Page 29 of The Pucking Fake Marriage

Ken asks the question that’s running through my mind.

“Really think you can handle that?”

No,I think. It’s the honest answer.

If I’m going to live with him, it will be a couple of months of hot sex day in and day out. And then one day, I’ll have to pack my bags and go back to living with Haley. Plus, deal with the fact that I let Ken have me. Hell, maybe that I begged him for it one too many times.

I’m never going to be able to live with myself knowing that happened, after I spent the last ten years avoiding him.

No doubt Ken would shut me out of his life forever. He’d get way more from the deal than was fair. A womanwho spurned him now crawling into bed with him, needing him sexually and financially. It’s the stuff of revenge porn.

I turn around, pulling my dress downward. An icy tension has seeped into the room, one that makes it difficult to remember we were grinding on each other mere moments ago. Only my panties, tossed aside on the floor, give any inkling to the fact that it happened.

Ken has his arms folded. He doesn’t seem any more interested in touching me than I am. He’s waiting for an answer.

To delay my response, I look around his apartment. Lavish doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s a minimalist bachelor pad, sure, but it’s also one of the chicest living rooms I’ve been in. Wide, airy space, an L-shaped gray couch, several potted plants around the corners of the house, floor-to-ceiling windows that take up an entire wall.

Just like the kind of apartment I’d like to live in with Haley. The kind I promised her we’ll get when I fix the mess that is our business.

Folding my arms across my chest, I watch as Ken settles his gaze on my erect nipples. My cheeks burn again, and I try to ignore the throbbing between my legs.

I managed to pick myself up ten years ago, after that disastrous fall. If I could do that, then I can keep my hands off Ken for a couple of months. Especially since my whole life depends on it.

“I can handle it.”

He’s waiting. Wanting me to explain further.

I look up at him, stashing whatever nervousness I feel deep in my gut. “I need your help. I’ll have to live with you for a while. Pay some bills and gather enough documentation. I’m looking to apply for a loan at the bank. And then we can get an annulment and go our separate ways.”

The corners of his lips are turned up in a smirk. “What would our marriage look like, then? You seem to have it all figured out.”

I ignore the jibe. “If you’re going to help me…”

“You say those words more like a threat and less like a request.”

Fury flows through my veins, burning through what’s left of my desire. He’s waiting for me to actually grovel at his feet before he agrees.

“You’ve some stipulations, I take it?” he says now, as I fight to gain control of my anger. “Something about us sleeping in different bedrooms or me never touching you?”

I swallow. It’s humiliating to have to stand on that ground after what just happened. But I don’t back down. “That would probably make sense.”

His smirk turns into a full-on grin. He takes a step closer to me, tramping on my underwear. I fight the urge to back away. Reaching out with a finger, he brushes one of my nipples. I grit my teeth together, trying my hardest to not make a sound. Moving even closer, he cups one of my ass cheeks, pulling me in.

He’s smothering me in his heat. I moan, a loud, throaty sound that wrenches itself from my mouth without warning.

Ken’s grin is at its widest. “What do you suggest we do whenthishappens, then? When I touch you and you beg me to be inside you?”

Damn.

He did it again.Teased me just so I’d humiliate myself by admitting I want him. That’s what he planned to do since I first walked into his apartment. And I’d stupidly allowed him to do that.

A secondtime.

That’s why he didn’t just have sex with me outright. In some weird, twisted way, this is all a game to him. One where he gets to capitalize on the fact that my body wants him, all so he can keep taunting me.

He’s never going to help me.

All he wants to do is to keep toying with me.

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