I pretend like I don’t know what he’s talking about with the commentary on my PJs and ignore the attempt at a joke, too caught up in his proximity to come up with a comeback. “Goodnight, Ross,” I force myself to say, my body pulsing with need as I cover myself with the sheet.

He pulls the sheet the rest of the way over my shoulders, his hand resting like a burning warmth on top of the sheet when he’s done, and I can feel his intense gaze staring at the side of my face.

Steeling myself inside even as my pussy starts to throb, I turn my face to look up at him. “Yes?”

“We’re going to get through this, Violet. It’s going to be okay . . . for your family and mine, for you and me. I promise.” I wasn’t expecting him to say that. Not at all. He’s vowing this to me on pure faith and willingness to do whatever it takes. Some tiny worry I didn’t even know I had because I’d been suppressing it eases.

“Thanks, Ross.” I roll back over, settling in to sleep. “Goodnight,” I repeat, and this time, he answers in kind.

He lies down, his back toward mine but a solid foot of space between us in the king-size bed. “Geoffrey . . . lights out.”

“Goodnight, sir,” the computer voice says, and the lights fade to darkness. In that inky blackness, I can hear him shift and try to get comfortable, obviously aroused by what he saw and probably as confused as I am by the roller coaster of the night.

For my part, I lie still, forcing myself to breathe deeply and not think of what’s right behind me. Because the more I do, the more I wonder how I’m going to survive this fake engagement without either killing Ross . . . or fucking him into a coma.

It’s all going to depend on which comes first. Or who.

That damned devil on my shoulder smugly answers, “Me. I come first.”

The crazy thing is, I bet that’s true. I bet Ross would be gentlemanly enough to make me come first. And that’s exactly what I’m thinking about as sleep finally takes me under.

Chapter 11

Ross—Monday—12 Days Until the Wedding

“I want to talk to you.”

Looking up from my computer, where I’ve been pounding away at my keyboard, I see Courtney standing in my office doorway in her ‘power stance’, her eyes fiery and set so fiercely she could melt a lesser man.

Thankfully, I’m tougher than most so her gaze doesn’t faze me in the least. In fact, it looks like the bell ringing on round two with my littlest sister.

Let the games begin . . . again. She’s nothing if not persistent, though I guess she’d have to be to make it as the baby in a family like ours.

“Come on in,” I reply nonchalantly, shaking out my hands. “I haven’t typed this fast since the two hours before my junior year poli-sci paper was due. Kaede’s out picking up his new tablet, so if you need to coordinate something with him, I’d say the best idea is to send him an email.”

It’s a calculated move to set her on edge. I’m well aware she’s not here to schedule a meeting and doesn’t need to see my assistant, but in making it look like there’s nothing unusual going on, I reiterate that my relationship with Violet is the new status quo. Nothing to see here, just two lovebirds in love.

“I’m not here to talk to K-dawg,” Courtney says, her voice just barely softening when she uses Kaede’s nickname. I’ve suspected for awhile that she’s had a bit of a schoolgirl crush on my best friend. Luckily for them both, she’s never made a move on him, and he would never. Bro code all the way between us.

She shuts the door behind her, giving us some privacy, and I know she’s come armed for war. I’m curious whether she’s going to pull out the tears like she did when she was younger or if she’ll go with the cutting comments she’s learned at Dad’s elbow since she started working for him.

“I’m here to talk to you. What the hell is going on? Dad damn near chops your balls off because you’re gallivanting all over town with random pussy, and days later, you show up with a fiancée. That’d be suspicious enough, but then the fiancée happens to be Violet Russo, the girl you literally tortured for half her life. Something’s rank in Denmark, and it’s not hard to figure out that, as usual, it’s you.”

Can I get cutting comments for one hundred, Alex?

“Court, we’ve already gone through this. Yes, Violet and I have a rather checkered past, but things are different now. We are different now, all grown up and whatnot. I need you to just be happy for me because she makes me happy.”

Her eyes narrow, and I can almost feel the x-ray scan she’s subjecting me to. I need to wrap this up because it’s too risky to rehash the same shit over and over. Too many reruns of Law & Order have taught me that. Courtney might as well be the police asking me to repeat myself again, and then again, so she can look for holes, things that don’t line up, and any small changes in my story. “If that’s everything, I need to get this proposal ready for the board meeting before Violet arrives. I’m going to be too distracted once she shows up.”

Courtney sighs but at least abandons her hardline attack enough to sit down in a chair opposite my desk. She might be shorter than me, but she’s got one hell of a looming presence when she wants to be a pit bull. “Fine. Why is she coming here? You going to parade her around the office and introduce her to all the alphabet suits?”