Page 49 of The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée (French Conquests 1)

“She told me—she asked me—It wasn’t meant to cause any harm.”

“Whotold you!” Alex’s fury made the rafters rock. The idea that this man could deliberately have tried to cause Jacyn harm made him almost murderous.

“I—no. It’s not—”

There was a flutter of red and a cloud of honeysuckle. and Alex immediately recognized the scent. He released the pressure he was exerting across Martin’s chest and spun around to see Sofia, breathless and upset, rush in, her fingers already undoing the top buttons of her blouse.

Then she spotted the tableau frozen before her, gasped, and clutched her neckline closed. Her eyes bulged in horror, just as Martin’s had moments before.

Alex tried to make sense of all this, looking from one of them to the other, taking in the hot guilt and shame on their faces.

He felt something inside himself crack. Despite the fact that she was a grown, married woman with a child, somewhere in Alex’s mind she had always been innocent in his eyes, as sweet and untouched as she had been when he had known her. The idea of his own brother making love to her had cut him to shreds. But this took the cake.

With a growl of exasperation, he walked out, viciously kicking the door open. The corridor before him seemed to stretch, long and twisting, lit by harsh white light that seemed to be coming from inside his head. He had to get out of there.

Before he could make it back to the main wing, Sofia had caught up to him, a miracle in those high heels of hers. She snatched him by the bicep and tried to spin him to face her, but he resisted. “Not today, Sofia. No.”

“Alex! You don’t understand!”

“I understand more now than I ever did,” he snapped. “I understand that you’re willing to risk everything you have, including the happiness of your daughter, for someone like him!” He pointed in the direction of the servants’ quarters. Martin had wisely gone to ground like the coward he was, not taking any chances on a trouncing by trying to stand up for Sofia. “What the hell does that little weasel bring to the table? Is it the attention that you crave so much? The need to feel superior to someone else all the time?”

Her eyes welled up with tears, but now Alex knew that those tears were false. That they were simply a party trick Sofia pulled out of a hat whenever things didn’t go her way. He couldn’t hide his disgust when she threw her arms around him, clinging like a damp rag. He peeled her arms from around him and gently set her back.

“I’m only going to say this once, Sofia, so I want you to listen. I loved you since I was barely a man. All I wanted back then was to be with you. When my brother did what he did, I was willing to step in, marry you and take care of his child, if it meant I wouldn’t lose you.” To his own years, that sounded incredible. Had he ever been so naïve?

“But that was a long time ago. I’m a grown man now. You will always be dear to my heart, and I will always have compassion for you because of the ordeal you went through. I was the one who brought you into this family, therefore I shoulder blame and guilt for your attack. But let me make this clear. You are to never, ever get near Jacyn again, understand?”

She pouted at him, lower lip trembling, arms folded across her belly like a rebellious teenager.

“I’m sorry for what William did to you, and I did my best back then to try to fix what he did. But I no longer owe you anything. You and I will never be anything more than in-laws. I’m done.”

Back straight, he walked away, feeling like something inside his chest was tearing. As if he finally understood that his boyhood was over, and he could never go there again. Although he could hear her gusty sobs cranking up a second time, he didn’t turn back.

CHAPTER 17

“I WANT YOU TO RELEASE ME.”

Alex stopped, frozen where he stood, holding a large wooden tray containing breakfast for the two of them. In the last three days, Jacyn had been on bedrest on her doctor’s orders, allowing her bruised shoulder and sore ankle to heal. She could easily make it out to meals, or even have any of the servants bring them to her, but he had insisted on bringing her breakfast every day and sitting in a chair at the side of her bed as they shared a meal.

Jacyn wondered what had motivated that sudden interest in her well-being. Was it a vague sense of guilt at what had happened? When he’d told her that Willa’s tutor (who had been immediately fired) had been the one to switch the saddles at Sofia’s behest, Jacyn hadn’t been at all surprised. It hurt to know that Sofia would resent her enough to try to get her out of the way, especially after they had managed to strike some sort of accord lately, but she thought she understood. The woman wanted Alex, and was willing to stoop to malicious attacks to clear her path to him.

Which was why Jacyn needed to get out of here… fast. She wasn’t just at risk of getting more emotionally and spiritually hurt with every passing day, there’d been an actual, physical threat on her life.

So she repeated herself, speaking clearly and slowly, never mind how hard it was to say, or how much it hurt her. “I want to go home, Alex. I need to leave here. So I’m asking you. We only have a week left in our agreement. Could you find it in your heart to release me?”

Alex set the tray down on the small table at the head of her bed. It was covered with the pastries she had grown to love, small lattice-topped tarts stuffed with almond paste, as well as sugar-dusted crepes and fresh cherries. But she knew that if she put a morsel into her mouth, she would choke.

He cringed at her words. “What do you mean, ‘release you’? You were never my prisoner.”

“Wasn’t I? You offered me a choice I couldn’t refuse. Come with you and join in this ghastly charade, or face jail time.”

He shook his head. “You could have refused. You could have faced the consequences of your impulsive actions. I did not force you to vandalize my car. You lost your temper and destroyed my car. Whether it was my car or belonged to someone else, it doesn’t matter. You also have to bear the blame for this.”

She argued back. “You turned me into a liar, Alex. You made me lie to your mom, your brother, your niece.” The thought that she might never see any of them who had grown so dear to her hurt. Even Liam had become her friend.

“And so we face the consequences of our actions. I admit that I took advantage of the situation, but you had a choice, and you chose southern France.”

She let her gaze drop, but eventually nodded in concession. “Then maybe it’s time we both admit that we made a mistake. This was never going to work. And we should end this while we’re ahead.”

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