DECEIT (B723) by Hazel Grace (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📕

and he walks us over to the concession stands. I buy an obscene amount of candy and put a gallon of butter on my popcorn before grabbing our seats.

In the last row underneath the projector, we play random trivia that appears on the screen, and I kick his ass. He’s a bad sport and chucks a handful of popcorn my way.

Joke’s on him, I eat it.

“This flick is awful,” Alexander mutters while I’m praying we’re halfway through the movie. “Good thing I didn’t pick it.”

“I told you I didn’t know any of these. Do you wanna leave?”

“No.” He peers over at me. “I’m still having fun.”

“You sure? It’s not a charity event or night with the boys puffing on cigars and sipping on expensive whiskey.”

“I don’t smoke, and I like vodka.”

I shove more popcorn in my mouth. “How boring for you.”

“Really because you seem like you collect stamps and still have a diary that you write in religiously at night.” I snort, craning my head to see the screen reflecting off one side of his face. An amused and cocky smirk playing off his five ‘o clock shadow.

“He has crappy one-liners and ruthless insults,” I muse. “What else lies behind you and your sexy Aston Martin?”

“Damn woman, that one hurt. Just my car is sexy?”

I point at the giant screen ahead of us. “The main character of this movie isn’t bad.”

“That’s it—“ My date yanks my popcorn tub out of my hands, and like a greedy little child, I lunge for it. “—no more snacks for you.”

“Hey!”

“Is for horses.”

I roll my eyes. “C’mon,” I yell-whisper. Thankfully, there aren’t many patrons around us for me to bother and disturb.

“Take it back.”

“You’re gonna bully your date?”

“You’re gonna try to play the victim?”

“You’re a child.”

“And you’re beautiful.”

“And you need to brush up on your flirting. When you’re an adult, you don’t pick on your dates.”

“My negotiation skills are better.” He wiggles my yellow popcorn tub in the air. “Hold my hand during the rest of this horrible movie, and you get it back.”

My brows knit. “That restricts me to only eat with one hand.”

Alexander shrugs. “You need more? You should’ve taken it because now my deal has changed.”

“That quickly?” He bobs his head. “Now what?”

“A kiss. Call it childish, but I’ve already been dubbed the trust fund kid and a bully, so I’m on a roll tonight, apparently.”

I frown, not because kissing him isn’t an attractive thought, but I don’t think I’m ready.

I’m thirty-four years old. 

I should be fine. 

It’s just a kiss. 

It’s innocent, and I’m not signing a contract to sign any part of me away.

Actually, I kinda did. 

The moment I committed myself to Bishop, my heart sewed itself to it. It doesn’t want to be free, but it’s tired of not being acknowledged. It’s been about three years, and nothing has really changed besides the ugly truth that he wants shit to do with me.

Alexander leans in, and my body tenses on autopilot. He deserves someone better than me, and I don’t even know him.

“I’m kinda married,” I mutter between us, feeling embarrassed and overwhelmed all of a sudden.

I fully expect Alexander to pull back and ask me to repeat myself. That I didn’t just waste his time by taking me out.

But, again, that box I spoke about earlier that I put him in has holes.

“Are you kinda happy?” he hedges, keeping his gaze locked on me.

I shake my head without thinking. “No.”

“Then I’m kinda okay with it as long as he’s not going to show up out of nowhere and beat my ass.”

“We’re separated.” My heart cramps inside my ribcage with saying it out loud.

I hate it more than anything.

“For how long?”

My vital organ clenches tighter. “Two years.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“He has issues.”

“Is that you telling me that I shouldn’t kiss you?”

“I…I don’t know. I don’t think it’s fair.”

Alexander stares at me. “To who?”

“You.”

“I already told you…I’m completely intrigued.”

“I mean, isn’t that always the case with things that are off-limits?”

“Maybe.” He leans back in his chair. “But I’m adamant on what I want, and I am spoiled like I said.” He reaches over and grabs my hand. “And hardworking. We don’t have to rush this, Emmy. I’m not looking to score just yet.”

“You suck at this,” I say off a teasing scoff.

“I know.” The sound of the movie in front of us goes on to play as he shamelessly continues to look at me. “Wanna leave?”

I bob my head.

Alexander rises, plucks my boxes of candy out of my lap and pockets them. Then he reaches out for my hand, offering me something I haven’t had in years.

Someone who’s interested in me and isn’t afraid to let me know.

When I worked for Wade and helped him become president, he was my only goal. Then Bishop came along, and he terrified me.

And when he drunkenly asked me to marry him, I stupidly agreed because my heart spoke over my mind, and I believed that things would slowly change.

I’m just as much to blame as him because I did keep it hidden from B723. I didn’t want them to know because he couldn’t even give me an emotion besides wishing to spend a little time together and fuck me at any given moment.

Shit, he wouldn’t even tell me about his family like I was some noisy stranger or co-worker he barely saw.

I was his wife.

And I wasn’t about to throw myself on the chopping block and proclaim my love for a man to my second family when he couldn’t even divulge in a thing. He wanted to take and allow me to just give.

He loved to screw me against any hard surface—that was it.

And down we fell.

Alexander drove me home, allowing me to ponder in my own darkness of fear and what I’ve needed to force Bishop to do for a long time but never found the strength to let blossom.

I can’t move on when he’s still mine on paper.

Just paper. Nothing more.

“I’m sorry that our date sucked,” Alexander conveys as he turns into the