Page 56 of The Senator's Secret
“The beginning is usually the best spot,” she says gently.
“The Monday after our dinner, an unmarked package was left for me at my office. It held pictures of Jake and I in Clear that looked, well, compromising.”
“In Clear?” she asks me. “So you did go talk to him?”
“Not on purpose, no. I was going to walk past him and give him the cold shoulder but my heel caught on a freaking dessert spoon that someone had dropped and he caught me before I could hit the ground.”
“Well, that was chivalrous of him,” Jules adds.
“With his hand on my ass and his face on my neck,” I say pointing to the side of my neck and accidentally drawing attention to the pink marks he left there earlier.
“That is some fantastic beard burn you’re sporting today,” she laughs.
“This isn’t funny,” I admonish, but really it kind of is so I give her a goofy smile.
“My apologies. Do go on.” She waves her hand like the Queen.
“These pictures could ruin my reputation, his isn’t fantastic, or it wasn’t at the time.”
“You’ve done well to clean him up,” she agrees.
“So, I called him, hating every minute of it,” I press on. “Jake said we should meet at a hole in the wall place he likes to go to. He said he could solve all of our problems if I just married him.”
“And you agreed.”
“I did but the whole time, I kept thinking it was fake and it would end as soon as he was elected,” I admit. “But…”
“But the sex is real and so are your feelings,” she finishes for me.
“Yeah and it really stinks.”
“Grace, I don’t think you have anything to worry about here,” Jules says softly. She’s always thought the most of me and usually she’s correct. I’m smart, I’m funny, and I’m the whole package, but now she’s completely wrong. A man like Jake Chancellor won’t settle down. Sure, he will for a while, but then he’ll rip my heart out. A leopard can’t change their spots.
“I wish you were right,” I whisper as tears pool in my eyes again.
“Honey, I know they covered a lot at NYU and that fancy law school of yours—”
“Harvard,” I add helpfully.
“Yes, that,” she says as she rolls her eyes. “So you should know that a man like sexy Senator Jake doesn’t give a woman what has to be a family heirloom like the one on your ring finger if he doesn’t love her.”
I look at my hand and remember his less than romantic proposal, and I wince. “It’s probably a good fake. We’re only engaged because of the optics.”
Jules has the audacity to throw her beautiful head back and laugh.
“That’s not a fake,” she says on a smile. “I would know. And my optics tell me that man is crazy about you.”
Just then, I hear footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement.
“Well that man is coming back now, so be quiet,” I grit out.
“We’re not done here.”
“Yes, we are,” I growl before pasting a smile on my face just in time as Jake walks back in the room.
“I heard Grace promise you the good stuff, so I figured I’d get the really good stuff out,” he says as he drops two bottles on the coffee table and pulls a bottle opener from his jeans pocket.
“I like you,” Jules says unceremoniously.