“This is two people taking what they need from each other.” I slide my hands up to hold her face. “Don’t cry, I hate it when you do that.”
“Why?” Her lips raise, and she breaks into that sweet, little laugh.
“I don’t know, it makes me feel useless and…” I stop myself before giving too much away. “Listen, I can see how passionate you are about the girls, and I promise that anyone working at The Residence will be taken care of from now on.”
“I believe you,” she whispers with pretty eyes full of trust.
“You know, you did pretty well with that baby today,” I tell her, releasing her so I can restart the engine and get us home.
“I held her for two minutes while her mum went to pee.” She plays it down. “Don’t worry… I’m not going to go all crazy on you and change my mind. I understand that the child I’m going to carry will never be mine.” Her face turns serious.
“That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be welcome to be part of its life. I’m sure we could figure something out,” I suggest, starting to wonder what type of mother she would make.
“That wouldn’t be fair. Once this is all over, I’m leaving England, and I’m never coming back.” She smiles like all her dreams are within touching distance, and I mimic it while her words crush me from the outside in.
“I guess we’ll have to figure out what you’ll tell everyone when the time comes for me to leave. A woman, up andleaving her husband and a newborn behind, is scandalous, but a duchess?” She laughs, making a very valid point. Up to now, I’ve been so focused on convincing her to go through with the plan that I haven’t given her departure story much thought.
“I think there's only one way,” she continues, with a dangerous smile on her face. “I’m going to have to die.”
My foot slams to the floor, making the tires screech as I turn my head and stare at her in shock.
“What?”
“You promised I’d be getting a brand new identity, and I need to make a clean break. It’s the perfect plan. I’m sure, between us, we could orchestrate something as tragic as it is convincing. You’d be a widow, Jack… there's no scandal in that, just sadness.”
“But, Gracie, if you die…you can never come back.” I hear the sadness in my own voice.
“Have you not been listening to a single thing I’ve said? I have no intention ofevercoming back. I’m getting as far away from my old life as I can get.” She laughs to herself as she rests her head back against the seat.
“I get my freedom, and you get your heir. You also get the perfect excuse as to why you never remarry. I mean, who could possibly replace me?” The sarcastic laugh she makes has me wanting to punch my steering wheel, but I manage to compose myself.
“Sounds perfect.” I smile at her convincingly as I continue to drive home.
“You're upset with me.” Gracie steps warily into my gym room, where I’ve spent the past few hours trying to avoid her.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” I pick up a heavier dumbbell and start lifting.
“I can just tell; you’ve been trying to avoid me since we got home from Alex and Olivia’s.” She steps in front of me so I’m forced to give her my full attention.
“I’m sorry if I came across as harsh with what I said about your brother, but?—”
“You can say what you like about him, it’s true,” I snap back, reminding myself to keep calm as I scrub my hand over my face.
“Okay, then maybe you thought I was comparing you to your father, and I promise I wasn–”
“It’s not that,” I talk over her again, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. “Just drop it, okay?” I go to pick up my towel, but she quickly snatches it out of my hand.
“No, I want to know why you're so mad at me.” She gets a little more serious.
“Gracie, I’m not mad. I just want to be alone, right now.” There's no way that I’m going to admit that the thought of her leaving this house, let alone the fucking country, is sending me crazy. I barely know this girl, how is it possible for me even to consider that I’d miss her?
“Jack…If you don’t tell me what I’ve done, how am I supposed to fix it?” She throws my own words back at me with a clever smirk on her face.
“You’ve done nothing,” I growl, snatching my towel back before heading out of the room.
“Come back here and fuck me, then!” My feet freeze when she calls out after me, and when I slowly spin around and see the devilish look in her eyes, all my blood rushes straight to my cock.
“You sure you want that?” I warn, tossing my towel on the floor and marching back towards her, not stopping when we’re toe to toe and forcing her to step back.
