Yours Tonight (Reign 1)

“Jesus fucking Christ! That’s sick. After everything you begged of me. You kept this piece from me?”

“I just wanted him gone.”

“You could have told me.”

“I didn’t know if you’d believe me.” Because no one, except Harper, ever has. But my words looked like they slapped Jack in the face.

“I’ve been on your side from day one,” he growled. “The fact that you’d rather have me ignorantly sit down with a criminal man, shake his fucking hand, then tell me, is…” he looked disgusted with me. “You played the naïve card well.”

“I wasn’t playing anything. I love you.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that? You let me sit down with a man that assaulted you, threatens you, and you wanted me to invest with him? Who are you? You plead for my secrets? Want me to bare all, and you’re the biggest liar of them all.”

That broke my heart into two brittle pieces.

“No one believed me with Brock before. I didn’t think they would now—”

“I would have.”

I looked up, and his eyes cut through me. The mixture of rage and sadness tore at my heart.

“I wanted to help you from the beginning. The moment I saw that look in your eyes at the bar that first night, I had to make you mine. Make you safe. Because that fucking look haunts me.”

“What do you mean the beginning?”

His eyes stayed on mine. “I made sure you got the payroll job for the resort.”

“That’s impossible. I went to a temp agency Harper told me about.” He didn’t say any more, just let my mind run with that bit of information. Which it did. “The night I met you, I texted Harper. You got her number didn’t you? Reached out to her and told her to tell me about the job?”

“Yes.”

My entire chest was going to explode. It explained why Harper kept trying to warn me about Jack not being long-term and his possible ulterior motives.

“And when I asked you about it being a coincidence, you made me feel like a fool.” I shook my head “And you call me the liar?”

“I put you in my path. The means are irrelevant.”

“Everything we had was a set up. A manipulation from the beginning.” I’d known about certain things, like the jam and the toothbrush, and I thought it was him being thoughtful. Thought it was romantic even that he wanted me. Just me. But he had an agenda from the start.

“Maybe it’s better this way,” he said. A face of stone would have shown more care than what I saw on Jack’s face. Gone was the man that smiled, touched me with gentle or rough hands. Gone was every emotion from his face.

“What’s better? Nothing about this is better. It’s falling apart.” I placed my hands on his chest. “We are falling apart.”

He covered my hands, then pushed them away.

“I’m going to London to oversee the new resort.”

“When?” I breathed, but it was difficult.

“Monday.”

I frowned and stepped back. That was a few days away. “You weren’t going to tell me?”

“I was going to do a lot of things.”

His words cut every ounce of hope I had. Every sign that we were more, moving forward, was shattering before me, along with the trust we built. Trust we never had. Because I stood there, realizing I was a pawn to him. Just like I was to everyone else, and he was convinced I used him.

“How long will you be gone?”