The sting of those words was so sharp it felt like a physical slap. She managed not to flinch, but reading it was still a big ouch. She would have liked to have said the headline didn’t hit its mark, but no one knew better than a writer the power of words—especially when they were the truth.

“Don’t worry.” Nash swiped his phone back. “I’m already talking to my lawyer about—”

She stopped him with a wave of her hand. “It’s fine.”

“Chelle,” he said with too much pity in his tone for her not to respond by throwing up an emotional wall.

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Did she sound as blasè as she was shooting for? No, but she’d power through anyway. “It’s what we agreed to. You win the bet. I meet the conditions of my father’s will. It is what it is.”

A vein ticked in his temple as his jaw went rigid. “That’s not all it is.”

“For now.” God, just saying that out loud was like having layers of skin scraped off with a rusty file, and she had to move away from him, putting physical distance between them like a practice run for what was inevitable. “We only have a little bit of time left and then that’s all there is to it.”

Something crossed Nash’s face, the hint of an argument he was having with himself, and Chelle lifted her chin, daring him to fight with her. Honestly, it would feel good to get out all of the emotions swirling around in her. Fear. Anger. Frustration. Yeah, this was what she needed. A fight. A good, old-fashioned verbal brawl to decrease the pressure.

He crossed his arms over his broad chest and shook his head. “I know what you’re doing.”

Fire burned through her, eating away at the niceties and sharpening all her rough edges. “Are you about to mansplain me to myself?”

“Nope.” He strode toward her, closing the distance in only a few strides. “I’m gonna do this.”

Instead of opening his mouth and letting loose with all of the “well actuallys” and the “you knows,” he scooped her up and carried her over to the bed, where he sat her down on the edge and dropped to his knees in front of her.

“Lift your ass.” Feral. Demanding. Absolutely focused solely on her. “Please.”