Free A Game of Vows by Maisey Yates Page A

lie. But it was the kind of lie she was used to. The kind of lie that kept all the events from her past glossed over. The kind that kept it hidden away. Kept it from being drawn out into the light and tearing her apart.
    “Good friend.”
    “Oh, yeah. Great friend.” She cleared her throat and blinked hard. “And you, Eduardo, what’s it like to have a place you can call yours? What’s it like to feel at home?” She wished she hadn’t asked. It was too revealing. The ache in her voice was so obvious, at least to her own ears.
    “I have never thought very much about it, or rather, I never had. Not before. I always took it as my due. Vega was to be mine, my position in both society and my family always sure and set. Now that I know what it’s like to feel like a strangerto myself? Well, now I wish I would have appreciated the ease a bit more.”
    Silence fell between them and she closed her eyes, listening to the traffic below, music coming from somewhere nearby.
    “Did we just have a moment?” she asked.
    “A what?”
    “A moment. Like, a human moment where we talked without fighting or snarking or trying to put each other down.”
    “I think we did. But we need never speak of it again.”
    She opened her eyes and looked into his. Even in the dim light, she could see a glimmer of mischief there, something like the old Eduardo.
    “It’s a deal,” she said.
    For one moment, her mind went blank of everything. Everything but his face, and what it had been like to be in his arms earlier. What it had been like to kiss him. And in that moment, she couldn’t remember why kissing him wasn’t a great idea. But just for that one moment.
    Then that blank simplicity got crowded out by reality, by the reason why she couldn’t kiss him. Not now, not ever.
    She wasn’t building a life here with him. When this was over, she had to go back home. To her clients, to her job. Assuming Zack wasn’t having her blacklisted.
    “I’m tired now,” she lied. She didn’t think she would ever be able to sleep right while she was here. While she knew he was right across the penthouse from her, sleeping. Possibly naked. It hadn’t bothered her five years ago. She didn’t know what had changed in her since then.
    That was a lie. She did know. Eduardo had changed. And there was something about him now that called to her.
    She really had to get a grip on herself. And the weak, mushy emotion she seemed to be tempted to wallow in the past few days. She didn’t have time, she didn’t need to, she didn’t want to.
    She was Hannah Weston. She was her own invention, her own woman. And she could do this.
    “Good night, Eduardo,” she said, bringing a little steel back into her tone. “See you at the office tomorrow.”

CHAPTER SIX
    “Y OUR wife is back and you didn’t tell your mother?”
    Eduardo turned to face Hannah, who was sitting at his desk, holding his phone more tightly to his ear as his mother’s voice rang through loudly.
    “
Lo siento, Mama.
It happened very suddenly. I have been working at … making amends.” Bringing his mother into the charade wasn’t ideal, but he would do what had to be done. He’d been avoiding her for weeks. That period of avoidance had clearly ended.
    “You’ve been making amends? For what, Eduardo? She was the one who left you without a word. After six months of marriage. Divorced.” She said the word like it was something truly foul.
    “Ah, yes, but we were not divorced. We never have been. Hannah and I are as married today as we were that day in the cathedral.”
    Hannah’s focus snapped up from the computer, her blue eyes trained on him, her expression hard.
“What?”
she mouthed.
    He covered the mouthpiece on the phone. “
My mother,
” he mouthed back to her.
    Then her lips formed a soundless version of a truly filthy word. He chuckled and uncovered the phone.
    “We will come to see you this weekend. In fact, let’s make it a long weekend at the
rancho
. Bring Selena, of