As always, I thought about how gorgeous he was.
The moment I giggled, he growled. “What did you find?”
“What does the W stand for? Wallace? Whitmore. I can see you as a Wally.”
“Ha.”
“Then what, or that’s what I’ll start calling you.”
Another growl was followed by a deep sigh. “Worthington and don’t you dare ever mention the name to me.”
“Oh, a story there.”
“No story. Just a family member I can’t stand.” He issued the words with a combination of anger and sadness. At least he didn’t try to take the phone away from me.
As I scrolled more, I couldn’t help but think he had a softer side that he didn’t allow anyone to see. The pictures weren’t staged as I’d seen on the company website and Facebook page. There were selfies and photographs of the ocean, a few pictures of some exotic location and several on his boat. Alone. Never with a woman. How odd.
How sad.
I reminded myself he was still the master of deception and that the photographs only told a portion of the story. I continued flipping until I found something interesting. A much older picture with a very young woman. And the caption? Caroline’s adventure.
“Enough,” he finally said as if catching a glimpse of the picture.
“You’re a man of mystery.”
“Not but so much. Give it a rest.”
Whatever he didn’t want me to find was troublesome to him, enough that both hands were clenched around the steering wheel. I shifted away from his profile, casually scrolling at the news. “You are a complicated man.”
“Why do you say that?”
There was a slight tension between us, the moment charged by current yet entirely different than before. I couldn’t put an adequate description on why. “Because you put on such a front of being cold and cruel, yet I have a feeling deep inside, you’re a big marshmallow.”
My words earned me a guttural laugh. “I doubt you’ll ever say that again.”
“Does that mean you have something in mind, something devious and depraved?” The question slipped from my lips before I could control myself. He brought out the wicked side of me.
“Maybe. You’ll have to wait and see and only if…”
“Let me guess. I’m a good girl.”
“And follow every rule.”
“We shall see.” I was ready to close the application when a new story caught my attention. I had to blink several times before I realized what I was seeing. “What the…”
I clicked on the story, pulling it up in detail.
“What’s wrong?”
Ice ran through my veins. The story had been broken earlier in the day. Which meant…
“You lied to me. You fucking lied to me.” My hand was shaking.
“What are you talking about?”
“You announced our engagement to the world. The one thing I asked you was to give me a couple days to talk to my father. I’msorry if I was taking too long, but I had a few things to deal with because of my brother!”
“What?” He grabbed the phone from my hand, giving quick glances to the short post while I continued shaking like a leaf. “I had nothing to do with the announcement. Fuck. Fuck!” He slammed his hand against the steering wheel.
