Page 55 of Wicked Praise

Nor did she want to tell him she’d spoken to Knox about it.

While Blake studied her, they dug into the delicious orange and rosemary roasted chicken breasts with baby potatoes and green beans, chatting lightly about their day.

Bella asked how he was feeling and how many times he’d had to use his EpiPen.

“Two. Two, too many,” he responded, wiping his mouth on his napkin. “Not counting the first time when I was a toddler.”

“How scary for your parents,” she said.

“I don’t know my father,” Blake admitted.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Bella said and nearly addedneither do I.

Then he shocked her.

Blake lay his arm out on the table and tilted his head. “I understand you have two.”

What. The. Fuck?

Her mouth fell open, her appetite suddenly vanished. Bella dropped her utensils on the plate and pushed her chair back.

How the hell had Blake found out?

Bella was starting to think Knox was right. The Dufort family was powerful and cunning. Is that why he’d invited her here? Did he know who she really was?

Was he hoping she would influence her birth father and help save his business?

Aside from, as Knox pointed out, that being insider trading, she felt an instant sting.

How dumb had she been?

Blake didn’t want her. He wanted what she could give him. Or at least what he thought she could.

And how is it any different from what you were about to do?

God.

She had to own the fact she had been about to use his failing business to manipulate him into a fake marriage.

That hardly made her Mother Teresa.

She just hadn’t been prepared for it to be turned back on her.

“This was a mistake. I should leave.”

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