Page 31

EMORY

I can already tell this event is going to be a disaster.

There’s a muscle jumping in Aiden’s jaw as we circle the gallery, and I’m not even sure he’s looking at the art on the walls.

I go to this event every June because it benefits the town and the buffet is top-notch, but tonight, I want to crawl out of my skin.

Everyone is watching us, and I’m pretty sure we’re failing. His hand is a bare touch on my lower back, and every time we move, I have to remind myself not to savor it.

Every time I glance at him, I have to remind myself that his looks are just symmetry and anatomy. It’s biology making my stomach shiver with need, not the memory of his mouth on my neck or the memory of how he said my name in his rough-velvet voice.

He couldn’t have made me finish and I don’t like him.

Especially not tonight when he’s about as charming as a block of ice.

I shoot him a glare as we move to another piece of art. He’s bidding on anything I ask, barely glancing at the details of each piece, and I hate this. I don’t know if I want a connection with him or if I’ll do anything to avoid one.

“It’s the happy couple.”

I whirl, and Aiden follows, his hand sliding over the bare skin of my back, making me shudder.

“Ava,” I say, my voice oddly high. Shit.

Aiden nods gravely at her, because that seems to be his default expression tonight.

“How’s married life?” she asks. Her gaze travels over us, and I inch closer to Aiden.

“Excellent, thank you,” I say. “We were just going to honeymoon in, um—”

“Bermuda,” Aiden says, at the same time as I say, “Madagascar.”

“Bermuda and then Madagascar,” I amend, with an overbright smile. I swear I can feel my pulse in my face. I take a sip of too-warm champagne before I can say anything else that makes us look bad.

Ava narrows her eyes. “You know,” she says conversationally, “I have a piece of paper on my desk for your land transfer.”

My stomach jumps. She must see my reaction, because her eyes go flinty.

“I think I should wait and see if you two are jerking my chain. Because this—” She circles her finger in our faces. “Smells fishy. And I don’t like the idea of being taken advantage of by two of the biggest troublemakers to ever see the inside of my courtroom.”

“Surely those are her brothers,” Aiden says smoothly.

I restrain myself from stomping on his foot and force myself to smile.

Ava is not amused. “I’m watching you,” she says, with one final look, before she strides away.

“Fuck,” he mutters, his hand dropping from my back.

I miss it.

I take another sip of warm champagne. I refuse to miss it. I refuse to be upset that a man I don’t even like is being rude to me tonight. This relationship is fake . The point of the card was to keep our knowledge at surface-level.

“I need to get another drink,” I say faintly. What I really need is ten minutes alone in a bathroom to splash cold water on my face and panic.

“What we need to do is practice before we get dragged in to any more uncomfortable conversations,” he hisses.

I watch his mouth as he shapes the words, remembering the plush feel of it on my own, the way his teeth scraped over my skin.

My heartbeat is hurrying faster now. His gaze follows my tongue as it dips against my bottom lip, as if he remembers when his tongue took its place. His eyes are dark and hungry when they meet mine, and I know he’s remembering.

This is a terrible place to remember, but the need is stringing tight between us, even as guests eddy around us like we’re stones in a river.

I want to kiss him. I want to feel his mouth again, in a purely scientific exercise to slice the desire out of me. Experimentation is a scalpel I can use to never want him again.

My hand lands on his chest and his eyes go heavy lidded.

“Emory, would you like to dance?”

Aiden’s head jerks up before his eyes narrow.

I sigh and turn. “Malcolm. Nice to see you.”

“Don’t lie,” he says with a cool half smile. “I like you better when you’re being honest.”

“And I don’t like you at all,” Aiden growls.

Malcolm looks unfazed, his eyes flickering with amusement.

If he weren’t so damn mercenary, he’d be attractive.

He’s as tall as Aiden, but bigger in the shoulders and arms. Aiden looks at me like he wants to kill me or fuck me and he hasn’t decided which impulse will win out.

Malcolm looks at people like he would kill them with no question.

Like he’d only think about the potential consequences after they’re dead.

He’s dark-haired, sharp-jawed, and rough around the edges in a way that reminds me of someone putting a collar on an attack dog and calling it a poodle.

“I don’t care,” he drawls, holding out his hand. “Emory? Unless your husband is so insecure that he can’t allow a family friend a dance?”

His palm is warm and dry as I take it. Aiden tenses behind me but lets me go.

“You’re no friend, Malcolm,” I say as he tucks my hand into his elbow and we stroll to the dance floor in the other room, where a string quartet plays classical versions of modern music.

“But I could be.”

I make noise that tells him what I think about that. Malcolm cares about one thing as far as I can tell—money. Well, also power. But mostly money.

“I heard a rumor,” he says as he spins me and pulls me back in at a slight distance. From the corner of my eye, I see Aiden prowling along the edge of the dance floor, hands in his pockets.

“What rumor?” The sooner I get Malcolm to the point, the sooner I can leave.

“That your marriage is fake.” His bright, humorless smile makes my heart trip even more than his words.

“What are you talking about?”

He dips me, and I swear Aiden’s face darkens from where he watches us.

“I don’t care if you’re faking it,” he says as he smoothly pulls me up. “But I do want that land. I’ll do anything to get it.”

My eyes meet his, hoping my flat gaze will communicate what I think of his plan. His eyes are deep gold, like a predator. I imagine they shine in the dark while he schemes. I suspect he rarely sleeps.

“It’s mine, Malcolm.” I bare my teeth.

He makes a considering sound. “Yours? Or his? And what scheme have you hatched to get it? I wonder if a little legal pressure would make it all come tumbling down?”

I want to crush his bones in my fist, but I settle for a cool stare. “You have no leverage over us.”

He just smiles that half smile again. “We’ll see about that.” His gaze goes over my head. “Your husband is glaring at us. Oh, and now he’s coming over.” Malcolm dips his head and brushes his lips over my cheek before I can pull away. “You’re welcome,” he murmurs.

I feel Aiden before he speaks. He’s a small sun at my back before his arm winds around my waist.

“Let’s go.” His eyes are flickering with an emotion I can’t name. It’s the same look I saw yesterday after the match. Pure animal heat when he looks at me, like he could melt me under his stare.

He starts striding out of the space, and I give Malcolm a quick goodbye while he just chuckles.

“What is wrong with you?” I whisper shout at Aiden’s back.

We burst through the double doors and into the cool June evening.

“With me?” He gives me a humorless laugh and shoves his hands into his pockets.

“Yes, with you. You’ve been grumbling at me all night.” And I hate it.

We reach the car. He whirls, and the heat in his gaze sends me flat against the metal that’s still warm from the day’s sun.

“Me?” His jaw flexes as he steps in to my space. “You gave Malcolm more than you’ve given me in days.”

“And what? You’re jealous? You don’t even like me.”

“But I could,” he bursts out. “Fuck.” His head swings around, checking for onlookers, before his forehead drops to the car.

The stubble on his jaw scrapes over my cheek, unbearably intimate.

I want to press closer. I want to tunnel my fingers into his hair and hold his mouth to my neck like I did outside the garden.

“You give me nothing,” he murmurs. “Do you know how that feels?”

I still.

“What do you mean?”

His breath is hot and damp on my neck. “You say you want to make this work. I’m trying, Emory. I gave you pieces of myself. You told me nothing.” He lifts his head to look into my eyes, his own shadowed with emotion.

This is Aiden stripped bare, and it makes my heart hammer against my ribs.

“I gave you five facts,” I say weakly.

“And I gave you far more than facts,” he says with a grim smile.

“How many people do you think know those things about me? Do you think I’m an open book?

I locked myself in that house for a year, Emory.

Do you think this is easy for me? Do you think it’s fun?

” His voice is mocking. Of himself, I think, not of me.

Is he hurt? I think he might be hurt, and I’ve spent so long thinking about how I feel that I didn’t stop to consider how Aiden might.

Hell. I shut my eyes, my breath coming short. “I have a hard time opening up,” I say, my words a mere whisper. “History has shown me that it’s not always the right move.”

I open my eyes again, expecting to see him glaring at me, or frowning at me, but instead his eyes are soft, and his mouth is lifted in a half smile. He shoves his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels.

“Was that so hard?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say shortly.

He leans down, and for one brief stomach-twisting second, I think he’s going to kiss me. Instead, he reaches around, crowding me with his heat and his hard body, and opens my door.

“Such a good girl,” he murmurs in my ear. I shove at his chest, and he huffs an amused breath, then, “Get in the car.”

I roll my eyes but get in, and he swings into the other side. He loosens his bow tie as I try not to watch. I imagine what it would feel like under my fingers. Smooth silk next to hot skin. I’d grab the ends and use them to tug him down for a kiss.

“One secret of my choice,” he says, oblivious to my thoughts.

I press my head back to the seat. “Fine.”

The engine purrs under us as he guides us out of the parking lot.

“What did you want to be when you grew up?”

I shoot him a look. “What I do now isn’t good enough for you?”

“Emory,” he says warningly.

I clasp my hands in my lap, willing myself to remember that Aiden isn’t doing this to hurt me.

“Sorry. It’s an old wound. Asking about it is like pressing on a bruise.

” I shut my eyes and think back to when I was little.

“I wanted to be a vet. I like animals and I like fixing things. People, animals, problems. I like leaving things better than I found them.”

“Yeah?”

I open my eyes to see him looking amused as he turns right.

“Why is that funny?”

“I’m picturing you cuddling with a pile of kittens.”

“Am I nude in this scenario?”

He makes a choked sound. “Now you are,” he mutters.

I laugh.

“No laughing,” he admonishes.

“Why not?”

“Makes me want to fuck you,” he says casually as we pull up to the Crownhaven gates.

My stomach twists. Desire washes over me, holding me in its grip.

“Can’t have that,” he muses, as tires crunch over the gravel.

“Definitely not,” I agree. He’s messing with me. He gives me a knowing smirk and I glare right back.

“Shouldn’t be a problem for me to joke about it, because you don’t want it, right?” He puts the car in park.

“Nope.” I press my palms between my thighs. “Go on in. I’ll be up in a minute.” I want Aiden so badly that I don’t trust myself to stand. I need to fling myself into the ocean to douse this heat.

Instead of leaving, he turns and cups my jaw with one broad hand. His thumb presses to my lips. My breath hitches, that spark inside me fanning into an inferno.

“You’re a shitty liar,” he whispers before he taps his thumb on my nose and swings out of the car.

I go boneless when he leaves.

I have to get to know Aiden. After tonight, I have no choice. And somehow I have to get close to him and not want to sleep with him.

“Fuck,” I whisper angrily into the silence of the car. “Fuck. Fuck.”