Page 48 of First Comes Revenge

“Stay at my place. I wouldn’t mind the company.”

I pick at my nail, not sure how to answer.

“I know,” he says softly. “We only planned it up to this point. But this was so much fun. What if we run it back for a repeat at the Christmas party in a couple months?”

I turn, looking up at him. “Christmas is a ways off. You really think we should keep up this act for that long?”

“Charli, I already told you. I haven’t been acting. I’m happy to call things whatever you want to call them. I’ll play along with any game it takes to make you comfortable. So, yeah. I think we keep it up till Christmas. And then I’ll figure out some excuse to make it go on longer after that. And I’ll keep it up as long as I need to, because I have no intentions of letting you walk out of my life.”

I chew my lip and sink into him a little more. His arms tighten around me, pulling me closer.

“The Christmas party,” I say carefully. “You know, Christmas is right around when Landmark is planning to publish the book.”

“Really?” he asks.

I nod. “I still get Vaughn’s work emails.”

“Well, we can’t have them celebrating stealing your book in peace, can we?”

“No,” I laugh, but I don’t feel the humor. I feel empty when I think about it getting closer–when I think about them actually putting my book out there without my name on it and not being able to do anything about it.

“I decided I won’t just sit down and take it quietly,” I say. “I thought a lot about it. If your legal team can’t help and they end up publishing it, I mean. I was thinking I could do some kind of post on social media. I have save files on my computer with earlier drafts and everything. Maybe it won’t do anything, but I’ll tell my side of things. I’ll make sure at least some people know they are thieves.”

Jameson sighs. “That’s good,” he says.

Once again, there’s something he’s not saying. I can feel it. I know I shouldn’t trust anyone after what Vaughn just put me through, but I do trust Jameson. I trust him to have my best interest at heart, and I trust him not to hold anything back from me that I’d need to know. So I just close my eyes and let him hold me. I let myself hold on to the flimsy excuse to stay together, as if we both don’t know the feelings between us aren’t pretend or part of the act.

17

JAMESON

I’m not sure what time it is, but it’s well into the dark hours of early morning, thunder rumbles outside my windows, and Charli is in my kitchen.

It would be perfect if not for the elephant hiding in the fucking room. Every passing hour, I’m more tempted to blurt out the truth to her, but doing that would feel like betraying Nolan. I press the thoughts back down into the depths again, hoping to distract myself with how good she looks.

She’s still wearing most of her costume, though she has ditched the jacket and now she’s just in the skimpy little one-piece that looks sinfully good on her. She let her hair down and I can barely look at her without scooping her up and dragging her straight to my bedroom. But I’m trying to be a gentleman. Charli makes me want to be a little less of my usual, irreverent self. I like that about her.

I push a plate with a PB&J toward her. She thanks me and takes a big bite.

“I’ve always been a terrible cook,” I admit. “I used to make millions of these for myself and my sisters growing up. My parents were notorious when it came to forgetting to make sure we were fed. Sometimes they’d go out and weren’t even home when we got off the bus from school.”

“Wow,” she says softly. “I can’t really imagine that. I got really lucky with my parents. I”m sorry you had to take so much on yourself.”

I shake my head. “It’s not a big deal. Some people aren’t cut out to be parents. But kids are resilient, right? I survived. My sisters are fine.”

“Yeah, but… I’m sad for you. I mean, I still have dinner with my family every Sunday. I run almost everything by them. Life is just easier with a support system.”

“So they know about me?” I ask, suddenly interested to hear her response.

She counters with a question of her own. “Do your sisters know aboutme?”

“Sort of. I told them there’s a girl I am obsessed with. I said she’s been through a lot, so it’s hard for her to open up and trust another guy to take care of her. So we’re pretending all the time we’re spending together is just about getting revenge on Vaughn for both our sakes, but that I’m completely head over heels for her.”

I wait, watching Charli’s mouth hang open. “Oh,” she says quietly. “I just told my family you’re older and it wasn’t anything serious.”

I laugh.

Her cheeks go red and she takes a few moments in silence, running her fingertips along the crust of her still untouched sandwich. “Do you mean all those things you told your sisters?”

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