They walked out hand in hand, looking every bit the picture-perfect couple. Julian hadn’t told Craig to clear the reporters—he actually wanted to see what the hell kind of stunt the people behind this were trying to pull.
Once they got in the car and the doors shut, their hands naturally drifted apart. Violet let out a tiny sigh of relief, quiet enough that most people wouldn’t have noticed—but Julian did.
His voice came low and lazy, still rough from sleep. “What’s this? The more we play pretend, the worse you get at it?”
He remembered perfectly well how calm she’d been around him before.
“I’ll do better next time,” Violet said, straightening in her seat, subtly putting a few extra inches between them.
He noticed—and one eyebrow lifted.
The car pulled away toward Ashford headquarter
