Chapter 43
Emily
By morning, the sting bad dulled.
It had taken hours to coax myself out of the spiral. I wasn’t the jealous type. I wasn’t the girl who stormed away from whispered rinnors and veiled states,
Sering Chloe kiss Logan, seeing him stand there, Impassive and furiatingly unreadable clipped at something inside me.
Now, seated at my desk, I tried to focus on the spreadsheet Iris had handed me that morning I stared at a spreadsheet that Iris had personally handed me. The numbers danced across the screen, but my thoughts drifted elsewhere.
What if I had been the one to kiss Logan’s check?
The moment Chloe kissed him, he’d look so calm and cold. It wasn’t much different from his usual demeanor. I tried to imagine what face he’d malor if it were me.
Would he have kissed me back?
I blinked, trying to pull myself to reality. I don’t know why my thoughts always go back to him. Lately, it was all I thought about. It was becoming dangerous.
I needed to be present in the moment. One slip up could change everything. I needed to focus on work, on the lawsuit, and on keeping my name clear.
Iris was watching me. Every time I looked up from my screen, there Iris was. She leaned casually against a doorway or sipped from her mug near the filing cabinet. Her eyes always fixed a second too long before looking away.
The spreadsheet was wrong. Purposefully so. I caught it easily. The numbers didn’t line up, and vendors were listed who hadn’t worked with the pack in over a year. It was sloppy.
I corrected it, but kept track of all my changes, and I even saved the original document separately. Then, I filed the document away, mentally bookmarking the anomaly.
Let her play. Let her think she’s clever. I’ll wait until she gives me something I can actually use.
For now, I needed to stay quiet and observant. I had enough enemies circling, it would be foolish to add one more unless I had the advantage.
I kept my head down and did everything how I was supposed to. The pack needed me to be stronger.
Logan needed me to be stronger.
was quieter than usual that afternoon, the kind of tense hush that followed in the wake of gossip too fresh to be
The pack house was
confirmed.
Emily heard snippets in the halls.
don’t think it’s real, do you?”
a political move. Has to be.”
“…they’re too different. No chemistry.”
I didn’t need to ask what they were talking about. Our single date had not been enough to stop the rumors that were maliciously being spread about us.
I’d spent all this time trying to build my credibility. Even the charitable initiative I’d started was being dismissed as a calculated move. The pack house was thick with tension, the quiet hallways carrying louder judgments than shouting ever could.
All anyone could talk about was whether Logan and I were “taking t.”
Chapter 41
+25 BONUS
“Of courte he’d keep lier close,” she overheard Iris say to someone in the hallway. “Better to manage the scandal from inside the bedroom, right?”
Jdidn’t flinch Not outwardly. Inside, something splintered.
By the time Logan called me into his office that evening, my nerved were frayed raw.
“You’ve heard it, haven’t you?” I said, the second the door closed behind her.
Logan looked up from behind his desk, clearly exhausted. “The talk about us?”
“It’s more than talk. It’s slander, really. Mouts. About me.
He leaned back, rubbing his temples. “I figned this might happen
“Did you?” I snapped. “Because it doesn’t feel like you’ve done anything to stop it.
Logan’s brows litted, but he didn’t rise to the ball. “You’re angry.
“I’m tired,” corrected. “I don’t like being the subject of all these tumors.”
He stood slowly. “Emily.”
“Please tell me you have a plan that doesn’t involve me becoming a pawn
wn in someone else’s narrative
e again.”
Logan walked around the desk, stopping in front of me. “I do have plan. But I need you to trust me.”
1 gave a bitter laugh. “What can we possibly do to change their minds? They saw our date, but they think this thing between us is
take.”
sn’t it?” he asked quietly.
I froze. The silence between us pulsed, thick with things unsaid.
“They don’t know that,” I said at last, voice barely above a whisper “Don’t we need them to believe in us for all of this to work?”
“That’s right. Which is why I’m asking you to move in with me.”
I blinked as the air left my lungs. Those were words I never thought I’d hear. “What?”
“You heard me,” he said, eyes holding mine, “We’re engaged. At least, that’s what we’ve told the world. If we want to be taken seriously, we need to start acting like it. Publicly, it strengthens our story if we are living together.”
I stared at him, heart thudding. “You want me to live with you?”
To be with him in his space with his presence and his scent everywhere would change everything.
It could be a good thing. We might get closer to each other. We might start to trust each other.
It could be a bad thing. We might start to hate each other. We might let our plans fall apart because we don’t want anything to do with one another.
‘Isn’t that a little too much?” Lasked.
Logan shook his head. “We need to look like we are engaged. We should be seen together, and frankly, we should be together.”
My breath hitched. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We are going to be working together for a while. I don’t think it’durt for us to spend a little time together outside the public eye too. My house is safe. We can be who we are freely there, speak freely there, and be free there.
It sounded like a good plan. I couldn’t poke any holes in it. Somehow, though, it made me both uncomfortable and excited.
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Chapter 43
“You think this will help?” I whispered.
“I think it’s the only way forward. ”
My heart pounded so loudly 1
I was sure he could hear it.
+25 BONUS
“I’ll bring my things tomorrow,” I said, trying to mask the tremble in my voice. I don’t know if it was fear or excitement. It might even be both.
Logan reached out and brushed a stray hair from my check. His touch was feather–light.
“Let me help,” he said quietly. “Let me carry them for you.
Ifroze, caught in the web of his gaze. There was nothing strategic the way he looked at me now. I saw heat and longing and something far, far deeper.
“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered.
His hand lingered near my jaw. “I want to.”
We stood there, unmoving, the air between us charged and fragile swore if I leaned forward a little, I’d find obt kissed by the man I wasn’t supposed to have feelings for.
I didn’t. Neither of us did.
“Tomorrow, then,” I said, forcing my voice steady.
“Tomorrow.”
