“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” he asked, dropping his arms and coming around to face me. His eyes were hard, his jaw clenched, and he should’ve looked ridiculous standing there in front of me, all pissed-off man, buck naked and radiating anger. Instead he looked like everything I wanted to get lost in. “Whose secret is it? What the hell’s going on, Evie?”

When I didn’t say anything, didn’t open up any more, he stepped forward, bringing our bodies together. He cupped my face in his hands, leaning down until our noses were barely an inch apart, his eyes darting between mine. And they were so full of fear, so full of anxiety—for me.

For me.

“Are you in trouble? Is it more than this? Is something else going on? Baby, please. Tell me.” His thumbs stroked my cheeks reverently, like I was delicate. Like I’d break at any moment. Like he was scared I’d float away right in front of him or vanish into thin air.

The worry in his voice was what finally broke me. Riley had always been sincere, wearing his heart on his sleeve. And it was almost his detriment. It was also the one thing that got to me every time, broke down any walls I’d ever tried to keep between us.

All but one.

Shaking my head, I said, “I’m not in trouble. No more than you already know, anyway.”

His muscles relaxed the barest whisper, but his body was still coiled tight, the uncertainty still sitting heavily on his shoulders. “Then what? You can trust me, Evie. It’ll stay between us. I swear.”

I blew out a breath, seeing the honesty in his eyes, hearing it in his voice, and knew with my entire being that I could trust him. “What do you know about Eric?”

Chapter Fourteen

RILEY

“Has he hurt you? I swear to Christ, if that bastard’s hurt you, I’m going to kill him.”

“No, no … he’d never hurt me, Riley. Ever.” Her voice was sincere, her eyes clear. She reached out and brushed her hand down my side, resting it against my hip. “You don’t ever have to worry about that. But I need to hear what you know about him.”

I thought back to what Gage had filled me in on, the two of us going over the files he’d had while Madison and Evie had been in the back bedroom. Reaching up, I rubbed my thumb and forefinger over my eyes as I clenched them shut, trying to remember all the details. “Eric Caine, thirty-three, never been married. Son of Republican senator Caine. Followed in his dad’s footsteps when he enlisted in the army at eighteen. Then continued in his dad’s shadow as he went to law school once he was out and now works for the firm his father started—one of the biggest in Minneapolis. But he has plans to eventually go into politics. Again, just like his father.” I dropped my hand and raised an eyebrow. “How’d I do?”

She nodded. “You hit just about everything.”

I thought back to the files, going over all the pertinent details in them, and couldn’t remember anything that I’d left out. “What’d I miss?”

“I need you to promise me this stays between us. You can’t repeat it.”

I nodded, the sincerity in her voice telling me she wasn’t bullshitting. “Of course.”

“Not even to Gage.”

“Just between us. I can keep a secret, Evie. Especially one from you.”

She looked at me for a minute, her eyes darting between mine, then she took a deep breath and exhaled. “Eric’s gay.”

I could only stare at her. When the shock wore off enough for me to speak, I said, “He’s what now?”

She sighed and stepped back, finally tugging her tank top over her head—a shame to see her breasts covered up, but it was probably for the best, considering what had just come out of her mouth. I followed her lead and grabbed my boxers from the floor, stepping into them, then walked behind her to the couch. She sat sideways, one leg curled and tucked under the other, and I sat facing her, waiting for her to explain what the hell was going on.

She blew out a deep breath and said, “We met last year at a coffee shop. I was still in school full-time, so I worked part-time as a barista there for extra cash since I didn’t have much. Aaron had managed to work my new records so I was able to get a full scholarship, but that didn’t cover everything.”

Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, she glanced down at her lap, at where our knees touched, then looked back up at me. “Eric would come in every day and talk to me. He was so nice, not like some of the creeps who’d come in and hit on me, harass me, really. And one day, after about a month of nearly daily conversations, he asked me to dinner.”

Even after hearing Eric was gay, that didn’t stop my stomach from clenching while listening to the details of Evie going out on dates while we’d been apart. I hadn’t imagined she’d been abstinent in all that time, but knowing she hadn’t been and actually hearing about it were two very different things.

She rested her elbow on the back of the couch, settling her cheek against her hand, and continued, “Like I said, money was tight. He happened to catch me on a week when it was exceptionally tight, and I figured if nothing else, I could get a free meal out of it. So I went. And I was more surprised than anyone that I’d actually had a good time. The entire evening, he’d never tried anything physical with me, and it was refreshing. That was our first date, at least in the eyes of the public, and what started our dating life.

“We’d go out to dinner, smile and laugh—despite the lie our engagement is based on, we do have a real connection, so that was never faked. After four years of being alone, it felt nice to have someone to talk to again. And I’m not going to lie, it felt nice to not have to worry about money for once. I’d never had that, not once in my entire life, and not having to worry about it was this giant weight lifted off my shoulders. But there was never anything physical between us. Nothing more than brief kisses on the cheek—always inside my apartment, never in public. While we were in public, though, he was affectionate, just not sexually. He’d hold my hand, put his arm around me, lean in close when I was speaking, but there was no kissing, no PDA like that. And that had been when I’d started to get suspicious that something more was going on.”

I knew why she’d be suspicious. Evie was a fucking bombshell, especially now with her waves of red hair, with the features that had sharpened in the years we’d been apart, and she oozed sexuality, so for a man to have no interest in that … yeah, something was up.

She continued, “It all changed one night when we were out to dinner. I’d been in the bathroom and came out to see our waiter leaning toward Eric, slipping him a piece of paper. When I got to the table, Eric played it off, but I saw something when the waiter looked at him. Combined with how he acted around me, things were clicking into place. I had a pretty good idea what was going on, especially after he’d told me how strict his upbringing was, how conservative his parents were, and the role his father played in guiding his decisions. So I confronted Eric in the car before he dropped me off.”

“And he told you? Just like that?”

She nodded. “He took a chance. Told me he’d managed to keep the secret his entire life. And now, with his father a conservative senator and him looking to follow in his footsteps, he didn’t think he could come out. That was where I came in. He knew about my past—well, the past I created. But he knew I was alone, that I was struggling. He gave me an answer to that. We both got something out of it.”

My brow furrowed, because from where I was sitting, Evie didn’t get shit out of it. Eric was the one who got the picture-perfect trophy wife, all the while living a lie behind closed doors, which he would’ve done with or without her. All she got was trapped in a loveless relationship. “What the hell did you get out of it?”