The words hit harder than they should have, landing deep inside my soul in a place that was so raw after the last few years. I cleared my throat. “You don’t have to pretend this is anything other than what it is, Alex.”
“It’s business,” he agreed. “That doesn’t mean I can’t treat you with respect. Like a partner should be treated.”
Partner. That word rang through me like a struck bell.
“What about the gala?”
He smiled. “We show up. We look very married. People gossip. Rumors spread. Our shared empire becomes a reality in the eyes of everyone who matters.”
“Shared empire,” I repeated, giving him a flat stare. “You don’t think you should’ve eased me into that kind of phrasing?”
“No.” He took another sip of champagne. “You’re smart. You can handle it. Besides, I know you already knew what you were getting into.”
I leaned back in my chair, studying him while I chewed a piece of fish I’d stuck into my mouth just to buy myself some time. This infuriating, calculating, too calm man was not talking at me or laying out some master plan where I was expected to be a silent accessory.
He was including me like I had a voice and he expected me to use it. It was disorienting, to say the least.
“I thought you’d be more of an asshole,” I said before I could stop myself.
Alex just about choked on his champagne. “Excuse me?”
Heat crawled up my neck at the stunned look in his eyes. “I didn’t mean it like that. Okay. Well, I did. You just have this look about you?—”
He set down his glass, coughing once. “Jane.”
“Yes?” I squeaked.
His lips twitched into a smile. “Thank you for the glowing review.”
“Oh my God.”
He laughed and something inside me loosened at the sound. When the moment had passed, he smiled at me again. “I’m not a saint and I’m definitely not doing all of this out of altruism, but I’m not here to make your life harder either.”
“Fine,” I said slowly. “I’ll go to your Mandatory Marriage Event, but if anyone at this gala asks how we met, you’re doing the lying.”
He smirked. “I assumed I’d be doing most of the lying in this marriage.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Alex.”
“Well, not you, my dear wife.”
After another beat of trying to look serious, I lost the fight and laughed again, because Alex Westwood really wasn’t the villain I’d prepared myself for. He was treating me as the partner I’d always wanted to be in a relationship. Whether it be themarriage I never thought I’d be in or even just as a girlfriend in high school, I’d always envisioned being wanted in a relationship for more than just my face, my vagina, and my hand around someone’s arm.
He was giving me exactly that, as if it came more naturally to him than breathing. It was dangerous because it genuinely made me feel that if I didn’t watch myself, this very well might end up becoming real.
CHAPTER 14
ALEX
My condo at the St. Regis was too damn quiet. I didn’t notice it so much until Nate walked in, stamping snow off his boots and scanning the space like he expected to find someone else here. Suddenly, the lack of another person seemed jarring, the silence absolute.
Because there wasn’t anyone else. It was just me. As always.
A fact he seemed to process as he slid out of his coat and brushed past me after I stepped aside to let him in. Wordlessly, he crossed the room to the kitchen, his head turning from one side to the other like he wasstilltrying to work out if I was really alone.
It had been three days since the wedding. Three days since I’d dropped Jane off in front of her home and watched her walk up the steps without looking back, and I hadn’t spoken to my wife since.
That alone should have told me something was wrong. The fact that she wasn’t here sure seemed to say that to Nate, but he didn’t mention it, setting a folder down on the kitchen island instead.
