Page 27 of Twisted Redemption
Rolling his eyes, Felix pushes me off of him with a single hand. Sometimes I forget how strong he is—or that there’s practically nothing I could ever do to intimidate the man.
“You know, if you’re not careful, she’s going to slip right through your fingers.”
She already has.
“Just—stop making this worse.”
Raising an eyebrow, he goes back to tapping on his tablet. “Sounds like you’re making it worse all by yourself, buddy. I didn’t get you engaged to the wrong woman.”
“I’m not engaged to the wrong woman,” I spit out. Because my marriage to Charlie will be over as soon as it possibly can be. It’s only an engagement by name, not by feelings.
But Felix can’t know that. No one can.
“Whatever, man. Do you have anything important you need to discuss? Or are you just here to take out your girl problems on me?” He meets my gaze with hard, disinterested eyes.
“Just stay away from her.”
Felix snorts, leaning against his desk. “Sure, Blaze. Sure.”
BLAZE
“YOU PROMISED ME you wouldn’t sleep with her.”
I look up from the lunch that Charlie brought me. A couple times a week, she’ll stop by around noon and bring me some type of takeout.
I may not want to marry Charlie, but we’re still friends. And while the lunches together in my office may just be for appearances, they’re usually enjoyable.
Normally, we’ll sit together and look at memes, or rant about the ridiculous situation that caused Charlie to need to get married in the first place. But over the past couple weeks, her visits have become more and more tense.
And now, looking at the fear written all over her face, I can’t help but feel a little guilty for the part I’ve played in that tension.
“No. You asked me not to, but I never agreed to that. Regardless, I didn’t sleep with her. But if I had, Brooke’s trustworthy.”
Shaking her head, Charlie says, “She has a loyal heart. I’ll give her that, Blaze. But she wears her heart on her sleeve. It’d be written all over her face whenever you two ran into each other in public.”
I shrug. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Haven’t spoken to her in days.”
With a sigh, Charlie sets down her fork. Drums her fingers on the surface of my desk. “I know this is hard. It’s just four more months until the wedding. I don’t care if you sleep with her once we’re married. Just please—please wait, Blaze. My mother can’t have any clue that this is fake, or she’ll try to sabotage everything. And I have to get married by the end of the year.”
She’s staring at me with wide eyes. Normally, her red hair makes her look fierce. Determined. But right now, all I see is a woman desperate to get away from her family and their contracts, drama, and conditional wills.
I care about Charlie—enough that when she came to me two months ago, explaining that she has to get married or she’ll lose access to all the money her recently-deceased grandfather left her, I said to hell with it.
At the time, Brooke was still engaged—although that changed a week later, literal days before Charlie and I announced our own engagement to the world.
It all seemed so harmless back then. I thought I’d never get a chance with Brooke, so I figured it wouldn’t matter.
But now, the thought of Brooke being with someone else is like a punch to the gut. I’ve been an asshole for the past year, and I haven’t let up because I need to keep her at a distance. I may not have promised Charlie that I’ll stay away from her, but I’ve been trying.
“Blaze.” Charlie’s voice cuts through my thoughts.
When I meet her eyes, it’s with a reluctance I wish wasn’t there. Everything would be so much easier if we were actually in love—if Brooke wasn’t in the picture.
“I have to pull this off,” Charlie whispers.
I need to move. So I get up, shoving my hands in my pockets as I start pacing the room.
Charlie’s mom really would try to sabotage this marriage. Because if Charlie doesn’t end up with a husband by the end of the year, her mother gets all the money.