“What the fuck, Cos? You didn’t need to kiss me likethat.” Maybe if I pretended to be irritated, he’d miss the way my hands were still trembling.
His gaze skimmed over my mouth. “You think you’d get one of my most closely guarded secrets in exchange for a peck?” A dry, frustrated laugh left him. “It needed to look real, Nettle.”
It didn’t just look real. It had felt real.
I swallowed. “Why would you hire a fake girlfriend?”
He swiped his palm over his lapel. By now I knew he only did that when he was nervous. “Long story.”
“Then give me the short version.”
“Haven’t I told you enough?”
“No. Fake girlfriend, fake wife… I mean, Jesus. Are you completely incapable of having a real relationship?”
“Not even my brothers know about Rosa. What else do you want from me?”
“I want to knowwhy.”
He clicked his tongue and reached for the door handle. I swatted his hand away. “I’m not letting you go out there until you tell me.”
A frustrated breath. “Pretending to be together meant I could bring Rosa into the right rooms. She’s good at getting information.”
“She spied for you?”
“Yeah.”
It hit me then. “It washer. The woman at the restaurant.”
He gave me a grim nod.
“How long has this been going on for?”
“Three years.”
“Three years? Didn’t it make it harder for you to actually date?”
“I had no desire to date anyone. That was the other perk of our arrangement. It kept the risk contained.”
I frowned. “What risk?”
A second passed. Another. If every word out of him so far had been like pulling teeth, we’d now hit the wisdom tooth.
His jaw clenched, and for the first time since we’d walked in here, his gaze left mine and dropped to his feet.
Whatever it was, he really didn’t want to tell me.
I bit on my bottom lip. Something here didn’t add up. Why wouldn’t he tell his brothers Rosa was a spy for him? That didn’t seem like information so sensitive he had to hide it from them.
But whatever his reason for that was, he obviously didn’t want to share it with me. Should I force him to tell me? I could. I’d never held more power over him than I did here. Now. All it would take was me threatening to cause a scene, and he’d fold. He’d have no choice.
But I didn’t want to cross a line like that. I knew that if the roles were reversed, I’d despise him for it.
I exhaled a pent-up breath. “Fine. Don’t want to tell me? Don’t.”
He looked up. Something raw and vulnerable flashed inside those dark-blue eyes. He shifted on his feet, and the small movement was enough to bring us chest to chest in this tiny space.
My gaze snagged on his bottom lip. The longer we stayed here, the more bad ideas I was starting to get.
