Page 73 of Rebellious Hearts
“It’s nothing,” I said.
Luke raised his eyebrows. “It doesn’t look like nothing to me. Not by the looks of that diamond on her finger and the way you’re making sure she’s okay every step of the way, almost like you’re set on looking after her.”
I groaned. “It’s not that simple.”
“No? You don’t want to tell me you’ve fallen in love with this girl and it’s not just a lie, you really do want to play happy families together?”
“I don’t,” I growled. “I’m not the kind of man toplay happy families.I’m not cut out for it, man.”
“Of course you are. Any girl would be lucky to have you, and it looks like she’s the kind of girl that makes you feel lucky to have her, too.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly a lie. But like I’d said, it wasn’t that simple.
She was an employee. If Alex found out what was going on, he was probably going to lose his shit. Not to mention the fact that if we had to keep working together on this project, since we’d got it now, we would have to keep pretending we were married in front of Richard.
Alex wasn’t going to go for that kind of bullshit, either.
Except if we weren’t pretending…
But I wasn’t someone worth dating, let alone worth marrying. My parents hadn’t gotten rid of me because they didn’t have the money to raise me. I’d found out a couple of years after the Blackwoods had adopted me that they’d had three more kids and none of them had ended up in an orphanage.
There was just something wrong with me and they’d wanted to get rid of me.
And whatever it was, I wasn’t going to visit that on someone else.
Especially not someone as fucking amazing as Sofia.
Sure, I had money and a big name and a quarter of the Blackwood empire, but underneath all of that, I was still just me.
And just me didn’t cut it, not for her.
Not when she deserved the very best.
22
SOFIA
When the guys came back from the bar, Ben looked like he’d blown off a little steam, but he was uptight, and he wore his expressionless mask. He was cold and distant toward me.
My stomach twisted. What had they said? What had happened?
Was it something I’d done?
“Are you okay?” I asked softly when he sat down.
“Fine,” he said. “Thanks. More wine?”
I nodded. The bottle was nearly empty—it was really good wine and Amy drank a lot more than I did.
Ben ordered another bottle without hesitating.
This was the kind of life I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to. The luxury, the money, the ease with which everyone snapped their fingers and they got what they wanted.
But I wasn’t fooled by all that money. It didn’t take away the real problems; it just dressed them up so that they looked a little better or disguised them altogether.
Everyone had problems. Everyone had pain in their past, and everyone needed help sometimes.
I just wished that Ben would talk to me, that he would tell me what was going on. If he was upset with something I’d done.
