Playboy's Secret Wife novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Optional

We didn't speak until the car had cleared the gates.

Lake Forest slid by in the dark, all stone walls and porch lights.

"Say it," I said.

"Say what?"

"Was I too drunk?"

Lucas looked straight at me.

"Yes."

My stomach turned over.

"You were very drunk," he said.

"You couldn't walk the length of the chapel without help."

"I'm not going to tell you otherwise."

"Then he's right."

"Then the marriage isn't real."

"Chad is right about one thing," Lucas said.

"You were drunk."

"He's wrong about what it means."

"He's wrong about what happened in that room, and I can prove it."

"How?"

"Not yet."

"Lucas."

"I know," he said.

"I know what it sounds like."

I looked out the window.

Two hours ago a man in a grey suit had stood at a dinner table and called me incapable.

Beside me sat a man who might be lying, who had also carried me to bed and slept on a couch.

I couldn't make the two of them add up.

"I don't know if I believe you," I said.

"That's fair."

"But I know what I saw tonight."

"You didn't flinch when he said it."

"You put your hand on my chair."

"I didn't want you to be alone," Lucas said.

I turned from the window.

His face was lit orange by the passing streetlights, and he wasn't smiling.

He wasn't playing anything.

I had told him, in writing, to play nothing in private.

He was actually doing it.

"Stop the car," I said.

"We're on Lake Shore Drive."

"Then tell him to drive faster."

He studied me for one long second.

Then he pressed the button on the door and said, "Home, please," to the driver.

I didn't say anything else.

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