The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)(72)

Charlotte almost looked over his shoulder to see if he was talking to someone else. For all the press attention she and Jack had received, for everything she felt towards him, she still didn't feel like Mrs. Coburn. She nodded and rushed past him, catching the last bit of his conversation as she headed into the restroom.

"You have to ask yourself, after all," Greg intoned deeply, "doesn't it all seem too good to be true?"

Charlotte's fists tightened at her sides. She didn't like the idea of her husband's opponent poking around in their lives, she didn't like him siccing reporters after them, and most of all, she didn't like that Big Greg's nasty rhetorical was the same question she hadn't been able to get out of her mind since the honeymoon.

And it was a question she still couldn't answer.





Chapter 27

That night, they stayed in Jack's house in Boston, an imposing brownstone on historic Beacon Hill. One side of the house overlooked the gold dome of the State House, and the other featured views that stretched clear across the Charles River to the lights of Cambridge.

On their ride back to the house, Charlotte hadn't brought up anything from before the debate. Even if Jack didn't love her, she knew he felt something for her, and that was better than trying to force him to be something he wasn't. Or at least she had tried to tell herself.

Once they were inside, Jack paced back and forth throughout the house, still fuming about what had happened after the debate. Charlotte stood in the foyer and looked up at the intricate plasterwork of the high ceilings. The house was at least as large as his place in Georgetown, and she looked into the dark rooms as she waited for Jack to calm down. When she followed him into the kitchen, he was standing in front of the refrigerator, shaking his head.

"He had no right to come after us like that," he said. "You have to know that I never meant to make you a target for anything like this."

"Calm down," Charlotte said. "You might not want to hear it right now, but there was some truth to his criticism, even if he doesn't know that and you don't want to admit it."

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked.

"This," Charlotte said, holding up the hand with her wedding ring on it. "I'm talking about this. The contract, the agreement, all of it."

"It's complicated," Jack said.

"There was nothing complicated about the way you almost blew up at him after the debate, nothing complicated about the way you acted the entire time we were on the island together or any time you think I'm not paying attention."

Jack scowled. "You don't understand. I can't explain how I feel."

Charlotte moved closer to him. "Give it a try."

The last time she had seen him so moody was at his family's house, when his brother and sister started to turn on him at dinner. It was what led him to open up to her about his family. She wondered if maybe he was about to open up to her again.

"You have feelings for me, admit it," Charlotte said.

"I do, but there are things I need to figure out. I need to figure out how to do this."

"Stop thinking so much, and follow your heart." Charlotte placed her hand on the center of his chest. She leaned up and kissed his lips, slowly, gently. Warmth flooded through her body.

Jack pulled away. "Charlotte," he said, "there's something I need to tell you now, before the moment passes."

She pulled herself against him. "You don't have to say anything you don't want to say."

"That's just it. I do want to say this, and I need to get it out. There are things you don't know about me and about my family, and I find this strange to say, but there were things I didn't know about myself before I met you."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. Was Jack about to apologize?

"The fact is I have seen so many marriages go sour. I have seen friends and loved ones lose themselves in attempts to make someone else happy, and never, not even for a moment, did I think I needed someone to show me who I am, someone to help me see what I couldn't see in myself."

Charlotte gave him a wry grin. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that I have a few things I'm trying to work through right now, and it means the world to me that you're by my side. I know we've crossed the line from a business arrangement to something… much more."

"I'm glad to hear you say that. Is this why you've been so weird since our honeymoon?"

"I don't want to hurt you," Jack said. "And I don't want to lead you on. I don't know if I can be the person you think I am."

"Then don't hurt me, and don't lead me on," Charlotte said. "Problem solved."

"How can I be sure I won't? You are so far from the problem. You are the only thing that is right with my life, and now I can see that. I don't know how to even start to explain everything. I don't know how to keep everything from going wrong."

"Well, you can start by being gentle," Charlotte teased. She wrapped her arms around his torso and nuzzled against his neck. As he hugged her back, Charlotte let go of her tension and leaned into him. It felt so right to be in his arms.

"Is that the trick?" Jack said. He pulled her close, and Charlotte felt his breath on her neck.