“Good. Thank you, Danielle. I mean it.”
I meet his eyes, ignoring the way my stomach lurches. “I know you do. Don’t fuck this up; we both need this.”
I turn on my heel, heading for the restrooms.
What have I done?
CHAPTER 11
BLAKE
Issac's stare bores into me from across the table, and I hold my hands up.
"Come on, man. You barely know her."
Issac's jaw tightens, but I continue.
"You told me yourself, it was a business transaction, right? So does Danielle not make the most sense?"
Issac remains silent.
He gets like this when he's pissed, but I'm hardly ecstatic. "I've got to marry my ex and be forever in her debt, just to fulfill my obligations," I spit, my grip tightening around the beer bottle.
"Did you love her?" Issac gazes at me, and I feel bad. My best friend of many years, and I've never once spoken about Danielle.
Fiddling with the beer label, I heave a sigh. "Yes."
Issac sucks in a breath, and his body relaxes. "Good," he exhales, uncrossing his arms. "Then maybe you can admit you still have feelings for her before this happens."
Arching a brow at him, I glance around with a smirk. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I'msaying," Issac sips from his beer bottle slowly, agitating me with the delayed response. "If you feel anything for her, don't put her through this. It will ruin her life because ofwhoyou are to her. She's not one of these gold-digging tarts, Blake. She works hard; she's got ambition." He presses his lips together, shaking his head. "You don't deserve her, Blake. I doubt you ever did."
"Fuck you. You don't know her either, Issac."
We glare at each other until the bartender drops off two more beers, eyeing the two of us warily. "Anything else?"
I shake my head, no.
"Look at me. If you fuck her over, you'll have to carry that guilt forever. Some sad fucker will spend the rest of his life picking up the pieces of your destruction."
Cracking my knuckles, an old habit that’s never died, I hold his gaze in mine. "I knowyouthinkyou’llbe that sad fucker. But you refused to see her throughout this, so what does that make you? Why would you spend the rest of your life picking up the pieces when you refused to be there throughout a business arrangement?"
Issac's nostrils flare, and he closes his eyes. "She has to pretend to be in love with you. I can't be with her while she's hanging off your dick," Issac snaps. "We both know that's going to happen, Blake."
He doesn't know Danielle at all if he thinks she's going to hop into my bed at any point over the next five years. "She won't, Issac. She hates me."
Issac smiles like that pleases him. "What did you do?"
"Does it matter?"
Issac waits, and I know he wants the details.
Details that sound so simple, so innocent, but they are anything but.
Not to Danielle.
"Did you screw around?"
