Chapter 0245

But I clench my jaw and look away from Natalia clinging to Kent’s arm, knowing that we’ve made a decision about how to play

this. And that I’ve got to stick to it.

“Let her,” Kent said to me a few weeks ago as we laid tangled in the sheets of his dark room. “Let her think that I’m considering

her as my wife, Fay.”

“Are you?” I asked, hoping that my voice didn’t betray my terror at the idea. That I could lose him to that horrible woman —

“No,” he had insisted, taking my chin in his broad hand and making me look at him. “No, Fay, I don’t want her. But...until this

settles, until we come up with a solution that makes the business secure without the Bianci’s insisting on a second marriage pact

to solidify it? Let her burn herself out spinning her wheels. Let her think she’s getting somewhere with me. Let her try.”

I tore my chin from his hand, then, turning my face away and scowling down at the bed. “But what if she succeeds?” I grumbled,

a little alarmed at the level of jealousy I’m feeling at the idea of it. “What if she wiles you away with her stupid Italian charms —*

Kent just laughed and slid his hand from my shoulder all the way down my back to land on my ass, which he gripped tight in his

palm. “How could she do that,” he murmured, dipping his head to lick a long stroke between my breasts, “when I’ve got you here,

hogging my bed —*

“What!” I shrieked, slapping at his back and laughing. “I do not hog the bed —*

“You do,” he murmured. “You spread out like a starfish — it’s horrible —*

But then I wiggled down on the mattress so that his body was leveled above me, his weight pressing me down, just the way I like

it. I made him look at me, right in the eyes, not letting him get away with distracting me. “Promise me, Kent,” I whispered, trying

desperately not to wear my entire heart on my sleeve. “Promise me you won't leave me for her.”

And he did.

Kent whispered his promise against my lips, and then a dozen more times as he worked his way down my body, pressing a kiss

against my skin after each one.

He promised until I forgot what he was saying entirely, so swept away in him that I forgot everything I knew, forgot even myself

as I tilted my head back and moaned his name.

And so, as Daniel hands me my second cup of coffee of the day and we make our way over to our little breakfast table, the most

I can do is try to ignore the way Natalia presses herself to Kent’s side, as if she’s already his bride. Ignore the way he looks down

at her consideringly, as if he’s really thinking about what it would be like to have her there all the time.

“Careful Fay,” Daniel whispers to me in a little sing-song voice as we sit down. “Your jealousy is showing.”

And I scowl a little as I sink into my seat, taking a deep breath and working to wipe my face clean. “Am I that obvious?”

“To me,” he says, giving me a little shrug. “Maybe to Jerome,” he says, glancing over at his boyfriend who stands in the kitchen

watching us carefully. “But you’ve got to be careful here. Because in this world, you never know what's going to happen next.”

“I know,” I sigh, and as it turns out the next surprise is on its way as Natalia saunters over to us, the two plates of our breakfast in

her hands.