Page 181 of Charming Deception

“I thought it was obvious by now.” He lays his hand on the side of my face, his thumb brushing my lip. “You.”

Chapter 40

Jameson

In the early morning, after we make love slowly in the faint dawn light, we lie in bed in each other’s arms. I play with Megan’s soft hair.

I don’t want to say anything. I don’t want any of my fears, or Megan’s, to ruin this.

I know they’re going to.

I can feel it in every ferocious beat of my pulse when we’re close, my heart straining under the pressure of all those goddamn arrows she’s lodged in there with her sweetness.

Last night, she asked me about marriage. And yes, I’ve been thinking about marriage. Looking at it in a much different way since she accepted my proposal.

Thinking about what it would be like if she were my wife.

But I didn’t have the balls to tell her that. Not when I wasn’t prepared to follow through.

It wouldn’t be fair to mess with her head.

More than she needs some promise of a fairy-tale marriage, she needs a stable man. And that’s the kind of man I need to be for her.

I won’t make her any promises unless I know I can keep them.

She stares at me so long, her head nestled next to mine on the pillow, I finally break. I brush my thumb over her soft cheek. “What are you thinking about?”

“Why were you holding back before?”

I know what she’s asking, and why. She’s concerned about why I changed so suddenly. From avoiding her touch to fucking her like my life depends on it.

Who wouldn’t be?

She wants to know what my reason was for delaying our sexual connection, which is obviously intense and electric.

If we could stay in bed and fuck all day, I’m sure we would.

But she already told me she’s spending the day with her friend Nicole today.

Maybe she needs room to breathe before this ravenous connection between us swallows her whole.

I know I’m being consumed by it.

I don’t even know what to tell her anymore.

“Was it really about my brother?” she says softly.

She’s never asked me that so directly before.

But just because I’ve completed my challenge doesn’t mean I’m off the hook.

I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. I still can’t tell her about the game, even now that my part in it is done.

My siblings know; the ninety days are up, and I swore to them all that I completed the challenge. There would be no women—Megan included—popping up to claim I’d fucked them during those ninety days. And if they did, they were fucking lying.

And I didn’t tell Megan about the game.

I didn’t break the rules.

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