Page 168 of Dirty Husband
So what if Shep has a contract? If he's doing this just to beat Lucien at some sick game?
I knew the deal when I signed up. Marriage, selling true love, a year on his terms.
The papers are signed. My fate is sealed. Another eleven and a half months as his.
Only it doesn't feel like a curse anymore.
I want to be Shep's. His wife, his love, his everything.
I manage a smile as I chat with my family. Ian. The host at the restaurant.
Even as I help Dad into Lock's car.
I keep a smile until I'm alone, on the way back to Shep's apartment, walking in the moonlight.
Then I read every tiny detail again.
Is this really all I am? A pawn in Shep's game?
Is he really that good at pretending?
I don't want to believe it.
I don't want to believe a thing Lucien says.
But there is something Shep isn't telling me. And I need to know.
Whatever it is, I need the truth.
Chapter Forty-Five
Shepard
At home, Jasmine is sitting at the dining table. She's wearing that same white dress. The same silver heels.
But everything else is different.
It's in her eyes. That look Lizzy had.
That's impossible. Lucien would never admit this. And Nick couldn't have told her.
There's no way she could know.
She can't know.
Anything is better than that.
"What are you doing?" I slam the door closed. It doesn't hit hard enough. The world is too soft, too unable to take the beating it deserves.
Her eyes stay glued to me as she stands. She unfolds the paper. Leaves it on the table. "Your stepfather talked to me."
"Did he?"
"He wanted to tell me about this game you play… how you'd made a bet that you could win me over."
Of course, he did.
There he goes, inventing rules I don't know. I'm too close to winning, so he brings up the game.
