Free Marriage Made on Paper by Maisey Yates Page B

her glossy lipstick behind. Normally he wouldn’t think anything about such a normal occurrence, but something about it, about the lingering imprint of Lily’s lips, was sexy beyond reason.
    “I talked to her while you were showering. She’s having fun in Switzerland. No media and good skiing.”
    “I’m sorry she’s going through this. It isn’t fair. Seems to be the natural state of sexual politics though. If a woman has sex with a man, he uses it against her. If she turns him down … he still finds a way to use it against her.”
    “You’re not the biggest fan of men, are you?”
    “I like men that I know personally. Men as a species I sometimes have issues with. Or maybe, more specifically, cultural traditions that allow them to get away with pretty despicable things that women would never be forgiven for.”
    “Do you speak from experience?”
    She slid her hand up and down the stem of the glass, the movement so erotic he felt the impact of it down in his groin. Ironic and inappropriate considering the topic of conversation. But then, he was a man. And she was very much a woman.
    “Not anything close to what Maddy is dealing with, but I know what it’s like for men to make assumptions.”
    “Jeff Campbell was making assumptions, wasn’t he?”
    She nodded. “Yes, he was. And I was partly glad to cancel the contract because of that. I didn’t want to have to deal with another awkward conversation where I have to explain that a friendly greeting is simply a friendly greeting and not an invitation for sex.”
    “You called me sexist for basically saying the same thing about women I’ve worked with.”
    She frowned. “Well, you didn’t have any lingering repercussions for turning your PA down.”
    He quirked an eyebrow. “You don’t think her showing up naked in my office was over the top? What if the roles were reversed?”
    She grimaced. “Okay. Point taken. People can be awful. Both genders. But I am sorry that Maddy’s having to deal with this.”
    “Me, too. She’s been through enough.” He didn’t usually talk about their growing-up years, or, more specifically, Maddy’s growing-up years. But it seemed fair that Lily understand since she was in the middle of everything.
    “She moved in with me when she was ten,” he said. “My parents weren’t caring for her. Not properly. So I went and got her and brought her home with me. She stayed until she went to college four years ago.”
    “You raised her?”
    He shrugged. “More or less. I was twenty-five, nowhere near ready to be a father, especially not to my ten-year-old sister, but it was what she needed. And I know I wasn’t really a great substitute for a father. But I did what I could. I made sure she went to prom. And that her date—skinny kid, very annoying—got threatened within an inch of his life beforehand. A shocking number of high school students lose their virginity at prom.”
    It was strange to hear Gage talking like this. Like a concerned parent. Like a man who had faced things she hadn’t even tried to imagine dealing with.
    Lily’s heart clenched tight. She’d always assumed that Gage was just a carefree playboy. The kind of man who played around simply because he had money and power and no woman would say no, and no one would look down on him for simply doing what men did.
    But, just like that wildlife preserve he hadn’t yet shared with the public, there was more to him. He’d raised a child. He’d been there for his sister when no one else had.
    “For the record, she was back at ten o’clock on prom night,” he added.
    “Does that mean you let her date live?”
    “I did. But I wouldn’t have if he’d done anything to hurt her. Or if he’d taken advantage of her, or caused her pain in any way.”
    She bit her lip. “Are you going to let Callahan live?”
    “Weighing the pros and cons of it.”
    “I didn’t realize that you’d been through that with her.”
    He shrugged again, like he always did