Page 139 of Bitter Secrets

“Smile, Jasmine!” Johnny hollered.

“Yes, smile, Jasmine,” Roth murmured.

Her nails dug into his side. “Are you smiling?” she asked without moving her lips.

“I don’t smile.”

“Then I shouldn’t have to either,” she sniped.

He palmed her spine. “You want me to give you a reason to smile?”

She was relieved when Johnny lowered his camera, obviously satisfied with the shot. She stepped forward, eager to get away from Roth, but was pulled up short by the arm that banded across her upper chest. She bared her teeth as he dragged her back against him.

“What?”she snapped.

“Does this place remind you of something?”

Her heart skipped a beat. “No.”

“Liar.” He turned her to face the view once more and braced his hands on the wall on either side of her as he butted his face against the side of hers. “They met on a hilltop similar to this, didn’t they?”

She clenched her teeth.

“You stepped into your own as Thalia, but I have a fondness for your work as Minnie.”

“Because I was so naive?”

His hands flexed on the wall before coming to her and splaying over her stomach.

“Because it was authentically you. Unjaded, hopeful. You believed good would conquer all, despite Maximus’s attempts to teach you otherwise.”

Her eyes unfocused, blurring the landscape into a green sea. “You taught me what my father couldn’t.”

“I never wanted you to change. Why do you think I insisted you stay in Philadelphia?”

They weren’t going to fucking go there. “Let me go.”

He leaned heavily into her, making her head bow forward as he wrapped her up tight. “Did that prophecy ever come true? Was he her downfall?”

“Johnny!”

“Yes, bebe?”

She was relieved when Roth’s hold loosened. Johnny came over with a skip in his step. She untangled herself from Roth and latched on to her human shield.

“This place is so romantic, isn’t it?” Johnny sighed as he patted her hand.

“Sure,” she said distractedly as she made a beeline for the exit.

She was rattled and more than a little unnerved that Roth had recognized the same magic at Castelo dos Mouros that she had and linked it back to her story. She was stunned that he remembered so much from the book, but why wouldn’t he? After she admitted that he inspired a character, he read the first in her fantasy series and urged her to write the second when his character made his grand entrance. She spent two weeks trying to write everything that had been lost in the notebook Dad threw away, and cried when her words didn’t have the same oomph the original had. Roth encouraged her to continue anyway. It hadn’t been hard to do when the hero had materialized in real life. That was the last book she published as Minnie Hess during their whirlwind affair.

When they got into the car, she tried to get the rest of her ideas down on her phone before they evaporated.

“Who are you texting?” Johnny demanded, stopping in the middle of his rundown of Palácio de Monserrate.

“I’m taking notes about the site,” she lied and jerked against her seat belt as Aleixo took a sharp turn.

“You’re not taking notes. People who type that fast are talking to a booty call. Let me see.”

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