Page 89 of Cruel Revenge

I step to the side, keeping the desk between us as he advances on me again.

He smirks, stalking like a predator as he follows me around the table, doing an entire rotation before he comes to a stop.

Finally, I sigh, shoulders slumping as my gaze meets his. “We should just call this entire thing off. People are going to figure out that it’s nothing but a lie sooner than later. If we end it now, we can play it off as a divorce.”

And maybe my heart can still be salvageable.

With one quick move, he is around the desk and in my face again, but this time he doesn’t reach for me.

His gaze locks with mine, and it feels like we are the only two people in the world.

My heart threatens to beat right out of my chest while my palms itch. My stomach flips as he stops a few inches from me, his chest nearly close enough to brush against mine.

“We’re not ending this marriage.” His voice is raspy. “This is more than just a fake marriage, and you know it just as well as I do. These matching tattoos on our ring fingers mean something. And even if you are the biggest liar I’ve ever met, I want to be with you.”

“That sounds like a mistake.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, my heart and mind at war with each other.

I should be telling him to run now before we have the chance to hurt each other more. It would be the right thing to do.

We’re never going to be good for each other. And yet, somehow, I think we could be great together.

There’s just that pesky problem of the secrets that linger between us. And I don’t think that is ever going to sort itself out. No matter how much I wish we could.

Because that would mean losing this. Losing him. And though it would probably be the wisest thing to do, I’m not sure I could survive it anymore.

Chapter Twenty-Two

JOSHUA

I stare at her,waiting for her to say something other than we’re a mistake. Something that tells me that she feels even a small spark of what’s been developing between us.

And then her breath hitches, a glossiness to her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

Blood rushes in my ears as I try to make sense of everything that’s happening between us.

I want to sort this out now, to make the most of the chances we’ve been given.

I wanther.

When my fingers skim her jaw, she leans into the touch. It’s just slight, not enough for her to be aware of the fact that she’s doing it, but she does.

And my heart flies.

Skyla looks at me for a long moment before taking a step back. “If you really want things to work between us, you’re going tohave to deal with the little girl who came storming into my business, threatening me.”

“If you wanted my help, that’s all you had to say.” I keep my tone light and teasing as I watch her, looking for the twitch at the corner of her mouth that lets me know things aren’t as tense between us anymore.

That twitch never comes.

Instead, she gets as far from me as she can, her arms crossing and that thin little line appearing between her eyebrows. “I’m serious. If you want anything more than this fake marriage and whatever else is going on between the two of us, then you’re going to have to deal with Emily.”

I nod. “And how do you suggest I do that?”

Something cold flashes in her eyes, a cruel smile spreading across her face. “I have thoughts, but you would likely lose your business partnership because of it.”

There’s something about the casual way she talks about killing people that seems worse than the way anyone else does it.

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