Page 29 of Always Knew It Was You

“You okay?” Micah asks and I realize that I’ve been staring at the phone for a long time.

“Yeah,” I answer and with great difficulty, I hang up the call. “I’m fine.”

“Was that your cousin?”

My head whips to him, widening in surprise.How did he know Nate was my cousin? Did I accidentally say something to him about it?

“Declan told me all about him,” he says.

Of course,I think bitterly, although I can’t really blame Declan here.

“It’s good that you hung up. You don’t need to keep in contact with someone like that.”

Rather than make me feel good, his words irritate me. “Someone like what? You don’t even know him.”

“I don’t need to. I know he conspires with kidnappers, thieves, and murderers.”

He has a point there, but I don’t want to acknowledge it. “He hasn’t had an easy life.”

“Neither have you and you seem to be better adjusted than he is.”

“It’s different,” I say and then lay my head back. My post-orgasm bliss is ruined. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Fine by me. But for the record, I want you to stay away from him at least for the duration of our deal.”

“What? Why?” I plan on staying away from Nate anyway, but it’s one thing to do it and another thing to be told I have to do it.

“Because I don’t want anyone finding out that my fiancée is cousins with a potential criminal.”

The words immediately strike clean, hitting me in my most exposed insecure place. I stare at him, disbelievingly. I didn’t expect that from him, especially when he told me of his colorful past. I should have expected it, but I didn’t.

And I hate the way he just made me feel.

“I’m not saying that to make you feel bad,” he says, but I don’t care. “I’m saying it to help you.”

Help me how?I want to scream, but I ignore the urge. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he got under my skin.

“It’s fine,” I say tersely, turning back to the window.

It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have expected him to be different from all the others in Lakeview.

He doesn’t owe me anything and this deal of ours won’t last long anyway.

And once it’s over, I’ll be three hundred thousand dollars richer and he’ll be thankfully out of my life.

CHAPTER TEN

MICAH

Carly insists I drop her at the end of her street, so no one sees us. She assures me it’s safe, but I still wait in my car and watch her until she’s inside her home.

Then, I drive away with an unsettled feeling in my stomach.

Carly’s mood changed swiftly after our conversation. She was quiet during the second half of the trip, but not the same comfortable silence that she held in the first half. Instead, it felt distant, angry, and like she firmly erected an unspeakable wall between us.

I couldn’t figure out why.

Is it because of her cousin?

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