Page 80 of Charming Deception

He reaches to set his empty glass on the table between us.

I sip my whiskey, my thoughts flying in so many directions at once, I can’t grab hold of a single one of them. My heart is racing and my core is warm. This is at once the most perplexing, thrilling, and unbelievable conversation I’ve ever had in my life.

“Something is still bothering you,” he points out, in that annoyingly delicious, bossy way of his. “What is it?”

I take a breath, and ask. “Are you being honest with me?”

“Of course.”

“That’s important to me.”

“It is for me, too. Relationships, of any kind, should be built on trust. It’s absolutely essential.”

“I’m glad you feel that way,” I say hesitantly. “Because the last man I trusted really betrayed that trust, and it’s a big deal for me to go out on a limb here with you.”

“I’ll do everything I can to ensure that you feel the ground is solid beneath your feet. I’m a stable man. I won’t be throwing you any curveballs.”

I swirl the liquid in my glass, the melting ice. “He cheated on me,” I confess.

In the ensuing silence, I force myself to meet Jameson’s eyes. I should’ve done that when I said it, to gauge his reaction. How else will I know what kind of man he is when it comes to the subject of being unfaithful?

The eyes that meet mine burn with a restrained fury that takes my breath away. He leans toward me. “Is that what you’re afraid of? That I would do something like that to you?”

The tension in my chest loosens somewhat. The fact that he put it that way, acknowledged that to cheat on me is to do something to me, gives me hope that he understands. That Troy’s infidelity wasn’t just an act of betrayal and disloyalty, but aggression. He did it to hurt me as much as he did it to make himself feel good.

“I don’t want to be cheated on,” I confess. “I know this is a fake relationship, but that’s unfair. It would still humiliate me. It would still… hurt me.”

“I respect you too much for that. I know you have no way of knowing this is true, but I’m a man of my word. I’ve never cheated on a woman in my life, and I have no reason to do that to you.” His words feel sincere.

“Even though we’re not having sex?”

“Yes.”

“Which means… you won’t be having sex… at all.”

He clears his throat. “Yes. For now.”

Those two words again.

I down the last of my drink, then place the glass on the table next to his.

“You’re nervous,” he says. Reading me, once again.

“It’s not the engagement that makes me nervous, exactly. It’s just… having to fake it.”

“I understand. I don’t like lying either. Just think of it as a private arrangement between us. A lot of marketing is an illusion, but what’s true, what matters, is what’s in private, between us. If we’re both committed to this arrangement, invested, honest with each other… We won’t have to fake much.”

My throat pulls tight. It’s like he’s still talking business, on the surface, but there’s undeniable heat coming off him that makes the conversation feel overtly sexual.

Maybe this is just his natural vibe at all times? And I’ll have to get used to it?

“We’ll be a couple,” he goes on. “No cheating, and no need for lies. If we decide to have sex with each other, or have sex with other people, we’ll discuss it first. Come to an agreement about it.”

He studies me until I know I’m blushing as I absorb those words. So clear, so fair, so sensible, given our arrangement.

I don’t even know why the mention of “other people” doesn’t bother me more. Maybe because he also mentioned having sex with me, and honesty, in the same breath?

Whatever the reason, there’s a meteor shower going off in my chest, and my panties are wet.

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