“Carter, I’m not playing with you,” I said through clenched teeth. “The joke is over. You may not be in love with anyone here, but you hate me. You dropped me in middle school and then fell into a black hole during high school. You wouldn’t trap yourself in a life with me for your father’s bank accounts, company, or his collection of vintage cars.
“You did something nice for me by getting the other guys off my back. For once let’s walk away on good terms and not dive into a shitty summer going after each other again.”
Carter listened to my whole speech, nodding along. “Belle.” He closed the distance between us. “You underestimate me, and how far I’ll go to get what I want. I know that look on Preston’s face. He’s wrecked over you and on the edge of throwing away Delilah and his future for another taste of your crumbs. It’s because he can’t see you for who you really are. But you’re going to tell him. If you don’t want to become Mrs. Belle Adler-Knight, you’ll tell everyone the truth about that day and what you did to me.”
I tried to hold his gaze. Against my will, my eyes moved to his scar, and then I couldn’t look at him at all.
Carter will never let that day go. Why should he? I haven’t either.
“Preston isn’t wrecking anything for me,” I said. “I’ve done nothing but turn him down.”
“Don’t want to hear it, Belle. What I do want to hear is the truth and all of this stops.” He jerked his chin over my shoulder. “You can still use me as a cover and walk off the island as a single woman. If you don’t do it, I will propose to you and you’ll have an entirely different choice on your hands.”
I spoke through numb lips. “This means so much to you that you’d marry someone you don’t love?”
He made a harsh noise. “What’s marriage anyway? Just two people agreeing to live in the same house, spend each other’s money, and have mediocre sex until one of them dies or gets bored with the other. Dad is on wife number three and it’s fizzling out quick. From how many times I’ve walked into his office and found his secretary ‘searching for a pen’ that rolled under his desk, he’s already got number four lined up.
“Believe it or not, I wouldn’t mind you being wife number one. You’d let me live my own life while you’re off doing whatever you do. We’d have some wicked-cute kids to screw up, and I’m told you’re incredible in the sack.”
I launched myself at him, tackling him into the dirt.
“Whoa,” he cried, laughing away. “Save it for the honeymoon.”
“Just because life has twisted you into a cynical sack of crap, doesn’t mean we all treat marriage like it’s meaningless. You don’t want to play this game with me, Knight. Take it back. Before everyone, take it back.”
The world spun.
I smashed onto the shifting earth. Carter towered over me. Beautiful. Cold. Victorious.
“Looks like you’re going to be my wife, Belle. Lucky for me.” He peeled me up, pulling me into a hug. “Because I missed you,” he whispered in my ear. His wet, warm tongue darted out, licking the shell. “You still taste so good.”
Carter walked off, leaving me on the deserted beach without a backward glance.
Chapter Six
“So... you and Carter?”
“There is no me and Carter,” I snapped. “You know I made up that Huntington’s garbage. He took over from there.”
Zion stretched out on my balcony despite my resolve to avoid the space. I survived the trip to the orange grove and Mrs. Desai’s separate session to chat with the girls, only to run up to my room at lunchtime. Zion was close on my heels.
“Why would he do that?”
I skipped a step, slowing my pace. “Because... I gave him no choice.”
“Ominous. What does that mean?”
It means he’s doing what he thinks he has to do to get me to tell the truth. But I can’t, so once again, we’re at war.
“I’m not marrying him, Zion. He can use some other girl to scam his way into a bigger trust fund. That is if anyone wants him after I spill that we were both lying through our teeth.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“It’s the only thing to do.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“Who is it?”
“Preston.”
I jumped up and yanked him inside. “What the hell is Carter doing?!”
“You’re asking me? Because I’ve got some questions.” Preston snapped to Zion. “Get out.”
My friend beat it for the door.
“Hey,” I said. “Don’t come in here barking orders at people like you’ve got something to be mad about.”
“I shouldn’t be mad about you acting like I was the one who deceived you when the whole time you were going after Carter? Get the fuck out, Zion!”
He got the fuck out, leaving me alone with a pissed-off Preston.
“I don’t know what he told you,” I began.
“He said you came to a mutually beneficial arrangement where he wins either way. Said I should be thanking him for saving me from you.”
“Your friend is a liar. We didn’t come to any kind of arrangement and I’ll kick his balls up his throat either way. I’m telling everyone the truth as soon as I get the chance, so you can relax. My last name is destined to remain unhyphenated.”
I flopped on my bed. “You’ll also be happy to know that I believe you. You didn’t know who I was.”
The mattress dipped. Preston laid out by my side. “What changed your mind?”
“Carter is leveraging a marriage proposal to make me tell you what happened between us. Which means he didn’t tell you himself.” A heaviness settled over me. After everything he’d done, I still couldn’t see Carter as anything other than what he was: the victim. “He really scrubbed me from his life after entering the academy, didn’t he?”
“If he spoke your name, it wasn’t to me.”
“And Nathan? Those summers he stayed in Bracknell. He didn’t mention me?”
“Bracknell? You mean that was you?” Preston propped himself on his elbow. “He never gave me a name, but he did talk about a girl he met over there that made his summer of exile bearable. After the second summer, I didn’t hear about that girl again.” He blew out a breath. “Wow.”
“What’s wow?”
“Three guys connected by one girl and they didn’t know it. Now we’re all thrown together again. I’d say it’s fate but I assume you have the same feelings toward that as you do for magic.”
“It’s not fate,” I confirmed. “We’re all in the community. Circumstances would’ve brought us together eventually. I just didn’t think they’d include listening to my ex have sex with another girl, sleeping with my ex-boyfriend’s best friend, or having my ex-best friend technically propose to me.”
“Nathan’s the ex-boyfriend and you and Carter were best friends. How did it end?”
“Stop fishing.” I rolled onto my side, bringing my knees to my chest. “I don’t want to talk about it.”