into her. The whole thing was good for us.”

Miles grinned. “It’s about time he started healing.” He took a sip of his wine. “Now, enough about my brother. What are we doing today? Bridgerton marathon?”

“Would you mind trying something new? There’s another show I saw that sounded good.”

“But if it’s new, we might miss something when we talk through the whole thing.”

I laughed. “True.” I turned on the giant flat-screen TV that hung on the wall and then tossed Miles the remote. “You pick something then.”

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching historical romance shows and catching each other up on our lives.

Miles was on month five of dating Jessica, which made this his longest relationship ever.

And it was eternally entertaining to watch the flirt I’d met two years ago be head over heels for a woman.

He was so different and yet so himself. Jessica brought out the best in Miles, and she made him so happy it was impossible not to like her even though I’d only met her briefly since Miles liked to keep her all to himself.

He was a bit like his brother in that way.

As proven by the way Hayden unceremoniously kicked Miles out of the penthouse the second he walked in the door and didn’t even wait for him to leave before devouring my lips in a kiss so deep it stole my ability to stand or even think.