Page 6 of Let Me Say It Again

Raising my hand to get her attention, I called her name and waved for her to come over and join us. Did you hear that? It was a car swerving off the road on a bridge and falling straight into the water.Plop!Down the car goes, completely sunken. The car was symbolic of my lie, by the way.

New task: make sure Jade went along with it and she didn’t give me away.

Jade’s head snapped toward us, her eyes connecting with mine and her lips narrowing, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. She was confused. Well, she was about to become ten times more confused. Anyone have a quick fix for a migraine because I felt a doozy coming on?

When she got to us, I placed my arm around her waist, and her body went rigid. She looked over her shoulder at me and cleared her throat. “Hi,” she greeted us, obviously unsure where to go from there.

I smiled. “Hi, honey.” The term of endearment fell from my lips like it was second nature. Effortless, really. And I had to admit, I didn’t hate it. In fact, I think I liked it a little too much. It fit Jade, and it was a nickname for her I suddenly felt belonged to me.

Her eyes went wide, and I tightened my grip on her, tugging her closer so I could casually kiss her cheek and whisper so low in her ear that only she could hear. “Play along.” Backing up, I cleared my throat. “Mark, Sherrilyn,” I said in turn. “I’d like for you to meet my fiancée, Jade Logan.”

Then I turned to Jade, noticing how her face fell slightly. They wouldn’t notice because it was subtle, but take it from a person who had memorized every line of Jade’s face and could trace them in his mind’s eye—she was in shock. “Jade, this is Mark and Sherrilyn Cavallo.” Jade wasn’t stupid. She had to have remembered the name Cavallo and what it meant for me and the company.

Sherrilyn nodded, speaking up first. “It’s very nice to meet you. Red was just telling us how you volunteer at a community garden.”

Jade smiled, tilting her head in my direction. Meanwhile, Mark’s brows furrowed, his eyes dropping as they examined Jade’s hand.Shit!“Wait. Where’s your ring, Jade?”

Son of a bitch. I couldn’t be caught in a lie. It would ruin me. No, I wasn’t exaggerating. It was the truth. Would you want to do business with a man who lied about something like his relationship status?

My palms grew sweaty, and my gut clenched.Quick, come up with something, anything at all, Red.

“It’s being resized,” I blurted out. “My girl just has the most delicate, tiny fingers,” I said, playing with her unnaturally soft hand. How had I never known this? Never brushed hands with her before?

As Mark asked how we’d met, I chuckled. Maybe this would work after all. Damn it, I was smarter than I gave myself credit for.

“That’s a funny story, actually,” I started to go into it, adhering to as many facts as possible.

* * *

Jade

I saw lips moving, but didn’t hear any words. I’d officially shut down.

* * *

Reddington

Jade didn’t seem to be blinking as frequently as one should. Was she going to pass out? Die?Shit, Jade, get your act together.

“My wife and I are celebrating ten years with a vow renewal in Newport,” Mark said, narrowing his eyes as though contemplating the rest of his thought before coming right out with it. “You should both come. Who knows? That could be you one day.”

I cleared my throat while Jade looked like she was going to shit a pickle. Once again, Mark shouldn’t be able to tell, but I could. She licked her lips at a rapid pace, and her eyes grew wider—not too wide, though. It was the little things like that I couldn’t stop myself from noticing, no matter how hard I’d tried.

You think I wanted to have these feelings for her? Feelings that made me crave sticking my fingers inside her and watching her eyes roll back in her head as she dripped down my hand? Far from it. But here we were.

I moved my hand down her back, slowly rubbing circles on it to try to calm her nerves. Hopefully, it worked because I was about to say something that might increase her evidently strong desire to choke me to death. “That’s quite the invitation. We’ll be there,” I finally replied, nodding.Fake it till you make it, right?

As I expected, Jade’s eyes flashed wide the hell open, and she chuckled nervously before shooting me a look that would’vekilled me if looks could’ve done that. Then she turned to Mark. “We couldn’t possibly,” she said, backpedaling on my previous acceptance, and I tightened my grip on her.

What was she doing? I needed him on board. This was good for business. As my assistant shouldn’t she care about that?

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips—damn it, I wanted to know what it was like for that tongue to be entwined with mine—and she inhaled, then exhaled. “I just mean, we can’t confirm we can attend when we don’t even know the date.” She angled her body toward me and placed a hand on my chest. “Surely you have a packed schedule, honey.” Fuck, the way that last word came out, I could tell it wasn’t intended to be as sweet as it sounded.

I grinned, my pulse quickening as her hand remained touching me. Why did her touch feel so damn good? Shaking my head, I tried to save it. “I’m sure most of my meetings can be rescheduled or handled virtually.”

Mark clapped his hands together. “Great. That’s what I like to hear.”

Sherrilyn nodded and smiled politely. “You’ll have the best time, Jade. My event coordinator promises it’ll be the event of the decade.”

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