Page 64 of Charming Deception

And now he’s arguing with me. Again.

“And by the way, you called me savage, not a savage,” he says. “There’s a difference, you know.”

“I don’t think so.”

“It’s the way you say it, like I disgust you.”

“You don’t disgust me.”

He stops walking. His expression is sore as he comes over to me, and I back up. “But I scare you.”

“I’m not scared of you.” I don’t want to tell him the truth, that pretty much any man I didn’t know who was left alone with me in the woods would scare me.

His lips curl in a cruel smile. “No? Let’s see you prove it.” He takes me by my shoulders and turns me around. “Fall back, straight back, and let me catch you.”

I huff, trying to glimpse him over my shoulder. “This is stupid.” He’s already saved my life, and we both know it. What will this prove?

That he doesn’t want me dead? I know that already.

“Don’t look back, just fall.”

“Are you going to catch me?”

“That’s the point.”

“Fine. One, two?—”

“Don’t count, just do it.”

I fall back, straight back, and he catches me in his arms. He stands me up again, and I pull away, turning to keep an eye on him.

“Now kiss me,” he says, “if you’re not afraid.”

“No way.”

“So. You trust me not to let you get hurt, but you won’t kiss me.”

“This is a stupid test you just made up so you could kiss me.”

“So to you, kissing me seems a greater danger than falling on your ass and hitting your head on a rock.” He starts walking again. “Now that’s interesting.”

I hurry to keep up with him. “It’s not interesting! It’s not really anything at all. It’s just something you made up.”

I lower the tablet to my lap in bed as it strikes me: that Megan doesn’t trust me.

She’s just left a man who treated her badly. She was with him for years, and according to what she and Cole told me about him, he was a real piece of shit to her, in the end.

He even stole from her.

How can she trust me, a man she just met, no matter what I say or what her brother says about me?

How can she know if I’m being honest with her or not?

And maybe cash in the bank isn’t enough to win her trust.

Maybe I just made her the wrong offer.

Maybe I need to make her the right offer… whatever that is.

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