Page 53 of The Bad Wedding Date

16

Fraser

Matteo’s men called after us. They’d been walking our way from across the room when I’d given Charlotte my offer, and the second they drew close enough, I did what I had to do.

“This would be a lot easier if you’d just keep still,” I ground out, trying to keep her decency intact.

Despite all her wriggling, a weird sense of pride swelled inside me for her putting up a fight—the bruises I was sure to have on my backside later would no doubt attest to that—but her cries for me to put her down were ignored, and I strode inside the waiting elevator and hit the button. I spun around to see the doors closing on one of Matteo’s men.

Charlotte went limp with a grunt of defeat. “If I throw up on you, you’ve only yourself to blame.”

“If I put you down, do you promise not to scream, hit, maim, or stab me in the eye?”

“Fine, but can you be quick? The blood is rushing to my head.”

I placed her down in front of me, holding her still until I was certain she’d regained her balance. She kept her eyes on her feet until I took a step back, and Charlotte’s attention shot up to me, her face pinched together in anger.

“You absolute bastard!” she hissed before flicking her finger against my forehead with the force of a thousand tiny yet very powerful men.

“Ouch. Fuck!” She did it again, her reflexes sharp, and I had to grab her wrist. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me!”

“I said I wouldn’t scream, hit, maim, or stab you. I never said I wouldn’t hurt you, and the moment we step out of this elevator, you’d better run for your sorry little life before I can hurt you some more.”

God, she was cute. Cute, yet so attractive when angry. I had so much respect for her fight, despite it seeming like the world did nothing but battle against her.

“For someone apparently grateful for my company not so long ago, you’re being a little snippy.” I raised a brow.

“Are you going to explain yourself?”

“About what?”

She pointed to the elevator doors. “About the fact that you just treated me like a four-year-old toddler about to get her behind spanked.”

I couldn’t help my small smirk, which only seemed to turn her cheeks even redder before she growled out in frustration and took a step towards me. I quickly took one back, putting my hands in the air in surrender.

“Okay, okay, okay. Calm down.”

“Donottell me to calm down when half of London’s elite just saw my arse cheeks.”

“I protected your decency.”

“Just my pride that’s wounded, then. How chivalrous of you.”

Before I could explain anything, the elevator pinged, and the doors slowly began to open. Charlotte marched past me, her eyes not leaving mine until they had to. Once her feet were on the carpet, she slipped out of her heels and picked them up, somehow looking even more edible on flat feet. She stormed forward, her arms swinging until she came to a stop outside the suite’s door and waited for me to open it.

I avoided making any more eye contact until we were inside. She was trying her best to be domineering, and I didn’t want to make her feel small by trying to demean it with a misplaced smile.

She came to a stop in front of the sofa that looked out over the River Thames, and I saw her draw in a huge breath in the reflection of the floor to ceiling window before she blew it all out and turned to me.

“You haven’t been honest with me, have you?”

I loosened the tie around my neck, letting the two lengths of it fall idly down my chest. “What do you think I’ve lied about?”

“Everything.”

“Too broad. Narrow it down.”

“Mayor Williamson looked at you funnily throughout the speeches this afternoon. It was like he hated you the moment he realised you were sitting there. Then he was angry with you when I came back from the bathrooms. I saw his face. I saw his gestures.”

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