The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)(68)

They stayed like that for an hour, kissing slowly, their bodies still linked until finally Jack rolled over on his side and started to run his fingers through her hair.

Charlotte felt warm and content, the emotional equivalent of how she had felt when she had jumped into the warm water of the pool on their first afternoon on the island. Jack stroked Charlotte's hair and kissed her temple again.

Charlotte closed her eyes and let out a quiet moan.

"I love you," she whispered.

She let out a little sigh before the words registered in her mind. Her pupils dilated, her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt like her throat had constricted itself. She hadn't meant to say that, at least not out loud.

Jack tensed and looked at her. The warmth and tenderness was gone from his eyes. She had caught him off guard.

Please, please, just say something, she thought. Whatever happened next, there was no going back to the way things had been.





Chapter 26

Jack stepped into the gymnasium and looked out over the sea of empty folding chairs. In a few hours, he'd participate in a town hall forum with two of his opponents. He'd been in a bad mood all day. Hell, he'd been in a bad mood since coming back from his honeymoon.

He should have been ecstatic. He was up fifteen points in the polls, the strongest position he had held since declaring his candidacy. Charlotte had made all the difference. With her by his side, people stopped looking at him as young Jack Coburn, bachelor son of fortune, and started looking at him as a responsible adult. He owed her so much. He knew it, which is why he was miserable.

The time they had spent together on the island had been incredible, wonderful beyond words. It had given Jack a chance to forget about the campaign and his family and all of his responsibilities. He was allowed to just spend time with Charlotte, and he had treasured every second of it.


She loved him.

She had looked him in the eye and told him that she loved him, and he hadn't said anything in response. He had frozen, panicked. He knew deep down that what he felt for Charlotte went far beyond appreciation, far beyond attraction and flirtation and everything else he had told himself. She helped him be a better version of himself, and he wanted to tell her that, but he didn't know how. It was like that trip had puffed him up, filled him with hope that maybe things would work out, and then with those three little words, Charlotte had punched a hole right through him.

How could I have been so naive? he asked himself.

How could he have thought that he could fake a relationship with her and that nothing would happen? His first instincts had been right. He tried to tell her that she didn't want to marry him. He tried to tell her that she wasn't cut out for it, that he wasn't the kind of man she thought he was, but he went through with it anyway. This was his fault, and he had to make it right.

Jack pulled a set of notecards out of his pocket and half-heartedly flipped through them. His staff had prepared talking points for the forum, a list of probable questions and responses. Each time he tried to focus on a card, his eyes glazed over, and his thoughts drifted back to Charlotte. He had been such an ass to her, and he didn't know how to make it up.

The past few weeks had been terrible. Charlotte had fallen in love with her idea of him, not the truth, and now he didn't know how to tell her. He wanted to be that man, the one she saw when she looked in his eyes, but he couldn't change himself any more than he could go back and change the past. It wasn't going to happen.

He had even found excuses to spend time apart — grueling campaign trips, twenty hour days — but she hadn't let him get away with any of it. She had stayed by his side, playing the part of the doting wife. He wished it could be more than just playing. He wished that he could love her back and give her everything she needed, but he knew he couldn't. There was too much he couldn't tell her, too much that he couldn't explain away. He had promised himself he would tell her everything as soon as they got back, but her confession that last night on the island had completely thrown him off. If she knew the real him, she would run as quickly as possible, and he would be alone again.

He couldn't bear the thought. Having her with him in any capacity was better than being away from her. Even understandably confused by his distance, she still lit up the room around him, gave him the will to go on. It was the hardest thing he had ever done, getting up every day and pretending he didn't have feelings for her, finding every possible excuse to deny how he felt. He didn't know how much longer he could take it.

As often as possible, he tried to send Charlotte off with his campaign manager, Lauren. The two of them had become quick friends. Lauren seemed to like Charlotte's sense of humor and especially appreciated her effect on Jack's image. Jack thought that Charlotte liked having someone to talk to whenever he went off to brood. Since Charlotte's arrival on the campaign, Lauren had been protective of her. Now he wondered if Charlotte needed protection from his ever-worsening mood.

As the minutes ticked down to the forum, Jack's frustration welled up inside him backstage. He looked at Charlotte as she turned the page in her book, trying to pretend that everything was ok. She had done everything in her power to support him, including going out of her way to apologize for saying she loved him. He wanted to tell her that he was the one who should apologize.

Instead, he stupidly said nothing.

His silence tore at him, and he didn't know how much longer he could hold back from saying something he'd regret. At least when they were putting on a show for other people, he could pretend to himself for a while that everything was ok. Charlotte tried her best to keep him upbeat, but he could see through her fake happiness. He recognized the signs of weariness in her face, the way she tensed up when he grabbed her hand, the way she forced each laugh just a little too hard. He wondered if anyone else could notice what was so obvious to him. She had opened her heart to him, and he had denied her with his silence. She had every right to hate him. He deserved it.