Page 84 of From Best Friend to Bride
I was going to stick to this nickname like glue. Morning, noon, and night, until he stopped calling me his ‘pretty wife.’
I was sure he was doing it just to piss me off, the little shit.
“I’m not that much of a good person,” Fred said after a moment. “I do a lot of the things I should do, but that doesn’t mean they’re the things I want to do. They don’t often cross over.”
“So… Do you not want to help your staff?”
“No, no, I do. It’s my duty, but only because I care enough to make it so.”
“All right, so that’s what you want to do. Did you marry me because you should have? Or because you wanted to?”
He eyed me for a moment. “You already know the answer to that.”
I sighed dramatically, propping my chin up on my hand and resting my elbow on the island. “I knew it. It was something you ‘should do.’ Poor me.”
He leant over, his blue gaze intensely fixed on mine. My heart did a little skip at the ferocity in his eyes, and when I openedmy mouth to ask him what he was doing, he pressed his finger against my lips, quietening me.
His fingertip was warm and firm, and something inside me desperately wanted to mess with him.
I wanted to lick it.
I wanted to nip it.
I wanted to ki—
No, no,no.
18
FRED
Deli’s copper gaze widened as I pressed my finger to her lips. Conflict warred in her beautiful eyes, and a light flush of pink flooded her cheeks.
I wanted to tease her.
A vision of me running my fingertip along the full curve of her lower lip flashed through my brain, and I clenched my toes inside my shoes as if it could dispel the impulse.
As if it could get rid of the memory of how hot and soft her lips were when we kissed at the wedding.
Three weeks.
It’d been three weeks since that day, and that fleeting moment had tortured me more than once.
Intrusive thoughts.
They were nothing but intrusive thoughts.
This wasDelilah, for fuck’s sake. Even if I was attracted to her, even if I wanted to break every promise I’d made to us both and kiss her right here, right now, it didn’t mean she felt the same way.
The light flush on her cheeks could be anything. She blushed easily, after all. The tiniest compliment or slightest hint of embarrassment brought colour to her face, so there was no way I was going to read into this.
Besides, I knew she’d never break her word.
She’d sworn this would be a platonic marriage, as I had.
And right now, I wasn’t crossing any lines. I was touching her the way I always had, with only a few performative extras when other people were around. When it was just the two of us, though, nothing changed.
At least that’s what I was telling myself.
