Page 20 of Forbidden Earl

“It’s time to leave. Wait in Chelsea’s car.” He brushed her hand off and opened the door. “I’m going to find Cassidy.”

Lucinda followed behind him and her stilettos echoed on his wooden floors. “Why? What does that nothing-special girl have to offer you that I don’t?”

He turned around. He tried to hold his tongue like a gentleman, but she wasn’t leaving him alone. He felt the vein in his forehead throb. “Honesty. It’s embedded in her blood. She’s never lied to me.”

Her eyes widened. “I never lied-”

He pointed to the front door, and one of his staff opened it for him. “Your being here now is full of them.”

He stormed off in the direction Cassidy had gone but the room was silent and cold which meant they hadn’t been here in a while.

He searched around the bottom floor. As he passed through the main room, his servant directed him upstairs.Good.At least Cassidy was still here.

Every muscle in his body tensed as he saw Chelsea blocking Cassidy’s door. Remy heard footsteps moving in her chamber and tried to step around her sister. He knocked on the frame. “Cassidy?”

Chelsea looked at him like he was an ant she’d like to crush under her powder blue shoe that matched her knee length skirt. “My sister doesn’t want to talk to you right now.”

Cassidy couldn’t believe he’d do anything with Lucinda. He motioned for her sister to move as he said, “Get out of the way, Chelsea.”

She lifted her chest and didn’t budge. “I showed her the photos from the other day.”

What photos? His heart sped up and he thought back to day before yesterday. Seriously? It was a bad joke that Chelsea had played on his friend. “When you sent prostitutes to Blackwell’s house? That was extremely childish.”

She pouted.

Cassidy at last opened her bedroom door wide and stood behind her sister. “Chelsea, go. Remy and I need to talk.”

Her sister hugged her waist and looked down. “You don’t need him, sis.”

Cassidy walked to the door, pushing him to the side in the hallway. “Go. If I change my mind, you’ll know. Give Mom and Dad my best.”

“I can stay.” Chelsea turned toward her sister.

Cassidy stayed close to him and pointed to the stairs. “No, please go home, Chelsea.”

Her sister passed him, gave him a scowl and continued down the stairs. He kept silent in the hall until he heard the front door downstairs open and close.

Both women were gone now. He followed Cassidy into the Countess’ bedroom. Everything looked the same, except for Cassidy, who paced back and forth by the huge bay window. He walked closer to her, ignoring the white bed and white sheets that were perfectly made. The inviting sea foam green comforter. He reached for her shoulder. “Cassidy, what’s wrong?”

She continued to pace back and forth as she hugged her waist, her phone in her palm. “You swore you’d not humiliate me and yet you took a selfie, Remy, with all of those naked women. Grinning. It’s all over the news.”

“What?” He accepted her offered smartphone and watched the news clip about the house party he and Blackwell walked in on. Finished, he handed it back and met her questioning gaze. “This is clearly a set-up by Lucinda and Chelsea to stop our wedding.”

She stopped pacing, her skin paling to white as she dropped her phone to the nightstand. “Look, I said I’d marry you. I’ll keep my word—but no more kissing or touching.”

His skin felt like it melted off the bones. Another kiss might prove their chemistry—he’d felt something, and so had she—he understood women. He kept his voice soft. “You enjoyed yourself.”

Her eye roll was extreme and it made him feel small. “It was all a deception,” she said, “so that you could get your way.”

He reached out and took both of her hands in his. “Cassidy, I want to marry you because I trust you. I thought you trusted me. I didn’t touch one of the women your sister sent over to Blackwell’s. Don’t let her stop us, not now.”

Her eyes began to tear up, but she held his hands. “Why would she do that?”

Cassidy was so busy taking care of everyone, she never thought about the fact she was an heir in her own right. His heart beat in a different way, near her. He could help her. He lowered his head to stare directly in her face. “If you don’t get married before you’re thirty, she becomes the heir, not you. Same goes for women as men. And the earldom your father now is supposed to run, that you actually do, would all fall to her. You must have realized that.”

She blinked and stared at him blankly. Clearly she never thought about any of that. Finally she swallowed, dropped his hands, turned away from him and began to pace again. “You still took a photo with naked women.”

He reached for her shoulder. “We’ll deal with it together, and stop the gossip by getting married. Then nobody else will have power over us.”

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