Page 22 of The Bad Wedding Date

It was funny how one man’s wink could turn you sick while another man’s could make you feel reborn.

5

Fraser

My fury rose to the surface whenever I saw a woman like Charlotte being treated as though they were second-class to the ones dishing out the abuse. I’d seen too fucking much of that in my lifetime, and it wasn’t in my nature to sit back and let it play out in front of me without consequences. Right now, I wanted to march across the room, wrap my big hand around his scrawny neck and smash Tristan’s face down into the table with all the power I had within me.

And I had power. A lot of it. More than any of these fuckers knew.

These people were Charlotte’s enemies dressed as allies, and that was the most dangerous breed of human there happened to be.

I was no better than them, either, and Charlotte would soon find that out, but right now, I didn’t care about my own conscience. I only cared about making everyone pay for their behaviour.

Shit, I was losing clarity and losing it too fast.

This entire experience was fucking with my mind. I’d been wrong to step in when Dean had been the man that I’d earmarked for the job… but when I saw her standing there at the bus stop looking lost and vulnerable…

Fuck,I couldn’t help it. She’d looked impossibly more beautiful beneath the sun that shone in London than she’d been in her pictures.

The speeches carried on around us, yet Charlotte didn’t look away from me. Her eyes held mine. I hoped she could read what I was trying to convey. That I had her. I’d save her from all her enemies until she realised that I was the one who’d betrayed her the most.

I pulled back slowly, somehow sliding my chair closer to hers and turning my back on those fuck awful families. Mayor Williamson would only shit himself even more, seeing I was ignoring him. He knew who I was and that I hadn’t been invited. He should have known better than that. I never had to be invited to get where I needed to go.

And despite being here to survey the crowds and find a way to get closer to the man I really wanted to destroy, I found myself zoned in on this woman before me. I wanted to save her—take all her troubles away, if only for a day. She’d placed herself in exile to escape this world, and now every one of them here used her defiance as a tool to point and laugh at her. She’d become the court jester without even trying, and the constant sadness that danced around in her eyes was because of them. All of them.

Charlotte stared at our joined hands in wonder.

I raised them up between us, resting my elbow on the table. “You’re the only person I’ve ever seen who is capable of turning pale and flushed at the same time.”

“It’s quite a skill,” she whispered, still not really with me. Her focus was on my fingers entwined with hers, and I watched as she uncurled hers slowly before tightening her grip again. “Thank you for that subtle gesture. You’re certainly earning what you’re owed.”

“Don’t mention it.”Seriously, Charlotte, stop fucking mentioning the money.

“I feel like I should. To be polite.”

“Because we’re strangers?”

“Is it weird that you don’t feel like one to me?”

“Sometimes people just… connect,” I offered.

“Maybe.” Her lips remained parted, and never had the urge to slip my tongue through someone else’s mouth burned within me like it did there and then.

So sweet.

So innocent.

So unaware of this fucked-up situation she’d been thrown in the middle of.

We stared into each other’s eyes in a way I’d only ever done with women I’d fucked and run from before, but there was no desire to run now. No desire to get the hell out of dodge or try and correct the mess I’d already made today.

Secrets were sure to spill soon. Of that, I had no doubt.

I may as well enjoy her company while I still had the chance before this woman of quiet strength found out the truth and chased me away from her touch with a forceful hand.

Sometimes, in the middle of chaos lies beauty.

Charlotte happened to be mine.

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