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She slid her gaze away from his. “Maybe because he guessed? I mean, come on, it’s fairly obvious you’ve gone from sexually frustrated to extremely easygoing.”
Well, holy shit. This was getting more unreal by the second. “Did you have sex with me in the hopes it would nullify the marriage?”
“What? No, of course not. It wasn’t like that. Not for me.” She shook her head, gave a little irritated sound. “I’m the one who asked for that clause. I wanted it there to protect myself from you.”
“What did you say?” He shook his suddenly cloudy head. “You wanted the clause? You’re the one who put it in the agreement?”
“Yes! I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle being intimate with you again, Jared. That first night we were together…I’d never felt like that before. So when this all went down I freaked out and wanted some protection for myself.”
“By asking for that clause.”
She nodded, looking miserable. “I thought it was a good idea at the time.”
“Sure it was. Still a great idea, now that you have the means to finish this marriage and collect all the money anyway,” he said bitterly.
Her cheeks colored and she grabbed her jeans, pulling them on, nearly falling over when she did so. “I can’t stay here and try and explain myself. You already think the worst of me.”
“Where are you going?” Panic swept through him despite his anger. “You can’t just leave.”
“I’m going to Willow’s.” She studied him, the tears shining in her eyes unmistakable. “This is bad, Jared. I don’t know how we’re going to come out of it unscathed.”
His chest cramping, he watched as she finished dressing, then pulled her hair into a sloppy ponytail. Damn it, he didn’t want her to go. He wanted to drag her back into that big bed and make love to her again. So they could shut themselves completely off from the real world and focus on what really mattered.
Each other.
Chapter Seventeen
“It’s been a little over a week,” Willow said gently, concern written all over her pretty face, glowing in the depths of her blue eyes. Reaching out, she shook Sheridan’s shoulder, her lips tightening the slightest bit. “You can’t hide forever.”
They were sitting on Willow’s couch in her living room, the both of them indulging in wine with a pizza on its way. Just another hot Friday night.
“I’m not hiding.” Sheridan jerked away from Willow’s grip, heard her friend’s frustrated sigh. “I’ve been going to the studio every day.”
“Work and here, that’s it. You won’t talk to anyone else. Your mom has called me every single day in the hopes that I’ve finally been able to convince you to call her.” Willow paused, exhaling loudly. “You really need to call her.”
“I can’t. She’ll want every single detail and I’m not ready to discuss it yet.” She didn’t think she would ever be ready. The humiliation over what happened left a huge, gaping hole right in the center of her chest. The media had gone crazy over the story, making Jared look like a loser who couldn’t keep a woman unless he bought her, and making Sheridan look like a money-grubbing gold digger.
She wished she’d never met Jared Quinn.
Liar.
“You’re never going to feel ready to discuss it,” Willow said. “I understand that. But you need to face reality. You can’t hide from this forever.”
“I already told you, I’m not hiding from anything.”
“You’re hiding from your mom. And you’re hiding from Jared,” Willow said quietly.
Sheridan hated hearing his name. It made her entire body ache just to hear it, let alone think about him. He certainly wasn’t suffering. Nope, he was playing just fine, leading the Hawks to a massive victory after a devastating loss against the Raiders. Her husband—the Mighty Jared Quinn—was back on top of the world.
Sheridan grimaced. He wasn’t her husband, not in the truest sense of the word. She needed to stop thinking like that.
“I should talk to your dad and see what I need to do next,” Sheridan said, leaning back against the couch. It was a Friday evening, they were both tired, and Sheridan knew Willow would normally be going out and having fun.
But tonight, she was there for her friend, which meant the world to Sheridan.
Willow made a face. “I still can’t believe you two kept this from me.”
“I’m sorry.” She’d said it for what felt like a million times already. “You know I couldn’t tell you anything. And it was killing me, keeping this secret from you.”
