Page 38 of Charming Deception

“It’s hard to believe.”

“Why?”

“Because you used to date her, before we partnered with her.”

“So, you think I can’t control myself?”

I want to tell him how fucking wrong he is about that.

Like the fact that this morning, I jerked off thinking about my new gardener wearing nothing but gloves as she knelt in the flowerbeds, weeding. I got myself off in the shower before I dared risk running into her today. And I did it slow.

While I came, I pictured my best friend’s little sister gasping my name while she came, her pussy juice dripping down her thighs.

In my mind, I’ve already fucked her.

But in reality, I have reasons not to touch her. The challenge. Cole. The fact that I’m not the out-of-control sex monkey my siblings seem to think I am.

Really, none of this is any of his fucking business, though.

My word should be enough.

“You think I’m a sex addict or something? Is that it? I can’t possibly resist a woman just because I find her attractive?”

Graysen swipes a hand over his face, looking weary and so much older than his thirty-eight years. He looks like a dad, actually. Like a guy who has no children of his own yet, but has worried about his younger siblings all his life.

“No, Jamie. I think you just never have a reason to keep it in your pants. So I chose this challenge for you, to give you a reason.”

Chapter 9

Jameson

I stare at my brother, too shocked to respond for a long-ass moment as the meaning of his words weighs down on me like an anvil with the words fuck you etched into it.

“You chose this challenge for me?”

“Yes,” Graysen says with distaste. “I did.”

I’m stunned. I would’ve seriously put every dollar I had on Harlan being the one. Or maybe Damian.

But it was Graysen.

Which means it wasn’t meant to make me suffer. It’s much worse than that.

Maybe he really doesn’t trust me.

Maybe he really believes I’m a liability.

And if that’s true, then my inheritance and my job and literally everything I have is really on the line here.

If Graysen tells the others I failed…

They’ll believe him over me. Even if they don’t want to, even if they want to trust me, they’ll take his side.

Graysen is the boss.

Every pack, even a pack of alphas always snapping at one another’s necks, needs an ultimate alpha. And Graysen has always been ours.

Which means that if I can’t convince him that I’ve won the game, I’ve failed anyway.

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