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“Love, everyone knows.”
My cheeksflame. “I’ve changed my mind. Everyone climb back on and kill me this time.”
“Oh, no. You’re not getting out of marrying me that easily.” His soft hand takes mine and he hauls me to my feet.
Gabe sniffs, eyes red and irritated from being so close to Kismet. “Lemme get my antihistamines.”
“C’mere,” Rush says, holding up a blanket. Émile eyes him curiously but I go, too drained to think.
I collapse onto the couch and he burritos the blanket around me, tucking in the sides and making sure it’s nice and tight.
“Want to talk about it?” Émile asks, taking the seat beside me.
“Nope.”
“Want to drink?” Madden suggests.
I shake my head. “So much for no nudity when we have guests.”
“It’s not my fault you keep bringing people around without warning.”
“I’m fine.” Émile smirks. “Not like it’s a bad view.”
Well, he’s right, and it’s reached the point where it’s odd to see Maddenwearingclothes rather than the way he is now.
“I like your almost-husband,” Madden says.
I snort. “After tonight, I can’t see a wedding actually happening.” I turn to Émile. “Right?”
The face he pulls basically confirms it. “Let’s just say, my grandmother isn’t exactly happy about the attention.”
“Not like I did it on purpose,” I mutter, a hot, sickening dread settling over me. A small part of it is disappointment over the money, but it’s easy to ignore since I never imagined that would actually happen. No, I feel sick because as hard as I tried, I let Émile down. And unlike me, he needed the money for unselfish reasons. “If you’re here to break up with me, you can cut your losses and leave. Trust me when I say it will not be a surprise and there’s no way I’ll hold it against you.”
Instead of getting up and leaving, his long fingers wriggle under the blanket and seek out my hand. “You’re still as ridiculous as ever.”
“Hate to tell you this, but I can’t see that ever changing.”
He pumps my hand. “Try again.”
A small smile slips onto my lips. “Fine. That ain’t changing. Ever.”
“Is that a promise?”
My chest feels full, and I try to remind it that Émile’s pretty words are for everyone else’s benefit, to keep up the act, but it’s impossible to believe when he’s looking at me like that. “Yeah. It is.”
“Good, because I’m counting on it.”
Chapter 25
Émile
“Can you make it all go away?” Christian buries his face into my neck, all but nuzzling me. I’d tell him just about anything to keep him in place because the rough scratch of his beard against my throat makes me melty.
“You have to know I’d do exactly that if I could.”
“Yeah …” He sighs and then does exactly what I don’t want him to, and flops over onto his back. The connection between us broken, it’s time to face another day we need to get through alone. “I just can’t figure out whyeveryoneis talking about it.”
“In the nicest way possible, you almost brought down the entire set. That was going to be news whether you were tied to me or not. And unfortunately for you, since you’re my fiancé now, that made everything so much worse.”
