Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

couldn’t swallow down.

“No. I’m too busy to go.”

The fine creases at the corners of Jenny’s eyes tightened.

She didn’t like being lied to, but she wouldn’t call Claire out

on it. She knew Claire was shit at dealing with emotions,

which was why she was warning her in the first place.

“A vacation, then. Or maybe you should consider leasing an

office space in the city until—”

“No. This is my home.”

Jenny crossed her arms and gave Claire the best stare down

she’d ever received in her life, and she used to be on the

> receiving end of some pretty good ones from her brute of a

father. “Send her back, then. Back to her dad. Back to her

grandparents. Back to some apartment you rent for her in the

city. Just send her away.”

There it was. The one thing Claire knew she needed to do,

but also knew she couldn’t do. It was put into words, made

corporeal with Jenny’s breath and tongue and lips. She’d been

thinking about it for days, but it still hurt. The sting was

wicked, worse than salt in wounds, worse than any pain she’d

ever endured before, and she’d endured plenty.

“Oh my God.” Jenny leaned forward onto the toes of her

combat boots. “Fuck, Claire. Are you falling for her?”

Falling wasn’t in the revenge scheme. Had she fallen? That

should have been the most absurd question, but Claire felt her

world grind to a halt. She was supposed to be the one who

could separate feelings from anything and everything else. She

didn’t ever think it was possible to want someone so much that

it hurt.

There was something about Haley. Something about being