Page 20 of The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancée
It could've been just a friendly guy-hug.
But even as I'm thinking it, I know it isn't true. Whoever that man is, it's clear they know each other. Intimately.
Should I be shocked? After all, people do choose partners from both sexes.
But you haven't. You've never felt the need to sleep with another woman.
Not to say I've not been attracted to women, but I've never wanted to take it all the way.
But this is Jace. Sex-appeal-oozing Jace. A Jace who had undressed me with his eyes within seconds of meeting me the first time.
No. It doesn't feel right and yet, there's no mistaking the emotion on the other man's face. The one who'd clung to Jace as if his life depended on it.
My mind whirling at the possibilities and what this meant, I turn as if in a dream and walk to the sofa by the fire.
8
Jace
* * *
Asher's eyes burn into Jace. Familiar eyes that look through him, as if they want to swallow him whole.
It was inevitable he run into Asher here at Natalie's wedding. After all, Asher is still a part of London social circles. Regardless of the role Asher played in Jace's mother's death, Darren would still have invited Asher, if only to keep up appearances.
The emptiness of the life he'd opted out of comes crashing back. Silicon Valley was shallow too, but at least there, people were open in their drive to succeed and make money.
Yet, Jace had come, for he couldn't refuse his cousin. Natalie's the one person who knows why Jace left London after his mother died.
Seeing Asher had churned up those memories, never far from the surface. And landing in Heathrow and being surrounded by the familiar sights and smells had brought it all rushing back.
Perhaps his mother was right. There is no escaping one's past or one's destiny. She'd believed that.
But he'd never been that fatalistic, not till his life had turned upside down in the space of one night.
And the person responsible for all of it now is here, in front of him.
He'd wanted to push Asher away, to turn away and pretend he didn't know him. But seeing Asher in pain had made Jace pause. Asher is still grieving. For Jace's mother's death, for the friendship Asher and Jace once shared.
For the distance Jace had put between them.
Asher was in agony, his features twisted as if trying to hide his feelings, and failing.
Jace couldn't leave then. And when he'd finally looked into Asher's eyes, he was transfixed, transported back to the days after his mum's funeral, back to when he'd wandered his home in a daze, refusing to eat or drink till Natalie had come by. She'd told him to pull himself together. And even that hadn't helped.
As a child, Jace had often returned from school to find his mom sulking, refusing to see anyone. Not even her own son.
If she'd thrown a tantrum, told him off, or slapped him, he could have handled that.
But it was that indifference, that stoic sense of her putting up with him, that had pushed him over the edge. Even as a child, Jace knew, he hadn't mattered.
She'd done her job, hadn't she? Borne her husband an heir. And as far as she was concerned, that had been enough.
Perhaps everything Jace did in those growing years was to get a reaction from her.
Indulging Asher, leading him on when he had no intention of reciprocating Asher's affections, was a way of getting his parents' attention. But Asher's adoration had made Jace feel good.
With Asher, Jace could be as indifferent as he liked, as rude as he wanted. Jace could be himself and Asher would not leave. He'd known that deep inside.
